Shattered Duty

by Katie Reus

  Okay this guy clearly wasn’t what he seemed. She snagged her blade and took a step toward the pinned man.

  “The baby’s not dead! I saved it!” the guard shouted.

  Selene froze. Grisha paused, his gaze meeting hers as if the other man’s words had surprised him too.

  Ice flooded her veins in one searing blast as the guard’s words fully registered. She knew that violence and trauma could force a woman into early labor. But he couldn’t mean . . . “Her baby lived?”

  “I’ll tell you everything! Just don’t kill me.” Suddenly he sounded pathetic and whiny, the change making her want to order him to grow a pair.

  Mindful of Grisha since she still didn’t trust the guy, she walked around the front of the fallen guard’s body and pressed her boot to his face. “You’ll tell me everything or I’ll cut off your nuts and make you eat them. Would you like that?” she growled, sounding savage even to herself.

  “I’ll help you start.” Grisha started to turn the guy over but the man started whimpering.

  “Tell me everything. Now,” Selene demanded, digging her boot into his cheek.

  “She . . . she went into labor. No one expected it but . . .” He trailed off, squirming against their hold.

  “What did you do with it?” Selene hated calling the baby an “it,” but she didn’t know the gender. When he didn’t answer right away, she nodded at Grisha, hoping the man understood what she wanted.

  Grisha flipped him over and sliced through the guy’s belt and pants with ease. Before he could scream, Selene covered his mouth with her foot.

  “Wait, wait,” he said, his voice muffled.

  She withdrew her foot. “Last chance.” Selene hated playing hardball like this, especially when she wasn’t sure Levi’s child could have survived. But if there was even a chance she had to do everything in her power to find the child.

  He stared up at her, his face looking distorted because of his upside-down position. “She bled out after having the baby. One of the new guys was supposed to get rid of it but dropped it off at the hospital.” He muttered something in Russian that sounded like “weak fool.”

  Selene forced her voice to remain steady. “So you didn’t save the baby?”

  His eyes narrowed. “Not me personally but I didn’t tell Tasev what that fool did so, yes, I did save it.”

  She found it hard to believe that someone in Tasev’s organization showed even that much mercy as to save a baby but even monsters had limits. “So Tasev knows nothing about this?”

  He shook his head. “The man who saved the baby died not long after. Killed in a gun battle. No one but me knows.”

  “You don’t even know if the baby survived,” she spat, needing him to give her more information and fast. They were running out of time.

  He started nodding furiously. “She did. One of the women I fuck regularly has a cousin who works at the hospital and the kid lived.”

  That was all she needed to know. And they were out of time. She had to save the doctor and get out of here before Tasev showed up. Selene looked at Grisha and nodded.

  He understood completely because he cut the man’s throat before the guy could even squeak out a protest.

  She stepped back as the man started gurgling. Ignoring the river of blood she took a step back, still not trusting Grisha completely.

  “We need to get out of here now,” he said as he stood, casually wiping his blade on his pants.

  “Okay.” She had no clue who this guy was, but she wasn’t going to question him. At least not at the moment. The only reason she was agreeing was because she needed to help Ortiz save Schmidt and his daughter and time was running out.

  • • •

  “Matvei, foyer, now,” Tasev snapped into his radio. That stupid bitch had disabled his security system so he was working blind. Didn’t matter, soon enough she’d tell him everything he wanted to know. At least he had men sitting on the lab. He wouldn’t risk an attack now. Not until he knew more from the woman. He needed to know what her endgame was and if her partner in the lab was the only backup she had. For all he knew the man in the lab would kill Schmidt and ruin his plans.

  Unfortunately he had another problem to take care of and he couldn’t find the bastard. He was ninety percent sure that Grisha was a mole. He’d given him intel on an incoming shipment of illegal cargo. The information had been false, but now a couple of his shipping containers were being watched by someone in the government. He wasn’t certain who, but it was definitely law enforcement. He didn’t want to believe Grisha was a mole but after what had happened with the water plants, he knew it wasn’t a coincidence that after Grisha had become aware of both situations—even if one was untrue—law enforcement had become involved. Tasev didn’t know or care what agency the man worked for. He just wanted to eliminate the problem and move on to more important things.

