Page 25 of Tangled Souls (Bratva Souls Duet #2)

BAKER

Fuck this. Having to wait for the recon report from Hendrix is making my skin crawl. We should be busting down the door and taking Mikhail right now. We should be putting an end to this whole fucking circus.

It’s so damn close that I can almost taste it. But we haven’t finished it yet.

The last few hours have been a blur of activity which started when Huck burst into Kirill’s office like his ass was on fire. Words started tumbling out of his mouth so damn fast that none of us could understand him.

Kirill had to grab him by the shoulders and give a little shake while shouting, “Slow the fuck down, Huck. What are you talking about?”

The wildness in Huck’s eyes cleared a little, but the feeling of a close victory lingered. He took a few deep breaths, but then the words still tumbled from him.

“I found Mikhail. He’s in a house, isolated on the edge of the city.

” Before any of us could ask how he got this information he pushed on.

“I flagged some old Morozov accounts, even a few I couldn’t explicitly tie to Anatoly’s old operation.

It wasn’t like I expected to get a hit because Mikhail needed the shadows, but I still flagged them.

There was activity on one of the accounts about an hour ago and I tracked it to a quick as fuck sale on a property that’s been abandoned for about six months. ”

I wasn’t surprised about the quick transaction. Money talks and it’s just that simple.

My heart started to pound in my chest with the possibility of no longer being on the defense. Everything in me was pushing to take the fight to him and make sure everything burned to the ground around him.

But it wasn’t that easy. We couldn’t run off without a plan.

It didn’t take long for Hendrix, Dominic and my brother, Wolfe, to arrive. Once they did, it was about digging deeper and finding out everything we could about the property before we started to put together a plan.

Dominic headed out to do some recon, but we weren’t far behind him. If he was able to confirm Mikhail was there, we weren’t going to lose the chance to take him down.

Right before we left the office, ready to bring all of Mikhails sins to bear, Maxim voiced the one thing that was on all of our minds.

“This could be a trap.”

We shared glances and nodded. He sure as fuck wasn’t wrong. Even now, after Mikhail being spotted when he opened his front door for a whore he hired, we know it could be a trap.

It doesn’t matter if it is. We can spring a trap and not get caught.

The fact that he only has four guards around the house leads me to believe he’s just gotten sloppy.

As his lofty plans have started to unravel, he’s finding he doesn’t have the reach or the leverage to gain the power he set out to steal.

He was never a man of vision, only a foot soldier being used with a name which tricked him into believing he was more.

Dominic has set himself up somewhere and we haven’t seen him since we arrived. Now, we’re expecting Hendrix back any moment after doing one more check around the house.

It sure as fuck is isolated out here. There’s no way the closest neighbors will hear a damn thing, but we’re still going in as stealthily as possible.

My blood is pumping and I’m practically dancing on the balls of my feet. I need this. And I’m not the only one.

Kirill’s jaw is clenched so tight that I’m on the verge of being concerned for the man. His eyes hold the same feral gleam of anticipation I know I have in my own.

Maxim claps me on the shoulder while smiling in a way only another predator can appreciate. “You good?”

“Yeah,” I grunt, “I just want to get this over with. You know Oaklynn is probably pacing the floor and pissed that she’s not here with us right now.”

“Fuck that,” Maxim bites out. “There’s no fucking way she could be here with us.” He shakes his head. “We’ve given her the room she needs to soar—which was hot as fuck—but this? This is when we step up and protect what is ours.”

“I know.” I grumble, “I only hope she sees it that way.”

Maxim grimaces before shrugging his shoulders. Maybe she won’t understand because we’ve allowed her to be so involved, but there was no fucking way we were going to allow her to be close to Mikhail again. Fuck no.

“This has been brewing long before she became ours,” Kirill’s voice is serious.

“She’ll understand,” Huck chimes in.

Before anything else can be said, Hendrix is in front of us. “He’s in the house,” he confirms. “Plan is a go.”

We pair off without another word because we don’t need to.

Kirill and I move to approach the house on the backside along with Hendrix.

There’s no way I wasn’t going to be with Kirill; it’s my job to protect him even if he doesn’t need it.

Oaklynn would never forgive me if something were to happen to him.

I can’t forget that he is the focus of Mikhail’s need for vengeance.

Huck, Maxim, and Wolfe go in the other direction so they can approach from the front. There are no sounds from their footsteps as we break off. My brother won’t let anything happen to the men who are my family. I trust him to have their backs and to see this through.

I bet Wolfe is a little afraid Oaklynn would have his balls if anything were to happen to them.

