Page 32 of Bratva Prince
“Dimitri...”
The single word stopped him cold.Something was wrong.He heard the tension and urgency immediately.The fear she was trying to suppress.A gunshot exploded through the phone.
The sound was deafening.Metal screamed.Someone shouted.Then the line went dead.For a second Dimitri simply stared at the phone.The world seemed to stop.His pulse slammed against his ribs.Not again.Not her.
“Dimitri?”Alexei’s voice cut through the haze.
His brother had already risen from his chair.Dimitri looked up.The expression on his face must have revealed something because every man in the room immediately went silent.
“Sofia’s in trouble,” he whispered.
Alexei narrowed his eyes.“What happened?”Alexei demanded.
“I don’t know.”He hated the lack of information, but at the very least, Dimitri was already moving.The chair crashed backward behind him.
“I heard gunfire,” he heard himself.
The room instantly erupted into motion.The investor wisely chose not to ask questions.Alexei grabbed his jacket.
“Go to your wife,” Alexei said.
Dimitri didn’t need to be told twice.
“Sofia’s tracker.”One of the security specialists was already pulling up information on a tablet.The Volkov family tracked all protected vehicles.It was standard procedure.Normally Dimitri barely thought about it.Now it felt like the only thing keeping him sane.
A flashing dot appeared on the map, and it wasn’t moving.His stomach dropped.A stationary vehicle was rarely good news.Alexei swore when he glanced at the screen.
“I’ll send backup,” Alexei said.
Dimitri nodded, grateful for Alexei’s quick thinking, then he headed for the door.Every second mattered, and right now, he couldn’t afford to panic.
****
The black SUV torethrough traffic.Dimitri sat in the back seat with a rifle across his lap.Three armed men occupied the vehicle with him.
Nobody spoke—there was no need to.The tension inside the SUV felt suffocating.The tracker continued blinking on the screen mounted beside the driver.Still stationary.Dimitri hated it.
His mind kept supplying possibilities, none of them good.He saw Sofia laughing at him over breakfast.Sofia rolling her eyes whenever he became overprotective, and Sofia standing in the doorway of his room after shooting the assassin.Finally, Dimitri pictured Sofia curled against him in bed.
The memories hit harder than any bullet ever could, because for the first time he understood exactly what was at stake.Not the alliance or politics, simply her.His wife.The realization made something savage twist inside his chest.
The driver accelerated harder.The city blurred outside the windows.The tracker drew closer.
Five minutes, three, two, then...Gunfire.The sharp crack of automatic weapons echoed through the air.Dimitri snapped his head toward the sound. Dimitri’s head snapped toward the sound.His pulse surged.
“That’s them,” he said, recognizing the vehicle in the distance.
The SUV rounded a corner.Everything happened at once.The crash site came into view.An overturned sedan lay crumpled against a utility pole.Glass glittered across the road.Smoke drifted upward.
Several armed men exchanged gunfire behind nearby vehicles.Finally—there—Dimitri spotted one of his own loyal men immediately.It was Victor, Sofia’s assigned driver.The man crouched behind an engine block, firing methodically toward a group of attackers.
Relief slammed into Dimitri.Victor was alive, which meant there was still hope.Then he recognized the attackers.Orlov soldiers.At least six of them, maybe more.Rage exploded through him.The bastards really had tried again.
“Move!”he ordered.
The SUV hadn’t fully stopped before Dimitri was out the door.His men followed, weapons raised.Their training had taken over.One of the Orlov gunmen spotted them first, but too late.Dimitri fired, and the man’s head snapped backward.He dropped instantly.
Another attacker turned, but Dimitri put two rounds through his chest.A third disappeared behind cover.The road erupted into chaos.Bullets shredded metal, and glass exploded.Men shouted, but Dimitri advanced relentlessly.
