CHAPTER 117: UNDER ATTACK! 2

The red light kept blinking. Fast.

Viktor moved first as he swiftly yanked open the bottom drawer of his desk, pulled out three handguns, and tossed one to Luka, one to Gerald.

The metal was cold and heavy.

Luka caught his easily, checked the magazine out of habit.

Gerald caught his with both hands, slower, but his fingers were steady.

Luka looked confused as he stared at his brother.

"What the..." Viktor didn’t answer him since he was busy checking his gun. Then, he stared at the old man. "Gerald... you sure you can use that? You’re..."

Viktor cut him off with a grin that didn’t reach his eyes. "Why do you think he wouldn’t be able to use it. Show him, Gerald."

Gerald didn’t speak. He just pulled the slide back (click-clack), checked the chamber, spun the gun once on his finger like it weighed nothing, and pointed it at the ceiling.

Luka raised both hands. "Okay, okay. I take it back. You’re terrifying."

Viktor was already at the computer, fingers flying over the keys. Security feeds popped up one by one.

Men in black tactical gear are moving through the east garden. Cutting the power lines. Blowing the side gate.

Viktor’s jaw tightened.

"Luka," he said, voice calm and sharp. "Find out who sent them. Grab one alive. Break him until he talks. I don’t care how."

Luka nodded once. "Got it."

"Gerald," Viktor continued, "take the kids. Lock the family wing. Barricade if you have to. Make sure no one gets near them."

Gerald rechecked his gun. "Understood, sir."

"I’ll go find Elias. They are either here because of me or him," Viktor handed them small earpieces. "Stay on comms. Go."

They moved.

The second the office door opened, the hallway was already loud: distant shouts, glass breaking, the first pop-pop-pop of gunfire.

Viktor went left, toward Elias’s room while Luka and Gerald went right. They all split up.

Viktor ran for about ten seconds before he got to the room. He kicked open Elias’s door, gun raised. His eyes scanned the whole place as he whispered Elias’s name. But it was empty.

The bed was made. Suitcases in the corner. No sign of Elias.

"Damn it," he hissed. "Where are you?"

He stepped back out, closed the door so hard that it bounced out of its lock and opened slightly.

Thirty seconds later, inside the same room, the bathroom door opened quietly.

Elias stepped out, towel around his neck, hair wet from a quick shower. He froze when he saw the empty room and the open door.

’That was one sweet bath,’ he muttered to himself and was about to grab something to wear when he heard a real gunshot downstairs.

His heart stopped. It was deafening. It wasn’t just one or two. It rang repeatedly. Without waiting for someone to tell him, he ran to the suitcase, opened it, and grabbed the gun case Viktor gave him yesterday. He pulled out the gun, breathing fast.

His hands trembled as he loaded it exactly like Viktor taught him. He stepped closer to his door and stared into the hallway.

He heard a louder gunshot and suddenly banged the door closed. He leaned against it immediately and covered his mouth.

"Lila... The twins. I hope they are safe."

.

.

Viktor was still looking for Elias. Two men in masks came around the corner. He shot the first in the knee (down), the second in the shoulder (down).

No kill shots yet.

He needed information so he kept moving.

His earpiece crackled.

Luka’s voice, out of breath: "Got one. It’s Moreau. Clara’s father sent them."

Viktor smirked as he turned another corner. "Thought so. Any more information?"

"I’m currently working on it. This guy’s stubborn. He would spill anything."

"Torture him harder."

"With pleasure, brother."

The line went quiet. Viktor sighed heavily as he ran his fingers through his hair.

’Just as I thought, he was the one who sent them. So, he’s after me. Thank goodness Elias is safe but... Where in the world is he?’

Viktor reached the bottom of the grand staircase and stopped.

Six men waited for him in the entrance hall, spread out in a loose half-circle.

They had no bullets left. They’d used them all outside and run dry. Now they held bats, metal pipes, knives they stole from the kitchen, and one guy even had a broken bottle.

The biggest one, face half-covered by a black mask, spat on the marble floor.

"That’s Viktor Drago," he muttered to the others. "The boss said he wants him dead or alive. Preferably dead."

Another laughed nervously. "Six against one. Easy money."

Viktor rolled his sleeves higher, slow and calm. Blood already dotted his white shirt from the two guards he’d dropped in the corridor.

He cracked his neck left, then right.

