Twisted Throne (Bratva Born #2)

12. Dimitri

Dimitri

My stepfather listens to me and nods in agreement.

“My son is right,” he says. “We can’t leave Adriana with that man overnight. God knows what he might do to her. He’ll be angry, and he’s going to take it out on her.”

We’re in Nikolai’s opulent club, sitting in the bar, which is now closed to all guests. It’s past three in the morning, and I’m tired but so wired I couldn’t sleep even if I wanted to. I don’t want to. All I desire is to go after Adriana, right now.

“We have Ari in our custody now,” I say, referring to the call from Yuri letting me know they had Ari, and that Cade and his grandparents were safe. Hana and Adriana’s father wasn’t with them, and I’ve sent men to her home to investigate. Those shits need finding, and fast. It means, however, that there’s nothing standing in my way of going after Adriana.

“Going after Adriana might affect how this plays out,” Damen says. “We need to find the auctioneers and the guys with the fucking guns Dorian ordered.”

“I want to stop the entire ecosystem they’re connected to,” Andrius says.

I turn to him. “All due respect, what is your wife’s name again?”

His jaw tightens but he answers me. “Violet.”

“Andrius, would you leave Violet overnight with a mad man?”

A muscle tics along his cheek, but he doesn’t answer.

“I didn’t think so. You can be my enemy if you so wish. You can refuse to do business with us.” I turn to Damen. “I appreciate all the help you’ve given us so far, truly, but I have to get her back. I’ll do it alone, if I must. I’m capable of getting in there with just Alexis and taking most of them out. I’ll keep Barnaby alive for you, Andrius, on one condition.”

“And that is?” he asks.

“You kill him once you have the information you need.”

“I will come with you,” he says.

I wasn’t expecting that.

He sighs heavily. “If you’re going to go in there after her, and he’s already hurt her, I can’t trust you’re not going to slit his throat.” He gives me the ghost of a smile then. “I would, but I really do need to speak with him before we kill him.”

“We? So you’re on my side?”

“Of course. There are only two sides,” he points out, “and I’m definitely not on his.”

I glance at my stepfather. He looks tired and every bit his age. It worries me how exhausted he’s seemed this trip. “Do you want to come?” I ask him.

He laughs, harsh and dark. “Of course. I wouldn’t miss seeing you in action for the world, and I’d like to look this Barnaby fucker in the eyes right before we hand him over to Andrius.”

“Can Maya stay here?” Damen asks Nikolai.

So he’s coming too.

“Of course,” Nikolai says.

The women went to bed a while ago, and Sienna found Maya a bed in a guest room for now as Damen didn’t want her to go back to their hotel alone.

“I can lend you the three Vs,” Nikolai says. “They’re evil motherfuckers. I can’t go. If I raid some aristocrats home, it puts my club at risk. In fact, I’ll be at a card game in about ten minutes.” He checks his watch. “I need the alibi. My men will wear balaclavas. Don’t refer to them by name. Give them a number to recognize them by, or a certain color, and they’re yours for the night.”

I nod, grateful. Sasha and Leah left a while ago, and I thanked them both profusely for their part in this.

“How do we get over that fucking pretend moat?” Damen asks.

“You can swim, can’t you?” Andrius laughs.

“I wouldn’t trust that weirdo not to have alligators in the water,” Damen says.

“We could sky dive into the grounds,” Priest says lazily, a grin on his craggy face.

Andrius lifts his head, and his eyes are fucking lit up. “That’s a great idea. Jesus, I’ve not had fun like that in years.”

“Yes, let’s just alert all of Barnaby’s men and put Adriana in even greater danger by flying a fucking plane right over his faux castle,” I grouse.

“We could tunnel in, but that would take ages.” Damen helpfully gives another non option.

“How do they get deliveries in?” I ask.

“There’s a bridge, but it’s always guarded at night. Not always in the day, but he has cameras, drones. Gardeners who aren’t really gardeners. You get the drift.” Damen taps his finger against his chin as he thinks. “I don’t see a way which doesn’t alert him and that puts your girl in immediate danger.”

