Suddenly, my heart slams around in my chest when a door to the left opens and Medlov appears in the foyer reading something on his phone. Right before he looks up, I duck around the stairs and pace straight ahead toward another room. As I’m about to enter it, I notice that it has a phone sitting on a table.
But I hear Medlov yelling from the staircase, “Give me the tape! I’m holding on to it.”
I’m about to sneak inside the room when an alarm goes off. Then several men shout in a foreign language; I assume it’s Ukrainian. They must’ve discovered the unconscious maid, so I run to the back of the house and jump off the porch into the darkness of the vast garden as sounds are closing in on me.
Oh, shit! It’s cold and raining.
The drops sting my cheeks, and the wind freezes my bare legs as I keep going.
“There she is!” Medlov shouts from behind me.
In reaction, I duck as shots blast around me, alighting the night and allowing me to see Medlov running toward me. I slip into the forest without slowing down, and almost at once, I catch my foot on a root and fall. Wheezing, I push myself up and scramble behind a tree trunk as voices invade the forest.
Medlov and Ukrainian guards pass.
I blink through the spitting rain and a thunderbolt illuminates the atmosphere. The ruckus of the storm makes it hard to concentrate, but a light beside a nearby tree has me pressing myself further into the shelter of the trunk.
Please don’t see me!
The light redirects away from me as people scream my name and other foreign words. And as soon as my eyes have adjusted to the darkness again, I spot a faint light up ahead. It looks like Medlov has gone into some kind of pool house or cottage.
He has the tape. Now is my chance to get it.
Indecision plagues me, but the chaos and chilly wind have me sprinting over fallen branches and wet clumps of mud and leaves, and I almost slip twice when I reach the grassy area. Taking a chance, I look back over my shoulder, but no one has followed me. And it sounds as if a riot is ensuing in the distance.
I turn the knob on the front door, which opens into a hallway, and discover that the cottage is actually as big as a normal house with a second story. Floorboards creak and water drips down my body as I proceed, shivering, and I strain to hear footsteps, but the storm is making that impossible.
Sharply, there’s a click right next to my ear, and the end of a gun barrel is pressed into my temple.
“I knew you’d follow me,” Medlov says from behind me and thrusts me toward the window.
I look to the side and see him scanning the perimeter before his eyes rest on me.
I swallow through my dry throat as he murmurs, “You’re quite courageous. Instead of escaping to freedom, you dare to follow me.”
“I am running to freedom.” That tape is my freedom.
The corner of his lip curves up. “I have to say that I’ve never met a woman as intriguing as you, Camilla Guillermo,” he emphasizes my name with that thick Ukrainian accent. “I’m fascinated more and more by you...But we have more pressing matters—” He’s interrupted by his phone chiming in.
Medlov indicates with his weapon for me to face him, and then he levels his aim at me again as he answers his phone, “What?” His angry stare is focused on me, and he switches to Ukrainian so that I can’t understand his words anymore, but it’s obvious that I’m not the only issue.
Inwardly, I smile because my instinct is informing me that Adriano is probably wreaking havoc in the area.
I knew he’d come for me.
Now, all I need is that tape and, preferably, Medlov dead. But after he hangs up, everything happens in fast-forward. He grabs my neck and propels me to the door, but I can’t let him take me away. I’m sure that Adriano or the Syndicate’s team have something up their sleeves and it’s the reason for Medlov’s anxiety.
I stop abruptly when he’s close behind me, letting him slam against my back, and elbow him in his nose, ducking down when he swings his gun at me. Then I barrel into his leg, and we collapse to the floor together.
“Stupid bitch!” he roars and pushes me flat on my back, slapping my face.
Heat slashes my cheeks as I kick and scream while he hovers over me, trying to sit astride me. Then something drops from the inside pocket of his suit jacket, and both our gazes follow the movement of the USB device as it clanks to the floor a few feet above my head. For a split-second, Medlov glances back at me before he lunges over me, but I clutch his shirt and roll us over, digging my fingers into his eyes.
