Page 58 of Sweet Revenge
Here we go.
Before we moved on, I quickly assessed the situation. Two of my guys had wounds in the shoulder, one in the arm. At my orders, they retreated back down the stairs. No use dragging them on when they weren’t at one hundred percent and they could simply head back through the tunnel.
Vin was also bleeding. Whether he’d accidentally sliced his own hand with a knife or one of our enemies had done it, I couldn’t say, but he brushed me off when I asked if he was okay. Satisfied that he would make it, I said, “All right. To the stairs.”
My crazy brother took point again, heading down the hall to the living room. This time, we didn’t hesitate to fire at the suits who moved to stop us. A few of them stood at the top of the staircase and fired down at us. Ducking behind one of my mother’s favorite statues, I took a shot at an older guy I’d never really liked. The bullet sank through his chest, and he toppled forward, falling over the railing and hitting the marble floor with athunk.
“Well, I think even dear ol’ dad heard that,” Mikel muttered.
A maniacal laugh left Vin’s lips. He didn’t even try to rein it in since we’d already made so much noise. Vin was even more deadly when he was in crazy mode. When I signaled for him to go on, he straightened up really quickly and headed up the stairs.
By now, most of Ma’s army had been alerted to our presence. They probably still had no idea how we’d gotten in, but it didn’t matter. They poured down the hallways both upstairs and on the first floor. My men got into a defensive formation and opened fire. Running up the stairs into gunfire was dangerous, but we kept the bullets flying, taking it one step at a time, pinning them down while we advanced.
One of the guys who’d been running in front of me took a bullet in the chest and flew backward. I caught him, blood smearing across my hands as I did my best to keep him from falling forward. Leaning around him, I fired at the guy who’d hit him, nailing him in the stomach. He keeled over, giving me a moment to hand my guy back to the men behind me, who helped him down the stairs.
We were almost at the top of the stairs when a younger man I recognized as being part of Zarnov’s crew came screaming down the hallway, making Vin look sane. His eyes were wild, his hair standing up in all directions, as he let out a shrill shriek and opened fire.
Vin fired at him a few times, even hitting him in the chest, but he kept coming, rushing us and trying to force us back down the stairs.
A few of my guys went down before I managed to thread through them and unload, hitting him several times in the head and face. His gun went silent, slipping from his hand as his face turned into a bloody mess.
“Jesus Christ,” Vin muttered. “Crazy fuck.”
I chuckled and stepped over the bastard’s body. “That means a lot coming from you.”
We’d taken out everyone in the hallway, but we could hear more footsteps approaching. I had to figure out where the fuck Ma and Elisa were.
Only one location came to mind. Knowing Ma, she’d want to prove her dominance to everyone. I could practically smell the cigar smoke filtering down the hallway as I ran in the direction of room where we met for official family business.
“Let me go first,” Vin insisted, grabbing hold of my shoulder with his bloodied hand and pulling me back. “It’s better that way.”
“Fuck, Vin,” I mumbled. “I can’t lead from behind.”
“No, but you might be able to live from back there,” he replied. I turned and looked at him, catching that wicked gleam in his eyes, and shook my head. When we rounded the corner and found more of Ma’s guards, the conversation was over. Now, it was all about survival.
Six of them had been standing outside Ma’s office, but they all moved toward us now. These were her top guys, the ones she had literally tasked with keeping her alive. I wanted them to die more than I’d ever wanted to kill anyone in my life—other than both of my parents and Elisa’s father.
Maybe this was the day that all of my wishes would come true.
Once again, we turned on the afterburners, firing and dodging around bullets, moving toward them like a mob of a dozen moving parts with one mind. A few of the guys behind me screeched or shouted when enemy bullets hit their mark, but most of us managed to keep moving toward the office.
The distance between our two groups shrank quickly. Instinctively, guns were lowered, and knives were drawn. Vin led the way, skirting around a deadly point as he ducked under a meaty arm and drove a knife into a muscle-bound thug. I pulled my brass knuckles and went in swinging, pounding two or three guys in the face as Mikel followed up and jabbed his knife into someone.
It didn’t take long for us to clear the hallway. Six bodies lay on the carpet, streaming blood that coated our shoes and seeped into the wooden floorboards beneath Ma’s favorite flower-patterned rug.
Outside the office, I hesitated. They were in there. I could hear Ma’s labored breathing and sensed that Elisa was right on the other side of that thin barrier. She might have the door locked, but we could bust through it, no problem.
Then what? Would Ma put up a fight? I didn’t think she had any guards in there with her since her best guys were dying all over the floor. I heard noises behind me and knew another wave was attempting to make it up the stairs, but my guys would hold them off. They would never make it to their queen.
“Shall I?” Vin whispered.
I took a deep breath, knowing I should go first, but when I shook my head, he ignored me.
My crazy brother kicked that door in and stormed inside, raising his gun. A shotgun blast hit him right in the chest, knocking him backward into my arms.
Reaching around him, I felt for injuries as Vin gasped for breath. When I pulled my hand away, it was covered in blood.
I looked up and met my mother’s eyes. Her face was pale, her mouth agape.