The Bratva’s Bounty (Volkov Bratva #3)

33. Nicole

Chapter 33

Nicole

"LET ME IN!!!" I pushed my raw throat to the brink of snapping my vocal cords when I suspected to be within earshot of the guards who stood at the front of the Volkov Estate.

Half my body hung out of the beaten Jeep Wrangler, one hand gripping the wheel while the other waved madly to get attention drawn to me. "OPEN THE GATES!!!"

My battered body popped back into the car when a bullet whizzed past me and grazed my outstretched arm.

Hyperventilating breaths matched my racing heart as I kept my foot flat to the floor, still pushing the vehicle to go at max speed despite the mansion coming into view. I was afraid to ease off the gas pedal, afraid that the car would slow down just enough for my chasers to catch me at the last minute before I could get to safety. I'd probably wreck a few things and tear up the landscape beyond the gates, but I wouldn't stop until I was inside the mansion's doors.

As I got closer, to the point of nearly crossing the threshold of the opened gates, I could see armored SUVs and fully armed men spill out into the road, forming a blockade with a spot just wide enough for me to slip through .

I couldn't pay attention to anything else around me as I zipped past them at an ungodly speed. God, I thought I would pass out from the lack of oxygen in my body. It wasn't until I cleared the armored blockade and crashed into the fountain at the front of the mansion that I sucked in a proper breath that burned my lungs as if I'd inhaled acid.

"Oh my God! Nicki!" Angel's shocked voice was right there, and I could see her rushing to me with Nikolai right behind her. Yet, she felt so far.

Splash!

The chilly water did nothing to shock me out of my stupor when I stumbled out of the doorless Jeep and landed in it. The only thing it did was put me into shock. I was drowning in inches of water, but my arms and legs had no strength to move my body out of danger or lift me above the water. I had to be dragged out by a set of arms.

Fresh air mixed with my drowning lungs, sending me into a violent coughing fit as Nikolai and Stepan dragged my soaked body inside the house.

Everyone rushed me in the blink of an eye, toweling me down, wrapping me in blankets, settling me on the couch, and Angel even managed to get a damn I.V. in me so Alexei could run fluids and nutrients into me.

I wanted to tell them all so badly, and I knew time was of the essence. But my mouth refused to open, and when I somehow forced it open, words and sound refused to leave. I needed to tell them about Lev before it was too late, but my body repelled every effort. Even when my frustration spilled over into tears, no sound came out with my angry sobs.

Lev needed me, yet I was fucking useless!

"Hey, shh, hey, it's okay." Hanna's softened voice soothed me as she held me tightly. "You're safe. You're alive and safe. You're okay now."

But that's what was wrong! I was okay while Lev could be dead!

I couldn't stop crying for the life of me.

It was like my body had a mind of its own. I was no longer in control. At the very least, my rational side wasn't in control. If I had to wager on it, I was willing to bet that all the events of the past days, all the trauma and repressed rage and sadness, finally reached a breaking point.

The volcano of emotions finally blew .

"We're gonna have to sedate her," one of the twins, probably Alexei, said, making my panic rise.

I didn't need to be sedated! I couldn't! If I was out of it, I wouldn't be able to tell them about Lev!

Immediately, I struggled against Hanna, who was actually trying to help me by shielding me from Alexei. The young doctor was by far amused, and he fought his way through Hanna to stick a needle into my neck.

Whatever drug he hit me with kicked in immediately. No matter how much I fought it, my muscles refused to tense and move, and my head fell over onto Hanna's shoulder as she grabbed ahold of me again. My heavy eyes drifted over to Angel, pleading silently with her for some help, but Nikolai and Stepan held her back by actively blocking her path.

Fucking Volkovs…

If the reason for my head was a hangover from one hell of a night, then I wouldn't be so pissed.

If my man's life wasn't on the line, then I wouldn't be so fucking pissed.

If Alexei would give me some kind of fucking reaction to my rage, even the slightest twinkle of fear would do, then I'd be somewhat satisfied with threatening to blow his ass sky high to where he would meet God.

But no!

The damn psychopath wasn't fazed one bit!

Heavy, seething breaths heated the air in the living room up as I sat there glaring at each and every Volkov man. "I'm going to fucking kill all of you if Lev doesn't," I grumbled with a very pissed-off scowl.

"Well, you weren't going to be of any help being in shock like that, and you weren't showing any signs of improving," Alexei remarked casually in his usual collected tone. "So, I made a judgment call."

"Well, I didn't consent to having my ass sedated," I snapped back with a snarl.

Smug little turd had the audacity to crack a smirk and shrug his shoulders. "You weren't of sound mind, therefore cannot make any informed consent."

Unable to think of a good comeback, I settled for flipping him off and telling him, "Go put your dick in a shredder."

Taking a few deep breaths, I calmed myself down enough to get some mental clarity. "What's our plan for getting Lev back?" I asked with a somewhat sour face, still pissed at his brothers.

"I wish I could give you more information about Igor and his plans, but he didn't give us anything to go on." But did that really matter? Igor would cease to exist the moment we strike him down. Of course, we had to get to that point.