“Ahhh!” He launches me off him with his knees and yells swear words as he touches his eyes, which are tightly shut.
I take that moment to scramble forward on my knees, extending my hand to reach the tape. My fingers touch the rectangular device, and I almost have it, until a sting in my neck has me lowering my arm and feeling dizzy.
Medlov’s manic red eyes are the last thing I see before I black out.
CHAPTER 30
Adriano
“Adriano, the engineer’s here,” a Capi announces from the doorway of my office at Club 7.
“Who?” I’m sitting in a chair without my shirt on, gritting my teeth, while Marc gives me an injection to numb the area around my healing bullet wound. It’s been killing me because I haven’t been able to sit still since I lost Cam seventeen hours and twenty-three minutes ago.
“The man who’s going to reactivate the elevator that goes from the underground floor to this office.”
I throw on my black long-sleeved shirt and stash my gun in my ankle holster, shaking my leg to let my pants fall over it while the room bustles with all the high ranking men as we prepare to leave for Medlov’s estate within the next five minutes.
“Oh, yes.” In all the commotion, I downright forgot about all the orders I issued last night. “He can do whatever he needs to do in my office in fifteen minutes. Come back then, and we’ll be gone.” Without bothering to wait for a reply, I take a tranquilizer gun from my desk and hide it in my waistband. “Henry, how far are you into disabling that system?”
Typing away furiously, he snarls orders into his earpiece before lazing back in the chair and adjusting his teacher glasses on his nose. “I can only ensure that the gates stay locked when you’re inside so that he can’t move Cam out, and I can control the outside cameras. The system for the house is another program that’s impossible to hack within the timeframe you set, so I won’t be able to do anything for you there.”
My grunt reveals my dissatisfaction. “Well, I don’t have more time. The sun has set, and Medlov needs to move Cam to the meet’s location if he wants to arrive there at ten p.m.” I address Luca, Wade, and five Capi next, “We leave now.”
Apprehension regarding this last-minute mission clamors inside me; nevertheless, I’m fully absorbed in one thing: getting back what belongs to me.
***
Storm clouds darken the sky, and pouring rain streams down when I pull off onto the side of the road on the west side of Medlov’s estate in Ukrainian Village with Luca and Wade. The view of the main house is obstructed by the tall trees that surround the estate like a forest, and night has fallen.
“You know the main rule; we use the tranquilizer guns because even with our silencers, we can’t take the risk of exposure too soon. Tranquilize first, and then kill.”
They nod. We all have earpieces, and Henry informs me that he’s frozen the cameras so that we can climb over the fence.
I get out of my BMW and take a black duffel bag from the trunk.
Luca’s already jumping down the other side of the fence, and I toss the duffel bag over after him. Then Wade and I follow swiftly. I land with both feet planted firmly in the wet earth and zip open the bag. In the distance, more members of the Syndicate are invading the territory and creeping into the trees toward the main house.
“Here.” I throw tranquilizer guns to Wade and Luca.
“We go straight ahead.” Luca leads the way as Henry guide
s us to the mansion over our earpieces.
The wind rings loudly in my ear, but I don’t feel the cold because I’m numb to everything except finding Cam without a scratch. As we move through the trees, it doesn’t take long for us to come across the enemy.
“Luca, take the one on the right,” I instruct, just as I run up to a guard patrolling in front of me, and Luca takes the other one.
Hooking our arms around their necks, we shoot each of them in the throat and let their bodies sag to the ground before continuing on with Wade. I hear an alarm in the distance and we freeze, looking around to see if we’ve been discovered.
Then, suddenly, we’re surrounded by shadows, bullets, thunder, and rain. A combination that results in disorder as I determinedly track ahead, because I refuse to be forced back. I stagger to a fall when someone jumps on me from behind, but I lunge up, tossing him off me, and punch him the moment he comes within striking distance. When I shoot him in the arm with a tranquillizer dart, he stumbles to the ground. Spinning around, I block the fist of another attacker as Luca and Wade fight off more guards and discharge their Smith & Wessons. My second attacker goes down, and since our cover is blown anyway, I snatch my gun and kill Luca’s attacker just as Wade does away with the last two guards.
