Their Rivalry

47

Try me. I. Dare. You.

London, England ~ Ava's POV

"So..." Bella begun, "What's the plan?"

She was trying so hard to mask a grin with a serious expression. I could only imagine what was going through her mind right now. Unlike the last safehouse we'd been to, the rooms in this safehouse weren't soundproof, a fact I had forgotten. She probably heard it all, every scream, moan, and grunt.

Bloody hell! I wished at the moment that the floor would open up and swallow me whole.

I had put my phone on silent because knowing her, she'd probably made me a hot topic on our girls only group chat. Ellie would be blowing up my phone with texts and calls, asking for details, and Cami would be appalled.

Camilla had earlier expressed that she disapproved of the temporary collaboration with Bratva. She hated Vladimir with every bone in her body. Her words, not mine. His family was the reason for the deaths of her parents.

"Well, I'll really love to use this sometime. Preferably on American skin." Vlad said, holding up a custom made branding iron he pulled out from the bag of weapons. It had the bold inscription, 'Inferno sulla Terra' on it.

"And where the hell did you get that?" Bella asked sceptically.

"Does it matter? I like it." I commented, and reached out for the handle.

He let me have it, and fuck! It was heavier than I'd expected. I shouldn't have expected any less since the thing was large enough to take up the skin on the back of half an upper body.

"Okay!" Bella exclaimed, then clapped her hands once to draw our attention, "Seems like we're all on the same page here, but to bring pain to the Nightshade we need to capture them first. So, what's the fucking plan?"

"Right." I agreed, and put away the branding the iron. "We'll head out for the pub tomorrow; we need to be the first customers to arrive there. Maddison is supposed to have killed an innocent by nightfall. We need to capture her before then.

Once we spot her, Isabella you'll go into sniper assassin mode while Vlad gets her to pick him as a target. I'll take her out when she's focused on killing Vlad. If I fail in that, Isabella you'll take a shot from above. It's either you wound her or kill her, whichever you'll see fit for the situation. But she'd be very much useful to us with breath in her lungs."

"Got it, wound her not kill her." Bella smiled cynically, snatched an apple from the fruit bowl, and left us in the kitchen.

"Remind me to gag you next time." I told Vlad before turning towards the fridge. My stomach had been tightening and grumbling from hunger.

"All I heard was there'll be a next time." Vlad teased, "I'll eat a bit of whatever you're about to whip up." He informed while he reached out for some grapes.

I prepared a fairly large tin of toad in the hole. The delicious scent of golden brown baked sausages in light crispy Yorkshire pudding filled the kitchen once I opened the oven door. When I'd taken off my oven mittens, I realised Vlad had gotten up to set the table. In no time, Bella too was in the kitchen.

"God, it smells even better than it did in my sleep." She commented, moving towards me to have a look.

"What is it?" She asked.

I was surprised she asked that. Huh, maybe my aunt didn't introduce her to all her favourite delicacies.

"Toad in the hole." Vlad answered.

Most of his life had been spent in England, pretending to be a bodyguard to the English mafia heiress. He was well abreast of most of the English dishes.