“Fine, but we all need to have a meeting soon. We’re becoming stretched too thin. We need more men in here,” Simon snaps.
Moving slowly through the warehouse district in Bethlehem on foot, getting ready to do what I do best—kill more Russian motherfuckers—there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing at this exact moment.
Nothing besides doing very dirty things to Sophia…
But yeah, Sophia and me isn’t something I can think about right now.
Can’t go killing dudes with a boner.
Speaking of killing…
My eyes fall on a guy standing guard outside the building I want to climb up. He’s smoking a cigarette like a stupid fuck and thinks it won’t make him stand out.
I want to use a pistol or rifle on him, but it would make too much noise.
Tensing my toes for a moment, I raise up on the balls of my feet. I have to loosen all the muscles in my legs so that I can move silently. I can’t let the tension I feel building deep in my core interrupt my job.
I need to do this quietly and quickly.
Tapping the throat comm so that I’m on a private channel with Simon, I don’t say anything.
I’ve opened up the line for two reasons. One, so we won’t get any interference from all the other shit going down.
And two, so that he knows I’m up to something.
Moving quickly, I dodge in from the side of the Russian prick.
He’s not expecting it.
As I slam an elbow into the temple of his head, I can instantly tell I’ve scrambled his brains. Scrambled them so good, he doesn’t scream or gurgle too loudly when I sink my knife into his throat.
Dropping his body to the ground, I wipe the blade on his jacket.
No need to have a slippery knife in my hands.
“Two down,” I mumble into the comms.
“Two down,” Simon repeats. “Are you able to get a height advantage on the warehouse?”
“Affirmative,” I say as I latch onto the drainpipe that I was eyeing before spotting the Russian I had to kill.
“Let me know when you’re in position,” Simon says.
“Doggy or missionary?” I ask as I start pulling myself up, using whatever cracks and crannies I can.
“I hope you fall,” Simon hisses.
“I hope you find dirt under your prissy fingernails,” I mutter back.
Using the drainpipe and other shit hanging on the walls, it takes me exactly two minutes to scale up the side of the building.
Once I’m on the roof, I belly crawl across to find the best vantage point.
After I put my rifle together and set up to get a look about, I switch back to the open channel. “Got into a nice little hidey-hole. Saw the probationary for HoH, he didn’t see me though.”
I peer through the scope of my rifle, moving it slowly over the dark warehouses surrounding me.
“Do you have heat signatures in the buildings?” Simon asks after a minute.
“Confirming right now. First building is as empty as your testicles, Simon,” I say with a chuckle.
“You little fucking shit—” Simon starts to snarl at me.
“Hush, young man, I’m working here,” I retort to cut him off as I finally hit pay dirt on the next building. “Everyone hold about a minute out. I’m getting heat signatures and I need to get placements.”
“Can you confirm any of the Russians?” Lucifer asks after a minute. “We don’t need to break up a meat packing plant.”
“Nah, we won’t be doing that,” I say. “Got ‘em. Eleven bodies. One is laying down on what is probably a table, but shows no cold spots. Gonna say from the sizing it’s Gabriel’s little munchkin. She’s got two men with her. One is going to be Alexei, I bet.”
“Good,” Lucifer says. “Meet up and swarm.”
“Stupid fucking cops and their corrupt dumb-fucking-dicks!” I yell out loud as I whip my car around the slow-moving Subaru in front of me.
The hippie bastard gives me the finger as I pass him.
If I had an old, used condom in here somewhere, I’d fling it out the window at his patchouli-stinking-ass.
Haven’t had one of those in the fucking car for almost a damn year, though.
Shit. I haven’t had to use a condom in seven months…
Pushing down on the gas pedal, I swerve my car into the slow lane to get around another asshole standing in the way of me getting into some fucking crazy unknown shit.
After helping my family take out Alexei and rescue Meghan, I immediately hightailed it out of Bethlehem.
Now I’m racing my way to Sophia.
Racing toward something I’ve been both longing for and fucking dreading.
Ever since Johnathan put that fucking voodoo shit on me all those months ago, it’s like I’ve had this fucking ticking clock over my head.
My heart feels like it’s trying to beat as fast as the speedometer says I’m going. My brain though is moving even faster. Each and every possibility ahead of me playing out in a thousand different ways.