The Bratva’s Bounty (Volkov Bratva #3)

25. Lev

Chapter 25

Lev

~3 days later~

"Do you really have to go out tonight? It's supposed to rain pretty bad tonight, and I don't want you to get caught out there," Nicole worried from the doorway, half her body peeping around the frame into the artillery room.

Faking a smile, I turned around to fully look at her as I finished holstering my gun. "It's an important raid, and I plan on using tonight as an example to the others, too." Kill two birds with one stone. "The Hwangs and Hosths have been pushing it with us too much, and we let them get away with part of a shipment before." Grabbing my bag, I slung it over my shoulder. "We spoke with them, and of course, they gave us the whole crap about 'oh, we won't do it again' and shit, but obviously, that was a load of bull because I have to get my ass out there tonight."

Not that I minded. I'd been itching for some good action for a while now, so this would be very cathartic for me. I mean, shooting and punching at dummies in the backyard or sparring with my brothers and Hanna only took so much of the edge off.

I needed to kill.

And unfortunately, fratricide was very frowned upon. Not that I wanted to kill any of my brothers—well, not literally kill, anyway.

"I'll be back. I promise." I probably sounded a little too cocky about my survival rate out there, but I had to be.

Fake it until you make it.

I always did my best to stay alive out there. Even in my adrenaline-fueled haze, I had enough clarity to be wary and cautious. I kept myself alive thus far, and that was with no real motivation. Yeah, I tried harder to stay alive for my brothers' sake, but now, I had something more.

Slowly, my heavy steps approached Nicole until I could feel her body heat radiate onto me. "I promise, when you wake up tomorrow, it will be in my arms." I shouldn't make such promises, but if I put it out into the world, then that meant I had to keep it.

Frowning her eyes softly, Nicole huffed. "What if you got your arms cut off out there?"

A burst of laughter exploded from me at her ridiculous question. Okay, maybe I shouldn't be laughing because it was a possibility. Who knows, maybe I might encounter a machete-wielding maniac today who gets in the lucky swing. Chances of that happening were highly doubtful, but in this line of work, it wouldn't surprise me to come across something like that.

Hell, I couldn't say jack shit because my girlfriend was a bomb-loving techy who looked like she couldn't harm a fly. Seriously, one look at Nicole, paired with her history, no one would ever think that she was a bomb maker for the mafia.

To be fair, I grossly underestimated her myself. If I didn't, then I wouldn't have ended up with a broken nose or gotten drugged and tattooed by her… Nor would I fall victim to her antics. Yeah, she still liked to fuck with my shit, but only because I didn't know my limits.

It never thrilled me when she would shit my computer down in the middle of the night or limit the service to my phone, but it was for my own good. I never realized how much of a habitual problem I had working late into the night until Nicole started to nag me and control my life. But if it weren't for her, then I'd still be an angry, sleep-deprived asshole. Don't get me wrong, I was still an asshole, but the healthy schedule she had me on really helped regulate my energy levels to where I found myself being more tolerable and peaceful.

Clearing my head, I pulled her to me, hugging her longingly. " Zhizn moya , I will come back to you alive and with all my limbs intact and attached to my body," I half-joked with a flat chuckle. "If you don't want to be alone, then go be with Angel," I suggested, kissing her forehead.

"I'll keep myself busy with a project while I wait for you." I barely caught her mumbling words as she buried her face into my chest. Lifting her head, she looked up at me with her big eyes. "What are you planning on doing out there tonight?"

The corner of my lips stretched into an uncontrolled, bloodthirsty smile as I thought about my hectic plan. "Not much, just gonna make a bloody mess, maybe flay the bodies open and hang them up like Christmas lights, might leave some alive and send them back with missing parts." A hard drumming pounded in my ears from my heart beating in my chest, and I became more excited at the thought of the carnage that I was about to cause tonight. "And I might or might not personally pay the Hwangs and Hosths a visit after the fact."

