"What’s behind that door?" Angelo had to ask, he had been following blindly all this time, he deserved an explanation or two.
Nikolai glanced at him, "A tunnel, or a dead end."
Angelo was used to the Mafia King being completely calm in the face of death, "Right," He muttered, starting to wonder if he really wanted to keep working for the madman.
Sitting in the living room watching cartoons all day was starting to look more appealing as time went by. But if he did that, Nikolai might go off and die without him, so he was stuck with the Mafia King.
Literally, Nikolai hadn’t eased his grip on his wrist even slightly.
"Well, are we finding out or not?" Angelo asked after they did nothing but stand in front of the door for a few minutes.
They still spoke in hushed tones, they weren’t supposed to be down here after all, much less all the way here.
"There’s people behind the door," Nikolai supplied.
Angelo still didn’t get it, when had that ever stopped him from doing whatever the fuck he wanted? "And?"
"I want one of them alive."
Now Angelo understood, it was difficult and more dangerous not to go for killing blows, especially when they were on a time crunch.
"How many are in there?" Angelo found himself asking, although realistically, the Mafia King shouldn’t know.
Angelo’s pale eyes lit up at his words, "If it’s just two, we can do it. Just aim for the arms."
Nikolai stared at him cryptically, he had been thinking about how to do it all alone. He wasn’t ambidextrous, if he dual-wielded guns, the chance that every one would be dead was pretty high.
It wasn’t that he underestimated Angelo’s abilities, he was just used to working alone, but the slender wrist in his hold reminded him that he wasn’t.
He didn’t bother giving a verbal response, reluctantly letting go of Angelo to kick the door down.
As soon as his foot connected, he was blown back, the wooden door exploding into splinters that were fast and deadly.
Nikolai was only momentarily stunned, it meant that he got a front view to Angelo getting thrown past him like a rag doll.
Jael sat back in the cab, it was a cloudy afternoon, a gentle chill in the air that would soon turn biting. Winter was coming.
It would have been his first winter with Lucy. The thought made the clouds appear darker, the air colder.
Jael had asked the cab driver to just drive around downtown. His gaze was out the window but he was staring at nothing.
It had been well over six months since he lost her, it was already far longer than the time they had spent together.
All of that time had passed, he had given up on cigs, and thinking about her no longer felt like shooting himself in the chest.
They had barely been together for a month, and sometimes it felt like he was the only one deeply in love. Because although Lucy had never said it, he could feel that she would leave after all of her debt was paid off.
As someone who lived most of her life in the dangerous parts of downtown Haines, what she wanted more than anything was to live in a quiet town with a proper Alpha leading it.
He didn’t come out here to reminisce but when they drove past the charred structure of the church, he told the cab to stop and hopped down, paying his fare.
The base of gang he had wiped out had remained untouched. It was windowless and hulking, looking haunted in the light of the gloomy afternoon. The only parts of the roofing that was left was the parts made of stone slabs.
He stood in front of the doorless entrance for the longest time, staring into the gaping maw of the building. Slowly, one step at a time, he started up the black-stained steps, his shoulders the lightest they had been in months.
Blood dripped into Nikolai’s eyes, the wall behind him stopping his momentum while Angelo slid down the hallway.
Laughter came from inside the room that used to have a wooden door, it had an undertone of fear that even the happy emotion couldn’t completely hide.
Nikolai pushed away from the door, calmly striding in. The laughter was abruptly cut short, the leader of the drug gang dropping down with a bullet hole going right through his forehead.
Neither of the men in the room had been expecting Nikolai to recover so quickly, or even at all. The Mafia King had been the one to take most of the impact but he had just casually shrugged it off.
Before the second man could react, he was shot, his gun fell from his hand as the bones in his elbow shattered.
Nikolai didn’t waste any time, he needed to get to Angelo. He approached, gun drawn. "I want you to take a message back for me."
The man’s eyes were scrunched up from pain and fear, but they somehow managed to convey his shock. "You know."
The increasing amount of High Council plants in his turf was a nuisance but Nikolai had other goals for now.
"Tell Luis Caddel I’ve got business with him. He could come himself or wait till I find him." He went on without acknowledging the High Council spy’s words.
With that he turned around and left, going right to Angelo’s side. The assassin was slowly sitting up by the time he got to him, a hand to his head, his hair wild.
Nikolai crouched next to him, ignoring the explosions going off in the warehouse above them. "Are you alright?"
Angelo looked the Mafia King over, momentarily forgetting the pounding pain in his head. "I should be asking you that," He muttered, reaching out to wipe the blood still dripping down Nikolai’s eyes.
Splinters were lodged in his arms but he didn’t even seem to feel it. Angelo’s hand trembled slightly, he could more or less guess why Nikolai couldn’t feel pain, the scars on his body were a loud explanation.
"I’ll live," He finally gave an answer when it was clear that Nikolai was still waiting for one, self-consciously pulling his hands away after taking out every splinter he could see.