by Genovese, CM
At the top of the stairs, there was a gaping hole in the wall with concrete crumbs still drifting to the ground. They’d blown open a door all right. Bunkbeds filled the room. BP was right behind me. Oosik moved into the room with Slitz. They did a quick search.
“Oh, shit,” Oosik called out. “Looks like one of the Russians bit it, and he bit it hard. Somebody stabbed this fucker back here in the shower.” He laughed. “They stabbed this son of a bitch a lot.”
“No sign of the girls?” I asked at a low volume. BP was the only one who heard me, so he repeated my question, much louder.
“Nada,” Oosik replied. “Zilch.”
“Something’s not right,” I said. “Y’all head up to the top floor. I’ll be right back.”
Pipe followed me as I descended the stairs and moved down the hallway, in the direction of the kitchen, or so I assumed based on the guy who’d come walking out with that plate in his hands. We stepped over his body and moved around the other Slitz had taken out. The kitchen light was on, but it was empty.
“What are you thinking, brother?” Pipe asked.
“I’m thinking the Russians aren’t here anymore,” I replied. It was a gut feeling, but they’d gone too quiet, too quickly.
A loud creaking sound and then a thud pulled me through the kitchen. A coffee pot on the counter was half empty. The scent of cigarette smoke filled the air, and I noticed there was one half smoked smoldering in an ashtray on a small dinette table.
The creak and thud came again.
“Somebody was here just a minute ago,” Pipe said.
“I know.”
“Careful, brother. Someone could pop out at any second.”
We both had our guns out and pointed at the far end of the kitchen where the room opened up to another hallway. To the left, a second stairwell reached up to the second floor.
The creak and thud yanked my attention to the far wall, where my heart filled with dread. A door swung open, creaked on its hinges, and then thudded as it smacked the wall. Then, the wind pulled the door closed again. After a few seconds of standing there, looking at the door, it repeated the action. It opened fully, smacking the wall behind it.
“Fuck!” I yelled. “They got out.”
Slipping out the back door with Pipe right behind me, I swung my gun right and then left. No bad guys in sight. But Beezus was there. He lay on his back, clutching a wound at his stomach.
“Beez!” Pipe yelled as he ran at our fallen brother, dropped to his knees, and slid to a stop at his side. “What the fuck happened?”
“They just burst through the door,” he replied, shaking.
He shivered there in the snow. When he coughed, blood spurted out from between his lips and hit the snow, polka dotting it.
“No, man,” Pipe said softly, realizing he’d made a dire mistake. One that had left Beezus alone in the dark. If there’d been two of them out here, maybe Pipe could have backed him up. Instead, he’d disobeyed BP’s orders and now Beezus was hurt bad. “I’m sorry, brother. I’m so fucking sorry.”
“It’s cool,” Beezus replied.
It wasn’t cool. Beezus was dying here in the snow. He was our youngest member. Our newest patch holder, and he was bleeding out in the fucking snow. I glared at Pipe, not wanting to pass too much judgment but having a hard time understanding how Beezus got hit.
Ahead and to the left, over by the front of the warehouse, a woman screamed. I knew that voice. I would have recognized it anywhere. The Russians had taken the women and walked right out into that storm. Pulling my jacket tight around me, I tunneled my vision and stared into the darkness. The only thing that mattered right now was saving Cassie and killing Palach.
25
Rain
“Stay with him,” I told Pipe as I reloaded my gun. “I’m going after Palach.”
He only nodded. In any other situation, Pipe would never let me go off on my own like this. He always had my back. Always. But, he wasn’t in the right mindset right now with Beezus bleeding out in his arms. Guilt was eating away at him.
I ran around to the front of the building and I saw the trail of women headed toward the airplane hangar. They were close, and as much as I wanted to go out there on my own, I knew I couldn’t. For all I knew, they might have hidden someone in the snow to shoot me as I followed. I threw open the front warehouse door and shouted up at the others. “They’re out here! They went out the backdoor and they’re headed toward the hangar with the women!”
