Retribution (28 page)

“She is. I’m a sucker for
redheads,” Nick answered with his same cool tone. He was teasing,
but not many people would notice. Ryan did.

He chuckled. “Let’s get out
of here. I have a lot to tell you.”

“How’s Frank?”

“Still the same, a
womanizer, less criminal though. He’s gotten soft.”

Mario made a sound of
disbelief causing Ryan to look at him. He knew what that meant.
Nick’s version of soft would be no less than the devil
himself.

He glanced at his watch.
“We have less than two hours, so I’d better brief you on the way to
the house.”

Once in Ryan’s Jeep, Nick
spoke. “So what is this really about?”

“One of Peter’s henchmen
killed my brother.”

“I heard. I’m sorry Ryan. I
don’t know how I’d handle it if one of mine was taken from
me.”

Of course he
did.

“What’s her name,
though?”

Ryan grinned and flicked
his friend a glance. “You never cease to amaze me.”

Nick made a sound that was
close to a chuckle, a rare occurrence. “You wouldn’t have called me
in unless you needed this as clean as possible. I know you don’t
give a damn about yourself in a situation like this, avenging your
brother, but you need this done quick, with minor collateral
damage, so what’s her name?”

“Kayta Nickolov,” he
confessed. Nick never showed any surprise, yet he was certain he
was. It was just the way the man was. People accused him of being
emotionless, cold, but Nick had the monopoly on that. There were
very few people in the world that could read the man and he was one
of them. They trained together and formed a brotherhood at a young
age. They have matching tattoos on their biceps. It was the Navy
Seal emblem.

“I’m assuming that’s
Peter’s daughter.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes.”

“Does she know who you
are?”

Ryan nodded.
“Everything.”

Nick made a sound under his
breath like he was impressed.

“She’s
beautiful.”

“Of course.”

“Smart,
stubborn.”

A smile pulled at Nick’s
mouth. “Well, I can sympathize, my friend.”

“I tried to remove her from
all of this, but she refused to go. She wants to see it through out
of justice for her mother, and perhaps myself. For some stupid
reason, I relented.” He shook his head. “I just know she’s going to
end up in the middle of this, even through no fault of her own. I
can’t think straight.”

“Well, that’s what we’re
here for.” Nick said absently while looking out the
window.

He may have seemed
disinterested to anyone who didn’t know him, but Ryan did. The man
was always thinking, strategizing in some way.

“Where’s the drop?” he
asked.

“I don’t know yet. There’s
a reason for that.”

“Fill me in.”

He did. Mario listened
intently from the back seat. It was rare that his brother talked
about his friends, in fact, never. Nick just told him they had to
fly to Miami tonight and an hour later they were on a plane. He was
ecstatic to see Ryan Casey again. He’d met him before when they
took the building in Beirut and rescued some government officials.
It was a relief to see it was him they were working with because he
trusted him and his brother Nick, who only trusted family, also
trusted him. He enjoyed the way the two men interacted. Nick wasn’t
a very sociable, or a talkative man. Hell, it took him two years to
actually talk to him and he was his brother. Well, he’d found that
out later, but still, he was with him just about every day until
then. He couldn’t imagine what Ryan had gone through for Nick to be
the way he was around him.

It was refreshing to him to
see that he wasn’t the only one that knew Nick had human qualities.
Well, Jordan, Nick’s wife knew, and their other brother, but as far
as Mario was aware, he had no other family or friends.

Mario was usually a talker,
but he kept silent through the drive. He was always eager to learn,
and learning about his secretive older brother was always
fascinating for him.

***

Katya stood at the top of
the stairs when the three men entered. She watched as Ivan met
them. There was a brief discussion in deep male voices before they
all followed Ivan, more than likely to her father’s office. Ryan
never looked up at her, but the taller of the three did. He paused
and turned his head toward her like he knew she was watching the
whole time. It startled her. Not that he knew she was there, but at
the coolness of his stare. It actually made her back up a step. He
was a good looking man, but that look was felt through to the
bone.

That man was as scary as
hell. Where did Ryan find him? Could he trust him? Her anxiety was
through the roof already.

Then he suddenly winked and
a wash of relief flowed through her. He was definitely on their
side. She smiled a little unsure, and he finally nodded once then
followed the other men. It was like he was waiting for some
reaction from her first. It made her realize that Ryan had confided
in the man about her. He was seeing for himself if he could trust
her. Well, he could.

She promised Ryan she’d
stay at the house, but she had a lot of difficulty obeying that
when the men left an hour later. Again, she watched as her father’s
men, including Ivan, left with Ryan and his two companions. Her
father even went with them this time. That was uncommon. She was
going out of her mind because Ryan never disclosed anything to her
and she was feeling so helpless.

She turned the keys in the
ignition.

CHAPTER EIGHT

The procession consisted of
two black Range Rovers, led by Peter’s personal black limousine. He
insisted Ryan, Nick and Mario ride with him.

The three were dressed all
in black. Combat wear.

Peter sat across from them
with two of his men sitting on either side. Ivan was driving. It
wasn’t common for Peter to go, but tonight was important to him. He
needed to know who was leaking information. He wasn’t worried about
being harmed.

First of all, he could take
care of himself. Secondly, across from him sat two of the best
assassins he knew. The younger brother was an added
bonus.

Peter had met with the men
beforehand and Nick Castile had yet to say a word to him since the
introductions. He’d come to see that it was the way the man was.
The younger brother was a different story he hadn’t stopped
talking. Nick had spoken to Nick a few times and his answers were
either a gesture or an indiscernible deep voiced
whisper.

