“Remember, keep your powers hidden,”Katiesaid.
“We know,” Alexei muttered as he leaned forward in his seat, peering out the front windshield. “Likemotherhen.”
“I’ll pretend I didn’thearthat.”
Trevor coughed to hide hislaughter.
“Wascompliment.”
“I’ll let you believe that,” Katie replieddryly.
Alexei grinned, even though she couldn’t see it. He and Katie had grown close since he’d joined Alpha Team last summer. He liked women and men equally, and while Katie was strikingly beautiful, she was his second-in-command and firmly out of his league. Unlike his brother, Alexei wasn’t one to flout regulations when it came to relationships. He and Katie had remained friends without crossing the line into something more, even if at the beginning he wouldn’t haveminded.
But Alexei had her friendship, and that was more important than a quick fling. Katie was hands down one of the most competent people he’d ever had the privilege to meet and serve under. In hindsight, becoming friends rather than lovers was the better decision. Two secret relationships on the team would’ve just been asking fortrouble.
Besides, his tastes were trending more toward dark-haired menthesedays.
“We’re here,” Annabelle announced as she turned the SUV off the street and into a gated drive, drawing Alexei out of histhoughts.
“Good luck,” Katie said over thecomms.
“Oorah,” everyonemuttered.
Annabelle braked to a halt in front of the security gate, engine rumbling, as they waited for a guard on the other side to open the way for them. Alexei cased the area with a critical eye, picking out the enemy with ease, even the sniper they had as overwatch in a third-floor window who wasn’t bothering to hide hislocation.
Not as good as Kilyusha,he thought tohimself.
Then again,no onewas as skilled with a long-range rifle and as deft at hiding in plain sight than Kyle. His brother could make impossible shots look like child’s play. It really wasn’t fair to compare some two-bit, mafia wannabe shooter with a Strike Force-trained sniper, but Alexei did itanyway.
Annabelle pulled into the long drive of the villa once the gate was fully opened, braking to a halt in front of the closed garage doors that probably held at least four expensive luxury cars. Antonovich seemed the type. She set the emergency brake and turned off the engine, but otherwise didn’t move. Alexei, Madison, and Trevor got out of the vehicle while Annabelle stayed behind the wheel. One of them needed to remain with the vehicle to ensure it wasn’ttamperedwith.
Alexei squinted through the sunlight at the Spanish colonial-style villa before them, ignoring the sweat beading across his forehead from the heat. Arched windows facing the front yard dominated the three-story home. The yard itself was ringed with tall palm trees providing a minimum amount of shade. Antonovich had opted for grass over a more climate-friendly plant; his water bill was probably in the six figures. Alexei’s lip curled in disgust at thewaste.
He and Trevor walked around the front of the SUV to join Madison. The man coming down the stone walkway to greet them was tall and muscular, the black tank top he wore revealing sunburned shoulders and the tattooed image of a knife stabbing through his throat. Alexei’s eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses, knowing the camera built into the frames and lenses would be recording what he saw. Whether or not it would be transmitted back to base in a timely manner wasdebatable.
His comms had that blankness to them that only came from being electronically jammed. They’d lost signal the second the SUV crossed through the gated entrance. He only hoped Katie would hurry up and finish hacking her way into the villa’s security system. Alexei hated not having an overwatch in a situationlikethis.
“Alexei Dvorkin?” the assassin-for-hire walking toward them asked. Unlike Antonovich’s voice, this man’s carried a hard scrape of a true Russian accent through hiswords.
“>” Alexei answered in Russian to make a point. “>”
The assassin smiled thinly and crossed his arms over his chest, planting his feet wide. “>”
“>”
“>”
At least Alexei knew Sean had put up a fight if his head wound was anything to go by. Alexei waved a lazy hand at Trevor and Madison. “They wantweapons.”
Silently, the pair handed over the guns they carried without argument. Alexei made a show of unholstering his sidearm and presenting it grip first to Antonovich’s guard dog. Their guns were biolocked; useless to the men and women scattered around the villa on guard duty. When the assassin waved forward a guard to pat them down, Alexei bared his teeth in a smile that stopped the guy in histracks.
“>” Alexei statedflatly.
Waving around their connection to the Pavluhkins and thePresnenskaya Bratvawas the only sure way to keep Sean and the other two hostages alive right now. Alexei didn’t have much faith when it came to words and promises offered up by criminals. He’d seen their sort growing up in the Ukraine: power-hungry men and women beholden to state-sanctionedbratvas, some of which had metahumans in their ranks. His parents had never fallen for their lies and had taught Alexei how to spot them in order to stay safe. He knew just how much power the more dangerousbratvaswielded back in Russia and the generations that had evolved out here always wanted a piece of thatnotoriety.
The Russian-American gangs could play at being powerful, and maybe they were Stateside, but Antonovich had already shown his hand by wanting an introduction. Hisbrigadawas nothing compared to thebratvasback in Europe and Asia. Bargaining for an avenue of communication should’ve been beneath him, but some people preferred what they perceived as the easy way to wealth and power over thehardway.
Alexei knew, better than most, that thebratva-backed terrorization he’d survived back in the Ukraine was done by people who preferred actions over words when dealing with theenemy.
