Page 64 of Be My Vengeance

“I’ll go with you,” I offered.

“Go with me?” His eyes widened.

“I mean drive with you. Gideon said we need to stick together.”

“Ah, yeah, okay.”

The drive was uneventful, and I dropped Alex off at the door of Dr. Thorne’s building and parked out front. I was going to go in, but I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable by sitting in the waiting room. The doors were locked, and I had a perfect vantage point of the street and building. It was all good.

Of course I had to think that, because not more than five minutes later, I was anything but fine. There I was, scrolling through my phone, when the rear window exploded and glass sprayed forward. I ducked immediately and grabbed my gun, but before I could turn, my window shattered and the barrel of a gun was pointed right at me.

“Do not move.” The man currently threatening my life had an extremely thick Russian accent, so it wasn’t hard to figure out who he worked for.

The passenger door opened and another guy got in, also with a Russian accent. He pointed his pistol at me, so it was easy to tell the odds weren’t in my favor here.

“You can hand me your gun, or I take it.”

Even if I could get a shot off and hit one of these guys, I couldn’t get them both, and I’d likely end up dead also. Fuck. I dropped my gun to the floor by his feet.

“Now you get out.”

“Why?”

“No questions.” The Russian by my window jabbed me with the gun.

“Two strangers break my window and hold me at gunpoint, I have a right to know why.”

The man in the passenger seat laughed. “You have no rights. Get out of car now, or get out of car with bullet in knee. Up to you.”

There was a good chance that once I got where they were taking me, they’d kill me there. “I’m not stupid. I know better than to just walk off with the two of you.”

“I make this clear. You come with us or once your friend leaves building, we shoot him in the head, and you come with us anyway.”

Shit, shit, shit. This was not good. “If I go with you, you’ll leave my friend alone?”

The man in the seat nodded. “Instructions were to bring one of Mr. Hendrix’s men.”

“Who gave that order?”

He grinned none too kindly. “You will find out soon.”

“Fine.” My door opened, and the guy grabbed my arm and yanked. “It’s unnecessary to pull me. I was coming.”

With more force than needed, he shoved me toward a black luxury sedan. I was pushed inside, where another guy was waiting for me his gun aimed at me.

“You’re all very welcoming,” I said sarcastically.

This dude didn’t even react aside from blinking at me. A moment later, we were driving and I watched the building Alex was in getting smaller and smaller. He’d see the car destroyed and immediately panic; I knew he would. I had my phone in my pocket, but I had a feeling that if I pulled it out and started texting, they’d take it from me. I’d have to wait for the opportunity to do it as long as they didn’t claim it.

I wasn’t sure where we were headed and the fact that they were letting me see everything didn’t bode well for me in the survival department.

We pulled into the driveway of a derelict house. I was sure it was the new place Ivanov had chosen to do business out of since the other one was not good anymore.

When I was let out again, a guy motioned for me to move, which I did. If I was able to get out of this alive, I wanted to retain as much information as possible. I noted how many men there were, the landscape, and after I was brought into the house, I absorbed everything.

Deeper into the house I heard voices, all speaking Russian. We turned the corner to what might have been a nice dining room once upon a time and found four men dressed in expensive suits. I knew who was in charge the second our eyes met.

By the window in a dark-gray suit, silver hair, brown almost vacant eyes, stood Vladimir Ivanov. Maksim didn’t look a thing like him, and where his son was all smiles, Vladimir’s expression was placid.