Protective Shadows (The Protective Series, Book 2)

Chapter Thirty-Six

[Asko's P.O.V]

"You!" I bellowed, seizing Dominik savagely by the front of his t-shirt. "You know him? You led us into this death trap, didn't you?!"

"Calm down," Izzy interjected, shoving us apart by our chests. He cast a brief warning gaze from me to Dominik, before he turned front-on to face him. "Is this true, what Asko is implying?"

Dominik narrowed his thin brown eyebrows in exasperation. "Of course not!" He exclaimed, taking a few steps back from Izzy. "Did you honestly expect me to betray you guys? Just because my brother did, that doesn't mean I'm going to!"

A loud shot rang out, piercing the heated altercation. Dominik and Izzy both snapped their heads up towards the thick wooden beam, where the masked man stood hovering his index finger over the trigger of his black revolver handgun. He reached up towards his chin, where the mask ended, and slowly pulled it up over his head, exposing his face to all four of us for the first time.

His cropped coffee brown hair was styled into a short quiff, and sitting on the bridge of his large nose was a pair of black square thick framed glasses, the lenses refracting small white squares of light from the overhead space. Dark brown facial hair collected at his chin, spreading into a thinner layer up the sides of his mouth, his upper lip and his jawline. He looked nothing at all like Janne, save for his dark brown eyes, but unlike his brother's, they were full of acidity and hatred.

"Now that I have your attention," Juha smirked, pocketing his weapon, "I would like to extend my gratitude to all four of you fine gentlemen and your beefy sidekick here for actually coming to me, rather than me having to chase you across the globe. It means a lot to me that you have all marched to your graves with dignity, and now I will repay you handsomely for your efforts."

He swivelled gracefully on top of the beam, signalling towards the east grey painted brick wall. I furrowed my eyebrows, thinking that he was clearly insane. The clicks of a dozen guns echoed throughout the vast space, and right before our eyes, twenty men dressed in black-clad gear emerged from the other two adjoining wooden beams. They lifted their snipers up to their chests, cocking the barrels of their weapons directly at our heads. If they pulled their triggers, it would be an easy and clean shot, splattering our brains across the concrete floor.

"Drop your guns, Protective Services," Juha ordered in an unwavering authoritative tone, holding his hands behind his back. "If you shoot, my men will shoot back, and since you guys are outnumbered, you'd be dead faster than you could sulk over my dead brother, Jed."

Beside me, Jed clenched his hands into fists by his sides and bared his gritted teeth. The vein in the side of his neck that reached up to his jawline throbbed angrily, but his exterior never faltered. Very calmly, without cracking under the watchful eye of Juha, he bent his knees outward and lowered his semi-automatic handgun to the dirty concrete in front of him, before straightening once again with undeterred confidence in his posture.

"Put your hands up in the air," Juha ordered, keeping his glare fixed on Jed. "I want you all to surrender to me, unless you wish to be shot on site right here, right now. If any of you are wise, or have at least half a brain, you will do as I say."

"You might as well shoot me right now then," Jed snapped back, much to Juha's surprise. His brown eyes grew wide, and he stood stunned on the wooden beam, as if trying to find more words since the ones he had been intending to say were now irrelevant. "I will never back down. I'm not a coward like I once was, Juha. If you want to shoot me, then go right ahead and hit me between the eyes. I'll not bow down to you, ever." He spat the last word in an utterly hateful tone, folding his arms defiantly across his chest. "Shoot me like you shot your own brother, if you're planning on it."