Merciless Union by Faith Summers

46

Lucca

Ican see the door to the old factory I’m supposed to go into.

This is the address Raphael gave me. It’s typical that he’d be here in the roughest parts of the docks where people smuggle all kinds of shit through the shipping companies who use this port.

The large wooden door roughly a hundred yards away from me is surrounded by a metal gate with two guards on the outside with guns.

There are a fuck ton of guards stationed around the place, and I’m sure there will be the same amount inside.

I’m supposed to be at the gate in five minutes.

Raphael gave me one hour to get here, and it took thirty-five minutes to get from my house on my bike.

The meager time he gave me was an obvious tactic to make sure I had no chance to get help. I’m certain he’d know I wouldn’t be stupid enough not to try. What he would have been right about, however, is the lack of time I would have had to come up with a solid plan to take him down.

What I have now is a wing and a prayer.

Aiden and a combined team of his men and mine are a quarter-mile away near a warehouse owned by one of his allies. We’re just over a hundred men strong that would eradicate anybody if we had more time to come up with a better infiltration plan.

By the time we rallied everybody together, I had ten minutes left to come up with a plan, I’m still trying to figure out. I just hope I don’t fuck things up.

The fucking plan I have so far is to let Raphael think I’ve come alone, as per his wishes.

Aiden has Eric trying to set up some surveillance, and I’m wired up with a communicator that also has a camera on it so they can see what I see.

I wouldn’t play by anybody’s rules if this were just about me. I’d be the reckless motherfucker I am and ride my bike right through those gates killing anything that moved in sight. But this is the first time I’ve had to worry about staying alive to keep those I love from dying.

Everything has been done as carefully as possible, but I feel like I’m walking to my death.

I don’t expect to come out of here alive, but if by some miracle I make it, I promise myself that life will be different.

I will do everything differently to savor life and make sure I give Aria and the baby the life they deserve.

I’ll love my wife, and I’ll love the life we have together.

I’ll be a leader unlike any other in the Vory, and I will represent every Dyshekov who has gone before me and never had a chance to have the life they should have had.

“Stay focused, Merciless,” Aiden says in the concealed earpiece I have tucked in my ear. The thing is micro like a speck but packs a punch. It’s some undetectable tech Eric rigged up.

“I wish I had more time to come up with a plan,” I mutter, moving my lips slowly so as not to look like I’m talking to anyone.

I’m close enough to the gates that the guards can see me coming. In a minute, I’m sure they’ll be able to see my lips moving if I continue talking.

“We have to just play this by ear. Eric just tapped into their surveillance so he can see what’s happening. Just keep going.”

“Thanks for your help. Aiden, this might be the last time we speak. Thanks for being a friend to me, Pakhan.”

“Don’t you fucking dare say goodbye to me. Just focus on saving your family. They need you.”

Family.

There was only me for so long. I’m the last Dyshekov left in the whole bloodline. But now I’m not. That’s something worth fighting for.

Aria and the baby need me, so I can’t say goodbye to anybody just yet.

“Lucca,” that’s Eric now. I don’t like the air of panic in the tone of his voice. “Brace yourself. Raphael has Aria tied to a pole in a tank of water. It looks like he’s trying to drown her. You’ll see her the moment you get through the doors.”

Panic writhes through me a hundredfold, hastening my steps. I want to run in there, guns blazing, and kill that bastard.

I hate when I’m fucking right. “Jesus,” I mutter, unable to answer properly in case I give myself away. I’m right by the guards now.

“Whatever you do, Lucca, do it quickly,” Aiden comes back on. “We’ll be ready to move in, just try and deal with Raphael and the men inside for as long as you can while we clear the guys outside. We’re right behind you.”

I walk up to the guards with my hands up, and they point their weapons at me.

“Check him,” the tallest one with a hideous wart on his cheek says to the other guy.

The other guy has a mullet and looks like someone picked him from one of those sitcoms from the seventies.

He’d look more at home with a shotgun, and a hunting coat than the biker jacket that doesn’t suit him and a machine-gun he looks like he doesn’t know how to use.

He comes up to me and checks me. He will find nothing. All I’m holding is the envelope with the company documentation and Aria’s legal guardianship. That’s it.