  Because that bitch had screwed up his visibility he couldn’t locate Grisha. Luckily he’d put Matvei on him earlier.

  Twenty seconds later the blond man hurried onto the polished wood floor of the foyer, his shaggy hair falling across his forehead as it always did. “What do you need, boss?”

  “Where’s Grisha?”

  “I don’t know. Saw him by the pool an hour ago but he’s not on shift tonight. I don’t think.”

  Tasev gritted his teeth. “Find him for me. It’s important. If he won’t come with you, kill him.”

  Matvei’s eyes widened but he nodded and hurried away. He turned back to the two men waiting near the front door for the arrival of Isaiah Moore. “The lockdown?” he asked the one on the left.

  “The property is secure. No one will get in or out and I’m sending a man to the front gate. He will take over for the guard and report back any new entrants into the neighborhood. He’s getting dressed in the uniform now.”

  The death of a nameless guard meant nothing, especially since Tasev planned to be gone by sunrise. He didn’t care if the woman he’d captured worked for the government or was truly a world-class assassin. His base had been compromised and he wasn’t certain how much Grisha had passed on about him so he would have to relocate. “Good work.”

  His radio buzzed. “Mr. Moore is here.”

  “Bring him up.” He looked over his shoulder, hoping Matvei arrived with Grisha in the next fifteen seconds. He planned to put a bullet between the traitor’s eyes and he wanted Mr. Moore to see him do it.

  The fact that the man had agreed to see Tasev after his employee had tried to breach Tasev’s home told him that it was unlikely Moore was involved in all this. But only time would tell.

  The true test would be when Tasev starting torturing her. If Moore stood back while it happened, he would be allowed to live and they would hopefully start a lucrative business relationship.

  Chapter 21

  Infiltration (military): movement into enemy territory by individuals or small groups, using the weakest or unguarded points of entry. Avoiding contact with the enemy is preferred but not always possible.

  “Wait,” Selene said to Grisha, if that was even his real name. She bent down to the dead man and took his Makarov pistol. SIGs were her preferred weapon of choice but this would do. As she started to check the magazine the door made a soft snicking sound.

  Tensing, she raised her weapon and crept off to the right side. Grisha did the same, moving to the left, his weapon aimed at the door.

  When it opened, her heart rate kicked up a notch as she readied to shoot Tasev or any number of his guards. A blond man popped his head in. To her surprise he grinned when he saw the body before he looked at Grisha, who was already lowering his weapon.

  “He’s with me,” Grisha said to Selene.

  “Damn it, I wanted to kill Valery. Hated that guy. Come on. Tasev knows you’re a mole. We need to get you out of here.”

  Grisha nodded, still holding his weapon. “We’re both leaving. You can’t stay here any longer. It’s getting too hot and something tells me this place is abo
ut to get stormed.”

  She nodded, looking at her watch. She could lie to the guy but didn’t see the point. He’d already helped her and he knew a raid was coming. No need to deny it. “Thirteen, fourteen minutes max.” God, how could only six or seven minutes have passed? It felt like an eternity. She worried about Ortiz but knew he could take care of himself.

  “Thank God,” the blond said. “I’m tired of playing the dumbass soldier with no brain. Next time that’s your role.”

  “But you play it so well,” Grisha murmured, all hints of his Russian accent gone and a hint of a smile tugging at his lips, making him seem human.

  “I need to get to the doctor now,” Selene said, her voice urgent. She didn’t have time to sit around and bullshit.

  Grisha tilted his head at the door. “Let’s go. The lab isn’t far from here.”

  “You first.” She might be letting these guys help her escape but she didn’t trust strangers at her back. For all she knew these men were part of some hostile takeover. She doubted it, but went with her training.

  Grisha didn’t pause or argue, just moved in front of her and motioned for her to follow. At least Tasev’s thugs hadn’t taken her shoes. She knew he would have eventually gotten to that, probably when he’d decided to start cutting off her toes, but she was thankful to have them now. She could run faster and if they ran into broken glass or anything, she wouldn’t be slowed down. And she had to find Levi’s daughter. Before she told him there was a possibility the child was alive, she had to know for sure.

