Obsidian Music (Lion Security Book 3) (21 page)

“Hm.” That didn’t surprise me. It was merely frustrating that they had fooled us, pretending that they were ashamed of their daughter and had left the house easily tonight. “Katie, you really need to learn what a trade is. You just gave up your information without me even agreeing to anything.” I walked into my bedroom, closing the door behind me.

Katie’s screams as she was dragged out of the room didn’t bother me as much as it would have a year ago. Her hatred had changed me. I was now much colder in the heart.

Artur was right. I was now a Kozar.

Zane parked three blocks away from the restaurant in an alley. It was the restaurant we were going to demolish. Along with the occupants inside it. Katie hadn’t been lying. Daniil’s former in-laws were out for blood, all evidence Lion Security had found proving their treachery.

Daniil let me come along by my own fierce willpower. A trip to Russia when the doctor had just ordered me on bedrest, had been a hard one to achieve, but I had managed to coax him into allowing me to go. It was his former in-law's money that had funded my kidnapping. I wanted to see it all the way to its end. I needed this closure for my own sanity.

Our group stayed in the shadows, not going anywhere near cameras. After marching down another alley, we arrived at our destination, the back entrance to the bakery directly across the street from the restaurant. As we broke in, we found out it had the oldest surveillance system known to man, which actually took us longer than a high-tech system would to bypass, each of them having to stop and think about what needed to be done since this wasn’t the norm. We hadn’t had time to properly case the place since Daniil and I had both been concerned with tonight’s occupants in the restaurant, spending more time on figuring them out, so it wasn’t exactly a welcome surprise.

Eventually, we made it to the third floor, to the windows we had spotted earlier in the day. In harmony, Zane and Daniil unloaded their sniper rifles and got into place on either side of the room, sighting on the restaurant directly across the street. I grabbed my night vision binoculars, still obeying Daniil’s one demand that I do not do anything strenuous. The place was just closing up, the last of the employees leaving, but a party was in full swing upstairs on the second floor, the windows glowing with light and merriment as the family ate their dinner that had already been served.

I evaluated the occupants and breathed a sigh of relief seeing our research had been correct. There were no children at this party. It was all adults. I checked out the entire room and saw bodyguards lining it, which wasn’t a surprise. Obviously, these people weren’t stupid. They knew they had enemies.

And then, I gasped. “You see that?”

Instant from Daniil. “Where?”

“Right corner. Second floor.”

I studied it, and Zane muttered, “Jesus. They’re fucking sick.”

I agreed one hundred percent.

There was a large table in the corner of the room where birthday gifts were placed. And dead center was a birthday cake. It was one of those cakes that would cost me a month’s worth of salary, specially made to view before you ate it.

It was in the shape of our house in New York. But it looked like there was blood running down its rock walls. And on the perfectly reconstructed front lawn around the fountain, there were miniature people that looked remarkably like Daniil’s family, lying on the grass, bits of them everywhere with blood all around. I was pretty sure I even saw one that looked like me.

“Insane, more like,” I muttered, pulling my view away from that disturbing visual and focusing on the room at large.

“Hey. Daniil’s toy head is in the fountain, while his body is on the front stairs.” Zane chuckled roughly, muttering, “I hope they make this pretty.”

Daniil grunted. “They will.”

I refocused my binoculars, leaving my gun as it was, checking out the sidewalk below. “There are three on the ground.”

Daniil corrected, “Four. The last one’s in a car at the end of the block.”

I glanced to the right but didn’t see anything, and then to the left.

Ah. There you are. “How many in the car?”

“A loner, I think.”

I zoomed in and agreed. I couldn’t see anyone but the driver. Probably the get-a-way car if needed.

We waited.

And waited even longer.

No one tells you how nerve-racking waiting can be. In the beginning, when I was a young reporter, waiting had really bothered me. I have more energy than most, and it was hard for me to grasp the concept of finding a balance between serenity and alertness. I had actually flubbed a job or two before I overcame my issues. I employed one of my old tactics and started examining each individual, trying to assess their threat level, giving me something constructive to do in the quiet.

At the end of a half hour, I had pretty much decided they were all whacked out murderers. Even grandma, who kept staring at the cake with a gleeful smile while she played with a knife in her hands, twirling it damn expertly for someone with liver spots. I couldn’t repress the shiver that consumed me. If Grigori and Kirill couldn’t get this job done, we were going to have to come back and take care of these people. Watching them had brought to mind images of patients escaping a loony bin while toting machine guns.

Crazy. As. Fuck.

“Someone’s moving around on the first floor,” Zane stated quickly.

Again, I aimed my binoculars at the ground level. I couldn’t see what Zane had. “Where?”

“Left side. Wait for it,” he murmured quietly.

I trained the goggles on the left side of the building and did as told. A minute later, I saw the tiniest bit of movement. But… “Was that a female?” I could have sworn I saw long blonde hair. “I thought all the workers were gone.”

I saw it again. But with long black hair this time.

Zane started chuckling quietly. “All the workers are gone. No wonder we didn’t recognize them on the street. They’re obviously taking pointers from Stash.”

I blinked. “No way. They wouldn’t do that.”

Zane chuckle turned criminal. “You want to bet two g’s on it?”

I saw a flash of the black wig again, but on the right-hand side. The woman was fucking tall. Oh, God.

Daniil growled, “If you ever tell anyone about this—”

“If they kill those crazies up there, my lips are sealed. However they have to do it, I’m good with it,” Zane grumbled, but he started snickering again when we saw the briefest flash of fake tits. “God, I bet they make ugly women. Stash can pull it off because he’s so pretty. Them? Not at all.”

