I'm halfway to the building when I hear footsteps behind me. I draw my gun and turn in under a second, but it's only Leonid.
“What’s in there?” he asks suspiciously, eyeing my backpack, then noting I’m not here with any men.
“Explosives.”
“Put that away,” he hisses, his eyes widening with shock.
“Go home, Leo,” I growl. “I don't need your permission.”
“No, but you need your brain.” He steps closer. “Think about this, Val. If we're the first to attack, we lose everything. The other families will turn against us.”
“I don't care,” I spit. “They came after Gela.”
“And we'll make them pay,” Leonid promises. “But not like this. A bombing could kill innocent people.”
“Since when do you care about collateral damage?”
“Since it could start a war that gets our family killed,” he snaps. “Think about Gela. What happens to her if you die in a Bratva war?”
That gives me pause. The thought of Gela alone, unprotected if something happens to me...
“There are smarter ways to hurt them that don’t involve putting a target on our backs, please,” Leonid continues, sensing my hesitation. “Please. Let’s just leave.”
I'm about to reluctantly agree when a door creaks open nearby. We both turn to see two men exit the building, both wearing jackets with the Zakharov crest.
And they’re coming right at us.
“Yuri!” one of them shouts, reaching for his weapon.
Leonid and I dive for cover as the man starts to shoot. I return fire, but I don’t have the right angle from where we are.
“We need to go!” Leonid shouts and motions at me to move back into the alley behind us, where the car is parked. I shake my head, but he motions again, providing cover.
I want to argue, but we have no time. I know Leonid won’t move until I do, so I follow the path he tells me and am almost at the car when I hear Leonid grunt in pain.
I turn to see him rushing toward me, clutching his arm, blood seeping between his fingers.
“Leo!” I rush back to him, firing at the Zakharov men to keep them pinned down.
“I'm fine,” he grits out. “It’s just a graze.”
I grab him by his good arm, and we run until we reach my car. I don’t even bother with a seatbelt before we drive as far away from that damn warehouse as we can.
Leonid presses his hand to his bleeding arm, and I try to get him home as fast as I can, constantly checking in on him.
“I’m fine,” he grins after the third time I ask. “Seriously. Stop asking.”
We drive in silence for a few minutes, both of us coming down from the adrenaline high of the shootout.
“We need a better plan,” I finally say. “Because this can’t carry on, Leonid.”
“I never said I disagree,” Leonid nods. “But you can’t do this alone, Valentin. We need to tell Trifon everything. No more lone wolf shit, Val. If I hadn’t come tonight, you could’ve been killed if they caught on to you.”
I run a hand through my hair and grit my teeth, nodding to what Leonid says. He’s right. My recklessness nearly got my brother killed today.
Leonid is right. We need to be smart about this.
“Call Trifon,” I say at last. “Tell him to meet us at mine.”