  Because if she gave him false hope . . . No way in hell could she be the cause of more pain for him. Her throat tightened and she banished all thoughts of Levi.

  Her earpiece was gone and she was basically working blind. She needed her wits. Hell, she just needed to stay alive long enough to tell Wesley about Levi’s daughter. Because if she wasn’t around to find her, Selene knew Wesley would.

  • • •

  Levi kept his expression neutral as he strode up the short set of brick stairs to Tasev’s palatial place, the man who’d driven him at his back. He was pretty certain Jack had followed them, but he hadn’t been able to see anything since he’d been hooded at the pickup point.

  Jack hadn’t liked the situation but there was no choice. Levi had to go into the viper’s nest alone. When Levi first arrived at the address he’d seen a guard cleaning up shards of laminate and glass outside the property. Inside the wall he’d seen a busted up SUV he hoped Selene hadn’t been in. But deep down he knew she had.

  If Tasev had hurt her, there was no force on earth that would stop Levi from killing him. He didn’t care what happened to him, he just had to save her. Unfortunately he knew he was walking a dangerous edge with Tasev. The man knew his place was compromised so he’d be hyperalert and likely paranoid. He wouldn’t trust Isaiah Moore at all.

  One of the guards opened the front door and ushered him in to the same foyer he’d been in not long ago with Selene, with the wood floors and Monets.

  Tasev stood at the bottom of the stairs, two guards flanking him from behind on the very bottom step and two next to him. Levi knew he was playing psychological games but it was pointless. Right now the bastard held all the cards because he had Selene. He was in charge until Levi could save her. He knew the backup team was on the way. Maybe fifteen minutes out now.

  A fucking lifetime when you needed to keep the person you loved alive.

  He knew he loved her. It was way more than lust. A different stratosphere from that. He’d give up his revenge for her if it would keep her alive. He’d even let Tasev go if it kept Selene alive. He just needed her to live. Because the thought of a world without her in it . . . He swallowed hard.

  Time to put on his game face and act like a pissed-off business partner. It was the only thing that might keep him from getting his head blown off by one of Tasev’s guards. “Where the fuck is she?” he demanded as he strode across the foyer.

  One of the guards next to him took a step in Levi’s direction, but Tasev stopped him with a flick of his wrist and came forward, his shoes silent as he crossed the distance between them. “You came.” He seemed surprised.

  “I don’t believe that she betrayed me.”

  Tasev’s mouth lifted into a feral smile. “Women are conniving, my friend. How long have you been sleeping with her? Since the beginning of your business arrangement?”

  Levi gritted his teeth and shook his head. “That has been a recent development.”

  “Whose idea was it to do business with me?” he continued, his expression calculating.

  Playing his part, Levi let out a savage curse, pretending to suddenly realize Selene had set him up.

  Tasev made a tutting sound. “She probably let you think it was your idea, too. Come, let’s see her. I have one of my guards entertaining her now. She shouldn’t be too worse for wear. Yet.” He turned toward the guards and told them to stay put.

  So arrogant to go with Levi alone. Maybe he thought the guards with Selene would be enough protection. Unfortunately for him, nothing could save Tasev now. Not if he’d hurt Selene in any way.

  Levi’s blood turned to ice but he didn’t respond, just fell in step with Tasev. He shoved out all the horrific images playing in his head and forced his feet to move. He knew Wesley’s team was coming soon, so all he had to do was save Selene and keep them both alive until backup arrived. And kill Tasev if the opportunity presented itself. But it wasn’t his priority.

  Keeping track of their movements, he was surprised when they entered an industrial-sized kitchen. Everything looked new, as if it was never used.

  “I only use the freezer,” Tasev said as if reading his mind. He pointed to a large metal door.

  Levi simply nodded, not trusting his voice. Fear wasn’t an emotion he was accustomed to, but raw fear raged through him at what he might see when that door opened.

  Tasev strode to the door and opened it. “You first.”

