“Fuck. Are there more?” I shouted back.
“I don’t think so,” Artyom shook his head. “Most of the kidnappers are dead. Some are missing. Maybe they ran, or hid.”
“Where are the others?” I asked, prepared to go look for them if they were still inside.
“Our brothers are still manning the perimeter, in case these guys have back-up. The Lebedevs are all out.”
“And Andrey?” I asked. Anton tripped over something in the dark, and I held him tighter, not willing to let him go just yet.
“Last I checked, he was making way to the forest to check on Beatrice.”
We were nearing the exit now, one of the main doors that was safe to go through. The fire was a raging blaze inside, consuming the oxygen.
“Jump through with Anton!” I ordered Artyom. “I’ve got your back.”
Artyom nodded, muttering words of encouragement to Anton, and together, they leaped over the fire. I was about to follow when I saw movement from the corner of my left eye.
The smoke was thicker here, and I thought I might have imagined it when I saw a flicker of silver. I whirled left to see two men barreling at me with knives in their hands, leaping over flames, reaching for their guns.
Without thinking, I grabbed a fallen metal sheet off the ground and used it as a shield just in time for a bullet to ricochet off it.
“You fuckers!” I roared, pulling out my own gun just as one of the men leaped right onto me with a knife. The bullet went straight through his chest, and we both fell on the hot, burning ground. I pushed him off me, pain searing through my shoulders, and reached for my fallen gun, but it was too far.
The other man was coming at me now, and on impulse, I grabbed the knife from the dead man and threw it across the air. It took the oncoming attacker by surprise, giving me precious seconds to reach for the distant gun.
Then, I shot.
The man slumped to the ground, and without wasting another second, I jumped over the fire, making way for the exit of the distillery. As I met the dead of night, I looked up at the clear sky, with tears stinging in my eyes, and thanked the stars for keeping Anton and Beatrice safe.
Just then, I saw one of my men rushing toward me from across the ground.
“Boss. We’ve called back-up to contain the fire.”
I nodded. “The Lebedevs are all accounted for?”
“Yes, sir. They’re all out,” he said. I sighed with relief, at last grabbing the water he gave me. I didn’t go so far as to call the Lebedevs family just yet, but somehow, it became important to me to make sure they weren’t hurt.
The water hardly quenched my thirst, and I was bone-tired and exhausted, but I needed to check in with the others.
I wiped the beads of blood from my forehead, from when one of the kidnappers had slammed me against the wall just when we’d stormed in. My head hurt, my knees were ready to buckle, and I knew I had injuries I hadn’t even registered yet, but I needed to see Beatrice and tell her everything was okay.
She must have been worried sick when the comms went down. I saw everyone gathered around one of our vans that had pulled up, talking over each other. When I walked up to them, I felt my heart sink as their worried gazes met mine.
“What the hell is going on here?” I asked, freezing like we’ve descended into hell. My eyes roved over the faces—Caspian, Anton, Artyom, Dante, and everyone but her. “Where the hell is Beatrice?”
“That’s the thing,” Andrey said, his voice quivering. “We don’t know. I went to check on her, but she wasn’t there.”
“Could one of the escaping kidnappers have taken her?” Caspian groaned, running a hand through his hair.
“I don’t think so,” Alek said. “We had our patrols out, and vehicles parked throughout the route. If anyone tried to take her, they would have been seen and stopped.”
My heart went into overdrive as I started to think, and an idea came to mind.No,I thought to myself, paling as I turned to look back at the burning building.She wouldn’t have.
Just then, one of Caspian’s men came running up with a report. “She’s not at her post or anywhere near it,” he said. “The guards on patrol said they had been checking in every five minutes like you ordered, but she wasn’t there when they went back.”
My blood ran cold. “When was the last time you saw her?”
“Just before the third explosion that started the fire.”
