Page 134 of Devious Kingpin
CHAPTER54
Juliette
The cab pulled up to a creepy abandoned building and the first thing that registered was the sound of guns firing.
Without waiting for the driver to stop, I jumped out of the car and started running toward the entrance, hearing the cabbie yelling at me as I went.
My steps halted as I came face-to-face with two guys pointing guns at me. My eyes locked on them, two fucking gorgeous men that would steal any woman’s breath way.
“Juliette,” one of them called out. I blinked, sure I’d never met them before. You didn’t forget a body like that. And that hair. Subconsciously, I pushed my hand through my own hair, hoping it at least looked decent. Then I groaned. What was wrong with me? It was not the time to be vain.
“How do you know my name?” I barked.
“Kian,” he stated flatly. “He warned us that you’d probably show up,” he continued with a snort of exasperation while shoving an AK-47 into my hands along with several ammo clips which I shoved into the back pockets of my jeans. I’d fired one only once, during my training. I didn’t think it was time to admit that though, so I went along. “I’m Darius. This is River. There’s been an ambush.”
A flash of concern washed over me. For Dante. Even for Basilio.
“By whom?” Although I was fairly certain I knew. “Sofia Volkov?”
They nodded, their expressions darkened, full of rage and hate. Gosh, that woman had more haters than anyone I’d ever met.
“Okay, so what’s the plan?”
Darius slid off his Kevlar vest and handed it to me. “Put this on,” he ordered. Without arguing, I quickly did as was commanded. It was obvious these two knew what they were doing. I only sliced and diced people. But these two—they were born killers. “You stand between us, two steps behind. I don’t want anything happening to you.”
“What a gentleman,” I snickered, although my chest slightly warmed at the thought. They were strangers, and yet, they were protecting me.
After they explained what we were going to do—more specifically what I needed to do which, frankly, wasn’t much—we rushed inside. It took us no time to find about ten men, flocking like a bunch of geese at an entrance leading to a stairwell.
A shared look and the magic started happening.
I never even got to raise my fancy weapon because in the time it took me to register what was happening, they’d killed every single one of them.
“You gotta teach me how to do that,” I muttered, impressed.
“You got it, killer.” River winked, grinning.
Leaving behind a trail of dead bodies, we made our way down the wobbly staircase, iron bars rattling with our weight. Then we continued down a small, dark hallway. There were sounds of bullets and fighting, but we couldn’t see anything.
Pushing our way through the darkness, we found them. “There they are,” Darius hissed, pointing ahead of us.
I followed his gaze and my heart froze at the sight.
Dante, Basilio, and Kian were fighting against about ten men. Armed men. Dangerous men.
A sudden noise had one of my bodyguards pushing me onto the ground. They followed, huddling on top of me while something flew above our heads and hit the back of the tunnel, rattling the stairs and exploding against the rock wall. But that wasn’t what froze me. It was the two bodies suffocating me.
Tremors rolled through me. My heart drummed so hard, it must have bruised my ribs. Fear wrapped around my throat and cut off my breath. I attempted to breathe, but it was impossible. Instead, my lungs iced over and refused to work.
“A fucking RPG!” River hissed while my ears buzzed. Not from whatever the hell just zipped past us but from the panic that clawed at my chest. “Fucking lunatics. They used a rocket launcher down here! They’ll bring the building down.”
My heart clenched. My breathing heaved. But there was one feeling that pushed through the fear and panic. Concern for my husband. I wanted to lift my head up and make sure Dante was alright. Did he hear that thing and duck too? He did me wrong, but I didn’t want him dead. I just wanted to torture him a bit. Drug him as a payback, maybe. Not have him die in this place.
The ground shook again and I closed my eyes, breathing in smoke and cursing Sofia Volkov to hell. This fucking panic that enveloped me made me useless.
Darius tapped River on his shoulder, his big hand on top of mine. I rolled my eyes. I fucking hated having anyone on top of me, in any capacity.
“Can you please not suffocate me?” I grumbled, a bead of sweat forming on my forehead. It was the absolute worst time to have a panic attack. “Give me some space.”