I chuckled a little myself. They were both handsome men, but they sure as fuck would be ugly women. I tried to get control of myself, mumbling, “Shut up and leave them alone, and keep covering their asses.” I shut my mouth. Oh. Wrong choice of words.

Zane snorted hard. “Their asses are already covered in miniskirts.”

I groused, “I think they’re wearing black pants. Not skirts.” I had to stick up for them where I could, dammit.

Zane snorted again but controlled himself after that. When they didn’t show again for at least two minutes, he asked, “Where did they go?”

“I lost them. Crazies are unaware, cutting the cake.” I started counting the guards around the room. “But there are two missing guards in Crazyland.”

“Shit,” Daniil grumbled and started fumbling through his bag. I didn’t take my eyes away from the targets. A half minute later, he murmured, “There are four heat signatures on the bottom level. They’re fighting.”

I held my breath, waiting for him to tell me two went down. Grigori and Kirill could take care of two men fast enough…then I saw what I didn’t want to see. “Four guards are touching their ears pieces.” Shit. “They’re exiting Crazyland.”

“I think a gun was discharged. One man went down with no one touching him.”

I sucked in a breath. I hated not knowing.

Daniil growled, “Two more went down. One left standing.”

My chest seized. No. No. No. Two! Two needed to be standing.

“Move, dammit,” Zane muttered. “The one standing is helping the first that went down.”

I sucked in. “Are the other guards down there yet?”

“No. The other downed man is moving. He’s definitely injured. Wait…” Daniil hissed out a breath. “The four guards just showed. And if those two are Kirill and Grigori, they’re coming this way, not the back. Get ready, Zane. I’ve got left, you take right.”

I yanked my binoculars down to the right just as a chair crashed out of the first level window of the restaurant. The sound of gunfire erupted. Two ‘women’ jumped out the window, the blonde helping the black haired one.

Zane fired two quick shots, just as Daniil fired four, the glass from our windows crashing in front of us.

I stared at the unmoving guards. “Extra guards on the street are done, and the car is done for.”

The four bodyguards were suddenly at the broken window, aiming their weapons at the women. Daniil and Zane immediately readjusted their aim.

And…the restaurant across the street exploded.

I gasped on a scream, ducking and rolling as debris flew at all angles through the air, the brick and glass and pieces of metal soaring through the windows as fatal projectiles. I stared at it across the room where the debris was embedded into the wall. Another explosion rocked the building I was in, and again, I covered my head as more bits of the opposing building flew into the window, hearing solid hits against the outer walls. I stared at the new debris catching the wall on fire.

“Time to jet!” Zane shouted. “Grab your shit. Grigori detonated early. Nothing left over there to aim at.” Everyone in that building was now dead.

I sucked in smoke-tainted air and watched as Daniil and Zane quickly dismantled their rifles, tossing them into their bags, along with my binoculars.

I asked in a rush, “Where are they?”

“Probably the street. Let’s go,” Daniil ordered.

Zane darted past the flames, duffle over his shoulder.

Daniil grabbed my hand, his own bag crossed over his shoulder. We hurried as fast as we could to the ground level.

Shattered glass from the blown windows crunched under our boots as we made our way past the still intact baked goods counter and out the front door that was hanging on its hinges. I ignored the destroyed building that was blazing in front of me and scanned all the debris on the ground, searching for our men.

To the right, I spotted the ‘women’ on the sidewalk.

They were unconscious, lying in front of the business two doors down.

I hit Daniil’s shoulder and pointed, my feet already moving.

Zane passed me, ordering, “Get the blonde, Daniil. I’ll get the black.”

Please let them be okay. Please let them be okay.

Please let them be okay.

My head was spinning in a repeating circle. I could hardly focus on anything other than the two ‘woman’ lying so still on the ground.

Please let them be okay. Please let them be okay.

Please let them be okay.

I sped up, and Zane and Daniil jumped over a burning table at the same time.

I trotted around the debris, holding the underside of my protruding belly. There was a mirror with a beer emblem that was miraculously intact I had to step on, cracking it to hell, and I spun past three broken and bent chairs.

They hadn’t moved yet.

Please let them be okay. Please let them be okay.

Please let them be okay.

I halted at the blond, and stared down, scanning his body. It was Kirill. He didn’t appear to have any visible injuries. I almost fainted as relief slammed me harder than I had ever felt. I slurped in a breath, and shook my head hard, making the dizziness go away. Not the time. Not the time to fucking pass out. Daniil lifted him off the ground, and I didn’t hesitate, smacking Kirill hard on the face. “Wake up, dammit!”

His lids fluttered open but shut again.

I smacked him again. “Wake up!”

He groaned but didn’t open his eyes.

“We need to move!” Zane lifted Grigori from the littered ground, his hold extremely gentle. There was blood on Grigori’s outfit. Zane stared into Daniil’s eyes. “Your son’s hurt. We need to get him out of here.”

“How bad?” Daniil hissed.

“I can’t tell right now. But there’s a lot of blood.”

There were sirens in the distance now, and a few late night business owners were staring out their windows with a few even coming out of their shops. We moved, keeping our heads down from any cameras.

The few shop owners that were on the streets didn’t even seem to notice us, as they stayed farther away from the destroyed restaurant, their eyes up to the skies where the flames leapt instead of on the ground where we walked.

Those three blocks were some of the longest blocks I had ever walked in my life. I thought we would never get to the car, especially when we had to duck into a shadowed business front when we were on the last block, police cars speeding past us on the streets. Arriving at the darkened alley, I never thought I would see anything more beautiful than that damn car.

Zane was putting Grigori in the back, and he barked, “Put him in the very back, Daniil. You’re driving.” He thumped the keys on the hood and got into the back with Grigori, and only then did it occur to me that he must be badly injured for Zane to order Daniil around, keeping him from his son.