Sean: you're needed back in Russia, your grace.
Her heart sank. Only one person called her that. When she was a child, she would love it when he used that nickname and he never stopped. As she grew, she started to hate the name when her uncle started using it in a condescending tone.
She rushed to call her brother, but there was no answer. Her uncle's got them. She figured to go after Sean first since he couldn't defend himself as well as Alex and he couldn't have gotten too far since he was just here. She strapped a whole arsonal to her body under her clothes, and ran out to the car, speeding to Sean's house.
There was a hole in the door where it was kicked in. all the furniture was pushed around where they fought and bullets in the ceiling where shots were fired, but only to intimidate. They wanted him alive. He was bait for her. She ran throughout the house to see if there was anything else that could aid in the search, but only the living room was affected. He was easy to take. A plunge of guilt weighed on her heart. If only they were more effective during practice he could have lasted longer. If only i opened the FUCKING door! She was so furious, she punched a hole in his wall, letting out a frustrated scream.
The fact that they wanted him alive didn't make her feel any better. But what did was the fact that there was heavy resistance. She went into the living room, looking at how everything was splayed out. If he was easy prey, the furniture wouldn't have been moved around like that, showing that he lasted some time before they took him. As she was about to walk out, something shining caught her attention. There was a syringe laying on the floor. Protocol states that this should be picked up immediately to avoid evidence. They had to revert to tranquilizers. She was so impressed with Sean, she couldn't help the smile that spread across her face.
"I guess you aren't totally incompatant." she said into the empty room. One last scan, and she was out. She called her brother a few more times, but no one would answer.
That message played over and over in her head. She wasn't just mad. She was murderous. She went to the airport, making a beeline to the ticketing machine getting herself a first class ticket and she was on the plane within fifteen minutes. The flight was dreadfully long and the closer she was to being back home, the more anxious she was. Her uncle has taken her brother and friend- a civilian, she corrected herself. Right now, he's nothing more than a civilian. Emotions get you killed. Clear head, controlled attacks. She was out for blood.
For the rest of the flight, the only thing that kept her from going insane was thinking up a plan. First she will get her men, and take them hidden and protected. Then her and Alex will look for her uncle and she will have her kill. And anyone who gets in her way or shows any sign of treachery will share his fate.
Once she landed, she hotwired the fastest car she could find, and sped to the prisoners' house. Her family had bought a house in the middle of nowhere to keep all their prisoners so that even if they were to escape, they wouldn't know where they were. Now, only her, her brother and uncle knew their way around. She parked a mile away from the forest surrounding the house, and made her way, hopping from branch to branch towards the prisoners.
She canvased the building, no one but the live-in guards were roaming the property. From what she could see, only one was missing. Probably with Alex and Sean. she swung from one branch to another, until she landed on a windowsill only she knew held a broken window.
Once she was in, she grabbed the rope from a curtain, feeling like she might need it.
She carefully walked down to the basement, trying not to think of how disappointing the surveillance team was. She almost had to casually walk to the basement, until she saw the men tied up into chairs. Alex was awake and fuming, and Sean was still passed out. Probably just got here. She took a look round the basement to see what she could use.
There were the normal ten cells with concrete walls separating them. Otherwise the basement looked like what you would imagine a shady warehouse looked like. It was large and concrete with a few low quality lamps hanging from covered wires, to disorient the prisoners. They were high bearing, so they didn't swing too much, but god, did she hate it here. She gently walked on the overhead cattwalk where her family would look down and what was happening below them. Thankfully, the lights were shit and she was hidden by darkness. The attention was brought back from her disgust in the place when she heard Sean groan, as he woke up. He tried to move his arms, but when he saw they were tied to his chair, he started looking around frantically. She was standing behind him, she couldn't see his face, but that wasn't that important to her .
"What the fuck?" he was still groggy, but still aware of his surroundings.
"Welcome to the land of the living" Alex grumbled, clearly annoyed. Annya couldn't help the victorious feeling rising up in her chest as she heard her brother's voice in person. She knew those two songs had relevance to their situation and she was right all along, making her smile to herself as she leaned on the railings to get a better look at what she would be working with.
"Who are you? Where are we?" Annya dragged her hand down her face in frustration. Sean really didn't know how to shut up.
