Mary Varvara Bell strode into the office from a door off the side of her desk. As she was not the supplicant, she didn’t make the long, humiliating walk to the desk of the queen. She wore a pale blue skirt suit reminiscent of glacial ice that matched her eyes.
Logan Bell, Tristan King, and Micah Shine followed her in.
God, Blaze would never forget the three of them holding guns on him. It haunted his dreams.
Logan wore a black suit and looked like a hole in the white room cut in space.
Twist wore a standard computer geek uniform, khaki trousers and a blue shirt, though pressed.
Micah had upgraded. He wore a closely tailored designer suit in dark blue with a lighter blue tie, a suit that hadrich and dangerouswritten all over it.
Another puzzle piece locked into place.
Logan considered Tristan, Micah, and Blaze to be his brothers, as the four of them had assured each other they were brothers while they’d been at school. They kept track of each other. They’d come to each other’s rescue. They visited each other in the hospital and made sure they were okay afterward.
Logan had learned how to rule a bratva from the Malefactor, his grandfather, and from Mary Varvara Bell.
He was stacking the White Russian bratva with his brothers.
Blaze would have bet all his Bitcoin profits that Tristan and Micah had been coerced into working for the bratva, just like they’d tried with Blaze.
The Malefactor had loaned each of them a substantial amount of money at zero interest as a start-up fund for their lives, but the no-interest loans had come with chains.
Dr. Bell had called in Blaze’s loan with a demand for military-grade weapons to commit an atrocity because there was no other reason why someone would need military-grade weapons.
She’d probably demanded Tristan’s and Micah’s souls, too.
Or, they might have been bribed and were now true believers in the bratva way.
But Micah had texted him about the Koch Group mercenaries.
Interesting.
“Aunt Mary,” Sarah said from beside him. “I don’t know what Logan told you about me, but it’s not true, Iswear.He hasn’t seen me since I was seven years old.”
Mary Varvara Bell’s eyes glazed over, and her gaze drifted toward the vast wall of windows overlooking Manhattan.
That wasn’t going to work.
Blaze opened with, “I can have some of the weapons within a week.”
Mary Varvara Bell turned to him. “Now I’m listening.”
“My contacts in the US military and other countries’ forces are rock-solid. I will procure everything on your list, but Sarah Bell needs to walk out of herenow,free to go.”
Dr. Bell pursed her lips like she’d seen a rat in her office. “We are only negotiating to settle your debt. Sarah Bell is a liability I am unwilling to tolerate any longer.”
Damn, Blaze’s negotiation plan had been the weapons for Sarah, but no plan ever survived first contact with the enemy. “She’s not a liability. She’s anasset.”
Mary Varvara Bell pressed her lips together and chuckled silently, moving a few pieces of paper on her glass desk as she got over her mirth. “She’s certainly not an asset for me.”
From just beyond his shoulder, Blaze heard Sarah suck in a heartbroken gasp.
Blaze said, “You’re making a mistake.”
“I doubt that.”
“Did you hear her just now? She’s still calling you ‘Aunt Mary’ and trying to salvage your relationship.”
