Edwina tried to ignore this intelligence, stuffing back her feline’s testy growl.“You don’t think that’s the case.”
“It’s hard to say if they’ve kept him drugged or the drugs have had an adverse effect, or he might’ve adopted a strategy.We won’t know until we speak with him.”
“Will you be able to get close?”Ivan asked.
Edwina clenched her hands in her lap, battling concern.“We need him out of there sooner rather than later.Tonight.”
“That’s the plan,” Roscoe said.
“I’m going with you,” Edwina said.
“Us, too,” Ivan said.
Roscoe nodded.“I thought you’d say that.”
Themoonlitthesky and the barrier surrounding the Smirnoff estate, the stillness of the night broken only by the gentle creaking of tree branches against the boundary fence.Scouting the area was simple, but avoiding the guards was crucial.
Leaving Mikhail in Smirnoff’s clutches wasn’t tenable.They had to rescue him before Smirnoff caused more damage to Mikhail and his business.
They left their vehicles parked at the end of a dirt road, a distance from the estate.Roscoe had told them they’d used this road and gone on foot to the estate, encountering no difficulties the previous night.
“How will we get through the fence?”Edwina asked, keeping her voice low.
“There’s a spot at the rear of the property where the gardeners are redoing the landscaping.This has made a gap under the fence where it’s possible to crawl under in animal form.”Roscoe grinned.“My men tell me it’s an electric fence, and touching it produces a decent buzz.”
Edwina wrinkled her nose.“Sounds like fun.”
“You want to rescue Mikhail?”Roscoe asked in a mild voice.
His group of six men, wolves and felines, stood apart, their expressions impassive while they waited.
“He’s not safe here.”Edwina read their narrow male minds.None of them approved of her presence, assuming she’d be a handicap.She made a mental note not to slip up and create problems.
“Let’s shift and move out,” Roscoe said.He already had two bird shifters in position to act as watchmen.
Edwina hustled to the rear of the vehicle and stepped behind for privacy.She stripped without ceremony, her mind on the mission ahead.They had this one chance to execute their plan.Failure tonight was not an option.
20
Mikhailstaredathisclosed bedroom door, confused.His heart was racing, and the headache he’d experienced since he’d woken after his illness returned like a skulking predator.He pressed a hand to his heart and massaged the racing organ while trying to take deep breaths.
After several slow inhalations, his pulse rate slowed, and the adrenaline from having his life threatened subsided.The strange tiger stalked back and forth, a restless creature in his mind.The pain levels remained about the same, but he was becoming used to the vise-like grip on his head.
With another glance at his door, he sat on the edge of his bed.His wife wanted him dead rather than working to strengthen their marriage, and she wanted control of the business.His brother-in-law wanted him dead because he wanted to run his father’s mafia empire.Mikhail’s mind kept sidetracking to the faint memory of the other woman—the mystery one, and every time he pictured her, his head throbbed harder.A low growl echoed through his mind, and Mikhail’s muscles locked tight.What the hell?When long moments passed, and nothing happened, the tenseness seeped from his muscles.
Mikhail let out a weary sigh, overwhelmed by the situation.Earlier, Smirnoff had closeted him in his office and showed Mikhail various parts of the business.The knowledge Smirnoff gave him wasn’t rocket science.Any competent man or woman could control the company.All they needed was common sense and initiative.The hard part was keeping every ball in play, but once he was more familiar with the different parts of Smirnoff’s business model, the juggling would become second nature.
Smirnoff had explained his reservations about giving his son control of the business.His son disagreed, but that wasn’t Mikhail’s problem.But why hadn’t Smirnoff considered his daughter for the position?A woman could run a business.The illegal activities and the people committing the crimes on Smirnoff’s behalf might prove challenging to control.However, given how the daughter had tried to kill him, she possessed the mental toughness to run the show.According to Bridget, her father was a chauvinist.
While he was happy enough working for Smirnoff, doing so held a sense of wrongness.He prodded at his moral compass.
Yes.The illegal nature of Smirnoff’s enterprise bothered him.
If he had his way, he’d reduce those activities and focus on the legal ones.The warehouse stocking car parts and the motor vehicle side rather than the drug running and intimidation racket that brought in vast amounts of money each year for his father-in-law.Mikhail didn’t like the blood money aspect of the business, the broken families when drugs grabbed hold, and the bullying of innocent business owners who merely wanted to earn enough to live.He searched his memories, and nothing jumped out to explain why he felt so strongly about the illegalities.
Not that he’d mentioned his misgivings since Smirnoff had puffed up with pride while describing the various business sectors.His grandfather and father had grown the firm, and he’d done the same.His challenge was to add to the business scope, and Smirnoff was confident of Mikhail’s success.
Then there was the son.Pavel wanted to change the current situation.Understatement.Smirnoff had warned him of Pavel’s resentment at his decision, but Konstantine hadn’t given Mikhail advice on how to deal with his son.Maybe he thought Mikhail would kill him if he presented too many difficulties.Mikhail hadn’t liked to ask.