"American. Great" Annya held her temple, frustrated at the both of them. One was dangerously curious, the other was dangerously arrogant. I'm in a house full of complete morons.
"Gentlemen" a man in an expensive black suit greeted as he walked up to the boys. She couldn't stand how she wasn't able to place the name to the voice, but didn't let that cloud her thoughts.
"Bruno" Alex responded in distaste. Bruno was one of the higher ranking members, but never high enough to go to any meetings. He was always a bitch with his constant complaining and always thinking he was more threatening than he is.
"Long live the king. Isn't that what they always say right before they kill him off?" Bruno asked as he paced in between the men.
"Why am I here? I'm just a college kid." Sean was still groggy but becoming a bit more aware by the minute.
If this guy doesn't shut the hell up.
Bruno stopped to look at Sean then bent down his long slender body to be at eye level with Sean. there was amusement in his eyes.
"Look at the man in front of you." Bruno said, walking to Sean's side while he pointed at Alex. "Does he look familiar to you?" Sean looked Alex up and down, trying to place his face while Alex did the same. When neither of them responded, Bruno let out an exasperated sigh, walking around to behind Alex. he gathered the long pieces of Alex's dark hair on the top of his head and aggressively held it out of his face, and placed a free hand over his eyes. Alex never went anywhere without looking immaculate. By the state of his hair draping over his forehead and around the perimeter of where his fade ended, Annya assumed that he'd been here only a day or two. Not bad. Sean looked at him again, shaking his head one more time.
"We don't know each other." Alex yelled, with his head being pulled back by his hair. Bruno pushed his head back as he let his hair go in frustration.
"You're right. You don't. But you do, however-" he was cut off by his phone ringing. "Hold that thought" he said, his frustration only piling on. Annya rolled her eyes at the pathetic exchange between the morons, but took this opportunity to tie the rope on the railing and the other end around her waist.
She quietly climbed up, lowering herself gently upside down, until she caught her brother's attention and winked, to playfully let him know she was here for the rescue like they always have been for each other.
Once he saw her, his eyes twinkled with mischief as the side of his mouth drew up. Sean saw his expression, and gave him a look of confusion, but Annya was already back up and running to position herself behind Bruno, taking out her knife, already knowing how she would take him out.
"Alright. Where was i?" he asked after he hung up the phone.Ah. Yes. your mutual friend" he said excitedly like he knew a just secret no one else did, but what bothered Annya the most was that that was exactly what was happening.
Now she is just waiting for her que, deciding to hold off, to make an entrance. Now that she was in her element, she let herself have some fun. She missed her dramatic side. She was never able to be completely herself in the states,
"John-," Bruno started but Sean interrupted him with the correction of his name, but got a back handed slap in return. Yeah. sure. a mobster knocked you out, dragged you across the ocean and tied you to a chair, and you got upset with the slight mispronunciation of your name. She rolled her eyes.
"Don't speak until I allow you to" Bruno said it like it was just a casual comment and Sean spit out blood on the floor beside him in distaste. Annoyed, Bruno grabbed Sean's hair, roughly whipping his head around with it to get his attention. Annya knew there was nothing to worry about, but at the end of the day, she knew Sean could never survive against one of her people. Even someone as low a level as Bruno Bean, as she had always used to call him. A smile crept to her face at the memories of how furious he would get every time she used it in front of him.
"Uhg. How dense can a person be?" Bruno was pacing back and forth in frustration.
"Stop playing Games, Bruno Bean, this isn't fun anymore." Annya groaned into a corner, making her voice sound like it was coming from the other side of the room. Alex and her used to play with those corners a lot when they were younger, and their parents allowed them, since it would confuse their prisoners. She looked back, seeing her brother unable to hold the smile off his face seeing his sister implement their past to play with her food.
When Bruno turned his back to her to see where the sound was coming from, Annya took the chance and on one quick move, dropped down, into a piggy-back, holding Bruno's pampered hair in one hand, and the other held a knife to his throat. She pulled his head up to get a better target and sliced open in jugular before he could react, throwing his body to the side.
