“Or what?”She leaned harder against Keira, eliciting a flinch despite his wife’s stoic expression.She had to be terrified, but none of it showed on her face.Mae laughed.“I think I’ll leave this bitch bleeding in the street.How long do you think it will be until someone manages to tear their gaze away from their phones to call 911?Will she live or will she die?It’s like a flip of a coin—all up to chance.”
She’d do it.He didn’t doubt that she’d shoot his Keira and leave her to bleed to death on the street, mere feet from everyone in the world who cared about her.Who would find her first?Aiden?Carrigan?
Dmitri couldn’t think past the roaring of his thoughts.The sound morphed into two words, repeated over and over again.Save her.“Let her go.I’ll do anything.”
Mae’s eyes widened ever so slightly.“Anything.”
“Yes, anything.Just let her go.Don’t hurt her.”Desperation made his voice rough.He could picture Keira on the sidewalk, the life bleeding out of her hazel eyes.It couldn’t happen.He couldn’t lose her.
“Kiss me.”
“What?”
Dmitri ignored Keira’s protest and shrugged off Pavel’s hand on his shoulder.“Let her go first.”
Mae considered him.“Pavel has his gun on her.You try anything and he’ll shoot her in the stomach.You know what a stomach wound will do.”
He knew.Keira’s chance of survival would drop astronomically.“Let her go.”
Mae released Keira and stepped back, watching him closely.Keira started for him, but he shook his head.“Go back inside,moya koroleva.”Go to safety.
Her hazel eyes shone and she started for the door, her fingers brushing his as she moved past him.She got two steps when Pavel blocked her way.“You’ll watch.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”Keira glared up at him.“We trusted you, Pavel.”
“You trusted wrong.”
The longer they stood on the street, the greater the chance that something could go sideways.It felt like they’d been there a small eternity, but Dmitri suspected they were still well within the window of the previous tech blackouts John Finch had reported.He marched to Mae and hooked the back of her neck.She shoved her gun against his thigh, but he ignored it and kissed her.She tasted of cigarettesand rage, and he wanted nothing more in that moment than to snatch the gun from her hand and put her out of her misery.
But there was Keira to think of.
He’d kill Mae, but Pavel would kill Keira.
Unacceptable.
Once the appropriate amount of time had passed, he raised his head.“You disgust me.”
The lust bled out of Mae’s eyes and she sneered.“You say that now.”She leaned into him, the gun never moving from where she had it pointed—right at his femoral artery.“You’ll change your tune before too long.”
“Dmitri,no.”
“Keira, get back in the house.Now.”He didn’t look at her, couldn’t look at her.I love you, moya koroleva.
Seconds passed, and she finally cursed and shoved Pavel out of the way.He pinned the man with a look, daring him to make a move as she stalked down the sidewalk and into the house.Safe.Keira was safe.He could bear any punishment Mae would deliver because he knew she was out of that bitch’s grasp.
“Let’s go, Romanov.”She laughed again, the sound dark.“I’m going to enjoy the hell out of playing with you.”
Keira couldn’t wipe the picture of Mae forcing Dmitri to kiss her out of her head.That bitch is going to pay.And Pavel, too.Traitor.Enemy.She’d trusted him, had worked with him to secure the reception, and he’d been planning to betray them all along.
Mae had Dmitri.
Keira bypassed the ballroom—she’d get to them in a moment—and headed straight for the lounge where the guards spent their time.She threw open the door, startling half a dozen men into reaching for their guns.A quick sweep of the room, and she found Alexei situated by a monitor.Only get one shot at this.If she didn’t play it right, they wouldn’t follow her, and Dmitri would be as good as dead.“That bitch took Dmitri.”She let the pause drag out a beat.“But we’re going to get him back.”
She held up a hand when Alexei started to speak.“Mae took Dmitri.She took Mikhail.She will kill them all if she’s given the chance, which means we can’t fuck this up.”
One of the men, a blond whose name she couldn’t immediately place, spoke up.“Why should we take orders from you?”
Keira iced over her tone the same way she’d heard Dmitri and her brother do.“Did I fucking stutter?”