Then he smiled.

Not the warm smile he gave Elias. It had long disappeared when these men intruded on his home. The smile was cold and sharp.

"Come on then," he said quietly. "Six of you. Make it quick. I have to find him."

They charged immediately. The first man came high with a baseball bat, swinging for Viktor’s head.

Viktor stepped inside the swing, caught the bat with his left hand, and drove his right elbow straight into the man’s nose. His cartilage crunched. The guy dropped, blood spraying.

One down. Five to go.

The second and third came together, one with a pipe, one with a knife.

Viktor let go of the bat, spun low, and swept the pipe guy’s legs.

The man hit the marble hard. Viktor stomped on his wrist (crack), took the pipe.

The knife guy lunged. Viktor parried with the pipe, metal ringing, then hooked the man’s ankle and yanked. He fell forward. Viktor brought the pipe down across the back of his neck. Not hard enough to kill but hard enough to keep him down.

Two. Three. Three more to go.

The remaining three hesitated for half a second.

"Aren’t you coming?" He asked them, and they took one step backwards. "Fine. I’ll come to you."

Viktor moved.

He threw the pipe like a spear. It spun end over end and buried itself in the fourth man’s thigh. The man screamed and went to one knee.

Viktor closed the distance, grabbed a heavy crystal vase from the side table, and smashed it over the fifth guy’s head. Glass exploded. The man dropped unconscious before he hit the floor.

Four. Five.

The last man standing... he was the one with the broken bottle. He stepped back with his eyes wide open.

Viktor walked forward, slowly. The man swung the bottle wildly.

"Stay away! Don’t come closer!"

Viktor caught the wrist mid-air, twisted until bones snapped, then slammed the guy face-first into the wall. He didn’t get up.

Six.

Viktor exhaled deeply as he was done. It was a quick and easy fight but what made it difficult was the fact that he wasn’t trying to kill them. If he was going to kill them, it would have ended quickly.

He was about to leave when he found the one with the pipe in his thigh, crawling toward a fallen pistol.

Viktor stepped on his hand, ground his heel until fingers broke.

The man screamed.

Viktor crouched, grabbed him by the hair, and pulled his head back.

"Who sent you?" he asked, voice calm.

The man spat blood. "F-fuck you."

Viktor smiled again. "What an answer..."

He picked up the dropped pistol, pressed it under the man’s chin.

"Last chance. Who. Sent. You?"

"M-Moreau... and... and someone else... we don’t know who he is..."

Viktor knocked him out with the butt of the gun, then stood up.

The entrance hall looked like a war zone. Broken furniture. Blood streaks on white marble. Six bodies groaning or maybe, silent.

Viktor’s knuckles were split. Blood ran down his forearms. Some of it was his and most of it belonged to them.

He tapped his earpiece.

"Gerald, can you hear me. Are the kids okay?"

Gerald’s voice came back calm. "Yes, Master. We are locked in and it’s safe here. No one’s come close."

"Good. They’re not after the twins. They want me."

A small voice in the background and it belonged to Dante.

"Where’s Nanny?"

Viktor wiped blood from his eyebrow.

"Gerald, ask them where Elias might be."

Gerald repeated the question to them.

Lila’s voice, clear and annoyed. "His room, obviously."

"I checked," Viktor said. "He’s not there."

Lila again. "Did you check the bathroom, genius?"

Silence.

Viktor actually felt his face get hot in embarrassment.

Gerald laughed softly. "She’s Elias’s sister, sir."

Viktor exhaled. "I’m going back."

He turned to head upstairs.

Then...

BANG.

A single gunshot came from the second floor.

Viktor froze.

His earpiece crackled again.

Luka’s voice sounded like he was in a hurry as he panted.

"I’ve got a name. The second player working with Moreau..."

Viktor was already running up the stairs two at a time.

"Who?" he barked.

"Nathan Caldwell."

Another gunshot.

Viktor’s blood went cold.

"And... Nathan is inside the house," Luka said. "Right now."

Viktor reached the hallway and saw a body on the floor. one of his guards.

Fresh blood.

He looked up.

At the end of the hall, a tall figure in black stood outside Elias’s door.

With his hands raised and a mocking smile on his face.

Viktor’s heart stopped when he saw the person. The figure turned his head and smiled.

"The fuck..." Viktor was interrupted when Nathan raised one finger to his lips.

Shhh.