Page 62 of Capo

“We’ve got, including them—” he nods toward the men scattered around the bed, “six bodies in the house.”

“Ambulance? Cops?”

“I called. Seems someone else called too. They should be here any minute.”

“I called them,” I growl.

Chloe stirs, wincing as she moves. Her eyes are trained on the man on the floor. His screams have turned into pathetic hitching whimpers. She looks up at me and holds out her hand toward the semi, waggling her fingers. I shouldn’t trust her. There’s no way in hell I should provide Chloe Becker with a weapon of destruction that can rip my body apart in a second, but I turn the semi, letting the barrel point to the floor, and hand it to her without a word. Chloe takes it, aims it toward the writhing man and then an ear-shattering thunder echoes between the walls as she fires off a few rounds into his chest, making it deflate into an unrecognizable mess of torn flesh. The recoil thrusts her back against the bed, the spray of bullets continuing in an arc along the wall and up in the ceiling before it stops. Dustin and I are already flat on the floor. With my heart in my throat I keep my eyes trained on her, adrenaline shooting out of my ears, ready to rip the weapon out of her hands.

Panting, she looks at me, her face twisted in disgust, then she drops the gun and sinks to the floor. I’m up and catching her before I know it.

“He was gonna… They were gonna rape me. They said… I’m gonna be sick!”

I look down at her, rub my thumb over her face, rubbing off some of the blood. She looks like Stephen King’s Carrie, drenched, nightmarish, her eyes wide, frightened. There’s a bruise below her eye, a swelling. Her lip is split. I pull up the hem of my shirt from my pants and begin to wipe her face. It’s not right. She shouldn’t have these pigs’ blood on her. Chloe shivers and, realizing she’s naked, I quickly unbutton my shirt and shrug it off my shoulders, covering her up.

“Don’t worry about it, they’re gone. They won’t hurt you again.”

She buries her face in my chest and inhales erratically. “Thank you.”

I hug her harder and somewhere inside my chest there’s a growing pain mixing with bottomless rage. I want to kill them again, and again. I should have disabled them, thrown them in chains and cut little pieces from their bodies until they perished for touching what’s mine. Dead is good too, though. Very final. She squirms out of my grip and crawls on all fours to the bathroom. In the distance the blaring of sirens increases.

I cock my head to Dustin. “Go meet up. I’ll be with you as soon as I can. And they take care of Ivan first!”

Dustin nods and disappears without another word. I go to Chloe as I haul up my phone and call Eric. He answers promptly. There’s shouting in the background, sounds from cars.

“Where the fuck have you been?” he growls.

“Where the fuckare you?” I ask as I collect Chloe’s long, blonde hair in my free hand and hold it back as she clutches the toilet, dry retching.

“We’ve shot up the Russians. It’s in the middle of the fucking day, in a residential area, it took some time. We couldn’t just storm in. We’re moving now.”

“Their friends came here,” I say, gritting my teeth, taking in Chloe’s naked, shaking form. My gaze falls on the long, thin scars on her back, my cruelty forever etched into her skin. I put them there. I should be fucking shot too.

Eric is quiet.

I tighten my lips. “Did someone get away?”

“No. None.”

“Well, they had the time to alert someone. We’re under attack.”

“Anyone hurt.”

“Ivan lies in the hallway, blood all over him.”

I have to rip the phone away from my ear as Eric lets out a deafening string of curses.

Chloe sinks back, staring up at me, hugging her chest. I pull a thick towel off the heated rack and wrap it around her. Everything gets bloody. Their fucking blood. When this is over, I’ll be drenched in a lot more Russian blood than this, and they’ll regret ever fucking with my people.

“I’ll be with you in thirty,” says Eric, his voice strained.

“Don’t fucking bother. The EMTs are already here. Find out where they’re taking Ivan and be with him at the hospital.”

“He’s alive?”

“He better be or I’ll kill him myself.” I hold Chloe’s pained gaze and she doesn’t let go of mine. I suddenly know what I must do. “You did good, Eric, sending Anna away. Now go. I have things to take care of.”

“Will do,” he says, “I’ll keep you posted. But fucking answer the next time.” Eric disconnects and I drop the phone next to me.