Page 54 of The Bratva's Bounty

Warm.

Something's off.

Every hair on my body stood on edge as I continued to advance with my team. Thankfully, there was nothing at the docks besides the boats. So, we moved our way to the side door. The sounds of gunshots and shouting filled my ears the closer we got to the building, and I practically felt like I was inside the room when I stood on the other side of the closed door.

Nodding at my men, I signaled them aside before kicking the door in to reveal the chaos of bullets, blood, and bodies on the inside.

Without hesitation, I raised my gun and methodically shot at every person I saw who wasn't on our side. Body after body, they dropped like flies. My body was on autopilot as the lust of battle surged through my veins and brought out a primal side of me.

Click. Click.

I didn't bother going for one of my spares the moment my main gun emptied out, nor did I bother clipping in a new magazine. Instead, I threw my piece to the side and went in with my hands, swinging wildly at any and every person within my reach.

Blood sprayed in every direction, hitting the objects around us, the floor, other people, and even my own body. None of it bothered me, though. Even when my vision clouded over with red from the blood spray across my face, I pressed on.

I didn't want to stop. There was this need, a hunger, for bloody deaths. My knuckles ached in protest with every punch, but the pain only spurred me on to the next victim.

It wasn't long until the pain of fatigue numbed out because of the buzzing excitement and adrenaline that consumed my body. Pretty sure the blood on my hands was a mixture of mine and the enemies. I knew for a fact that I cut myself on some teeth earlier from one of the first few guys I swung at.

This was getting dangerous, the haze of battle. I couldn't feel anything, which was good in the sense that my exhaustion meant nothing, but not feeling the pain of everything could prove to be reckless. I could have a stab wound or two and not know it until the physical damage became too much for my bodyto handle. Hell, there could be a bullet in me, causing me to bleed out, and I wouldn't know.

"Oof!" The wind got knocked out of me when a big brute tackled me to the ground.

Instinctively, I threw my arms up to block the hits flying my way. "Son of a bitch," I seethed through my grunts as I patiently waited for an opening to strike back.

Just as the man leaned back slightly with his withdrawing arm, I threw my upper body up and forward, wrapping my arms around his midsection and pulling him forward to kilter him off balance. Throwing him to the side, I flipped us over so I was on top. Headbutting him, I dazed him enough to get the upper hand in throwing my fists against his face. The hardness of his bones slowly gave with each blow until it felt like I was wailing on a sandbag that screamed back at me.

Even after his resistance stopped, I didn't. I had to be pulled off the man and held down. "Lev, quit it! Get ahold of yourself!" It was hard to tell who shouted at me because of the thrumming in my ears from my heart beating and environment being in a constant white noise.

"Bratok, stop. It's over." Okay, that had to be Arseny because Stepan wouldn't call me that. "We'll sedate you if we have to."

Like hell would I let that happen. I had a woman to fuck when I got home, and that couldn't happen if I was out cold.

I struggled to control my breathing as I forced myself back to reality. My whole body fought against the sudden shift, still wanting to grab people and break them. A burning sensation clawed at my chest the deeper my breaths became, and my lungs screamed in protest with each full breath of air I inhaled.

It took me a second to sort everything out in my mind once I came back down from my high. Slowly, I let my eyes take in every inch of carnage that filled the building. The more I took in, the wider my satisfied smile spread on my crazed face.

Mostly calm, I let my body slump against the bloodied ground. "I'm gonna need a whole ass bottle later." The crash later would be brutal.

On the bright side, it won't be as bad as my sub-drop, but it would be up there. Hell, I could already feel the fatigue and exhaustion seeping into my muscles and settling deep down in my bones. And I still had to get home.

Speaking of home…

"Get off of me, you oafs." I huffed with a slight struggle.

The moment I felt all the weight lift from my body, I shot up off the ground. "Let's get this shit show all set up for show and dip." I sighed tiredly when I got a better look at the mess we made.

Fuck this is gonna be a long night.

Of course, me and my big mouth. God really went 'ha, ya thought' with me tonight with the bomb he dropped on us—literally.

At first, I thought it was just my heart exploding inside my chest because of my excitement, and if it weren't for the flaming boat a few feet from me, I would've been inclined to whistle and walk away. Well, that and the panicked screams made it impossible to deny that shit was going down.

One after another, nearly all the ships blew up down the line, and out of the blazing wreckage were bodies flailing about in the water.

Then, to make things worse, the few boats that didn't go up in a ball of fire sped off like a bat out of Hell. "Mat' yebanaya, ad!" Just fucking great. "Get them out of the water!" I shouted at my men, rushing over to the dockside to start fishing people out of the water.

"Bao! Track those boats and see if you can get any of our men out on the waters on them!" I probably didn't need to shout at him through the communications system, but my voice came out how it did over the chaos.

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