NIKOLAI
We’ve cleared the front of the mansion, which looks like…well, like a bomb has hit it, thanks to Rowan’s toys. Guess you shouldn’t bring guns to a bomb fight.
The other Shadows cover us as we make our way through the splintered front doors, towards my father’s private quarters, which is where Alexei said he was headed in his last communication.
The house is decorated for the holidays with the usual immense Christmas tree covered in gold and silver sitting in the entrance hall. Despite the violence that surrounds it, it twinkles, like it’s waiting for us to sing carols around it. The inside wasn’t touched by the grenades, so it looks as pristine as usual, and a chill works up my spine at the eerie sight. At the normality of it when this situation is anything but.
“Surely we didn’t kill everyone,” Rowan mumbles from next to me, his voice laced with disappointment. I glance at him. He’s covered in blood because the crazy fucker didn’t even use his gun, instead, going in, knife first.
“They’re waiting for us,” I whisper back, my eyes scanning the space, our footsteps and quiet breathing the only sound.
“You were always such a disobedient pup,” a heavily accented voice calls from the dark, and I clench my jaw.
“And you were always a cunt, Igor,” I snarl, looking around to see where he is and if there are others.
The bastard is one of my father’s generals who I didn’t even consider trying to recruit. He was one of the ones who took great delight in meting out my punishments, hitting me harder than needed, especially when I was a child.
He steps from the shadows, his gun pointed straight at my head, a smug smile on his fucking ugly face.
“Better that than a weakling,” he sneers, his thick upper lip curling.
“And yet it’s you my father sent rather than meeting me head-on. Maybe weakness runs in my genes,” I reply, acting completely unaffected by his words, which makes his face tick. He always was led by his rage, never learning to temper it like I had to. To hone it into a weapon that I chose to wield.
“You will show some damn respect!” he roars, taking a menacing step forward, and I smile when the glint of a blade comes down, cleaving his hand from his body.
He blinks for a second, blood spurting from the stump where just moments ago his hand was, holding the gun that no doubt he planned to end my life with.
“You really should watch the shadows,” Rowan says conversationally as the large man drops to his knees, gripping his bloody stump and whining like a bitch. “You never know when one is gonna jump out and cut off your hand.”
I laugh. He is one crazy fucking bastard, but boy am I glad he’s on our side.
I stalk towards the man, one of my tormentors, who is now a quivering mess on the polished marble floor, blood dripping steadily from his stump.
“I’d let you get one more hit in, for old times’ sake,” I tell him, bringing up my gun and pointing it right between his wide eyes. “But I really don’t have the time.”
The shot is quiet. I’ve a silencer on, as we all do just to keep our movement a little hidden, although if Igor knew we’d be here, maybe my father has bypassed what Bubby did with the cameras and is tracking us anyway.
The big Russian crumples to the ground, eyes open and unseeing.
“He used to beat me until I couldn’t move,” I say as I gaze at his body. “Even as a child, which he took great delight in, sick bastard.”
I collect some saliva in my mouth, spitting it on the ground in front of him, then step over his body. The others follow silently as we make our way deeper into the mansion, deeper into hell.
The faint noise of shouting in Russian assaults my ears, and I hold my fist up, pausing everyone as we listen.
“Sounds like it’s coming from the west, where Hunt is,” Rowan comments quietly, and my heart thrashes inside my chest, a sinking feeling in my stomach.
The noise stops suddenly, and my pulse continues to pulse loudly in my ears as I wait.
“Take that, you bastards!” Iris’s triumphant voice comes over the comms, and all the blood in my veins freezes.
“Solnishko?” I question, knowing that she needed to be part of this, but not until we’d basically cleared the danger.
“Hi, Nik,” she replies, far too cheery for the situation. “We’ve cleared this bit and are making our way to the security centre. Are you guys okay?”
I have to let out a breath, my mind in conflict. On the one hand, it’s so fucking good to hear her voice and know that Hunt and Roman are protecting her. On the other, this is so much more dangerous than we thought, especially with military-trained enforcers running around. The risk to her is too high.
“We’re all good, Lamb,” Rowan answers before I can, giving me a nod and resuming our slow walk into the depths of the mansion.
“You’re letting them protect you, Dorogaya?” I ask, taking up position behind Rowan and keeping my voice low so I can scan our surroundings.
“She doesn’t have a fucking choice,” Hunt all but snarls down the comms, and even I wince. She must have disobeyed him. I guess now we get to see his punishment once this is done. Something to look forward to.
“Oh, and FYI, her labour has started, so we have maybe a couple of hours before our son gets here,” Roman adds, and I freeze as I almost crash into Rowan.
“What?” It’s a hissed sound, my pulse racing in my veins.
“What is it with you guys all telling on me?” she huffs out, and I can just imagine her glaring and crossing her arms.
“Lamb, you are going to need to explain exactly what’s happening, otherwise I’m coming right for you to take you to the hospital,” Rowan states, and there’s no question of his intentions. He will absolutely abandon the entire mission, as would I, if we need to get her to a hospital.
“I thought they were just Braxton Hicks, but then they became regular and more painful and I realised they were actual contractions at the same time Andrei did, just before we joined the others,” she says, her voice almost apologetic. As it should fucking be given she knew something was happening. A thought occurs to me, the fact I noticed something was up before we left.
