Silent Lies (Perfectly Imperfect #8)

Sienna uses the situation to her advantage, ducks under my arm, and rushes down the hallway. Stopping in front of our bedroom, she throws a quick look at me and winks. “Have fun tonight!”

The door shuts in her wake. Zeus trots toward it and sits down, barring entrance. On guard.

“Traitor.” I shake my head and turn to Relja, whose eyes are bouncing between me and the dog. “Make sure no one tries to get inside my bedroom, or they’ll end up with missing limbs.”

He nods.

* * *

“Is everything ready?” I ask as I’m putting on my holster.

“Yes,” Filip says. “Adam has teams in position near both of Bogdan’s warehouses. They’ll be waiting for our signal.”

“The guy from the fridge?”

“In Iliya’s trunk.”

“Good. Let’s go.”

We leave the house and head toward the SUV parked on the driveway. Iliya and two other men are waiting by the second vehicle. I open the driver’s door, but before I get inside, I look up at the window to my bedroom. It’s easy to spot since it’s the only one lit up on the fourth floor at the moment. Sienna is standing behind the curtain, looking down at me. She hasn’t left the bedroom since this afternoon. I tried getting inside twenty minutes ago, butmydog almost bit my hand off when I reached for the knob.

“What am I going to do with you,mila moya?” I mumble to myself and get behind the wheel.

* * *

The paper factory is two hours away, so we don’t reach it until well after midnight. I park by the fence next to a small service building, and Iliya pulls up behind me. The gate leading into the factory yard is three hundred feet away, around a corner. I exit the SUV and take a look at my phone. There are five pulsing red dots on the screen, marking the location of each of our vehicles. Two of them are moving—Jovan’s and Relja’s cars following Bogdan’s truck. They are about twelve minutes away.

“We’ll seize the opportunity when the gate opens to let the truck through,” I say to the men gathered around me. “Filip and I will handle the guards at the gatehouse. Iliya, you and Milo take care of the driver and turn the truck around. Then, head to the north warehouse, but avoid the major roads. I don’t want it showing up on any of the traffic cams. Vanja, follow them in my SUV. Tomorrow, I’ll see if the Russians are interested in taking the cargo off our hands.”

“What about the security guys inside the factory?” Filip asks.

“Both Jovan and Relja have a three-man team with them, they can handle the mercenaries. As soon as Iliya turns the truck around, the guys will drive inside and directly up to the factory entrance. From there onward, it’s all about brute force and firepower. Adam is on a lookout down the road, but he can provide backup if needed.” I take out my gun and cock it. “We can’t hide our approach. There are cameras at the gatehouse, so they’ll see us coming. Don’t get shot.”

The first part of the plan goes without a problem. As soon as the gate slides to the side, Filip and I use the truck as cover and approach the door on the back side of the gatehouse. We each take out a security guard. By the time we return to the truck, one of my men is already dragging the body of the truck driver away. Iliya jumps up in the cabin and reverses the rig. The moment the gate is unobstructed, two cars shoot past us toward the factory building. A big metal loading door at the front of the structure starts sliding to the side. Bullets rain on Jovan’s and Relja’s vehicles before the factory door is halfway open, making it blatantly evident that there are more men than we anticipated inside.

“Fuck!” I take off toward the firefight, keeping to the road edge and away from the line of gunfire, with Filip on my heels.

Bogdan’s security seems to be focused on Jovan’s team. The guys are returning fire from behind the cars they are using for cover on the other side of the yard. When I’m close enough and have a good angle to see a few of the thugs, I stop and shoot. Filip crouches next to me and fires at the son of a bitch who’s been keeping our guys pinned down from the second-story factory window. Above the pop and crack of flying bullets, the roar of an engine coming up behind us is getting closer. A few moments later, Adam zooms past us on his bike, heading toward the factory door. We stop shooting while he makes a sharp turn and throws a smoke bomb through the entrance. White fog fills the doorway and barrels its way inside the facility.

It’s hard to see the targets with all the smoke around, so I wait until it starts to clear and shoot as soon as the shape of a person becomes visible. Jovan and the rest of the guys have advanced and resumed firing, too. It takes a few minutes for the smoke to dissipate completely, and when it does, seven bodies are sprawled on the ground in a river of blood.

“Someone go get Iliya’s car,” I bark and turn to Adam who’s checking one of the dead guys. “Warehouses?”

“Already burning. I gave the order the moment we were done with the truck.”

“Perfect. Let’s leave the message for Bogdan.”

Ten minutes later, we get into the cars and head home, leaving the naked body of the fridge guy tied to the big iron gate. A sign of a cross carved into the flesh of his chest.

Thirty minutes earlier

“He bought me shoes, you know.” I pull the sweater around me tighter. “I found the bags this afternoon. Three pairs. He hid them in the back of the closet, under a pile of his jeans.”

Zeus cocks his head to the side and regards me.

“Of course they’re for me. Two pairs have rhinestone-covered heels and the third is violet with silver silky ties. I was just kidding when I told him he needed to buy me presents, and he knows it very well. He bought them anyway.”

I look down at the driveway visible from the window. Two of Drago’s men are standing by the garage, smoking. They both have automatic rifles on their backs, and Perun and Jupiter are with them. Further back, in the greenery around the house, there is another group of three, and more are making rounds along the wall that encircles the property. From what I saw when I took Zeus for a walk, there are at least twenty men on guard duty inside the perimeter. There are likely more on the outside.