Two of the guards are talking, their heads close together, as if danger isn’t lurking in the shadows. The way they’re far too lax tells me that my gut was right—this is just Mikhail being lazy and thinking he was untouchable. They aren’t even facing where a threat could be coming from.

With their backs to us, I share a look with Hendrix who nods. The movement is silent when I pull my knife free from the sheath and crouch as we get closer. I can almost feel how pissed off Kirill is that there are only two guys for the three of us to take down.

But his time to fucking shine is coming.

My movements are fluid death as I grip the guard I’ve targeted by the back of the head, wrench it back, and slice his throat. Blood sprays the back of the house, the kill silent.

An owl hoots in the distance like their deaths are being marked.

I lower the guard to the ground and Hendrix does the same next to us before we silently advance up the back porch steps. My eyes turn toward Hendrix who holds up five fingers. The countdown is steady and on one, he kicks in the back door.

The sound is echoed by the front door being breached in exactly the same way. In the distance a woman screams followed by a man’s voice. It’s too muffled and low to discern what he’s saying, but we don’t need to know.

We quickly clear the rooms as we head toward the front of the house. I pause when looking into the laundry room and see Aamon’s body in a heap on the floor. He’s covered in blood, but the lack of any surrounding him tells me he was just dumped in this room to be out of the way.

I meet Maxim’s eyes as we converge near the stairs. His eyes are devoid of any emotion. They’re an endless black filled with rage.

When I look over his shoulder, I see Betty’s prone figure laid out in the living room. She’s naked and her lifeless eyes are staring, unseeing, at the ceiling. The proof of the beating she took mars her skin; even at a distance, I can see the hand shaped marks around her neck.

The only thing I can do is shake my head and look away. She meant nothing to me. She betrayed our woman and us.

Still, she had a chance to leave Seattle. Instead, she probably ran right to Mikhail thinking he was going to back her.

Stupid woman.

I shake my head as the sound of shuffling upstairs pulls our attention, the thought of Betty overshadowed by the promise of grabbing Mikhail.

Hendrix takes point, and we fall in line behind him easily. Since it’s no secret that someone has breached the house, we move quickly but not silently.

Just as we crest the stairs, another scream comes from a bedroom. We fan out, clearing the other rooms first before finding ourselves in front of the only one left.

Wolfe kicks in the door and we pour into the room, taking in the scene and fanning out with our guns raised and locked onto the target. Mikhail’s mouth is stretched into a sinister grin as he holds the prostitute in front of him like a shield.

“Fucking coward,” Huck mutters under his breath.

I look the woman over to see if she’s injured, but the only thing I can see are some track marks in her arms. The way her eyes are glazed over and barely seeing tells me that she’s riding some kind of high, even if it’s not a good trip.

“He’s going to kill me,” she rasps, but there’s no fear in her words.

She might have screamed, but I’m sure it’s not the first time one of her…clients hurt her. She has a look about her, one that says she’s seen too much and felt too little. Pity is all I feel for her. It’s not an emotion I’m all that familiar with, but she’s earned it.

Mikhail’s hand shakes a little as he holds a gun to the woman’s head. The problem is that his leverage is shitty. It’s not my hands this woman’s blood will be on if he pulls the trigger. His soul is the only one that would be tarnished.

“You fucked up, Mikhail,” Kirill’s voice is cold and taunting.

“You shouldn’t have come,” Mikhail tries to sound bigger and tougher than he is.

Kirill snorts, “Why? Because you have four guards?” Mikhail ducks a little bit behind the woman, like it’ll save him. “They’re already dead. You’re next,” he promises.

Mikhail roars, “Fuck you, Volkov.”

He shifts slightly and I see the moment. Time slows down. As he goes to pull the trigger, I’m ready.

Two shots ring out at the same time.

One bullet rips through the prostitute’s head. His.

One bullet hits Mikhail’s shoulder and has him stumbling back and dropping his gun. Mine.

Hendrix and Wolfe are there then, subduing Mikhail for the trip he’s about to take. Even though there might not be neighbors close by, the questions we have to ask are going to take some time. He’s earned a trip to the warehouse and our special room.

As I look down at Mikhail’s bleeding shoulder, it doesn’t feel quite real.

He’s been lurking and waiting, biding his time while stewing on thoughts of revenge. But now he’s here at my feet with a bullet in his shoulder and zero hope to see the sunlight again.

“I’ll fucking kill you,” Mikhail’s eyes are wild as he looks at the four of us standing over him.

All I can do is shake my head. We are kings. He was never more than a pawn.