Two hours later the car
turned down a dirt road. The ride was rough, showing that it was
rarely used.

Finally Nick spoke. “Let me
know when we’re within a mile.” It was casual, and his attention
wasn’t even on anyone in particular. It was on his side arm as he
was plugging bullets into the clip.

“Ivan?” Peter said over his
shoulder.

“Yes boss,” Ivan answered
that he’d heard him.

After about another half an
hour, Ivan stopped the car. “Were about a half mile
now.”

“Pop the trunk,” Ryan said
before getting out followed by Nick and Mario. They started pulling
long duffle bags out of it.

“What are you going to do?”
Ivan said coming up beside them.

It was Ryan that answered.
“Wait a half hour. Then go in. We’ll be set up by then.”

“What’s the GPS location?”
Nick asked pulling out an electronic device from his pocket. Mario
was busy strapping the duffle bags to his back.

Ivan reluctantly told him
while watching the men silently and quickly get organized. Then he
looked around at the blackness. “How are you going to find your way
there? It’s black as hell out here.”

At that moment Nick took
off at a run with Mario on his heels.

“What the fuck?” Ivan
splayed his arms.

“A half an hour,” Ryan
repeated before he disappeared into the blackness behind his
friends.

“Boss!” he turned toward
Peter who was lighting a cigar and leaning against the side of his
limo. “No one can find their way through this terrain in the
dark.”

“I wouldn’t underestimate
them Ivan.” He took a long drag off of his smoke and looked at his
watch.

***

“How many?” Nick
asked.

The three of them were
lying beside one another, Nick on his back facing the sky, and
Mario and Ryan on their bellies, on a hill about five hundred yards
away from an open field and Ryan saw that it was an old private
airstrip. It looked like it had been abandoned at least two decades
ago. There were a couple of planes next to a hanger that looked as
though they’d seen better days.

“Five,” Ryan answered while
peering through the night scope of his sniper rifle. “Two snipers
in the brush on the far side of the meadow, and three on foot.” He
pulled the trigger. There was a pop as the bullet exited the
silencer. “Four.”

Nick chuckled and removed a
silencer from his front pant leg pocket. He was screwing it on his
handgun when another pop disrupted the silence.

“Three. They’re on foot
gone in the building. The snipers are taken care of. You’re
up.”

Nick pushed the earbud into
his ear and rolled onto his stomach. “Mario?”

He was peering through a
thermal scope that detected body heat. This was something that
could see things that Ryan couldn’t with a night scope. “Three at
the back of the building, inside now like Ryan said. There’s
another big vehicle out of sight in the brush about four hundred
yards behind the hanger with what looks like another two—no, three
men. I’m thinking that’s our hijackers. Inside, there’s another
half dozen men, most likely the drop—wait a minute—we got five
bodies piled along the back wall.”

“Dead?”

“Yeah, pretty much. Heat
signature is fading. It looks like twisted sister already took the
coke, but is waiting to surprise daddy.” It was obvious they were
tipped off about the shipment way ahead of time. Ryan was right
about it being an inside job.

Nick backed out of sight
and was gone into the darkness with barely a sound.

“I wish I knew how he did
that,” Mario said in awe.

Ryan smirked keeping one
eye peering through the scope.

“And here comes villain
number two.” Mario spotted Peter’s convoy just coming into sight
along the road.

As soon as the vehicles
stopped, the doors slid open from the inside. The men in the Range
Rovers exited and splayed out clearly showing that they were
armed.

“Show’s on,” Ryan murmured.
He and Mario stood up and rushed forward. Peter would be ambushed
thinking he was meeting his contact for the drop.

They dropped in the grass
about fifty yards off. He pulled out his phone and messaged Peter.
Then, Ryan set up his rifle again and Mario picked up his
binoculars this time. There was enough light from the open hanger
doors that he could see what was going on. “Oh shit. Is that your
girl?”

Ryan looked through his
scope then dropped his head. “Fuck.”

“How—?”

“She must’ve tried to
follow us. I don’t know what the hell she was thinking.” He peered
through his scope again.

Anna’s men had gotten there
first and taken out Peter’s drop men. He could see birthmark
clearly but didn’t have a clear shot because he was the one with
his fist twisted in Kat’s hair. His other hand held a gun to her
head. Her eyes were wild and searching her father’s men. She was
looking for him. Well, he could see her clearly and she was
terrified.

Peter held up his hand so
none of his men would shoot. Ryan couldn’t hear the
conversation.

“Nick, they got Kat,” he
said softly.

“Copy that. Distraction
coming.”

“Mario.” Ryan’s voice shook
but his finger was steady on the trigger of his rifle.

“I’m on it.” He got to his
feet and rushed through the darkness toward the hanger. Toward
Kat.

A few seconds after that
the vehicle hidden behind the hanger blew up.

That’s all Ryan needed.
While everyone else ducked and ran for cover, he was as steady as a
rock. Birthmark twisted around at the sound as flames burst up
through the trees behind the hanger. That left him
exposed.

Pop.

Down went birthmark. He
wouldn’t be getting up again.

Kat stood there in shock
looking around as men started firing. Then out of nowhere came a
man who jumped on her shoving her to the ground. “Stay down!” He
got up on one knee and started shooting.

She was shaking so bad that
she doubted she could stand again.

He reached down and grabbed
her arm. “Time to move honey. Now!” he half dragged her out of the
line of fire. Ryan was covering him from the field. Once around the
side of the hanger, Mario shoved Kat behind him and
reloaded.