Page 45 of Taking Over the Dark

“Not one hundred percent sure how many people are there, but from what I’ve seen, it’s at least thirty. It looks like their home base here for the Russians.”

“Ellie, Nash, and Noah, you’re to stay at the cars where we park up on the hill, looking down on the location. Nash, you’ll be right outside the car sharp-shooting any of them that escape out.” We all have our comms in so Noah can communicate with us while we’re in the building.

We pull up on the hill overlooking the property, and everyone is piling out of the SUVs. Dino and Rhett are with Vin and I. Mar and her guys are on my other side. She’s trained them quicker than I’ve ever seen. But let’s hope she really put them through it because this will be the actual test.

Dario, Niccolo, and Isabella are in front of us, looking at the hill we have to go down before we get to the huge warehouse.

Noah’s in the back with a whole tech setup. He looks up and informs us, “The cameras are looping. Let me know when you reach the door, and I’ll bypass the scanner.”

I nod, knowing he’s more than capable of getting us access. I lean into Ellie, pressing her into the side of the SUV, and pressing my lips to hers. She melts into me but quickly sidesteps me to grab Zamir and does the same to him. I grab the back of Nash’s shirt, hauling him up to meet my face. Nose to nose, I whisper, “Protect our girl up here,Il Novellino.” I peck his lips, and I soak up the gasp he lets slip out.

It still hurts my soul that Nash’s dad did all of this because of a gambling addiction. I specifically do not allow loans in my casinos for this exact reason. If you need a loan to turn around and throw away… there’s no way I can get behind that. That’s where most casinos make their money, but I refuse to use addictions that can ruin lives this deep for my gain.

Zamir pulls Nash from my lips as well, and I berate him, “You’ve gotta have my sloppy seconds like the greedy whore you are, don’t you?”

I see the smile on Zamir’s lips, and then he’s coming right back at me, saying, “Let’s get this over with, and I’ll show you sloppy seconds.”

And with that, we start down the hill. Dario and his crew are ahead of us as we come up the side of the building. He sees the two guards at the door. Isabella and Dario work like a fine-oiled machine, heading to either side of each guy and sneaking up on them simultaneously. The guards are facing one another, talking, and each of them sees the threats right as they slice the knives through their jugulars.

I talk so Noah can hear me through the comm, “We’re approaching the door.”

“Copy.” I hear him clicking away on his computer. “All clear to enter, Big Daddy.”

The snickering coming from everyone has me shushing them all. Of course it’s Noah getting everyone to giggle on a rescue mission.

I open the massive steel door and expect people to be on the other side, ready to fight, but we’re met with silence… I think I would’ve rather had guns blazing in here right away.

I don’t like this silence.

This is a pretty big warehouse, but Noah starts to announce instructions into the comms, “Turn right down the first hallway you see. Watch it. If there’s anyone in those offices, they’ll be able to see you through the glass.”

All of us have our knives pulled, ready to go, before marching down the hallway. We don’t see anyone in the first couple offices, but we walk up on one with two men inside. They don’t see or hear us due to their focus being on their computers. Vin and Zamir have the door kicked in faster than the men can process, not giving them a chance. They plunge their knives into their sternums before pulling the knives out, and just for good measure, they slit both of their wrists as well, making sure these two are going to bleed out.

They slip out of the room, taking the rear of our crew. I didn’t think they would be keeping Willow and Sonny in a building like this, but honestly, you can hold captives anywhere if you’ve got the right setup.

We pass by a few more offices before we get into the more industrial-looking area in the back of the warehouse.

Noah says, “There’s never anyone on the other side of the building. They don’t let anyone over there. I think they keep the drugs on that side.” Keeping that in mind, once we find Willow and Sonny, we can head out, but not before lighting this shit-hole on fire. I’m making it known they’ve fucked with the wrong ones.

And nothing screams that louder than destroying what I can only imagine is a lot of money in product.

Dario is scanning back and forth, leading us down the hallway when Noah speaks again, “You should be coming up on a big steel door. That’s where Willow and Sonny should be. To the right, at least six men will be in that room. I’m going to unlock both at the same time once you give me the signal.”

The doors come into sight, and I signal to Dario, silently asking which one he’d rather go into. I don’t blame him one bit when he heads for the door where the men are. Mar is right beside him, but he points to the other door for her. I know what he’s doing, making Isabella and Mar head in to grab Willow.

The video we got from these piece of shit men was of her being raped, and Sonny… I don’t know if he’s still alive in there. They both know what they are walking into, and Niccolo is at the door with them as well.

I pull my phone out to send the text to Noah, letting him know we’re in place. We have numbers on the fucks behind the door and more than anything, we have vengeance.

They may have just been completing orders that were given to them, but they’re about to be suffering from those decisions.

Dario grabs my phone out of my hand and types in a message so we can all see it.

Me

Keep the main guy alive. I want answers.

He passes the screen around, ensuring everyone sees it, and then I send the okay message over to Noah.

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