Midnight Purgatory (Bugrov Bratva #1)(112)

I send a message to our men. We have twelve soldiers in total, which means taking down these fuckers will be easy enough. I just need to make sure they’re taken by surprise before they can hurt Lev or use him to barter for their lives.

I catch sight of Stepan and Josef in the distance and I signal to them to come towards me. The rest of the men split and move around to the front of the house with Nikolai. I stay just under the window of the room where they’re holding Lev. One of the enemy men is busy popping something crunchy and noisy into his mouth.

“You got any more of those?”

“Nah, just finished ‘em.”

“Greedy li’l bastard.”

“Look at the dumbass. He’s drooling. Guess he’s hungry.”

“You hungry, dumbass?” He dangles a chip in front of Lev’s slumped face.

Never mind. Fuck the plan. Fuck precautions. I’m gonna tear these assholes to pieces.

Before Stepan and Josef have even reached me, I launch up and crash through the window with my gun drawn. One pull of my trigger and the first of the two captors drops dead, orange chip dust still coating his lips. The second one has his hand clasped around his holster but he hasn’t had time to draw his firearm.

I can hear the sounds of yelling, screaming, more gunshots. But for right now, the room I’m in has an eerie quiet about it.

I advance closer to the flat-nosed fuck whose eyes keep darting to his dead friend sprawled on the stained tile just a few feet away.

Lev is rocking back and forth, causing the chair to wobble to and fro. “Lev, brat,” I say gently without taking my eyes off the soon-to-be-dead man. “It’s all going to be okay. Just stay calm. Breathe.”

I step closer. The flat-nosed man is pure terror now. I can smell his sweat, mingling with the stench of his friend’s oozing blood. He doesn’t move as I get closer and closer. Too frozen with fear.

Pathetic.

Makes things easier, though.

I reach out and grab him by the shoulders. “I’ll make this quick for you,” I rumble. “You don’t deserve it, but I’m going to do it anyway. Lev… look away.”

Then I hug the miserable bastard to me and twist his neck.

POP. Bones crack and he slumps to the floor, lifeless before he’s even all the way down.

With that ugly business finished, I wipe my hands on my pants and turn to Lev, kneeling in front of him so I can start to saw away at his restraints with my pocketknife.

He’s not making eye contact. Instead, he’s just muttering unintelligibly to himself as he rocks back and forth.

“Lev. Hey, it’s me. Your brother. It’s Uri.”

The muttering gets louder, the rocking gets faster, and if I so much as graze any part of him, he recoils and whimpers.

I wrack my brain to think of a way to calm him down. What would Alyssa do? It’s infuriating that I would even go there, but it’s my first instinct. What would she do?

She’d probably give him space at first until he was ready to listen to her. I back away a little, satisfied that the restraints aren’t hurting him anymore. He’s got a few cuts and scrapes but otherwise, he seems relatively unharmed. Physically, at least.

What I’m worried about is what’s going on behind his wild eyes.

“Lev. It’s me. Uri. Can you hear me?” The mumbling doesn’t stop. “Lev, you’re safe now. I’ve gotten rid of those bad men. We’re going home.”

“Home?” The rocking slows down.

I scoot a little closer. “Yes, home. You’re safe now.”

“Alyssa?”

I freeze. “What?”

“Alyssa,” he repeats. “I want her.”

Fuck me. I’m about to tell him that he’ll see Alyssa at home, but I stop myself at the last minute. Even assuming she did listen for once, there’s no telling what I’ll do when I see her again. The rage that swims up at the mere thought of her is enough to blind me.

“I know, buddy. I know you do. But for right now, we need to get out of here, okay?”

“I want Alyssa home.”

“I’ll see what I can do, okay?” He’s still shifting every few seconds, but he allows me to slice off the rest of his restraints. “Do you want to take my hand?”

Lev shies away from me. “I want Alyssa.”

I’m losing patience fast and the more I try to control it, the harder it becomes to control. The fact that he keeps asking for the very woman who got him into this mess in the first place isn’t helping matters.

“Lev.” Reluctantly, he turns his sad blue eyes on me. “You trust me, don’t you?” The hesitation is a touch too long for my liking, but in the end, he does nod. “Good. Then take my hand and come with me.”

He does but his hand almost slides right out of mine again because it’s soaked with sweat. I hold onto him tightly and lead him out of the room with my gun at the ready.

Outside, the coast is clear. Nikolai and my men are clustered in the living room. I note a pile of dead enemies in the corner and one last live one quivering on his knees in front of Nikolai.

“Stepan,” I order, “take Lev outside and keep him safe until we’re done in here.”

Lev keeps his head down as Stepan ushers him out of the house. Nikolai turns to me, gesturing to the man on his knees between us. “He’s the ringleader. And he’s refusing to talk.”