I pushed back from my desk and made sure my own gun was loaded and ready. I’d wrapped my garrote around my hand.
“No.”
I had to do this. I had to go inside and see for myself. I had to hear that voice toknowit was him. And then I had to kill him myself. It was the only way my parents could rest in peace.
Leona just nodded and leaned forward to plant a kiss on my cheek. “Be safe, Ciel.”
I brushed a thumb across her cheek, throat bobbing. She understood. She saw me, and she knew how important this was to me. “I will.”
I looked to Obi for his permission, and he nodded in the rearview.
Wynn’s hand brushed against my back, but when I turned to him, he looked away.
“Fine,” Ryu said as we pulled around the corner to the Zoya Makarova’s street. “We’re flying a little more blind than usual, I guess.”
“Don’t make stupid choices,” I told him.
He snorted, his swollen cheek pulling up into a smile. “Stupid choices are my MO.”
Leona rolled her eyes while Wynn pulled open the backdoor and we all jumped out. Along with Cas, she followed thedirection where Zoya headed. Obi, Ryuji, Wynn, and I made our way toward the apartment.
It was bizarre, not waiting in the van with all my tech at my disposal. But I was no stranger to in-person operations. I had told Leona once that I had a higher body count than Wynn, and that was the truth.
I knew what I was doing.
“Ryu!” Konstantin Makarov shouted just as a gunshot rang out, shattering the front door of the apartment building.
We momentarily ducked, but continued to creep closer.
“Status?” Ryu replied to Makarov. Obi and Wynn signaled they would circle the building and look for an escape out the back while Ryu, Makarov, and I proceeded through the front.
“We’ve got them barricaded inside, and we’re trying to keep the rest of the residents inside their apartments,” Makarov said. “Zoya got out. Kolya is looking for her.”
Nikolai Makarov—Kolya, for short—was his younger brother, the middle child of the Makarov family. I had plenty of footage of him being drunk and terrorizing Ryu’s clubs.
“Leona is getting her. She’ll be safe in a second,” Ryu replied. “Send Kolya to the west.”
Makarov nodded, shouting orders in Russian. “My guys have the building surrounded. Thanks for the heads-up. We would have had no idea they were coming.”
I nodded, hand tightening around my weapon. “This ends here.”
“Agreed.” The blond Russian grinned and reloaded his gun. “What about the cops?”
“I already intercepted some outgoing 911 calls and blocked them,” I said. “You have your own people on the force, right?”
He nodded. “I’ll make some calls and get my cleanup crew ready. We’re not leaving here until we’ve crushed them.”
Covering this up in broad daylight was going to be a huge mess, and Makarov would have to pay out the ass in hush money, but once we finished this, I would clean up the camera footage. Makarov’s team could clean up the apartment.
If there was no evidence, there was no crime.
“The leader is mine,” I claimed. My voice reverberated. My hand brushed against the rough metal of my garotte. It had been a while since I’d used it.
“Personal vendetta?” Makarov scoffed, shaking his head. “Get in line.”
“No.” My voice was hard, cutting. Even Ryu did a double-take. “He’s mine.”
Ryu whistled.