With a cheeky grin, I slid my hands down and grabbed her ass, squeezing them tightly until she squeaked. Trapping her against my body with an arm, I grabbed the back of her head with the other. "You better be ready to spread those pretty legs of yours for me later, empress," I whispered hotly against her lips before swallowing her protest with an all-consuming kiss. "I'm gonna come straight home after my assignment, bend you over wherever you are, and take you until both of us can't come or move." The corners of her eyes sparkled under the dim lighting from her welling tears. "Make our bed and sheets all messy with blood and cum."

Grinning wildly against my lips, she giggled darkly. "You better come back tonight then, after threatening me with such a promising night like that." Biting her bottom lip, she looked up at me with darkened eyes. "Go out, have some fun shooting people, breaking bones, and being a menace. Then, come home and show me how a bratva boss fucks his whore. "

The feral growl rumbled out of my chest in response to her words. " Zhizn moya , if you say things like that…"

Nicole might be the Dom between us, but there were some moments of switching in the bedroom. It wasn't often because we liked the dynamic we had set up, but sometimes she wanted to be the one dragged around. Not gonna lie, sometimes I felt the urge to dominate her as well. So, switching worked more than perfect for us to run our wants and needs out of our system.

"I need my bratva brute to remind me of my place," she teased, running the tip of her finger along my jaw. "To pin me down and breed me until your seed takes."

Damn this woman of mine.

She knew just the right things to say to get me going.

Grabbing her neck, I backed her up against the wall and attacked her with a frenzied kiss. "You better be wet and ready for me to go right in because the moment I step through that door, I won't have the patience for foreplay." Hell, I'd be lucky to get my clothes off in the moment.

Fight and fuck. Those would be the only two things on my mind once the adrenaline stormed my body later with the first taste of blood on the field.

Kissing her one last time, I pulled her away from the wall to give her ass a nice smack. "I suggest you test out those new toys of yours while I'm gone," I teased her with a hearty laugh before slipping away from her.

Soft pits and pats of Nicole's footsteps trailed behind me as I made my way out to the garage. " ??i ca ," she called out for me just as I tossed my bag into the passenger seat of my car. "Please, be careful out there." The worry in her voice ached my heart and made me feel a little bad about leaving her to risk my life out there on the streets. "I-if you die out there, I swear, I will put bombs in your coffin."

Amused, I let my body tremble with a soft laugh. "Gonna blow me sky high to Heaven?" I joked with a half-hearted smile. "I'll make it back to you, I swear," I promised her with a confident smile before climbing into the car.

It didn't take me long to reach the rendezvous point, where our men, Stepan, Hanna, Arseny, Greg, and Bao, were gathered. "Sorry for the hold-up. Nicole was trying to convince me otherwise." If I wasn't so antsy for action, then maybe I might have pulled out of tonight to mess around with her.

As much as I loved sex with Nicole, passing up an assignment in my pent-up state was a huge no. It'd been at least two months since I'd gotten any good action with my men or brothers, so hell was I about to pass up tonight when they asked if I wanted to participate.

"Ew, can you not talk about my sister like that? It's just gross." Bao mocked his disgust with a soft frown as he recoiled a little. "Seriously, I can't believe you and Nicki are together." Bao looked at me with mock concern. "I don't know whether to help you get away from her or commit you to a psych house because you're insane enough to date my sister."

To be fair, I wondered about my own sanity—what was left of it—sometimes because it probably was a little insane for me to be with Nicole. I stalked her, only to be stalked back. She broke my nose, broke into my house, knocked me out, and tattooed me, then had the gall to strand me in the rain after jacking my car. Yeah, she was probably certifiably crazy, but so was I.

Chuckling sheepishly, I reached up and ran my fingers along the edge of my collar. "You should probably have me committed because after all that's happened, I fucking love her still and then some." And this would be the moment where I punch myself in the face for letting that last part slip.

Everyone's faces stretched tight with their wide eyes and shocked mouths. "Love?!" Bao looked like he was about to have an aneurysm as he frantically searched my face for some other answer. "Listen, if you need help, blink twice. I can get you a new identity and set up a new life for you in the blink of an eye. You just gotta say the word." I don't know if the worried look was for me or for his sister.