"YAH! THAT'S MY GIRL!" Alex cheered on, as Annya excitedly ran to him, shushing him, unable to hide her own laugh like she didn't just kill a man she grew up with. As they had their little reunion, Sean was staring in shock trying to process what he just saw. Annya took the bloody knife and tore off Alex's ropes, handing him one of her guns, and as she went to Sean's side, she stopped at the look of terror in his eyes.
"Hey, I'm just gonna untie you and get you home, okay? " she asked softly as she slowly walked over to him and crouched so they could be at eye level. When he didn't react, she kneeled in front of him, slapping him as hard as she could, in hopes that he would get a large surge of adrenalin.
"OW! WHAT THE HELL?!" he whispered. At least he knew that they needed to stay quiet.
"Listen, I have a car outside, but to make it there, we have to fight our way out, do you understand?" she asked, trying to keep the urgency out of her voice.
"You just killed someone" was all he could muster.
"We will talk about it later. Can you handle this?" Annya looked in his eyes to make sure he was okay
"I'm not killing anyone."
"Oh, dear god, we'll never make it out of here. Annya, let's just go" Alex said, looking towards the exit. To which she shot him a look.
"No. casualties." she deadpanned. They have had this argument many times.
"Why? Who is he to you?" Alex asked, catching on to the fact that they know each other.
"I don't do casualties" she repeated shortly before looking back to Sean who was still confused, but trying to hold it together.
"If I untie you, will you run out of here screaming?" she asked, her voice still soft. Sean took a breath to calm himself, then shook his head. Annya gave him a small reassuring smile before she cut off his ropes.
"Aren't you gonna give him a weapon?" Alex asked, pointing to Sean.
"He works better with his hands than a weapon." Then she looked at Sean to make sure he was okay. He was looking right back at her with determination in his eyes that if she were to admit, looked really sexy on him. She had to look away to stay focussed, and her eyes immediately landed on her brother.
"There are ten guys stationed around the mansion. It's been 3 minutes since he took that call and proved he's alive, leaving us with 18 minutes before they find out something's wrong. If we play our cards right, we won't have any contact, but we'll have to work as a unit. Understood?" Annya was always a natural leader, since she was always in charge of missions. Sean nodded, but Alex only stared at her.
"Alex, we don't have time for this petty shit right now. Get your shit together before your pride gets us all killed!" she whispered. After a second of them staring at each other, Alex, reluctantly complied.
"Sean, you don't have to kill anyone, but you will have to knock them out then let one of us know."
"Where you will kill them." Sean breathed out, still trying to wrap his head around what he had just witnessed.
"You've gotta be fucking kidding." Alex quietly groaned.
"Don't start with me." she scolded, giving both men a look to make sure they were all on the same page at least until they got in the car.
Annya was leading the way, and Alex was flanking the group, leaving Sean in the middle. He hated feeling like he had to be looked out for but he didn't have a choice. They didn't need to be careful when they walked from one wall to the next, but they did hide behind them until both Annya said it was clear. She led them to the balcony where she had entered, motioning for them to climb in the tree. Alex went without hesitation, but Sean was having some trouble before he started getting the hang of it by their third tree, but they still had to move slowly to give him a chance to catch up and Alex wasn't too subtle with his irritation, and Annya had to send him a few threats, before turning back to help her friend.
Once they made it far enough away, they ran to the car. With Annya in the driver seat and Alex beside her while Sean was starting to look sick in the back as she drove. Annya would look in the rearview mirror to check on him.
"Who is he?" Alex finally asked
"Good luck. Getting answers from her is like pulling out a kneecap with your hands." Sean responded, his voice strained. Annya smiled at the fact that he was starting to get back to how he normally is.
"The trainor you hired. I guess uncle's people saw us training together and thought they could use him to get me here." Alex looked at her skeptically, then back at Sean who looked like he was gonna throw up any minute.
"What do you mean uncle? He doesn't have anything to do with it" Alex said, confused. Annya looked at him, finally furious, remembering the clues she sent him and him responding by waving her off. "Uncle was supposed to be second in command when father died, but he knew dad would put you and me ahead of him. If he were to kill you, he would have to kill me too. But if he only killed me, you would be so filled with grief, you'd take the mob down and get voted out, leaving him in charge." Annya explained like it was obvious.
"Wait. mob?" Sean asked, but no one responded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~