“Shit,” I heard BP curse and then his heavy footsteps rushed down the stairs with the others in tow.
“Beezus got hit,” I said. “He looks bad.”
They followed me outside. Someone was marching through the storm, moving forward with the wind knocking him sideways with nearly every step he took. It was Pipe. His guilt had been replaced by rage. I knew the feeling. It was how I felt for Cassie. At first, I’d suffered knowing it was my fault she’d been taken. She was my woman, and Palach would relish in that fact. But then it turned to rage. All I wanted was to kill that motherfucker and get her back.
Pipe was going after the Russians and it was clear he was hellbent on revenge. The line of women had reached the hangar already.
“Pipe, wait!” I yelled, doubting he could hear me over the whooshing of the wind.
“Nah, man,” he yelled back. “Those motherfuckers are gonna pay.”
I didn’t know if Beezus had made it, but I got the sickening feeling he hadn’t.
“I agree, man,” I yelled as I jogged toward him, pushing my way past blasts of wind until I reached him. He grabbed hold of my arm to stop me from getting knocked over by another gust.
“They’re in the hangar!” he yelled.
“I know. We’ll get them, but let’s do this together. Did you see how many of them there were?”
“I counted five in total. It looked like three in the front, and two in the back.”
“We can handle five, no problem.”
“Rain, BP’s gonna hate me after this.”
“He won’t hate you, brother. Is Beezus? Did he?”
“I don’t know. He was in bad shape when I left him. But he told me to make them pay, and that’s what I intend to do.”
Behind us, Slitz was fighting through the wind too. His shoulder leaked blood. Oosik was right behind him. BP would be back there with Beezus. He wouldn’t leave him alone until he got him help. The rest of us needed to put a stop to this Black Market Railroad business.
We regrouped before we entered the hangar. This far north, the night was pitch black. Snow helped brighten the scenery. One light at the exterior of the building was blown out. Jagged glass jutted out of the fixture. The wind was making its presence known. One other light shone down over the side door. It allowed me to see the pale faces of my brothers. Snow dusted Pipe’s eyebrows and Slitz had his face wrapped up like a mummy. Oosik’s entire beard was white.
“We go in like a fire team,” I told them. “Pipe and I will go right. You two go left. You see one of these assholes without a human shield, you blow his fucking brains out. We have to try our best not to hurt any of the women.”
“Got it,” Slitz said.
“Yeah,” Oosik agreed.
Pipe only nodded.
We wasted no time kicking in the hangar door. On the other side, the temperature rose to what had to be at least seventy degrees. The hangar heater was blowing strong. A shelf full of mechanical parts and other random metallic clutter blocked my view, creating a hallway of sorts that led right. To my left was the hangar wall. Our only option was to go right. Peering through gaps in engine pieces, I saw the women bunched up at the center of the hangar. They were gathered together like cattle.
That meant Palach and his boys would be waiting for us to emerge at the end of this corridor. I stopped my brothers as they entered and gestured with two fingers that they should look through the shelf to the other side.
“I only see the women,” Slitz whispered.
&n
bsp; I nodded.
We couldn’t rush out of the corridor like originally planned. Palach and his boys would be waiting to light our asses up the second we stepped out from cover. I had an idea that I hoped would work, so I whispered it to my brothers. Pipe followed me to the end of the corridor where we prepared to step out.
Oosik and Slitz watched from behind me as I held up fingers. One… two…
On three, they threw their shoulders into the shelf as hard as they could. The crash was loud. Parts fell off on the other side. The clang and rattle of tools was loud enough to demand attention, and they kept pushing until the entire shelf began to topple over. It would steal the attention of the Russians who’d be expecting us to pop out from behind that shelf.
While they created the diversion, Pipe and I squatted down and rushed out of the hallway, pistols raised. Three of the Russians were looking over at the falling shelf. Palach turned toward me, but I couldn’t shoot him because he was behind Cassie.
Pipe, who was arguably the fastest shooter of us all, shot the first guy who was about to pop Oosik. The guy went down in a spray of blood that soaked the woman standing next to him.
