We head outside and to an open space under a copse of trees. We’re speaking in Russian, but you can never be too careful.
“You need Bohdan here now for the battle we’ve got on our hands. You could do with him around while Vasily is out of commission, to help you train a damn army, friend. I also know someone who can help with your security and hacking issues.”
“Doubt Damen will come over here to help me. It will mean putting his own loved ones at risk if he leaves now to come join this fight in any meaningful way. Coming to the UK is too risky.”
“Not Damen. British SAS … knows his shit. Works private security now, and he and his colleagues specialize in the sort of set up you need. You might have to go more for the businessman approach, and play up Cassie being in danger too. But I think I can persuade them to help.”
I think about it. If Andrius trusts them, maybe I should. Right now, I’m rudderless, and I’m not thinking straight, but he wouldn’t recommend people who aren’t trustworthy. I should have trusted Damen in the first place, then none of this would have unfolded this way.
“Okay, sounds good.”
“They run a big operation now, but the four founders are all ex SAS and SBS. Liam, Ethan, Luka and Reece. Those four, I trust. I can get them to come out to the house, secure it, check out your systems, and make sure anything new isn’t easily hackable.”
“I paid good fucking money for that system. It’s meant to be one of the best in the world.”
“Yes, but these guys? They know their shit, and they can ensure your set up is so damn tight no one is getting in. Not many can do that.”
“Do you use them?”
“Yes, and I trust them. Their leader, Liam, he’s a fucking judgmental cunt, but he will do right by you if it means protecting Cassie and Michael.”
“Okay, call them.”
“Yes, I’ll call them and see if they will help us go get your woman back and deal with our Armenian friends. I talked to Damen before I came to you, and as you know he’s been watching these guys. Turns out, they’re smuggling people, human trafficking level shit. Liam and his men won’t take kindly to that; they’re honorable, and as you know, I don’t take kindly to shit like that either.”
I turn to him. “You’re going to help?”
He sighs and fixes me with a disappointed look. “Of course. Firstly, you’re like a brother to me, and secondly, they want me. That means me and mine aren’t safe until they are dealt with. You know, Allyov has a good man, Alexei. These fuckers want Allyov too, right? We can ask him to lend us Alexei. You, Bohdan, Alexei and I can round up a rag-tag army and go get these cunts.”
“Tigran wants me to take you, unarmed, to him, or he’s going to start cutting bits of Cassie off.”
“So … take me. Like a trojan horse.”
“Are you insane? We walk in there unarmed, we’re dead. The Trojans had armed men inside their horse, but we won’t have any weapons.”
He turns his ghostly gaze on me, and says, as serious as fuck, “K, my friend, we are weapons.”
I think about it. We are, but even with the training we’ve had, up against ten or more armed men? No chance.
“Of course, we don’t run off there this moment, unprepared.” He shakes his head. “Firstly, we need more intel. We need to find out how many men they have total, and how armed they are. We go in there unarmed, and we use that to buy some time. I know Tigran—he’s a dramatic fucker. He’ll want to drag it out, make me suffer. Popov is useless. Frankly, he spent his whole life failing upward. We need to buy some time and create a hell of a distraction.”
“How do we do that?”
He grins, and it’s got that crazy fucking edge about it, the one I’ve not seen in some time. “We fight one another.”
“What?”
“Yeah. I get all fucking emo, cry about how could you do this to me when I loved you like a brother. You say that I’d have done the same thing. I deny it, and we fight. Make it look fucking brutal, and I bet their men will come watch. Enough of them that things will be lax. That’s when our guys will be