"And how do you know he won't kill Lev?" I knew keeping calm under pressure was probably some supreme bad guy 101 kind of thing, but everyone was too calm about Lev's disappearance.

"Igor contacted us the other day, the morning after you and Lev were kidnapped, and made a ransom demand for Lev. He wanted his sister, Natalia, back along with the section of the city that his father owned before we ran him out," Nikolai answered me with a long exhale. "Obviously, we're not going to give him what he wants, but if he kills Lev, then he has nothing."

Sighing heavily, Stepan leaned forward in his spot on the couch and ran his hands down his face. "But the issue with us gambling like so is the fact Igor is potentially a man with nothing to lose. So, we're really hoping he wants his sister and turf badly enough to spare Lev long enough for us to find out where Lev's located and rescue him."

Huffing, I snatched the laptop from Bao the moment he came within arm's reach, startling him. "Whoa! Freaking chill sis. He's not gonna get any deader if he's dead already," my younger brother quipped at me, earning a nasty glare in return because this was not the time for that kind of joking.

Rolling my eyes, I booted the laptop up and immersed myself with pulling up the tracking program and pinning down Lev's location. I wasn't a religious person, but I sure as hell prayed to everything out there in the universe for Lev to still have his collar on.

By some miracle, he did.

I zoomed in with a bated breath when I saw the blinking rot dot on the satellite map. I hoped it wouldn't be an empty road or some random spot in the forest. I nearly screamed with joy when the grainy image cleared up to show a shittiest building next to some abandoned dock.

Jumping up from the couch, I showed everyone the screen while bouncing on the balls of my feet with glee. "Come on, let's go get him!" I urged everyone with an eager grin, practically throwing the laptop onto the coffee table and turning to shoot out the door.

Unfortunately, I only made it a step before a body blocked my path. "You're not going anywhere in your current state." Stepan's stern words made me glower at him in defiance.

Stepping right up into his face, I held a finger up to him. "For one, I'm not even going into the midst of battle." Lifting a second finger, I continued, "Secondly, if you think you're going to keep me home while my man is out there needing to be rescued, then you're fucking delusional." Holding up a third finger, I narrowed my eyes more at him. "Thirdly, I am going."

Thankfully, my girls had my back—literally.

"Angel, if you don't get your ass over here right now—"

A pointed look from Angel was all Nikolai needed to shut up. "You can't say shit. If it was me out there, you'd be dragging yourself to me even if all your limbs were gone." Crossing her arms, she stepped up next to me and glared at her husband challengingly. "Likewise, if it was you out there, I would stop at nothing until I dragged your ass back home myself. Which, by the way, has happened."

Then, before Stepan could get a word out of his open mouth, Hanna dug into him. "Nah ah! Nothing out of you Styosha, not unless you want to be sleeping outside," she threatened her own husband confidently. "And it's not like you can argue either because you put your stupid ass up there on a damn roof to save me when you should have been resting in a hospital bed."

"And you two." Angel's head locked onto the twins, who looked rather conflicted. "If you dare say anything , and I mean anything , I will make you regret it. No woman, no opinion. "

With all the hardheaded men shut down, Angel picked up the laptop and studied the map closely for a silent stretch. Once the lightbulb in her pregnant brain went off, she returned the device to me and looked at her husband. "You have fifteen minutes to get your ass out that door with our men and the others, Nicole included , before I gear my pregnant ass up and march out there myself to run the damn mission."

That surely got Nikolai's feet moving at top speed, much to his brother's surprise. His body practically flew around the place, making various trips to some room down the hallway and dropping off various pieces of equipment on the coffee table with each round. After the third round, he skidded to a halt at the hallway's entrance to bark something in Russian at his brothers with an angry and somewhat panicked face.

They all looked at their brother with wary eyes, not budging from their spots until he shouted at them again, this time with more urgency. I don't know what Nikolai told his brothers, but it got them scrambling to gear up in a flurry—even Alexei got his ass geared.

Leaning over to Angel, I asked in a hushed voice, "Uhh, what did he yell at them?" If anyone—besides his brothers—was to know what Nikolai said, Angel would be our best bet because she'd been pretty active with learning Russian out of all of us.

Scratching her temple, Angel mumbled the words repeatedly for a moment before her lips twisted with unsureness. "Uhh, something about how he'd out them with something, but don't quote me on that."

All of us, minus Angel, were out of the house and on the road in less than fifteen minutes. Everyone was in their own vehicles to the destination, and we were all connected on a group call to work out the impromptu plan as much as possible before shit went down.

"Three groups, Alpha, Beta, and Delta. I'll head Alpha. Stepan and Hanna will take the lead for Beta while the twins lead Delta. There aren't any good spots for sniper nests, so we're all going in on foot." Nikolai paused for a second before continuing after clearing his throat, "We'll forgo a sweep as long as Bao and Nicole can cover that end for us with their drones. Alpha team will come in through the front, Beta will handle the side, and Delta will be the back. "

"What about the waterfront?" Alexei questioned, sending an eerie silence through the call. "We're going to need—"

A heavy breath crunched through the speakers before Nikolai's low voice rumbled through. "We are not going in for a full takedown. Our priority is to get Lev and do what damage we can during the process, but we are not focusing on Igor. If he escapes, then so be it. We can always find some way to track Igor down again and kill him, but we only have one Lev."