I fired at one of the others. He too toppled over, clutching his gut, before I pumped two more rounds in his chest.
Oosik and Slitz climbed over the fallen shelf and held their guns out at the remaining Russians. Two of them stood at the sides of the women, and of course, there was Palach. Only three of these pieces of shit left. I liked our odds.
“Rain!” Cassie yelled as Palach grabbed her in a headlock and held a knife to her throat.
“Mr. Rain,” Palach said.
Cassie’s eyes were on me, welled up with tears, and she looked as beautiful as the first day I saw her in the VFW. Only she’d been beaten and battered. It crushed my heart knowing I wasn’t around to protect her. No woman of mine should ever be manhandled. Not by me and not by anyone else. She was dirty, she was probably starving, and she had to be terrified. I would kill a thousand more men to ease her fear.
“Cassie,” I found myself saying. She was right there. So close. And with one swipe of Palach’s blade, she could be gone forever.
“You’re here,” she said. “You came.”
I nodded. “Palach. Let her go. This is not how men handle business.”
He laughed. “That would be convenient, wouldn’t it? If you waltzed in here, made demands, and left with your woman? That would be nice. Do you know this whore killed my biggest man the other day?”
“She’s feisty,” I replied.
He laughed. “Feisty, yes. Do you know how she killed him? She hit him with an axe, right here.” He touched his hand to his throat and ran it down to his chest.”
“She’s good with an axe,” Oosik acknowledged.
“You don’t need to have that knife at her throat,” I said.
“Right, you know what I can do to throats with a knife,” he replied with an evil, shit-eating grin. “And just think, that was a knife made out of a melted toothpaste container. Ripped right through your throat though, didn’t it? It was so interesting. Blood… blood everywhere. It was beautiful, no?”
“Beautiful,” I repeated, thinking his choice of word was bizarre.
“You’re a sociopath,” I said.
“Rain,” Cassie cried as Palach pressed the knife harder against her throat.
“Want me to shoot him?” Pipe asked.
“Yes, please,” Palach replied. “Shoot me. Let us see how that plays out.”
The other two Russians in the room stayed completely quiet. One of them seemed nervous while the other was stoic. He enjoyed being in this situation. This was what he lived for. This was why he did his job. He enjoyed confrontation. The nervous guy had taken the job for other reasons. He wasn’t a hardened killer like the rest, but I would kill him like the others.
“You let her go and we’ll let your men walk out of here,” I promised. “You? Not a chance. But your men can go.”
“Liam, come here,” Palach said over his shoulder.
The tough, colder Russian approached.
“Are you loyal to the cause?” Palach asked.
“Of course, I am,” the man replied.
“Good,” Palach said and then swung the knife he’d held at Cassie’s throat outward and sliced his own man’s throat open. The guy’s face was sheer confusion as he fell to his knees, clutching his throat.
Women gasped, many of them screamed, and Palach laughed. He’d made the move with such blinding speed that Cassie didn’t even budge. He had her in his grasp again immediately while watching the man bleed out. “I would kill each and every one of my men tonight if only to show you that I care very little about their lives.”
“Cassie,” I said.
“What is your new proposal?” Palach asked. “My suggestion is we all wait until my plane arrives tomorrow and then you and your friends fuck off while I take my women and go.”
“How about you step away from her and we finish what you started here?” I said, running a finger across my throat. “You like killing people, but you enjoy cutting them when they’re unaware you’re going to do it.” I pointed at the dead man he’d cut only seconds ago. “You succeeded with him. You failed with me.”
“Failed,” Palach said. “I cut you very good. I would say that’s success.”
“Yet, here I stand. Seems you don’t know how to finish a job. The Executioner who can’t ex-e-cute.” I drew out the word to drill home the fact he was a fuck-up, not some criminal mastermind. It seemed to do the trick as his nostrils flared and his eyes bugged out.