Anything I will be using as a weapon will be what I commandeer once I get inside.

I wish he would fucking hurry up. Anything could have happened to Aria.

Eventually, mullet-guy finishes his search and clears me for entry.

The two usher me past the row of guards who sneer at me, then we go through the doors of the factory, and that’s when I see what Eric told me to brace myself for.

I don’t think anything could have, however, prepared me for the sight before me.

I think the factory must have been some type of chemical factory years ago because the tank Raphael has placed Aria in looks like some kind of vat for mixing something.

It’s metal with a glass window that allows me to see her. She really is tied to a pole, and the water is right at her chin. Or more like she’s lifting her head, so her chin is just above the water.

With her body immobile, she doesn’t stand a chance.

Our eyes lock, and I don’t know what the fuck I’m supposed to do. I was right. In my periphery, I can see there are the same amount of guards in here as outside. To get to her, I’d have to fight through all of them.

The same callous laughter I heard on Damien’s phone earlier echoes around the room, and Raphael steps out from the corner where the guards are the heaviest.

“Look at this, my have the tables turned,” he says with a mocking smirk.

“I should have known you’d lie. You aren’t going to let her go, are you?” I spit.

“There’s been a slight tweak to the plan. Since your beloved killed Pasha and put a dent in my business plans, I thought it would be more fun for you to try to save her.”

Aria killed Pasha? Fuck.

It’s good, even though I wanted to do it. Maybe this was how it was meant to work out so she could get her own retribution.

“And what makes you think I’m just going to hand over the documents now that you’ve done this?”

More laughter spills from his lips when he holds out a remote and presses a button.

To my fucking horror, the pole Aria was on goes deeper into the water, and now she’s covered and gasping for air.

She’s going to die.

“No!” I push forward, but the guards hold me back.

“There’s your answer, Merciless. I’ll give you the remote if you hand over the documents. What’s it going to be?”

“Yes,” I hiss.

The guards release me so I can go to him with the envelope.

As I walk, I wish I could kill his ass right here. My eyes dart to Aria. I can tell the water has filled up her lungs, and she’s drowning.

I practically shove the envelope in Raphael’s hands. When I put mine out to get the remote, he shakes his head, and the guards beside him raise their guns at me.

“Got to check everything is in order first.” Raphael reaches for his reading glasses and opens the envelope. When he starts a casual perusal over the first document like he has all the fucking time in the world, I growl and raise my fists.

“She’s fucking dying!” I shout.

“So it would appear.” Ignoring me, he casts Aria a glance then goes back to looking at the paperwork.

All hope dies in me when I look at Aria again and see she’s stopped moving.

“We’re moving in, Lucca,” Aiden says in my earpiece. “Just get her out of there.”

Raphael clears his fucking throat and nods. “This looks like it’s in order here.” The fucker then lifts the remote and taps the button, but nothing happens. The device Aria is on does nothing. “Well damn, maybe the batteries ran out.”

Raphael tosses the remote to the ground and shrugs. Like a wild animal, I lunge for him, but the guards block my path.

Outside, bullets start to fly. A sign that my backup has arrived.

“Looks like you broke your end of the deal too.” Raphael shakes his head

“No more than you have.”

“Kill him,” Raphael orders. “And harvest the organs for sale when you’re done. Put his with hers.”

The guards protect Raphael, allowing him to walk away, but I don’t wait to jump into action. I can’t wait. There is no time left.

I might not have time on my side anymore.

As bullets fly toward me, I grab the nearest guy as a shield and allow him to take every bullet intended for me.

Taking his gun, I shoot the guards before me. They all go down together at the same time. The door behind me bursts open, and Aiden and his men come in.

They clear the men rushing to me with more guns, allowing me a safe passage to Aria.

I grab a knife from one of the dead bodies on the ground near her and climb up the vat as fast as I can. I jump in, swimming to her still form and slash the rope free from her wrists.

Her body is deathly cold, and she already feels like she’s no longer in this world. Like she’s already left me and gone to the other side.

She feels like death has claimed her.

“No,” I mutter. “Aria, please no.”