“Did they start when we were at home, Dorogaya?”
I hear her sigh. “Yes.”
Silence.
My jaw clenches so tightly I think I will crack a tooth.
“But I thought they were false ones, and Andrei has given me something to pause labour for an hour, maybe two, so we best get a move on.”
I huff a humorous laugh. Even now she’s showing her fire, her spirit that was forged because of my father.
“You are in so much trouble, Lamb,” Rowan promises darkly, and I’m nodding my head, even if she can’t see it.
“Well, get in line, and it all has to wait until we’ve killed Sergi and I’ve birthed our son,” she sasses back, her tone exasperated, and I want to laugh because I’m liking this side of her, giving as good as she gets.
“Deal,” Rowan replies, and he takes a deep breath before he signals we move forward.
“I’ll look forward to it, Kotenok,” I whisper, because all that worry and violence swirling inside me has morphed into a violent sort of lust that only she can sate.
IRIS
Hunt and Roman lead us down the service corridors, the main lights off, although there are low emergency type lights that illuminate our way. My shaking doesn’t improve, though it doesn’t get worse either, so that’s a bonus. My heart still thrashes inside my chest and anxiety fills my veins, making me fear every shadow and worry about what’s coming.
“Almost at the security centre,” Ro murmurs through the comms from his position in the lead. My heart rate kicks up a notch, and I wonder if this will have an effect on the preeclampsia. I guess if it does or not, it’s too late now. What’s done is done.
There’s a relief in them all knowing, even if I could feel Nik’s and Roo’s rage through the comms like it was a palatable thing.
It’s taken us longer than I expected to make our way through the sprawling mansion, and I’m just glad we’ve not passed anything familiar, because I’m not sure how my trauma would cope with it. I did a lot of work at Serene Haven, but I don’t know how I would react to seeing the mansion I was imprisoned in for all those weeks. At seeing the monster of my nightmares in the flesh again. I guess I will see soon enough.
By the time we’re outside the security door, a small twinge of pain darts across my lower stomach, and I suck in a sharp breath.
“I just had a slight pain,” I whisper when everyone freezes, Hunt twisting to look at me.
“Then we don’t have long,” Andrei states behind me. “Tell me every time you have one, and when they get more intense.”
“Okay,” I reply, Hunt’s nostrils flaring as the skin around his eyes tightens.
“Good girl,” he rumbles, and something loosens inside my chest at the words.
“Iris, I need you to open this door,” Ro states quietly, and Hunt and I swap places. His large hands remain on my waist as I reach my trembling hand out to press my thumb to the pad outside the door.
It clicks and I’m pulled away, Roman entering the room, gun drawn. Two shots are fired, then silence.
“Clear,” he calls out, and Hunt moves me behind him once more before he enters, Andrei ushering me inside, Bubby following us with his back turned to cover us from behind.
I swallow at the two bodies Ro is pushing out of their chairs, which sits in front of a bank of screens and some kind of dashboard full of buttons. The screens show CCTV of the entire estate, the ones for the cameras we could access, showing nothing amiss.
I spot movement in the east wing, where Alexei is, and see that a vicious fight is taking place.
“Alexei can take care of himself, Iris,” Hunt tells me, and I tear my gaze away to look at a screen he’s pointing to.
My breath stills inside my chest when I spot Sergi, surrounded by his men in what looks like a safe room of some kind.
“He’s in a safe room, Nik,” Hunt says over the comms, and Nik curses in Russian. “I count nine men in with him.”
“There’s a concealed entrance in his office. Iris, you need to disable all the security systems so that the door unlocks, otherwise we can’t get in. It’s bombproof.”
“Okay,” I say, moving towards the bank of screens and the dashboard.
A sharp pain flashes across my abdomen, and I pause, Hunt’s hand finding mine, and I grip it tightly, breathing through the pain.
“That’s it, Iris. Keep breathing, just like that,” Andrei says from beside me, and I look at him to find him studying his watch and glancing at me.
The pain passes with a final breath, and I’m able to straighten. “That one was more intense.”
“And lasted a full minute. We may need to prepare for this baby to make an appearance sooner than we thought,” Andrei tells me, and I nod.
“Let’s get this done then.”
Hunt refuses to let go, Roman coming up behind me as I stand at the desk, not having the first clue what to do. Luckily, Bubby is sitting down already.
“Place your thumb there, Iris,” he says, pointing at a pad in front of him, then resuming his tapping on the keyboard.
I do as he says, and suddenly lights that were green along the top of the board start turning red.
Movement on the screen with Sergi catches my eye, and it looks like he’s issuing orders, shouting and gesturing as he speaks into a phone. He looks up, straight into the camera, and I freeze, my breathing picking up as it feels like he stares straight into my eyes.
“He can’t see you, Peaches,” Hunt says, breaking me from my panic, but Sergi keeps staring, and all the hair on my body stands on end.
“But he knows we’re here, what we’re doing,” I whisper, something in my gut telling me he’s aware of every move we make.
“All clear,” Bubby says into the comms, and I tear my gaze from Sergi to see all the lights are now red. “All security disabled.”
As the words leave his mouth, the door crashes open and several guards pour into the room just as another pain tightens my stomach.
