“Don’t move!” the large man shouted in Russian. “Drop your gun to the ground!”
My hands shook as I brought them forward. A quick glance at Veseli showed that he’d moved farther into the shadows, telling me to keep the men occupied with a curt nod. The only light this far down in the shaft shone up through the open hatch, but I imagined that I could see Veseli’s smirk and dimpled cheeks through the thick, brunette scruff.
Talk about déjà vu.
My face angled back, looking down. Andrea caught my eye before I got there. He’d stretched out flat on his stomach like me, but his position kept him out of sight of Ivanov’s men.
The horrible death chamber, doubling as a well-lit elevator, reflected off of his shiny head, but it was his sheer, immense presence that reassured me. Andrea embodied the very definition of a macho-man action hero. His body was toned, large, and stacked. Only Aleks and Brock could stand up to him as they’d demonstrated earlier when they met him.
Andrea’s dark brown eyes caught mine, waiting until he knew he had my attention before giving me a supportive nod that all but screamed, “You got this, tech girl.”
The orders from below came faster now.
“Slower! Handgrip first.”
“Drop it! Drop it now!”
“Hands! Hands! I need to see hands!”
“Don’t move!”
Despite Andrea’s confidence in me, I glanced to the side, asking Veseli a million questions with a single exchange.
What should I do? What would he do? What would Andrea do?
But I found no answers there.
Before I could formulate a plan, arms reached to pull me down into the lift. In a silver lining, they didn’t make me wait in the gruesome elevator filled with the cubed remains of the guards. Ivanov’s men marched me straight out into the hall.
The underground lair seemed nothing like what I’d imagined a bunker would. For one, enough LED lights ran along the edges of every wall, illuminating the place as if by direct sunlight.
In the middle of the hallway, with his hands stuffed into his hoodie pockets, could be none other than Bokaryov Tarasovich, the Meat Grinder. His unassuming figure and dark hair that brushed his eyes should’ve made the young man appear nonlethal, but I knew better. It’d been his brainchild of a contraption that’d turned the elevator into a human meat shop.
A grin stretched across his face. “Ah, Callie, so nice of you to drop in.”
I tugged on my arms, but the two guys only released me at Tarasovich’s nod. “I have to say, the welcome could’ve been more… welcoming.”
Tarasovich’s lips twitched in amusement. “My apologies, Callie, on behalf of Nikolai Ivanov and his entire empire. I’ll be extra accommodating going forward.” The heat that filled his eyes imitated that of the nineteen-year-old he was, but the look lacked something unnamable. Tarasovich liked to fool people into believing that his outside matched his inside. He didn’t seem bothered to hold up that charade with me because his gaze showed the true soulless nature that lurked within like a famished panther prowling its cage and biding its time until it had the chance to make its move.
“Bring her,” Tarasovich demanded with a nonchalant air. He turned to head for the large open room at the end of the hall. “We’re overdue for this little play date.”
My heart raced as I resisted. It would be a bad idea to go to another place with them. We had nothing on this underground complex. Between Veseli, Andrea, and me, our research had yielded little more than a general location. And we’d been lucky to get that much.
With futile efforts, I struggled against the guards’ hold while they frog marched me forward. The fighting proved unnecessary because deafening shots broke out to disturb the flow.
I slipped free when both of the guys dropped my arms.
In the moment it took me to turn back around, I glimpsed Tarasovich as he observed what I could only imagine was Andrea and Veseli blasting in with all their blazing glory. Bullets zipped all over, but Tarasovich held his ground, calm and angry. He looked pissed about his plans getting shot to pieces.
He met my stare. My hands lifted to raise the gun I’d grabbed, only to find them empty. A grin stretched across his youthful face when Tarasovich realized the same thing. He took a step and started for me, making my eyes widen. I stumbled back, slipping over the broken body of a slumped guard. My feet scrambled for purchase, sliding without friction on