This can’t be it. It can’t be. She said so herself, we keep finding each other, so this can’t be another sign that we aren’t meant to be.

This would be the fucking ultimate sign of all and my worst nightmare. The thing I kept trying to stop.

As I hoist her over my shoulder and swim back with her, I remember the damn plan to take everything from Raphael. Everything precious from him.

Look at how it backfired on me.

What I thought was precious to him wasn’t at all.

It was me Aria was precious to. It was always me.

Aiden is standing by the edge, ready to help me get her out. I take a second to note that his men have taken down the guards inside, and there are dead bodies everywhere.

He takes her from me while I climb out then we lay her on the ground.

Because she’s not breathing, I check her pulse first, and when I don’t feel that, I start CPR straight away. Sirens wail in the distance like they did days ago.

Days ago, she’d fainted from the high blood pressure. This is different, and I don’t know what damage could have already been done for the lack of oxygen to her brain and to the baby.

The thought makes me pump harder on my compressions and rescue breaths.

“Aria, come on. Please come back. Don’t leave me,” I shout at her tiny frame.

Don’t leave me.

That’s all I wanted to say to her all these long weeks and, if I’m honest, years.

As Raphael drove away with her on that fateful night fifteen years ago, I wanted to tell her not to leave me then.

It’s her birthday again, and here I am, wishing the same.

Nothing is happening. Aiden puts his hand on mine and holds my hand down.

“Lucca, I’m sorry,” he whispers.

“No, let me go.” I shake his hand free and lower to her ear. “Aria, please come back. You’re going to be a mother. We’re having a baby. We have so much to live for, finally. Please. I need you to breathe. Breathe for me. Please, don’t leave me.”

Deciding I’m not fucking giving up, I go back to the compressions and rescue breaths. I do two sets, and on the final one, I shout and push down so hard on her chest I think I might have broken her. But the water sprays out of her mouth, and as I watch her gasp for air, I thank God and all his angels for keeping death from taking her away from me.

Her eyes flutter open, and her lips move, but no words come out.

“You’re okay,” I tell her.

“I’m sorry,” she rasps.

“No, don’t worry.”

Three paramedics rush to her side, taking over while others go to the injured and dead.

“What happened?” The older paramedic asks me. He’s a tall, balding man who looks like he’s been doing this all his life.

“My wife is pregnant,” I say first, so he knows to move fast. My words have the desired effect. I quickly fill him in on what happened as the other two hoist Aria onto a stretcher.

“We have to take her in now,” the paramedic says.

“Okay, yes.” I’m still in so much shock I feel like I’m on autopilot.

Aiden and I follow them as they take her out of the building and place her in the ambulance.

“Lucca, you still have a chance to get Raphael,” Eric says in my earpiece, and I’m pulled right back to reality at the mention of that name.

“Where is he?” I seethe, and Aiden looks at me.

“On the roof, there’s a helicopter about to land and take him.”

Fuck,I can hear it coming.

With Aria safe, I don’t wait for another word. I run to the set of stairs on the side of the building, taking a gun from the dead guard on the ground. Fueled with revenge and rage, I rush up the stairs taking them three at a time until I get up to the roof.

There the motherfucker is ahead of me. He’s about a hundred yards ahead. Raphael sees me coming and waves the helicopter down.

It lands, and he jumps in.

I’m too far away, and he has the privilege of wings. If I run, I won’t make it in time. The only hope I have is to try and shoot him from long range.

So I stop and home in on one of the many important lessons my father taught me.

Focus on what you want most and take it. If you fail, then you didn’t really want it in the first place.

That’s what he said to me. I remember those words now. They ring through my head as I watch Raphael get away.

Everything bad that happened to me started with him.

What I want most right now is to end him. Finish him. Eradicate him.

I have a clear shot from where I’m standing, so I aim the gun at him as the helicopter rises. His eyes rivet to me in anticipation.

I don’t waste time. I cock the hammer and pull the trigger firing the bullet and pray I don’t fail.

When the bullet lodges into his head and I watch him go down, triumph overwhelms me.

I did it. I ended him. It’s done now.

But my worries aren’t over yet.

I can’t savor any accomplishment until I know my girl and my baby are okay.