“Hurry, our cover’s blown,” I say.
This estate is enormous as I still can’t see the main house, but I do think I detect a smaller house, perhaps one of the cottages Maxim mentioned, in the very far distance. I just can’t see well enough to tell for sure in this fucking weather.
At a moment when everything around me is in disarray, I sense that prickling awareness that hits me whenever Cam and I are in close proximity and I’m immediately on alert. Luca and Wade are shooting at anyone who appears to be a threat as we move forward for unending minutes until I can finally decipher the form in the distance; it is a house. My gaze travels slightly to the right, and then I blink to make sure I’m not seeing things.
“Is that...” I squint my eyes. “Give me the night vision binoculars,” I tell Wade, who hands them over.
I hold them against my eyes and instantly recognize Cam running into the house. “It’s Cam. She’s in that house!” I extend my arm and drop the binoculars. “Split up and head that way!” And I take off toward the house that’s still far off in the distance.
Other members of the Syndicate cover me, and I pass my own soldiers who keep shooting all around. I’m not even halfway to my destination when I’m ambushed from both sides and topple to the ground.
A Ukrainian man punches me in the face, sending my vision reeling, but I wrestle him and we roll over the cold, wet ground, fighting and groaning as we go. Then I receive a furious kick to my shins and I scream out while another guard helps my attacker as he pins me down by my arms. The guard who’s standing cocks his weapon as I lie flat on the ground and look at him upside down, and the other guard rises. From this angle, the rain drops eerily from the sky, and all I can think about is how close I am to Cam.
It can’t end now. Not here. Not like this.
The man grins malevolently, focusing his aim between my eyes. Then, abruptly, both men drop, landing on top of me and blasting the air from my lungs.
I fling them off, and Luca holds out his hand to help me up. “Let’s get Cam.”
A kind of optimism that’s vicious in its intensity awakens me as I march forward. I’m worried and tense but still confident that I’ll soon be reunited with Cam.
CHAPTER 31
Camilla
Instantly, I’m wide awake as if I haven’t been unconscious for too long. My entire body is sore as I sit up and find myself alone. Behind me is a phone on a table, and I drag myself over to it because I can’t seem to stand up.
What did Medlov inject me with?
It’s difficult to concentrate, but I dial Adriano’s number.
“Hello,” Adriano answers immediately.
“It’s me. Are you here?” My throat is dry as the words tumble out.
“Cam! Yes. Are you in that house behind the mansion?”
“Oh my god! Yes, I’m in the living room. I knew you were here. Listen—” I have to tell him about the tape; that he needs to get Medlov, but he cuts me off brusquely.
“I’m on the way. I’m approaching the house. Are you alone?”
“Yes. Hurry!” I lean back against the table, releasing a breath of relief that he’s here.
“Coming through the door now. Where are you?” he demands, his tone inflexible.
I look out to the hall and frown, thinking there’s something different about the interior of where I am.
“Where are you?” I reply. “I’m in the living room.”
Then I rise slowly and realize that I’m not in the house where I last saw Medlov. I’m somewhere else.
“No!” I scream. “You’re in the wrong house!”
I move toward the window, seeing another house in the distance, and then a loud bang is the last thing I remember.
CHAPTER 32
Adriano
My phone rings when we skulk through the forest again, hearing more murmurs.
“Hello,” I say, out of breath.
“It’s me. Are you here?” Cam’s voice is groggy and anxious.
“Cam! Yes. Are you in that house behind the mansion?”
“Oh my god! Yes, I’m in the living room. I knew you were here. Listen—”
“I’m on the way. I’m approaching the house. Are you alone?” After almost nineteen hours of living in pure despair, hope springs free and I take off across the lawn.
“Yes. Hurry!”
