Chapter 5 - The Syndicate Strikes
I didn't tell Elise about the syndicate. She had enough trauma to unpack without worrying about Eastern European hitmen.
We went back to our quiet suburban home that evening. Elise was exhausted but lighter. She actually laughed while we cooked dinner together, a genuine, beautiful sound I had rarely heard.
Around 9:00 PM, the motion sensor on my phone chimed.
I was drying a plate in the kitchen. I glanced at the screen. The hidden perimeter cameras I had installed around the property caught movement in the backyard, near the tree line. Two men in dark clothing, carrying suppressed weapons.
The Volkovs didn't waste time. Arthur must have used his one phone call to scream for help, and they had sent a cleanup crew to eliminate the witnesses.
“Elise,” I said, my voice perfectly calm. “I need you to go into the basement. Now.”
She froze, seeing the sudden shift in my eyes. The accountant was gone. The operator was back.
“Liam, what is it?”
“Just a minor complication,” I said, opening a hidden compartment beneath the kitchen island and pulling out a matte-black Glock 19. “Go to the basement, lock the steel door, and do not come out until I say so.”
She didn't argue. She ran.
I turned off the kitchen lights, plunging the house into darkness. I slipped out the side door into the cool night air, moving silently across the grass. Ten years in the field meant my body remembered the rhythm of a hunt.
I flanked the two men as they approached the back patio. They were amateurs, moving too loudly, relying on their guns rather than their senses.
I stepped out from behind the oak tree.
Before the first man could raise his rifle, I drove the butt of my pistol into his temple. He dropped like a stone. The second man spun around, but I was already inside his guard. I swept his legs, grabbed his wrist, and twisted it until the bone popped. He dropped his gun with a muffled scream.
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I pressed my boot into his chest and aimed my weapon at his face.
“Tell Volkov he sent boys to do a man's job,” I hissed. “And tell him if he ever comes near my house again, I won't just freeze his accounts. I’ll burn his entire operation to the ground.”