“Do you think he’d kill her, though?” Andrius speaks up. “I understand that you don’t want to risk it, and we had a plan B, but plan B has fallen through. We have to pivot. We zigged and now maybe we have to zag.”

I stare at him for a long beat. “It’s a fucking big risk,” I say, “that he won’t kill her. What if he does, or she gets hit by a stray bullet?”

“I can’t see any other way we get in,” he says.

Damen’s phone beeps, and he looks at it as his face tightens.

“What is it?” I say.

“We might not have the luxury of time.”

“What do you mean?” I demand.

“I’ve been monitoring the communications coming from his men ever since they stood close to me with their fucking Bluetooth on,” he says. Then he adds with a snarl, “Fucking amateurs, leaving Bluetooth on, and with a smartphone too.”

“To be fair,” Nikolai says, “it’s not often that you are going to stand within a foot of a person capable of bluebugging a phone. I didn’t think it was possible without a lot of equipment.”

“It’s possible,” Damen says, “and I’ve been monitoring their communications, which have basically been nothing except for a call for pizza twenty minutes ago. But now one of them, a guy called Tom, has messaged someone called Henry, stating that Barnaby is locked in the playroom with Adriana and he sounds weird. That’s the word they used, weird. They say the door is locked with a code, and they can’t get in.”

“He has her locked in a playroom?” I grip the edge of the chair I’m sitting in so hard, my fingers hurt.

“Yep. They say he sounds drugged.”

“That’s it.” I’m standing before I’ve even thought this through. “We’re going in now. No way am I leaving her with him for the remainder of this night, if he’s off his fucking tits.”

“If he’s locked in a room with her; he won’t know we’re there until it’s too late. I presume his men will have to somehow get that message to him? Can you jam their phones so they can’t ring him?” Jacob asks Damen.

“I can. I can also fuck up his in-house communications, so they can’t speak to him via landline phones or intercoms.”

“God, you’re a talented fucker, aren’t you.” Priest stands and shakes out his massive shoulders. “Glad you’re on our side, not theirs.”

“We need weapons,” I say. “We have some here but not enough.”

“Well, allow me.” Nikolai leads us to a safe and opens it with a flourish. “Take your pick.”

I stare inside. There are more guns and knives than I’ve seen in a long time. The safe is huge and goes back deep into what I presume must be a false wall. “Impressive,” I say.

“Let’s get strapped, and you can go get your girl back,” Nikolai says.

As we choose our weapons, I glance at Jacob, smiling at him, happy my littleblue will be coming home with me once more, but he looks pale. In fact, he looks more than tired, he appears unwell.

I take him to one side as the other men fight over the guns they’ll take. “Are you okay?” I ask.

“Of course,” he says, plastering a smile on his face, but I’m not fooled. There’s a waxy sheen to his skin, and I feel his forehead with the back of my hand. It’s clammy.

“You’re sick,” I say.

“Just a bug; I’ll be fine.”

“No, you’re staying here.”

He frowns. “Last I checked, I was in charge.”

“Back home, yes. Here? With Adriana and her life being on the line? No. Plus, I don’t want anything to happen to you. Mother would fucking kill me, and then who will be your heir?” I make light of it, but I hope he doesn’t fight me on this because I won’t back down.

He stares at me for a long beat, his eyes roaming my face, and he sighs but dips his head. “I’ll feel fucking useless,” he mutters.

“You aren’t useless, Jacob. You’re my fucking hero,” I say, my voice low. “And you got me here by pulling strings with connections. I owe you so much, but for your own safety, and for her safety, sit this one out.”

He nods and then claps me on the back. “Go get her, son.”

I glance at him one last time, worry eating at me with how awful he looks. Is it just this past hour or two he’s been looking so sick, or have I dropped the ball because I’ve been so caught up in everything Adriana? Maybe I’ve missed signs I should have seen.

“There’s nothing else?” I ask. Sudden pre-emptive grief hits me. This man has been the only real father figure I’ve ever had. Losing him would be dreadful.

“No, I’m just tired, and I think I caught something. Maybe on the flight. The recycled air, you know. I’ll take it easy while you go and bring your girl back. Then we can all get home.”

