Chapter 91

I crouched behind the front passenger door. They definitely weren’t expecting us to have the firepower we were showing. AK’s weren’t really my forte but I did get a few good shots in before I needed to reload. As I was slamming the cartridge in place, Marek let off his first shot.

The sound rocked my brain, my head rattling and my ears ringing. It echoed so loudly in the tunnel that I wondered if we displaced some of the concrete. Hearing him reload, I counted the seconds until he managed to get another shot out. I would have that much time between his  shots of coverage but I had no doubt that whatever he was aiming at would be obliterated.

Marek was right. While they were continuing to shoot as I fired, the moment Marek took his first shot, heads ducked. The second one ensured that they didn’t pop up again as he waited for his next target to pop up like a mole.

When I couldn’t see anymore heads, I moved out in front of the door. My gun was tucked into my shoulder as I walked as smoothly as I could, slightly crouched, out from behind our doors. It wasn’t a short distance between our SUV and the trucks but even if a single head popped up, by the time I had trailed my gun to their location, Marek’s shot had gone off and there was no more head to be seen.

The truck on the far right side was the closest to the wall of the tunnel than the other side. Slipping next to the bed of the truck and the wall, I took a quiet couple of breathes. Marek took another shot but from here I could now hear their orders being yelled. Since they were at the edge of the opening, it didn’t echo as much over here.

They were too worried about Marek’s gun, and his accuracy, to realize that I had moved at all. Moving closer to the far end, I peaked around to get a lay of their positions. Sure enough, like us, they had their doors open but it looked like they were mostly to have access to the seats and the ammo they were keeping there.

None of their guns looked spectacular and nothing looked out of the ordinary. They definitely were military use, so it would be interesting to see the manifests. Corruption always ran deep. I took a second to swap guns. Pulling out one of my pistols, I screwed on the one silencer that I snagged.

Silence didn’t mean what everyone thought it meant, but with the amount of gunfire echoing, it at least wouldn’t give away my position immediately. Plus, I was a better single shot with a pistol. Kharon was my torturer but also my madness. The darkness that creeped in to take over. Not everyone could call it by a name but I could.

The anger, the pain, the suffering, everything inflicted on me could be turned and then used against the very same enemy. Smirking, I pulled out a smoke bomb I had stashed and pulled the pin. Throwing it behind them a couple of yards away, the idiots all turned to see what the hell it was.

Moving from my position, I started to fire. One by one, they crumbled. Shouting and trying to get into a better position as I flanked them exposed them to Marek’s line of sight. His gun continued to go off, as I made my way down the line. Throwing away the first pistol as soon as it emptied, I pulled out the second one. One guy I caught not the wrong side of the car door and after putting a bullet in his leg, I held him up by his vest. His eyes flashed behind me and I moved my gun to point in the direction his eyes glanced.

A shot resounded but it wasn’t mine. I didn’t need to pull the trigger. The guy who had been trying to come up behind me, was now missing most of his head. Marek watching over me from the car.

Turning back to the guy, I put the gun to his head. “Who is in charge of your little group?”

He whimpered. “P-please, please don’t kill m-me! I’ve…I’ve got a w-wife and, and k-kids. P-please.”

“Where is your leader? Where is Jerard?”

“It’s me.” Another guy stood up from behind the second truck’s doors but he was still out of shot from Marek between the frame of the truck.

I smiled. “Good.” I shot the guy I was holding and dropped his body. “We need to have a little heart to heart, you and I.”

The so-called leader looked from his now dead friend and me. His fight or flight instincts kicked in and apparently, this guy was a flier. I shook my head and pulled out one of my knives that I always had on me. One went into the back of his leg, just below the knee, and the other managed to go through the back of his shoe.

His scream made my eyes roll and I wondered if this really was the leader of this entire group. Marek’s gun went off in the background but I didn’t turn from my victim. Grabbing the guys vest, I dragged him back to the truck and threw him as hard as I could against the tire.

“You see, a little prick told me you were the one in charge, Jerard.”

Jerard glared at me and shook his head. “You think you won? You think you could take us out? We are professionals.”

My eyebrow rose as I let my arm stretch to the right side and shot the guy who peaked around the last trucks front door. “You see, you might be professional, my dear sweet Jerard. But we are mafia.” Crouching down, I brushed off invisible dust from his vest. “More accurately, we are Russian bratva, but potato-tomato.”

“You aren’t bratva.”

I chuckled. “Well, not by birth. By marriage, yes. I’m actually part of the Italian mafia. A mafia princess some would say. But you guys don’t dip into our side, do you? Your employer didn’t know and apparently you need a new research team.”

“We…we didn’t know…we wouldn’t have taken the job…if we were fucking with the mafia.”

My fist connected with his face and his head slammed against the open door. “Watch your mouth. I’m a lady. You don’t cuss in front of ladies. Didn’t your mamma teach you better?”

He looked livid but to his credit he was keeping it together. “What do you want? We failed. We are done. Just let us go!” His words were thick and he spit some blood, apparently cutting his lip when I punched him.

I took a deep breath and wrinkled my nose. “Yeah…no…I don’t think so.” I pulled out another knife and cut deep into the top of his thighs, severing the muscles there. “You see, that little prick, also told me that you were the one who shot our car. Who made it explode.”

The color drained from his face. “I…we…I…”

“I…I…I…” I mocked his stutter. “You killed my friend. My husband’s second hand man and cousin. You didn’t need to blow up the car. You know I wasn’t in it. But you killed someone to cover your fucking tracks.”

“Of course! We can’t be seen shooting up New York!”

My fist slammed into his face again, but this time with the dull end of my knife. It still cut his face as his head slammed into the door again. Taking a slow deep breath, I pulled him back upright from his lean against the door.

“There are so many things I want to do to you. So many things that I want to share with you…that my friend went through. Sadly, in choosing this particular location to have your men ambush us, I don’t have nearly the time to do so. Pity. I’d love to watch you scream as burned alive.”

“The fuck is wrong with you!” Jerard screamed at me, covering my cheek in spit and blood.

I rolled my eyes. “No manners. I swear. Since little prick told us your employer, I don’t even need to be speaking to you really.”

Standing up, I brushed my pants off and smiled. His eyes lit up with that hope I so loved to savor. Sadly, today was not that day. Today, Jerard would get off easy. There would be no payment to the ferryman though.

“May your down in the river on your way because you don’t have payment.”

The light drained as I pulled out my pistol again and shot him in the face. His body slumped and I stared down at it. Revenge. Both sweet and bitter. Aleksei was avenged. He could rest knowing the idiots who killed him were dead as well. Hopefully he tormented them on the other side as well.

Looking around, I tried to assess any other downed but alive mercenaries. There were two and after reloading, I put a bullet in both their heads. It was done. The shooting had stopped on the far side as well while I was having my chat with Jerard. Really, the cleanup wouldn’t be too bad and at least Vor would get some vehicles and guns out of the mix.

A sound reverberated in the tunnel and I furrowed my brow. It sounded like clapping. Coming around the front of the middle truck, I drew my AK and trained it on the group now standing next to the SUV.

“Well done, little sister, well done.”