“You said we owed you,” I say to Marcus, impatient to get in the ambulance with Cassie who is answering a stream of questions from the paramedic, who then checks things off on a list attached to a clipboard. “If we shut these guys down, is that payment enough? Means you don’t have to waste more months of your life embedded with this scum, trying to get all the intel. You can go home to your wife or girlfriend and have your dick sucked for a month straight instead.”
“No wife or girlfriend,” he says. “And I’m not walking away from this, but I’m willing to contemplate a temporary working relationship. You need me. You aren’t getting close to him, but I already am. You need to shoot me, though, make it look like I’ve been injured in the gunfight. Make it a graze or a minor wound, though. Can any of you fuckers do that?”
“I can.” Andrius grins, and it’s one that would scare me, but Marcus grins back.
“Do your worst. I’ll be in touch, at some point.”
“Fine.” I’m losing my last shred of patience. “Call me or Andrius. Set up a meet, but right now, I’ve got to fucking go.”
He nods and shakes his head as the cops arrive, late as ever. I climb into the back of the ambulance and sit by Cassie as the paramedic continues doing whatever checks it is he needs completed before we can set off.
As the cops approach, I hear Marcus order them, “These guys can’t go into regular custody. You need to hold them here until MI5 and some of your NCIS guys get here. They can’t be processed in the normal way. There are people on their way here now. All you have to do is help me sit on these guys until they get here. Oh, and this Russian fucker is going to shoot me in a minute, and you won’t do anything about it, understood?”
MI5? Fucking marvelous. So now I’ve got to work with British Intelligence in bringing down the Armenian mob? That will fuck my reputation and frankly be dangerous for me and Andrius going forward. I can’t work with Marcus. Not openly.
He comes to the ambulance, and looks at me through the open doors, as if he’s seen my internal thoughts. “Don’t worry,” he tells me with a big grin, voice quiet, “I’m not MI5. I was simply working with them on this.”
“What are you then?”
“I get paid to help where it’s needed,” is all the reply I get.
So, he’s a mercenary. That’s good news. I won’t be kneecapped by my fellow Bratva if it ever got out I worked with a gun for hire to bring down the Armenians. It would simply be territory war, unlike working with the state against them.
“Shoot me in the arm or the leg. Make it a graze somewhere it won’t do any real damage,” Marcus says to Andrius.
Andrius calmly takes out his gun and does exactly what Marcus asks.
The Brit turns to one of the paramedics who’s running toward him. “Leave it, I’ve got to patch this up myself,” he says through gritted teeth.
Cassie whimpers, and I focus on her. I see the shock she must be feeling written all over her face.
“We can go,” the paramedic says to the driver as he reaches past me to close the heavy ambulance doors, shutting the violence and mayhem out. For an eerie moment there’s nothing but silence, and then we’re crunching and bouncing over gravel as we head down the single track to the main road.
I look at Cassie who is still pale, but thankfully her eyes are much more alert. She’s lost that glassy, dazed expression.
“You need to know something,” I tell her. “There’s going to be much crap coming at us the next few days, but you’ll be safe with me. I’m upgrading the security system, and no bastard will get in moving forward.”
“I’m not staying with you.” She tries to sit up, but the paramedic pushes her back down gently.
“Of course you are,” I scoff. “Where else would you go?”
“I’m safe now. Popov is…” She glances at the paramedic and then chooses her words carefully. “He’s not a danger to me any longer. I can go home.”
I stare at her, nonplussed. I came for her. I put together an army to save her. Does she think she gets to leave now?
Why would she want to? It’s still not safe. She’s staying