Page 43 of Gilded Cage (Kovalyov Bratva 1)

Three…

Two…

One…

“Hola, amigos,” I whisper under my breath as they appear right on schedule.

It’s good to have a mission. Something to focus on.

Especially because my attention has been shifting like sand in a hurricane.

It started with Marisha.

With the nightmares.

And then it turned to the brunette beauty in The Siren’s bathroom.

But this? Action, a mission, an objective task and only one way to do it—violently?

That’s where I fucking thrive.

“What time is it?” I ask.

“Nine-twenty.”

I nod. “We move at my command. Are the teams ready?”

Cillian nods. “We’ve got team one and two at the main entrance, teams three and four on either side of the house at the side entrances and teams five and six right here. All waiting on your signal.”

His voice is somber. He may be a jokester through and through, but even Cillian O’Sullivan knows when it’s time to shut up and do the work.

And now that time has come.

I look back at my men arrayed in the darkness behind me. They’re all geared up with their weapons at the ready.

Each one gives me a curt nod as my gaze passes over them.

Fuck it. Let’s go.

I adjust my bullet proof vest and give Cillian a nod.

“It’s time.”

“Then let’s get this show on the road,” Cillian says with glee, smacking his hands together.

“Remember,” I say to my men, “take no prisoners. The job should be clean. The only one who’s going to survive this night is the girl. And she belongs to me.”

13

Artem

Two dozen men sprint through the night under cover of darkness.

It’s quiet out here. Only the sounds of the distant ocean waves and my own sharp breaths.

I have my gun held at the ready. Eyes peeled.

We’re about twenty paces from bursting out of our cover. That’s when all hell will break loose.

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