Honestly, it still boggled me how Bao and Nicki were siblings, given how laid-back and passive Bao was as a person, while Nicole was more headstrong and gung-ho about everything. Also, Nicole was a hell of a lot more violent and bloodthirsty than her younger brother. Actually, come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen Bao intentionally harm anyone or even pick up a weapon. Oh, and Bao wasn't batshit crazy like Nicole.

My body jerked with a grunt when Hanna's squealing body tackled mine in a hug. "Aww, Lev, that's so sweet! I'm so happy for you and Nicki!" Hanna gushed with a happy grin. "Never thought I'd see the day you'd find someone crazy enough to tame your ass and love it." She laughed with a shit-eating grin on her face—a subtle jab.

Then, Hanna's face dropped and twisted in amusement. "Actually, I'm surprised you," Hanna jabbed her finger into my gut, "are crazy enough to be with her. I mean, I love Nicki, but girl is on another level of psycho compared to Angel and me." Turning her head to Bao, Hanna held her hands up in defense. "And I mean that in the most loving way ever. Nicki is great, but a little psycho, a good psycho."

I was pretty sure psycho could never be a good thing, but I kept that thought to myself as I looked over to my two brothers, who snickered amongst themselves. "Care to share you two?" I grumbled with a heavy sigh, knowing that whatever would come out of their mouths wouldn't bode well for me.

Smugly, Arseny crossed his arms and leaned against the armored truck. "Oh, Stepan here was just telling me how he wished he had earplugs in the office because of how much noise you made—"

"Blaph blah bla aaah!" Bao interjected with his nonsensical sounds while covering his ears. "New rule when working with B-Boy: no bedroom talk. I do not want or need to know who y'all screw on your time off, nor do I want any details about such activities." Spinning around on his heel, Bao glared at me accusingly. "Especially if it has to do anything about my sister."

We all laughed at Bao and dismissed him with playful comments in response. "Okay, all that aside, we need to get serious." Stepan pulled everyone back together with a few loud claps. "We don't have all night, and I'm sure all of us want some sleep tonight."

Recollecting myself, I straightened out and became serious. "Everything still like we planned initially? How's the enemy looking? Do we have a head count? Any changes to the layouts we've seen on surveillance?" My playful voice from before flattened to a stern one as I kicked my ass into business mode. "And everyone on our side is accounted for and ready?" One quick glance, and it looked like everyone was prepared and ready to roll out, but maybe last-minute prep was needed.

Letting out a deep breath, Bao tapped away at his tablet for a second before turning it around to show all of us a satellite view of the area we were set to attack. "The only change so far is the new cargo shipments that arrived hours ago. Other than that, it seems like the number of enemies is still roughly the same, about thirty of them, give or take a body or two." Bao slowly moved the screen around to show us the area along with the dropped pins of highly probable locations of guards.

"Alright, so we stick with the plan before. Two snipers up in the two towers and three ground teams," Stepan decided firmly, looking at everyone for any kind of objection.

When none came his way, Stepan continued, "I'll take one of the towers. Arseny and Greg will take the Alpha Team, Hanna will take the Beta Team, and Lev will take the Delta Team." Taking the tablet from Bao, Stepan circled certain areas before showing us the screen. "These are going to be our entry and exit points. Alpha Team will advance with everyone else but break off to storm and secure the back while Beta and Delta will deal with the front."

Studying the map for a minute, I reviewed Stepan's plan and played it out in my mind. Without a word, I took the tablet from Bao to play around with the satellite map. " Bratok , that won't work. There's a side entrance that needs to be covered, too," I pointed out, flashing the screen to Stepan. "It's not much of an escape, but they have some boats there they can run to."

"They won't have enough time to utilize that side escape," Stepan stated with a bit of doubt in his eyes.

"That might be true, but what if they do? Or what if somehow reinforcements come through that side?" I retorted with a skeptical look. "Team Beta can head straight for the front to secure and breech, but Team Delta is going to side before meeting back up with Beta inside," I told Stepan flatly.

I wasn't asking to alter the plan; I was altering it whether Stepan liked it or not. Something about that side exit and the docks tugged at my gut. Yes, it could be nothing like Stepan put it, but I didn't want to risk it. Besides, there would be no harm in taking the extra caution of securing that side door, in my opinion.

