We charge up the steps, my rifle kicking with every shot, bodies dropping like fucking dominoes. A man lunges for Devlin from behind, and I put a bullet through his skull before he even knows I’m there. Another dives low, so I shoot him in the leg, bone shattering. He howls as I close the distance, knife already in my hand, adjusting the rifle strap over my shoulder.
When I’m standing over him, I kneel for a moment, just long enough for him to see what’s coming, then drive the blade into his eye. He drops with a strangled scream, and I step over him without slowing.
Someone charges from the left, and I twist, shooting into his chest, then drop another before the echo fades. Blood splashes the wall behind them in thick, dark strokes.
A scream rips through the carnage—ours, theirs, I don’t fucking care. The only thing that matters is finding her.
The room dissolves into pure anarchy. I lose count of how many I put down, and with each body that falls, the fear that she isn’t here claws a little deeper.
My elbow smashes into another man’s ribs, and I slam him into the wall. He wheezes, gasping for air, and I pin him there with my forearm across his neck.
“Is she here?”
He grins, blood slicking his teeth and dripping from the corner of his mouth. “She cried your name like a little whore.”
A low growl tears out of me. I picture her begging them to stop as my teeth sink into his throat. Flesh gives under my bite, hot blood flooding my mouth while he thrashes beneath me, choking, hands clawing at me.
Something slams into my left shoulder, burning straight through me, but it barely registers. I don’t let go. Only when his body finally goes limp and the last breath rattles out of him do I shove him aside, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, smearing blood everywhere I touch.
And then I move again. One of them is going to tell me where they’re keeping her.
By the time the fighting slows, bodies lie on the ground, too many to count. But my brothers are still standing, and so are Devlin and Gio.
“You’re shot.” Konstantin glances at my arm, and I find a bullet graze there.
“Nothing that will slow me. We need to move. She has to be close.”
Konstantin crouches down and rips the shirt of one of the dead. “But you’re leaking like a stuck pig. If you lose more blood, you will pass out before you see her again.”
“Hurry up.”
I barely sense the pain as he wraps my arm tight enough to cut off circulation. Once he’s done playing nurse, we start surveying the rest of the building.
Konstantin nods toward a man still breathing on the ground, bleeding from his mangled leg. “He might know something.”
The bastard tries to crawl when he sees me coming. But I don’t rush. I want him to feel every second of the inevitability closing in.
Konstantin crouches beside him. “Privet, you don’t look so good.” A cold grin bends his mouth. “So it would be in your best interest to tell us where the girl is. Otherwise, my brother herewill turn what is left of your leg into soup before you bleed out. Painfully, of course. I assure you.”
The man spits. “Edi na khuy. You kill me anyway.”
Konstantin lifts both hands in the air. “I am a man of honor. You tell me where she is, you walk out of here alive. Or maybe not walk. Crawl. Same thing, right?”
The hesitation lasts all of two seconds before the man’s gaze jerks to me.
“She…she is next door. Building there.” He points toward his right. “They knew you had GPS, so they tricked you.”
“How many men are inside?” I ask.
“Not many. Five, maybe.” He looks nearly hopeful, like he’ll actually survive this.
It’s almost cute.
“Spasebo.” Konstantin pats him on the arm before he straightens himself.
And with an icy grin, I point the weapon at him.
He backs away, his nostrils flaring. “Padonok! You said you wouldn’t kill me.”
