Chapter 7 - The Leverage
The plan was desperate, reckless, and our only option. We had to strike Alexei Volkov's heavily fortified compound in Brighton Beach before he could regroup. But as we were loading the armored SUVs in our secondary safehouse, my burner phone rang. It was a number I didn't recognize.
"Vincent Rossi," a thick, heavily accented voice rasped through the speaker. Alexei Volkov.
"You missed, Alexei," I said coldly. "Your hit squad is currently bleeding out on my expensive hardwood floors."
Alexei chuckled, a dry, humorless sound. "A minor setback. You are a dead man walking, Vincent. You killed Sergei. You executed your own men to hide it. Your empire is crumbling."
"I killed Marco because he was a traitor," I replied. "And I'm coming for you because you’re a cancer."
"Bold words," Alexei mused. "But I think you might want to delay your little crusade. You see, my men found something very interesting while doing background on Marco’s... indiscretions. We found out why he ran over that little girl."
My grip on the phone tightened. "Leave her out of this."
"Oh, she is already out of it," Alexei said cruelly. "But her father is not. Mr. Mateo Vasquez. Did you know he went to the police an hour ago? Ranting about mobsters and justice? The police thought he was crazy. But my men inside the precinct let me know."
Panic flared in my chest.
"I have a team outside his apartment right now, Vincent," Alexei whispered. "If you do not surrender yourself to me at the docks in one hour, Mateo Vasquez will join his daughter. I will make him watch as we burn his restaurant to the ground, and then I will skin him alive."
The line went dead.
I smashed the phone against the wall, shattering it into pieces. I was breathing heavily, the stress of the last four days finally threatening to crush me. I had promised Mateo justice. I had promised to protect him.
"Boss? What's wrong?" Tony asked, being patched up by our underground medic.
"They're going after Mateo," I said, my voice hollow. "Alexei is using him as leverage to get to me."
I looked down at Bruno. He was panting, his injured leg wrapped in bandages, but his eyes were sharp. He nudged my hand with his cold nose.
I had a choice. Surrender and die, hoping Alexei kept his word to spare a civilian (which he wouldn't). Or sacrifice Mateo for the greater good of winning the mob war.
I chose a third option.
"Tony, take half the men. Go to Queens. Secure Mateo Vasquez. If a single Russian breathing heavily looks at his apartment, you put a bullet in their eye. Do not let him die. That is your only objective."
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"And you?" Tony asked, looking alarmed. "You can't hit Alexei's compound with only half the crew!"
"I'm not hitting the compound," I said, grabbing a heavily modified assault rifle from the weapons crate. "I'm going to the docks. Alexei wants me to surrender. I'm going to give him exactly what he asked for. Just not the way he expects."