Stepan and I stared at each other in intense silence as we argued with each other through our hardened eyes. "Fine," he relented after a while with a soft scoff. His head did a quick sweep through our men. "Anyone else have anything to add or change?"

His question was met with quiet denial and shakes of some heads. No one really ever dared to go against Stepan's plans, but I didn't give a shit. If I was involved along with my men, then I wanted to do what I felt was right. Also, Stepan was my brother, so I really didn't give a single damn about it. If he had an issue with me, then we could work it out at home.

It wasn't as if I altered the plan to give my older brother a harder time. Contrary to what happened just now, I rarely made headstrong decisions like that without conversing with Stepan about it. If it weren't for my intuition, then things would've remained the same.

Something about that damn dock…

I couldn't get it off my mind as I made last-minute equipment checks. It felt like one of those creepy houses at the end of the street that gave off a bad energy. "Hey, is there something you're not telling us?" Greg inquired with a suspicious look, making me want to punch the cop in the face.

Irritated as to why I couldn't place a finger on the gut feeling, I huffed and shook my head. "No, it's just one of those gut feelings." I deadpanned, scowling softly at Greg when his expression didn't change.

If it wasn't Angel's brother or one of our trusted people, then his expression would have earned him a broken nose from my fist. To be fair, I did talk bad about Angel for a good while when she first came into the family, and Greg, being the protective older brother, didn't like that one bit. Angel held nothing against me, but I guess Greg did.

"Knock it off, you two. We're all buddies here." Arseny's awkward chuckle twisted the tense air between Greg and me. "Come on, whatever it is you two are fibbing about, let it go. Water under the bridge and shit." My younger brother's hands gripped each of our shoulders in a deadly manner .

Leaning in close to us with an empty smile, he threatened us, "I will make The Joker jealous of the smiles I will carve into your face if you two don't play nice tonight." The playful edge to his charming voice dropped almost completely, making the pitch of his voice lower to his natural one.

Shockingly, I wasn't the crazy one of the family. I might be the most physically violent and angry, but in terms of most deadly and dangerous, I definitely didn't come close to holding the title. Alexei and Arseny, the youngest of our family, were to be the most feared out of all of us, and everyone else would say the same if asked.

With Nikolai, Stepan, and I, the end was clear. With the twins? A person would be lucky to be killed within a week. The two were wickedly twisted—true sadists. Even if they were the least involved in the Bratva, they made their marks when they did partake in any activities.

Damn psychopaths.

Shoving at Arseny, I grumbled my compliance under my breath and rolled my eyes at him before going over to the armored truck assigned to my team. "Alright, boys, let's make this quick, violent, and bloody," I told them with a crazed grin before slamming the door shut and signaling for the driver to go.

The drive took about ten minutes, and it took us less than five to get into position. "Delta in position," I informed everyone over my earpiece.

"I need another minute, climbing the tower." Stepan's voice scratched through my earpiece.

"B-Boy needs a minute, too. I'm still setting the drones up," Bao piped up, making me roll my eyes.

"Bao, for the last fucking time, axe the nickname before I axe your tongue," Hanna snarked with a groan.

Moments later, everyone checked back in with their ready status. Once Stepan got confirmation from everyone a second time, he gave the order to go.

My team and I moved as planned. Starting at the southeast end, we swept our way up to the main building and broke off to the side door by the private docks where some boats idled. I stuck a hand out to feel the boats as we passed them.

Warm .

Something's off.

Every hair on my body stood on edge as I continued to advance with my team. Thankfully, there was nothing at the docks besides the boats. So, we moved our way to the side door. The sounds of gunshots and shouting filled my ears the closer we got to the building, and I practically felt like I was inside the room when I stood on the other side of the closed door.

Nodding at my men, I signaled them aside before kicking the door in to reveal the chaos of bullets, blood, and bodies on the inside.

Without hesitation, I raised my gun and methodically shot at every person I saw who wasn't on our side. Body after body, they dropped like flies. My body was on autopilot as the lust of battle surged through my veins and brought out a primal side of me.

Click. Click.