I nod, but I can’t totally overcome the anxiety eating at me.

Now though, I must focus on what is ahead and bringing Adriana home. Even if I didn’t worship the damn ground she walked on, I wouldn’t leave any young woman locked in a playroom with that sick bastard.

I head to the safe and grab a Sig and a knife, and turn to the gathered men. “Let’s go bring my girl home.”

There’s a knock at the door and Maya pushes it open, her thick hair mussed as she peers into the room. She scowls when she sees the guns. “What’s happening?” she asks.

Damen fills her in, and she frowns. “So Adriana is trapped in a room with a madman, and you guys are going to storm the bridge over the sort-of-moat, to rescue her? Thereby making a lot of noise?”

“What else can we do?” Damen says. “Can’t swim in, the guards would shoot us in the water, proverbial sitting ducks. Can’t parachute in because planes are noisy…”

She scratches her cheek, and as she does so her face lights up. “Gentlemen, what you need is a decoy.”

“What?” Damen asks, and his face darkens. “No. Whatever thought is in your head, Maya, no.”

“Imagine the scene.” She ignores Damen and turns to face the room. “It’s a dark night, the light of dawn just breaking yonder. You’ve got a couple of hours to go until you finish your shift, and you’re exhausted and bored. But what’s this? A damsel in distress? Coming right up to the entrance to your castle? She’s asking for help, and her dress is all torn. She’s a mess, and there’s no one else around.”

No one says a word, but they all stare at her. Andrius has a small smile tugging at his lips, Priest is trying not to laugh, and Damen looks like he’s going to explode.

She claps her hands together. “It could work.”

“Or, they could plug you full of holes,” Damen says. “No fucking way.”

“They won’t plug a gorgeous creature like me full of holes. Not when I’m alone, unarmed, and wearing a tattered dress with half my chest hanging out. They might want to plug my holes , as it were, but you big, strong men will appear before they can do that, and take them by surprise because they’ve been distracted … by me . You can sneak up behind them, quiet as mice, and slit their throats or whatever it is big, bad boys like you do.”

I stare at her in total disbelief. Is she for real?

Damen looks at her the same way.

“I think you got her from the defective wife store and need to send her back,” Nikolai says.

“You love me really, Nikky,” Maya shoots back. “The problem is, you’re all thinking about ways to sneak up on them, but distraction is a brilliant plan, and none of you want to admit it.”

“It could work,” Andrius says. “Make her up to look cut and bruised. Break a heel on a shoe. The drive isn’t so long the guards wouldn’t hear her if she shouted for help .”

“You think the guards he hires are going to be chivalrous? No. Fuck you all. Plus, no one is looking at my wife in a torn dress and getting an eyeful of her.” Damen’s jaw is tight.

Maya slides up to him and wraps her arms around his neck. “Now, I know you’re not into this plan, but I also know,” she lowers her voice, but I’m close enough to them to hear it, “that you will enjoy killing them all the more for it if they look at me the wrong way. And do you know how hot that makes me?”

She says something else, so low I can’t hear at all, and a smile spreads over Damen’s face as she speaks.

“Okay,” he says grudgingly. “But only if you do all that and more.”

“More?” She acts shocked. “ Sir! But … okay.”

“Do we have a map of the house?” Andrius asks. “The entranceway specifically.”

Damen brings one up on his phone and enlarges it, then places his phone on a table for us all to look.

“What about the drones?” I ask as I peer at the map.

“I can disable those,” Damen says.

“That leaves the dogs. Won’t they be an issue for Maya?”

“I love dogs,” she says with a grin. “I can charm any dog.”

“Yeah, not a Rottie trained to attack, you can’t,” Nikolai says, deadly serious. “Is anyone trained as a sniper?”

“I am,” Priest says. “Andrius too.”

“Not technically a sniper, but long-range shooting, yes. I’m a very good shot. Not as good as Reaperman, but who is?”

“The dogs make this a hard no,” Damen says, and he shakes his head just once as Maya opens her mouth to protest.

I don’t ask who Reaperman is because I just want this to get going.

