Page 125 of Bratva Bride

Vincenzo was a few blocks away, prepared to hit one of Franco’s strip clubs at the same time we hit the restaurant. His orders were a little different. The place was a front for where Franco made his drugs. Vincenzo was to break in and set the entire place on fire, torching every ounce of it.

It was late afternoon. There were a few people walking down the streets heading for their destinations without a clue of what was about to happen. It made me twitchy. Pulling something like this in broad daylight with witnesses was risky, but I guess that’s why Arturo wanted to do it. Franco would not be expecting it. And Arturo wanted to make a stand, show him that he wasn’t going to hide and just take the disrespect that Franco was giving him.

Arturo hung up after Vincenzo responded and leveled his gaze on Lukyan and Adrian. “You two are to stay by her side the whole time, got it?”

Lukyan glared. “You’re not the boss of me, man.”

Arturo punched him in the face, breaking his nose.

“Ow! Fuck!” Lukyan cried, cupping his now-bleeding nose.

“I’m not in the mood for your attitude, Lukyan. Either you listen to my orders, or you can fuck off and I’ll get someone else to watch her back. You hear me?”

Lukyan scowled, blood dripping down his chin. “Loud and clear,” he spat, eyes burning with anger. “Asshole,” he muttered under his breath.

Arturo looked at Adrian. “We going to have the same problem?”

Adrian shook his head. He was a firm believer in the proper chain of command. He would follow Arturo’s orders to a tee. Unless it was something compromising my safety. Then all bets were off.

“I don’t need them to guard me, Arturo. I’m fine,” I said, adjusting my grip on my gun.

Arturo just stared at me, darkness vibrating from him.

Alrighty then.

“On my count. Three…two…one…move.”

We sprang out of the car and covered the few metres to the restaurant in seconds. The second we stepped through, gunfire rained. Men shouted, reaching for their weapons and ducking under cover. Women cried, running for their lives. It was complete and utter mayhem, and I loved it.

Lukyan and Adrian stayed glued to my side as we manoeuvred our way over to a table and flipped it over, using it to shield our bodies. I jumped up, took aim and fired, clipping a guy in the shoulder a few feet away. There was movement to my right and I swerved, catching sight of someone hiding beneath a table, a gun in his hand.

“Adrian, on your right.”

Adrian swivelled and fired twice without missing a beat. We moved, staying low in a tight formation with Lukyan in front, me in the middle and Adrian taking up the rear. Furniture and broken glass laid on the path before us, making it harder to move as we made our way towards the back. Every now and then we’d pop off shots at people in our line of sight. Some would hit their target, some would miss.

The noise was deafening, the constantbang, bang, bangof bullets being fired ringing in my ears. The cries of people screaming in pain were coming at me from all sides, bombarding my senses.

Someone rammed into me from the left, knocking me down. My gun flew across the ground and I cursed. The heavy weight of a body fell on top of me and I swung hard, punching him in the centre of his chest with all my strength before he could do anything else. He grunted and recoiled back slightly but stayed straddling my thighs, leaning over me. I locked my fingers around his wrist, sat up over his shoulder, reached under his arm with my other hand and held on tight to my own wrist. I reared back, locked his elbow to my body and twisted, breaking his arm.

He screamed and I let him go, rolling backwards to land on my haunches. A foot came flying towards my face and I just barely managed to get my forearm up to block it. The power of the blow was devastating, pain flaring through me, but I ignored it and grunted, shoving him back. I plucked a knife from my waist and flung it like a throwing star. It hit him in the throat and he tumbled to the ground.

I spun, looking for my brother. Lukyan was on his back a few feet from me, wrestling with someone who was trying to drive a knife into his chest. Blood poured from a cut on his forehead and his face strained as he tried to gain the upper hand. I leapt over broken furniture and dead bodies and delivered a solid roundhouse kick to the guy’s face, smashing his nose and breaking a few of his teeth. He fell back, a cry of pain falling from his lips, and Lukyan took advantage, grabbing the knife and ramming it into the guy’s heart.

His eyes found mine and he nodded his thanks.

A hand gripped my shoulder and I turned, bringing my knee up at the same time to knee them in the gut but they blocked me, almost anticipating the blow.

Adrian smirked. “Gotta move faster than thatmalen’kiy (little one),if you want to get one over on me.” He was breathing hard, splattered with blood, but other than that he seemed okay.

I smiled. “Sorry, it’s the adrenaline of the fight.” I moved back and scanned my surroundings.

The fight was over. The once beautiful and elegant restaurant was now completely destroyed, with pieces of broken furniture all over the place and bullet holes through the walls. Blood seeped out of the lifeless bodies littering the floor, pools of it beginning to form around me.

I checked the time on my watch. Six minutes. All this destruction had only taken six minutes.

“Where’s Arturo?” I asked, slightly breathless.

Adrian pointed back towards the kitchen and I looked up to find Arturo’s eyes already on me. Relief flashed across his face and he beckoned me towards him with a flick of his fingers.

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