"These men aren't police, Boss. They're?—"
"Koslov's men," I say, cutting him off. Now my blood is boiling.
"Has to be." Lazar stands and drops the wallet onto the dead man's chest.
The whole thing was a setup from the beginning. Rurik's intel was garbage, deliberately fed to us to lead us here to this house to be ambushed while the real Marat sits somewhere else laughing at us. Someone knew we were coming and they played us perfectly, and now we're standing in the middle of a trap that's about to spring shut.
"We need to go," I say, already moving toward the exit. "Right now."
We both dart toward the front door as fast as we can, but not quite fast enough. A soft beeping sound comes from under thefloor, and every hair on my body stands on end faster than my mouth can process what my brain instinctively knows is true.
"GET OUT!"
I throw myself through the front door and hit the yard running as fast as my legs will carry me. I've made it maybe twenty feet when the world goes white and a wall of heat slams into my back and sends me flying through the air. I hit the ground hard and roll across the grass, my ears ringing and my vision swimming with spots.
When I manage to look back at the house, it's just gone. There's nothing left but fire and smoke and pieces of debris raining down from the sky all around me. The whole structure is engulfed in flames, walls collapsing inward and the roof caving in, and somewhere in that inferno is Vasili.
"Vasili!" I try to yell but my voice comes out as a croak. "VASILI!" I cough and cover my mouth, frantically looking around the side yard where he was supposed to enter the side door, but it's nothing but a heap of debris and smoke.
Lazar grabs me by the arm and hauls me to my feet. He's bleeding from a gash on his forehead and his jacket is singed and smoking in places, but he's alive.
"My God…" I breathe. "He was supposed to go in the side and?—"
"He's gone," Lazar grunts, dragging me up harder. I manage to get my feet under me as he says, "We have to move before the cops show up." Now he's dragging me away from the house into the darkness that cloaks the street. There's no way this neighborhood sleeps through that explosion, and every second we stand here on this sidewalk watching that house burn is another chance for someone to see us and tell the authorities.
"Come on, dammit," Lazar snarls at me, but my ears are ringing so loudly now. I follow behind him as he takes off running. My legs feel weak from adrenaline surge, but I manage to stay upright until we dive into the car and take off.
"They set us up," I say when I can talk again without my voice cracking. "Wherever Rurik got that intel, Marat figured it out and led us straight here intending to kill us."
"Yeah, it looks that way," he says, checking the mirror as if he thinks someone might be following us. I glance over my shoulder to see the house engulfed and the flames licking the night sky. "What do we do now? You think Rurik set us up?"
"Hell no," I tell him, facing forward again. "He's loyal. He'd never do that to us. But Koslov has sources too, and we just have to be smarter than him."
Lazar pulls onto the highway and guns it, and I see a few cop cars going the other direction with lights flashing. We ride in silence for a few minutes as I try to make my head stop spinning. We were nearly blown to bits tonight over this whole thing, which only tells me how serious it is.
Koslov is fighting for his life when he could be using his manpower to vanish and never return to Moscow or St Petersburg again. That means this isn't just about justice for the woman he loved. This is retribution. He wants Yuri to feel what he feels, and the only way that works is if Inessa is imprisoned or put to death for murder.
"What's next, Boss?" Lazar asks, snapping through my thoughts, but now all I can think about is the woman I love.
Would Koslov go after her for that same reason? And what about my son?
I promised Yuri I'd finish this today, and I will. But before I go on a killing spree, I have to go back to that hotel and make sure my family is safe.
Then Koslov will get what's coming to him. No one kills one of my men and walks away free.
28
NOEMI
Iwake up to light, hesitant taps on the door that pull me out of a dream, and for a second I just lie there trying to figure out where I am and why my head feels fuzzy. The bed is cold on the other side, the sheets rumpled but empty, and I reach out without thinking to touch the spot where Fyodor was sleeping next to me just a few hours ago.
Of course he's gone.
A flash of annoyance cuts through the fog in my brain. He did it again. He left without waking me or telling me where he was going. Doesn't he think I'm worth saying goodbye to? And after we both confessed to having feelings for each other too. I'm such an idiot for letting myself feel so at ease with him like I do. He's so far from being the man I desire and crave. And I know he's trying, but some things should be obvious, like telling the person you're sleeping in bed with that you'll be gone when they wake up.
Then I hear sniffling outside the door and my irritation vanishes instantly. Small, muffled sounds come from the other side ofthe door. I know immediately that it's Sasha. I recognize those sounds because I’ve heard them so much recently. He sounds sad and scared, and it makes me even more angry with Fyodor for leaving us. He probably left Sasha sleeping alone too while he and his buddies went out to "work".
I'm out of bed in a flash, grabbing the dress from last night and my panties. I dance on one foot, then the other, and tug them up, then throw the dress over my head and pull it down around my curves as I walk toward the door. The knocking returns louder this time accompanied by Sasha's muffled voice.