"Bao and I will handle surveillance. You guys just worry about going in there and giving them hell and saving Lev," I told them flatly while messing with my tablet.

Feeling a wave of unease trickle down my arm, I glanced over in the direction I felt the chill. "What?" I snapped softly at Bao after muting the call.

Bao's eyes nervously glanced at me as he continued to drive, and his tongue kept darting out and licking his lips as he hesitated. It wasn't until I glared full-on and snapped at him again that he got his words out. "You're going to do something stupid." He let out a defeated sigh as if he accepted the fact before it came to fruition.

"Depends on how you define stupid," I muttered, rolling my eyes.

Waving a dismissive hand at my brother, I told him, "Just focus on driving. Don't worry about any of it."

As if I would let the others have all the fun. Also, my impatience may or may not be playing a huge part in my rash plan.

"Uhh, does it have to do anything with what you had me gather…" Bao questioned warily with a glance at the back of the van.

Once again, not wanting to deal with possible pushbacks from anyone, my brother included, I waved him off. "I said, don't worry about it," I bit out sternly, throwing him a warning glare.

Sighing heavily, Bao dropped it and unmuted the call so we could participate again. There wasn't much from me and Bao, mainly because we didn't have much to comment on. Well, I wasn't participating because I was too busy running my programs to make sure things would run smoothly later.

The last thing I wanted was for something to blow up in my face or Lev's— literally.

Just as I thought, we didn't immediately jump into action when we reached our destination. Everyone was too busy trying to finalize the last-minute plan to march their ass into the place. Also, they were waiting around for Bao and me to finish our sweep, which took longer than I anticipated as well.

"Nicki… What are you doing?" Bao hissed over my shoulder. "We're done with our part, so why the fuck around you still cruising around?" He reached around me to shut the screen off, but I slapped his hand away.

Then, his mouth opened again, but no words came out when his eyes landed on the other computer screen. "What is that? What are you trying to hack?" He moved his hand for the mouse, but I stopped him with a grab to the wrist. "I'm not going to shut it down," he remarked with genuine eyes. "I just want to see what you got going on because it looks weird."

Letting go of his hand, I turned my attention back to my drones. "It better be a good weird and not a bad weird," I muttered. "Do not touch the codes…" My voice trailed out with reluctance.

I didn't want to tell Bao that the program I had running was a prototype of sorts, so the lines of codes were kind of… Experimental, so to speak. I mean, this wasn't the first time they've been used or tested—technically. I've only ever tested things through virtual simulations and on a very small handful of unlucky people with a success rate that was rather low. It was probably risky of me to use it today without having all the kinks out, but what better way to figure out if my last round of patches worked or not than to test it out firsthand?

Oh yeah, I was more than prepared for this shit to blow up in my face. But fuck it.

"Do I even want to know?" Bao sighed heavily as he plopped down next to me.

"Probably not," I answered him truthfully with an innocently wicked grin. "But you should help me either way because you're the best brother ever."

"I'm your only brother where it matters." Bao deadpanned before pulling the keyboard closer to him. "I'm gonna ignore what diabolical plan you' re executing over there to fix your whack-ass program." He jabbed at me playfully with a chuckle.

"There is nothing wrong with my program," I retorted, scoffing in slight offense.

"Your shit is gonna make phones blow up." Bao deadpanned with a slightly raised voice.

Rolling my eyes, I shot him a flat stare. "That's the point."

"W-well then, your shit ain't efficient in that manner either," he stammered with a shaky confidence. "Your code that causes the relay and overload is slow."

"Then fix it, mister smarty pants," I snarked with a playful smile.

Bao stuck his tongue out at me for a split second before focusing on the screen.

Entrusting Bao with the bomb phone program, I let him be so I could go back to navigating and positioning my drones.

I really shouldn't be doing this. It was one thing to bomb an area I knew or had a good view of, but to go off of only thermal imaging? Yeah, I was essentially blind. All I could do was make very educated guesses about the figures I saw on the screen. It was probably safe for me to assume that the mobile figures weren't Lev because why on earth would Lev be given free roam around the place?

After scanning the place carefully a few times, I somewhat confidently determined the figure off in the southwest corner to be Lev. The figure hadn't moved to a different location the whole time, nor had it been mobile. Also, it looked to be sitting. Well, it could be someone hiding out to take a break or something, but given the actions of the other figures, I doubted it.

Another moment passed before I got everything in position. "Bao, set them off," I sternly ordered him, glancing briefly at him out of the corner of my eyes as my finger hovered over the ENTER button of my keyboard.

A look of reluctance and defiance crossed my brother's eyes for a hair for a second before he gave in with a sigh and shake of his head. "I am so going to get shit about this later from the others," he uttered before finishing a line of code and hitting enter .

Seconds later, nearly all the figures on the screen made the same movement of pulling something from their body and holding it before them, which was a cue for me to set off the next chain of events.

"Bombs away bitches."