Page 14

14

Kyril

20 minutes earlier

T he bomb in the cellar went off while Connor and I waited outside, ostensibly checking the contents of the van. I felt the ground shake beneath my feet. Windows shattered, mortar crumbled, and several crows launched into the sky cawing in alarm.

In the distance, a huge fireball engulfed a large outbuilding, sending thick black smoke skyward. I grinned to myself. Francesco’s car collection was worth a fortune. Millions. Now it was nothing more than a pile of charred, twisted metal.

From what I knew of the man, he’d probably mourn the loss of his precious cars more than his daughters.

“Help!” a man screamed as thick smoke billowed out of the kitchen. “Fire!” Dammit. Dario must have used too much C-4. We wanted a distraction, not a raging fucking inferno. At this rate, the fucking house would burn down before we located Thea.

Connor grabbed the uniforms from the front seat. A few minutes later, a fire engine sped down the drive, sirens blaring.

“Oh, thank god,” breathed a guy wearing chef’s whites. I chuckled to myself while pulling on a firefighter’s uniform and helmet. The team poured out of the fire engine while a few of Francesco’s guards milled around.

“Gather everyone you find and take them into the woods,” the guy in charge yelled. His Italian was flawless, like Connor’s. The guards all seemed relieved help was here, rather than suspicious of how fast the fire crew showed up. If I were them, I’d be asking questions, but Francesco’s men were clearly not that bright.

Staff continued to emerge from the house, many of them coughing from the smoke. Nobody appeared to be injured, which was good. Not that I cared especially. Anyone working for a mafia don had blood on their hands by association.

Connor and I ran into the house, searching for our target.

“Where’s the wedding?” Connor asked a woman in a silk dress as she stumbled past clutching her purse.

She pointed back the way she’d come, and we hurried on. More people passed us and a few guards milled around, but none of them seemed to have a clue what was happening.

We entered a large hall with a vaulted ceiling and galleried landing. The thick stone walls had largely contained the fire in the cellar, but a pall of smoke hung in the air, adding to the confusion.

“Wait up,” a voice crackled in my ear-piece. Two people wearing black uniforms ran past in full panic mode while we paused for Ash.

“Let’s split up,” I said in a low voice when the Irishman had caught us up. “You do the official rescue role-play game while I search for the girls. If you spot them, let me know.”

Declan’s guys nodded and grinned like psychos under their helmets. This shit was all in a day’s work for them. I got the impression they were rather enjoying their little Italian mini-break. I guess it made a change from busting heads in Irish bars and clubs. They jogged off down a hallway while I turned left and headed downstairs to the lower level.

The house was old, in poor repair, and not at all what I expected, given the scale of Francesco di Luca’s criminal empire. My father’s many mansions and estates showcased his art collection and prized possessions. Every house he owned had at least ten priceless works of art. The house in Mayfair was home to a Picasso sketch, a Monet landscape, and a priceless collection of Fabergé eggs.

Judging from the lack of artwork or indeed furniture in this house, di Luca had been selling off his assets at an unprecedented rate. No wonder he was so desperate to claw back cash from marrying off his daughters to Marku. Honestly, it was surprising he hadn’t asked for more money.

Thea was worth way more than five million Euros.

To me, she was priceless.

The smoke thickened as I ventured down another flight of steps. This one ended at a reinforced metal door set into a thick stone wall and protected by a keypad. Dammit. This had to be where he kept his prisoners. There was no way I could get through. Not in the time I had available, anyway.

I’d circle back here if we couldn’t locate the girls. Just as I was heading back upstairs, I heard Connor in my ear.

“Found them,” he whispered into his microphone. I pulled my phone from my pocket and opened the tracking app. Milo had made us wear GPS trackers, so we knew where everyone was if it all went to shit. He’d downloaded a map of the property and looking at the small dots representing Ash and Connor, they were on the ground floor near the stairs I’d taken.

My instinct told me Torrance had the girls. Di Luca would be way too busy trying to manage the chaos. He’d have trusted his attack dog to guard the girls if they hadn’t already been turned over to Marku. Which I knew wasn’t the case because one of our guys had reported two blacked-out SUVs leaving at speed a few minutes ago.

Marku and his men had clearly decided not to stick around.

I hurried back the way I’d come, jogging up a second staircase that emerged near an empty room facing the front parking area. Two guards lay dead on the gravel. A third emerged from a side room. He took one look at the gun in my hand and went to pull his own weapon, so I shot him in the head.

The muffled sound of the gunshot barely registered thanks to the continuing wail of sirens from outside.

I heard voices via the guys’ microphones and sped up. Just as I turned a corner, I saw them. Torrance, my kitten, and a small female lying still on the floor.

Ash and Connor stood in front of Torrance, pretending to be worried about the fire. I arrived just as Ash called Torrance ‘Pops’. Both he and I fought not to laugh. The old bastard would hate that.

It was a dickish move, winding him up, especially with Thea and her sister there. The man was a loose cannon, unpredictable, but knowing he couldn’t afford to harm the girls gave me some measure of confidence.

Thea pulled a long, thin metal spike encrusted with sparkling gems from her hair and moved it to her right hand. My girl was a vicious creature, and I loved her for it.

I wasn’t so sure I loved the dress she wore. The damn thing didn’t cover enough skin for my liking. Thankfully, neither Ash nor Connor had made the mistake of checking her out.

