Alexei raised an eyebrow. “You get number, I get what’s mine,da? Not take a while.Minutes.”
“If you think I’m just going to let you walk out with my leverage without checking what you give me first, let me disabuse you of that notion. I don’t know what you’re used to, but we do things differently here inAmerica.”
Not for the first time did someone believe that just because Alexei had an accent, he wasn’t American. He played it up for show more often than not, lulling others into a false sense of security. He wasn’t sure how well that would work here if Antonovich thought he had the ear of a powerful Russian oligarch, but Alexei wasn’t in the mood toplaynice.
The sound of the office door sliding open behind them had Alexei turning around. The first thing Alexei noticed was Sean’s painful-looking black eye. He also had some bruising on the left side of his face near his temple that Alexei hadn’t noticed last night. The other two looked mostly unharmed, even if the woman’s makeup was an utter mess. Her husband had draped his suit jacket over her shoulders to provide her with a bit more coverage against prying eyes. Adrian and Chloe Wolcott looked far less put together than they had in the holopics Alexei viewed during the mission briefing lastnight.
Mostly, he didn’t care about the Wolcotts. All of Alexei’s formidable attention was reserved for Sean’s bruised and swollen face, his one good eye squinting against the light. Madison moved to approach them, but one of the guards put himself in front of her, cutting her off. She rocked back on her heels, a cool, dangerous look to her gaze that didn’t go unnoticed by anyone. After a moment, Madison retook her position near the wall beside two other guards who eyed her a littlewarily.
“The Pavluhkins’ contact information, Mr. Dvorkin,” Antonovich said. “Once I have it, then you and your clients canleave.”
Alexei kept his back to Antonovich and his pet assassin, trusting in Trevor to watch his six. “Think I believe you let uswalkout?”
“I’m a businessman, Mr. Dvorkin. Closing a deal is whatIdo.”
“With bullet tohead,da?”
“And probably dumped in the bay,” Sean said, speaking carefully around the swelling in his face. “They seemthetype.”
“You all right?” Alexeiaskedhim.
Sean shrugged one shoulder, his gaze flicking briefly toward Trevor and back again. “Beenbetter.”
“Should learntoduck.”
Sean’s mouth twitched as he rolled his eyes despite his wounds, acknowledging the warning. “You’re never going to let that go,areyou?”
Even without working comms, Alpha Team didn’t need to be told when to act. Madison swiftly grabbed the nearest guard’s assault rifle and yanked it out of his hands, flipping it around in half a second to ram the buttstock against the man’s unprotected face. The sound of bone crunching was drowned out by the shouts coming from Antonovich’s guards when they realized their guns weren’tfiring.
“Clear!” Trevor barked right before he grabbed a guard by the face and slammed him headfirst into the wall. The man slid down the floor, leaving a splotch of red onthewall.
With his telekinesis holding tight to triggers and refusing to release them, Trevor had bought them some much-needed breathing room. Alexei threw himself at the two guards nearest Sean and the other two hostages, grabbing at the weapon the closest man held and wrenching it free before tossing ittoSean.
“Keep hold,” hesnapped.
“Get everyone in here!” Antonovich frantically yelled as he dropped to thefloor.
Alexei only hoped Trevor had telekinetically secured the office door before he found himself in the middle of a two-on-one fight. He ducked the first punch and rammed his knee into the man’s gut before slamming his foot into the man’s knee. The man went down with a scream, clutching at his right knee, the joint bent in a sickeningly unnatural way. Alexei grabbed him by the hair and drove his knee into the man’s face. He stopped screamingafterthat.
The second guard threw himself at Alexei, knife in hand and gun discarded once he realized it wouldn’t work. Alexei used the other man’s forward momentum to flip him over and around, slamming him to the ground. Dropping to one knee, Alexei punched him three times in the face in rapid succession. The man’s fingers went lax; Alexei easily pried the knife free, not thinking twice about stabbing it into the man’s chest. The blade grated against bone as blood bubbled up around thewound.
Leaving the knife in the body, Alexei yanked up one pant leg and ripped free the ceramic throwing knife he had hidden in his boot. With a hard snap of his arm and wrist, he sent it streaking through the air at Antonovich’s pet assassin. The tattooed man dodged the knife, but it didn’tmatter.
“Trevor!” Alexei barked as he rose from his crouch in a smooth motion, carrying the discarded assault rifle with him. He braced it against his shoulder and fit his hand to its grip and trigger without much consciousthought.
“Clear!” Trevoryelledback.
Alexei pulled the trigger on the gun, the mechanism moving smoothly now that Trevor’s telekinesis no longer blocked its way. The person who used to carry it had it set for fully automatic and Alexei didn’t bother to switch out ofthatmode.
He braced for the recoil as numerous bullets cut through the assassin’s body, ripping large bloody holes through unprotected flesh. What few bullets didn’t hit their target shattered the plas-glass window behind the desk. He heard Antonovich yelp as the waterfall of shards fell on top of where he was hiding like a coward behindhisdesk.
Alexei looked over at Madison to check her six in time to see her execute a perfect roundhouse kick into a guard’s face, sending him careening into the display case behind him. She landed lightly on both feet, knees bending a little to take the impact, before picking up two assault rifles from the floor. Madison took the magazine out of one before bracing the other against her shoulder. Just for good measure, she shot the guy she’d been fighting in thechest.
Madison looked up and caught Alexei’s eye, giving him a sharp nod. “Weshouldmove.”
“Trevor, take point,” Alexei ordered, turning his attention backtoSean.
The agent had corralled the Wolcotts into the nearest corner, keeping them clear of the fight. He held the assault rifle in his hands but didn’t have it properly braced. Alexei knew for a fact the MDF trained all its agents on various kinds of weapons and that Sean could handle that type of long gunjustfine.