“How about I finish with her—” Palach grabbed Cassie by her hair and was about to cut her when the young Russian, the one who looked nervous, jumped in front of her, knocking her over, and falling on top of Palach. The Executioner’s blade pierced the young Russian’s side, right in the ribcage.
“Artur, no!” Cassie yelled.
The young man was already on the ground, his mouth open wide, trying to reach for the blade but unable to get to it.
“Aww Artur,” Palach said. “Why did you do that?”
Artur lay in a puddle of blood. He desperately swatted at his side as if he were trying to fan away a bee that wouldn’t stop stinging him. I ran to Cassie and helped her to her feet. She looked down at the dying man and said his name again. “Artur.” I didn’t know the story there, but it was clear they’d formed some kind of bond. He’d put his life on the line to save her. That made him all right in my book.
Palach climbed to his feet, and I had to pull Cassie away quickly. She didn’t want to leave Artur, but she needed to be far away from The Executioner.
“Seems you’re out of men,” I said.
Oosik, Slitz, and Pipe came closer, all with their pistols pulled.
“You shot my brother,” Pipe said.
“Who? Oh, the fat guy at the warehouse? No, that was Liam, but he’s dead now, so…” Palach shrugged.
“Pipe, he’s mine.” I’d waited too long for this moment for one of my brothers to take it away from me.
Palach chuckled and reached down to pull his knife out of Artur. The young man cried out in pain and shivered on the floor in a curled-up ball. Cassie cried next to me. She clung to my side, but I had to push her off carefully. Oosik pulled her back so she wouldn’t get in the way.
“Rain, let’s go,” Cassie begged. “Just shoot him.”
“I can’t do that,” I told her as she fought past Oosik and threw her arms around me.
“Rain.”
“Cassie, this won’t be over until I do this.”
She touched my scar and put her head against my chest. “You don’t have to do this.”
“I do.”
I kissed her lips and nodded at Oosik so he would pull her away from me.
“Very romantic,” Palach said. “You do understand the storm will keep you here, and tomorrow morning, my plane will arrive with more of my men. You are dead. You just don’t know it yet. She i
s dead too. You all are dead.”
It was my turn to laugh. “We brought something special for that plane,” I promised. “Trust me. It won’t be a problem.”
Palach’s face turned serious for the first time since we’d entered the hangar. He seemed to realize he wasn’t getting out of this. He could either die by the gun or he could face me in battle.
“You want to fight me?” Palach asked. “You think you can beat me?”
I pulled out my ulu knife. “I like my chances. Even if you won, you might accidentally fuck up and not kill me… again.”
“Let us see about that.”
Palach pulled a second knife out from behind his back and stepped forward, wielding two blades.
“Rain,” Slitz said. I turned to see him holding out his ulu knife.
With mine and his loaded up in my grip, I looked like I wielded two shimmering blade-covered fists. I rolled my shoulders, cracking them, and then tilted my head from left to right, my neck popping twice. This motherfucker was going down.
“Come on,” I said.
“You think you will beat me?” Palach asked. “Your fear alone will make this easy. You have feared me since the day I cut you.”
“How’s this for fear?” I asked as I swung my right fist at him.
The blade of my knife slid across his arm, below his shoulder, and cut a wide gash in him that immediately seeped blood all over his shirt. Anybody else would have screamed out in pain, but Palach barely winced. He only grunted and moved out of the way.
The Executioner spun his knives around in both hands, showing off his abilities. If this were a prison yard, inmates would surround us now, but this wasn’t. My brothers formed a crescent shape, a half circle behind me. At Palach’s back were the women who hated his guts.
I feinted a left jab, only to bring one of my blades close to Palach’s face and let him know I was ready for him.
“Come on, punk,” I said. “You like tossing women around. Why don’t you try that with me?”
Palach laughed and put his hands down at his side, like this fight wasn’t important to him. Then he pounced. He leapt at me with a superman punch, bringing his knife-wielding right fist up and into the air and down hard, expecting to hit me, but I rolled out of his way and brought my own knife around. It sliced him right down the center of his back. This time he howled with pain and then hissed with rage and swung his left at me.