They’d both spotted my arrival but didn’t look at me once. The gun in Torrance’s hand was their main focus. Even though all the guys wore Kevlar body armor, a head shot could still take us out. None of us were taking any chances.

Thea stepped back, right into me. I felt her freeze for a second, ready to attack, but when I whispered in her ear, all the tension left her body.

“ Kotenok. Relax, I’m here to rescue you.”

She didn’t reply, but her small hand touched my arm. It was enough to tell me she trusted me - us - to get her and her sister out of here.

“I can tell you have things covered,” Ash said to Torrance, backing up at a rapid pace while ignoring me. He meant the words for me, not Torrance, but the stupid fuck hadn’t worked out I was behind him. The old bastard was losing his touch. Must be early-onset dementia caused by excessive drug use. I’d heard he liked the white stuff a little too much these days.

The moment Torrance lowered his gun as Ash and Connor turned to leave, I punched him hard just behind the ear. This was the sweet spot, and the asshole went down like a sack of potatoes, out cold.

“Shoot him in the head,” Thea urged.

“A woman after my own heart,” I purred, loving her murderous side. She was right, though. He wouldn’t be out for more than a minute, and when he came round, he’d want my head on a stick.

I stood over Torrance and raised the gun, but as my finger tightened on the trigger, a bullet hit me in the back. Thank fuck for Kevlar, although it still hurt like a bitch.

The force of the impact threw me forward against Thea. Her head hit the floor as she collapsed under my weight and her eyes fluttered shut.

Fuck.

Ash and Connor returned fire. When I dragged myself up, two bodies lay dead behind me. Both of them guards.

“We need to get the girls out of here,” I ordered. Gunshots would draw all the guards, and possibly some guests. I wasn’t sure which lowlifes di Luca had invited to the nuptials, other than Marku, but most of them would likely be armed and dangerous.

Thea didn’t stir when I hoisted her into my arms, bridal-style, but we didn’t have time to worry about a possible concussion now. The clock was ticking. Connor lifted Thea’s sister; the kid was slender and light as a feather. Her head lolled back and she snuffled and whimpered, but didn’t wake.

“Let’s get them to the van. Tell the rest of the guys to get the fuck out of here before the cops show up.”

Milo was running interference with the cops. Several people had placed calls after the explosions, but Milo fielded them. In addition, he generated some fake incidents in a town 50km away to keep the local Polizia Stradale busy. Needless to say, help was not on the way.

We ran down a corridor toward the rear exit. More gunshots and yelling told me the firefighter ruse was no longer working. The minute I set foot outside, a van screeched to a halt and the side door swung open.

“We need to go,” Dario hissed, grabbing an unconscious Thea from me. His eyes burned into mine. “She better be OK, you fucker!”

“It’s your fault she’s in this mess!” I pointed out, taking Verity from Connor and pushing her into the van. The younger girl stirred, but from the glazed look in her eyes, whatever sedative she’d been given was still in effect.

The van’s driver gunned the engine, taking off down the drive with the stolen fire engine close behind. Di Luca’s guards unleashed a volley of gunfire at us, but the fire engine blocked most of it.

In no time at all, we were clear of the estate. I picked up my phone and called Milo while Ash called the pilot to prepare the plane for takeoff.

“She’s safe,” I told him.

“Thank fuck. I’ll let Lan know,” he replied before disconnecting the call.

“What happened to her?” When Dario lifted Thea’s head, I saw blood on his fingers, and the voice in my head urged me to go back to that cursed house and kill every last fucker who’d hurt my kotenok . They deserved to die.

“Some bastard shot me in the back while I had hold of her. It knocked me off balance and I fell. Her head hit the floor.”

Dario seemed to accept my explanation, which was just as well. We had a truce in place currently, but any more shit from him and he’d end up in an unmarked grave somewhere in Ireland.

“Did you kill that bastard?” he asked, still cradling Thea’s head in his lap. I wanted to rip her from him, but the pain in my back from where the bullet hit my Kevlar vest was unpleasant, to say the least.

“Which one?”

“Torrance, but also Francesco. I’m an equal opportunities guy. Neither of them deserve to live.”

“I didn’t see di Luca, but I knocked Torrance out when we found Thea and her sister. Was just about to empty my magazine into his bald head when some fucker shot me in the back. There wasn’t time to do anything but run after that, so sadly, he’s still breathing. He’ll have one hell of a bad headache when he comes round, though,” I smirked.

Dario snorted. “I bet he will. I’ve seen you fight.”

My eyebrows shot up. “You have?”

“Yeah. There are a few videos on YouTube. You’re good, amico .”

My smirk fell away. “Let’s get one thing clear, asshole. We’re not friends and nor will we ever be friends,” I growled. “You fucked my girl over and I won’t forget that.” He recoiled at the venom in my voice. “Just because we worked together to rescue the girls does not mean you get to stick around. Once they are safe in Ireland, you can crawl back under the rock you came from. Are we clear?”

I wasn’t sure whether Thea would forgive him for throwing her under the bus, but I didn’t much care. As far as I was concerned, the Italian fucker was toast. He wasn’t my friend and never would be.

He nodded and turned away, but I noticed how he continued to cradle Thea’s head like she was the most precious thing in the world to him. Jealousy burned my throat, but I swallowed the acidic taste back down.

Now was not the time to assert my claim on Thea. She needed medical help, which was waiting for us on the plane. Once she came round, it was up to her to decide how she wanted to handle the Dario situation.

If she told me he needed to die as payment for his sins, I was more than happy to end the fucker.