I didn't bother going for one of my spares the moment my main gun emptied out, nor did I bother clipping in a new magazine. Instead, I threw my piece to the side and went in with my hands, swinging wildly at any and every person within my reach.

Blood sprayed in every direction, hitting the objects around us, the floor, other people, and even my own body. None of it bothered me, though. Even when my vision clouded over with red from the blood spray across my face, I pressed on.

I didn't want to stop. There was this need, a hunger, for bloody deaths. My knuckles ached in protest with every punch, but the pain only spurred me on to the next victim.

It wasn't long until the pain of fatigue numbed out because of the buzzing excitement and adrenaline that consumed my body. Pretty sure the blood on my hands was a mixture of mine and the enemies. I knew for a fact that I cut myself on some teeth earlier from one of the first few guys I swung at.

This was getting dangerous, the haze of battle. I couldn't feel anything, which was good in the sense that my exhaustion meant nothing, but not feeling the pain of everything could prove to be reckless. I could have a stab wound or two and not know it until the physical damage became too much for my body to handle. Hell, there could be a bullet in me, causing me to bleed out, and I wouldn't know.

"Oof!" The wind got knocked out of me when a big brute tackled me to the ground.

Instinctively, I threw my arms up to block the hits flying my way. "Son of a bitch," I seethed through my grunts as I patiently waited for an opening to strike back.

Just as the man leaned back slightly with his withdrawing arm, I threw my upper body up and forward, wrapping my arms around his midsection and pulling him forward to kilter him off balance. Throwing him to the side, I flipped us over so I was on top. Headbutting him, I dazed him enough to get the upper hand in throwing my fists against his face. The hardness of his bones slowly gave with each blow until it felt like I was wailing on a sandbag that screamed back at me.

Even after his resistance stopped, I didn't. I had to be pulled off the man and held down. "Lev, quit it! Get ahold of yourself!" It was hard to tell who shouted at me because of the thrumming in my ears from my heart beating and environment being in a constant white noise.

" Bratok , stop. It's over." Okay, that had to be Arseny because Stepan wouldn't call me that. "We'll sedate you if we have to."

Like hell would I let that happen. I had a woman to fuck when I got home, and that couldn't happen if I was out cold.

I struggled to control my breathing as I forced myself back to reality. My whole body fought against the sudden shift, still wanting to grab people and break them. A burning sensation clawed at my chest the deeper my breaths became, and my lungs screamed in protest with each full breath of air I inhaled.

It took me a second to sort everything out in my mind once I came back down from my high. Slowly, I let my eyes take in every inch of carnage that filled the building. The more I took in, the wider my satisfied smile spread on my crazed face.

Mostly calm, I let my body slump against the bloodied ground. "I'm gonna need a whole ass bottle later." The crash later would be brutal.

On the bright side, it won 't be as bad as my sub-drop, but it would be up there. Hell, I could already feel the fatigue and exhaustion seeping into my muscles and settling deep down in my bones. And I still had to get home.

Speaking of home…

"Get off of me, you oafs." I huffed with a slight struggle.

The moment I felt all the weight lift from my body, I shot up off the ground. "Let's get this shit show all set up for show and dip." I sighed tiredly when I got a better look at the mess we made.

Fuck this is gonna be a long night.

Of course, me and my big mouth. God really went 'ha, ya thought' with me tonight with the bomb he dropped on us—literally.

At first, I thought it was just my heart exploding inside my chest because of my excitement, and if it weren't for the flaming boat a few feet from me, I would've been inclined to whistle and walk away. Well, that and the panicked screams made it impossible to deny that shit was going down.

One after another, nearly all the ships blew up down the line, and out of the blazing wreckage were bodies flailing about in the water.

Then, to make things worse, the few boats that didn't go up in a ball of fire sped off like a bat out of Hell. " Mat' yebanaya, ad !" Just fucking great. "Get them out of the water!" I shouted at my men, rushing over to the dockside to start fishing people out of the water.

"Bao! Track those boats and see if you can get any of our men out on the waters on them!" I probably didn't need to shout at him through the communications system, but my voice came out how it did over the chaos.