“Coming through the door now.” There’s a wet trail in the hall that I follow into the living room, and my eyes dart around frantically. “Where are you?”
“Where are you? I’m in the living room...No!” She sobs, and my heart shatters into a million pieces. “You’re in the wrong house!”
An explosion startles me, and I spin around to see a bomb of fire igniting outside the window in the distance, and the connection with Cam is gone.
My gut tightens. “Cam? CAM!”
The phone slips from my hand while sound around me is muted. Then Luca’s shaking my shoulders, forcing me to snap out of my stupor.
“Where is she, Adriano?” Luca glances outside, and then his worried eyes meet mine.
“In that house,” I whisper distractedly and burst out of the room with my gun in hand.
“Cover Adriano!” I hear Luca yell as I run as fast as my legs can go.
Cocking my weapon, I pull the trigger when I spot a Ukrainian. I keep on going while fury from the knowledge that my greatest fear might become reality builds up. It takes forever to get closer to the fire, which is being extinguished quickly due to the storm raging outside, but after never-ending minutes of running, I’m finally treading through rubble while I hear the occasional gunshots being fired somewhere on the estate.
“Where is she?!” I shout to my soldiers around me.
Frantically, I skate over the wreckage to the white cottage, which is partially blown up with dying flames of the fire licking at its wooden structure. Without thinking, I jump through the collapsed front doorway, waving my hands in front of my face to clear the haze of smoke from my line of sight.
Coughing, I call out, “Cam...Cam!” My voice chokes. “Where are you?”
Luca’s shadowed me inside and helps me search for her as my soldiers bound up the stairs toward the second floor.
I enter what looks to be the living room, which is only slightly illuminated by the moonlight, and scan the blackened couch and a damaged desk. And then my world stops. On the floor, between the coffee table and the sofa, is Cam, covered with debris. My gun clanks to the floor as it falls from my hand, and I drop to my knees, shoving the remains of the table aside and throwing wooden fragments off her body.
Wearing a maid’s uniform, she’s covered in blood, water, and dirt, and she’s not moving.
“Luca!” I yell, and I be
nd down, placing two fingers against her pulse. “No, Cam! No! There isn’t a pulse!” I press again and swallow the lump in my throat.
Her face is bruised, and her neck is bloodied. My worst fear has become reality.
Luca checks her pulse as well. “No, there’s a pulse, but it’s very weak.”
I ghost my fingers over her forehead, afraid of hurting her more. She looks so lifeless.
“Don’t move her,” Luca warns. “She might have internal injuries.”
“I’m not, but she’s so cold.” My tone is soft, and my eyes well up. “I need to get her to a hospital.”
More guns are being fired in the area around us as Wade enters the room, sending me an empathetic look when he sees Cam lying on the floor and me beside her.
“Is she...” he asks with apprehension.
“Unconscious,” Luca answers. “Although it looks like she’s had a blow to her head because there’s a lot of blood on the floor around it. We need an ambulance.”
“Yes, we need an ambulance now. Every second could count to save her life!” As I speak the words, I shake my head to clear it and jump into action. I ache to hold Cam in my arms, but I block out my extensive rage about what’s been done to her. And the killer inside me that’s been trained by the Mafia for over ten years takes the reigns, which will allow me to keep my head cool until I know she’s safe. “How many guards are still around here?”
Wade asks Henry for an update in his earpiece and relays to us, “The mansion hasn’t been taken over yet, but we’ve killed more than half.”
“So what are our options? We’ve already established that I can’t carry her out to my car; she might die in my arms!” I feel like I’ve been stabbed and the life is draining from my body as I have to watch her lie there while we’re stuck here without medical assistance.
“Then we have to bomb the mansion and kill as many of them as possible,” Wade answers. “In this storm, we can risk small explosions. If any neighbors catch sight of them, which I highly doubt will happen, we can spin our story. But this means we’re going to annihilate the Ukrainian Mafia. We’ll have to kill each and every one of them.”
For Cam (Chicago Syndicate Book 4) Page 20