  As Levi stepped inside his panic subsided when he saw a dead man lying on the ground and a pair of handcuffs next to him. Selene had gotten away. The relief that overtook him was staggering. He turned to find Tasev stepping in behind him, his expression savage.

  The bastard was pulling out his radio. Twisting, Levi lifted his arm, ready to slam his forearm into the man’s throat and break his trachea.

  Tasev reacted too fast, dodging to the side as his radio clattered to the floor. Moving lithely, he kicked out at Levi’s inner knee, but Levi jumped back and to the side.

  Levi let out an enraged snarl. He knew this was going to be a fight to the death. One he had no intention of losing because Selene needed him. Acting on instinct, he grabbed the nearest chair and swung hard.

  Tasev was nimble though, clearly as trained as any of his men. Maybe more so. Probably why he’d stayed alive so long. The leg clipped Tasev’s shoulder. He grunted, the sound echoing as Levi swung back, throwing the chair at him.

  Tasev tried to duck but the back of the chair crashed into his face before hitting the shelves behind him. Tasev’s hands jerked to his face as he stumbled.

  Levi rushed at him, slamming his fist into Tasev’s face. The man struck back just as hard, hitting Levi in the ribs.

  He heard the impact more than he felt it, the adrenaline surging through him so potent he felt as if he could lift a car. Rolling with the punch, he struck again, pummeling Tasev’s face and ribs with an animalistic savageness.

  Weakening, Tasev reached for the weapon Levi knew he had tucked into his shoulder holster. He hadn’t had a chance to reach for it until now and even attempting was beyond stupid. It gave Levi the opening he needed. The fumbling movement was the last mistake Tasev would ever make.

  Levi smashed his elbow upward, twisting his whole body into the blow as he struck Tasev’s temple.

  Crying out, Tasev stumbled, falling to his knees. Levi rammed his knee into Tasev’s face, relishing the sound of bone breaking as he fell back. Gurgling on his own blood, Tasev at
tempted a pathetic grab for his weapon again.

  Levi tore it from his holster and slid it across the floor. He wasn’t shooting this bastard. That was too good for him. The most primal part of Levi needed this monster to die by his hand. When Tasev rolled over in one last attempt to crawl away, Levi jumped on him and wrapped his arm around his neck from behind.

  Rolling back on the floor, Levi tightened his arm around Tasev’s neck as he cinched his legs around his waist. The fucker wasn’t going anywhere but to hell where he belonged.

  Taking him by surprise, Tasev’s hand flashed up and struck a blade down into his thigh.

  The pain barely registered, Levi’s adrenaline overtaking everything. He squeezed even harder with his arm, stealing the life from the man who had taken everything from him. “You killed my wife,” Levi rasped out, wanting Tasev to know exactly why he was dying. “My unborn child.”

  Writhing against him, Tasev tried to find purchase on the cold floor, anything to fight his own death.

  Nothing could save him now.

  Levi stopped crushing Tasev’s trachea and broke his neck, giving him instantaneous death. It was still too good for him, but Levi needed to get to Selene. Needed to make sure she was okay.

  Levi relaxed his grip. Tasev’s body thudded against the freezing cold floor. Shaking, he pushed to his feet.

  He’d failed one woman. He couldn’t fail another. Fate couldn’t be that cruel to take her from him now.

  Chapter 22

  Going dark: when an operative cuts all communication for a certain period of time.

  Selene and Grisha had their backs against the wall around the corner from the lab. Matvei, or whatever his name was, was standing guard so they wouldn’t be ambushed from behind. He’d been listening on the radio and so far no one seemed to know that she’d escaped or that Grisha wasn’t who everyone thought he was. She still wanted to know who these guys were working for but for now, they were on her side.

  Grisha held up four fingers to Selene, then pointed to the hall. Then he pointed to himself, and made a motion that he’d go in high and she’d go in low. Grisha had given her a suppressor for the Makarov. Even though it was a little weird that he was carrying around an extra suppressor, she was taking it. Besides, she had a garrote wire on her watch so maybe the suppressor wasn’t so odd after all.