He had such an infuriating way of twisting her words to make them unrecognizable.Keira wet her dry lips.“Peace.”
“It takes more than one to broker peace.”
“Then do it.”Unconsciousness threatened to pull her under despite her best efforts.She twisted around to find him watching her with a strange expression on his face.“I’m coming out the other side of this…” She had to pause and wait for her dizziness to pass.How could she be dizzy when she was flat on her back?“When I do, if you haven’t kept your word, I will make you pay, Dmitri.Every single day for the rest of my life.”
“I have no doubt about that.”It wasn’t a reassurance, but she didn’t expect that from him.
Keira nodded, and then grimaced when the top of her head felt like it might just explode and end her misery.“Why are you doing this to me?”The cry of a lost child with no safety in sight and a wolf breathing down her neck.
He didn’t answer, and unconsciousness won the battle, sucking her down into the deep dark.But as she closed her eyes, she could have sworn he answered her.“For you,moya koroleva.I do this to you so you have a fighting fucking chance.”
“It’s been a week.We can’t wait any longer.”
Dmitri closed the door to Keira’s room and gave Mikhail a long look.“It can wait.”
“With respect, boss, it can’t.”He fell into step as they headed down the hall toward the stairs.“Mae was released on bail.”
Dmitri stopped cold and swung around to face his second.“How is that possible?We did everything but gift wrap her for the feds.Even they shouldn’t be able to fuck that up.”
“And yet they managed.”Mikhail passed over a manila folder, his expression severe.
Dmitri flipped through it and resumed walking.“My office.Now.”This wasn’t business that should be discussed where anyone could hear it.The fewer people who knew he’d been caught off guard with this news, the better.
Once they were safely shut into his office, he spread the handful of papers onto his desk.And cursed.“I should have known.”Since Mae had been found torturing an FBI agent’s daughter—also Aiden O’Malley’s fiancée, Alethea was claiming entrapment and a whole host of other things.It shouldn’t have mattered—tricking someone into a petty crime and kidnapping a woman to torture with the intent to murder were twoverydifferent things.Except apparently not according to the judge.
The charges against Mae hadn’t been dismissed, but the judge granted her bail—and it had been promptly paid despite being an astronomical amount.There was no possibility of Mae suddenly becoming an upstanding citizen, which meant she and her mother were gunning directly for the one they’d blame for this whole situation—Dmitri.“Blyad.If I didn’t have bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.”
“What are you going to do?”
That was the question.Dmitri prided himself on staying ahead of the game, but he hadn’t expected this.He’d been confident that the FBI would ensure Mae was put behind bars to await her trial—and that she’d be found guilty.The daughter of an FBI agent was a superb witness, and Charlie’s reputation would be cleared by the time they went to trial.Another fucking surprise.Perhaps if he’d stayed instead of rushing to Boston to collect Keira…
It wouldn’t have changed anything.His reach within the local government was long, but no judge on his payroll would have granted Mae Eldridge bail.Ultimately, his being there or not wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference.
Alethea wasn’t the problem.She was a crafty woman, but she could be reasoned with.She wouldn’t do anything that would directly endanger herself or her family.If he pushed the stakes high enough, she’d take the hint and disappear.
Mae, on the other hand, was a wild card.
“Does Aiden know?”
“Hard to say.It went down in New York, and Finch doesn’t seem the type to give him a courtesy heads-up.”
No, agent John Finch was more likely to hang his daughter out as bait to see if Mae would bite again.Dmitri could have told him it was a lost cause—Mae didn’t seem to have the same self-preservation that her mother possessed.She was the type who is more than happy to cut off her nose to spite her face—perhaps even literally—but she wasn’t a fool.Being arrested would infuriate her and, if she couldn’t get to Aiden and Charlie, she’d move onto the next best thing—Dmitri.Worse, Mae wasn’t governed by the unspoken rules that most of the people who moved in their world were.She didn’t give a damn about taking out innocents if it meant she was able to hurt her target.
She wouldn’t strike directly at Dmitri.Even she was smart enough to know that was suicide.No, she’d hit him where she suspected it would hurt most.
She’d target Keira and the families of his men.
They had to find her.
“Pull our men’s families into the available safe houses in the city.Ensure there are men there on a rotating schedule.”They couldn’t keep his people locked down indefinitely, but if there was one thing Mae lacked, it was patience.Alethea’s leash on her daughter had snapped, and he saw no evidence that it would be reclaimed.
He picked up the phone and dialed Aiden’s cell.Dmitri hadn’t had any intention of reaching out so soon after the last less-than-civil conversation, but the situation had changed.
“You have a lot of fucking nerve calling me now.”
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to put your vengeance on hold for the time being.”
“Fuck that.We’re coming for you, Romanov.”