"On it! Got some nearby. What orders do you want me to give them?" Bao nearly instantly replied.

One thing I really appreciated about Bao was his efficiency with everything, despite how laissez-faire he was as a person. Yet, when the time came, he always kicked his ass into the right gear. Well, guess that was one thing that ran through his family. Both he and Nicole had their work modes that were pretty intense if I had to say anything about it.

"Tell them to chase until they can't. Do anything and everything to shoot at least one of those boats down, and if they can snag anyone to be a prisoner, then better." I gave Bao the command to relay to the pursuers. "And tell them that if things get too dangerous, like crossing paths into another territory or Coast Guard, then retreat." As shitty as it was, I'd rather have live men than none or deal with a huge mess with the damn coastguard. The police were one thing, but the Coast Guard was a whole different ball game we weren't a part of.

"Want me to have one of them swing by and pick you and some of the others up?" I could barely make out Bao's voice through the crackling fire that made it sound like my head was in a damn microwave while a bag of popcorn was being made. The crashing water didn't help any either because it made it all the harder to discern the distressed shouts of the victims.

Gritting my teeth, I mentally debated my options, darting my head back and forth between the shrinking boats and the victims in front of me. " Blyat' !" I hissed under my breath.

Sighing heavily, I replied to Bao, "No, it's too dangerous to swing a boat around this dock right now with the flaming wreckage and live bodies in the water." The last thing I wanted was for someone alive to be crushed or chopped up by the boat swinging into the place just to take me for a high-speed water chase. "Just keep monitoring them through your drones and what feeds you can, and keep me updated." I had to make do with living vicariously through Bao's nerdy little eyes, err words?

A loud bang rang out, and the whole place seemed to freeze for a moment as nearly everyone ducked out of fear of being hit. "Tell them to chase after the second one in line. I got a shot into it before it took off too far, and it's leaking," Stepan informed us, breaking the tense silence.

"You couldn't have given us a warning, Styosha ? I swear, I'm going to shove that rifle up—"

"Ah blap blah blap! Nope! I do not want to hear you finish that!" Bao blurted, making a whole lot of us wince a little from the sheer volume.

"Hey, nothing wrong with enjoying some extra fun elsewhere," Arseny quipped with a laugh. "Come on, we still have people to get out of the water before they freeze to death or drown," he reminded us with a sigh before bending back over the dock.

"I hate fishing," I grumbled after a while to no one in particular, growing rather tired of hauling men, women, and children out of the freezing cold waters of the ocean.

Taking a breather, I peered down at the floating bodies that churned about with the water. An ache settled itself along my jaw as my whole body clenched up from the rising anger at seeing the needless destruction before me. So many lives lost, and for what?

As destructive as I was in the field, it was never mindless or bloody pointless. No matter how much shit I gave my brothers, it was to get on their nerves because how else was I supposed to show them affection or get their full attention and such? Either way, whenever I had my fill in the field, I was more than conscious about keeping casualties, especially ones of innocents or bystanders, to a minimum. Environmental destruction fell under the same rule. Nothing ever got blown up or torn down unless I was absolutely sure no one innocent would reap the consequences.

I might not have the best brains out of the bunch of us, but it worked where it mattered.

Shutting my eyes tightly, I took in a deep breath to calm myself before turning around to face the shivering victims we managed to save so far. "Stepan, Arseny, talk to those you can, to see if you can get anything useful," I said with a heavy sigh.

My body jarred a little from the sudden impact to my shoulder, and in my peachy mood, I snapped back at the person. Shooting my arm out, I smacked the whole thing against Stepan's chest, winding him and making him grunt. "Asshole." He strained out a cough and laugh before punching my shoulder again. "Just go home before you crash on the way back. We got the rest handled," he urged me with a sure smile and somewhat sympathetic eyes. "You need it, so go," he said in a firmer voice.

That tone of his meant there was no arguing. I would be going home, whether it be in my own car or in the back of one of the others.

Knowing better, I relented with a huff and glared at my older brother. "I hope Hanna shoves that—"

"Ey! What did I just say?" Bao piped up before I could finish, making me crack a smile.

"Well, keep me updated. I want to know about the whole shit show."