“Okay, so can we take any dogs out that seem to pose a threat to Maya, not that I think they will. If there are guards there, they’ll surely have commands for the dogs, and if they see a lone, hurt female, they aren’t going to let the dogs attack her,” Nikolai says.

“One”—Maya holds a finger up—“I’m a woman, not a female. Two, no killing dogs. I can’t cope with that.”

“No need to kill them. I have tranq guns.”

I blink at him. “What the fuck ?”

“Yeah, don’t ask.”

“No fucking way is my wife walking onto the grounds of the estate if there are loose attack dogs. Fuck you all. Maya, baby, I love you, but go to bed.”

I expect her to fight, but she sighs and heads to the door.

“Fine,” I snap. “Listen, we need to get going. We just go in guns blazing, and I am leaving in five minutes to get my littleblue back. Anyone who wants out, just say now.”

“Looking at this, in all seriousness now, there is a way Maya can help,” Andrius says. He turns to Damen. “A safe way.”

“If you can get to here, Maya.” Andrius points to the map on the phone screen as she turns around and pauses. “The fence is very near the house at this point. The dogs can’t get to you, because you’re still outside of the property boundary, but the men will hear you if you create enough noise. They’re either going to let you in, and at that point they’ll have called the dogs off, or come to investigate outside. If we have three men in the bushes here, they can kill any of those guys before they can reach for their weapon, not that I think they would. You’d be safe, but if you make a huge scene, perhaps scream and shout for help, then collapse? You’re going to distract a lot of the guards. They’re all going to be coming to investigate if you’re passed out on the road.”

I glance at the map and see where he’s pointing to.

“If we have you, Priest, here in the bushes, and me at the other side, we need one other sharpshooter, that will make Maya safe. It leaves you, Dimitri, with Damen, and the three Vs, Alexis, and your other men to take the main house. If Damen can deactivate the locks and alarms and down the drones, that gives you time to get inside the house. Can you open the door to the playroom that Adriana is locked in?” Andrius asks Damen.

He frowns and messes around on what looks like one of those old school Blackberry type phones. “Not sure. It’s the one thing that doesn’t seem to be part of the mainframe. I wonder if, with the door being lockable and the men not having the code, it’s designed as a panic room as well as a playroom. That’s going to make it harder to get into, but not impossible.”

“So you can do it?” I push. No way am I going in there, guns blazing if we can’t get into that room. It gives him time to do all sorts of things to Adriana if he somehow is alerted to our presence. Maya’s decoy plan sounds better by the minute.

“Yes, but I need to be near it. I’ll need to hack into it, and I can’t do that from here.”

“Fine. Okay. So we’re ready? We have a plan?”

Everyone nods.

Maya says she’ll be back in ten minutes.

We all pack up our weapons, and Damen fills a small, black rucksack with all sorts of electronic wizardry.

Andrius has a gun, and he’s zoned out, testing it’s weight, looking through the scope. I recognize his behavior. He’s definitely fought on the frontlines before. He’s acting the way I might before a raid.

I’m on edge, hyped up and desperate to just go, but I know this is the best plan and that Maya needs some time to get ready. If we can get into that house without a massive firefight on the outside to alert the guards inside, then we have a chance of getting Adriana out unharmed.

That’s all I care about.

Ten minutes later, Maya saunters back into the room. She’s wearing a red dress, and it is ripped at the hem and up her legs, showing lots of thigh with each step she takes. She’s wearing heels, but one has a slightly shorter heel than the other, due to being broken, so she’s limping slightly. The bodice of the dress is ripped too, showing lots of cleavage and a push-up bra.

“Eyes to your fucking selves,” Damen snaps.

“Darling, this is way more coverage than I wear around the pool,” Maya says.

“Yeah, well, we will talk about that.”

She rolls her eyes. “God, really?”

“Yes,” Damen snaps.

I’m not bothered about her body; I’m distracted by the bruises and the livid scratches on her legs. “How the hell did you do that?” I ask, pointing.

“Makeup, darling,” she says. “Right, are we ready? I’m sure this guy is dying to get his lady back.”

“Yes, lets go,” I say.

Time to get my littleblue back where she belongs.