I groaned with embarrassment and guilt when the guard I had bashed over the head burst in on us. It was so easy to get lost in Gavril’s embrace and that heady kiss after he declared we were on the same side, that I forgot what we were up against.
The look on Gavril’s face as he hastily apologized to the guard on my behalf told me it was all rushing back to him as well.
He raised his brows at me, letting me know we’d be having a very long talk, clearly not too happy with me. I had bashed his guard and forced his hand, resulting in the death of a friend who had betrayed him, and the man who was in charge of the attempted coup against Gavril’s position in the Collective.
I couldn’t be sorry for my rash act, because my hunch had been correct. That traitorous man had been hiding, waiting to pounce and kill Gavril as soon as he made a move against Luigi. My heart felt a twinge of sorrow for Gavril losing a relationship that had been important to him, but it soared at the fact he’d stepped in to save me once again.
There was no denying that we were on the same side now, so I gave him his sour look right back. He was stuck with me, because it wasn’t like I had much choice in being married to him, did I?
Although if he proposed to me right now, I would wholeheartedly accept. In fact, I wished things could be that way with a sudden, deep yearning.
What was I thinking about proposals for? Right now, we needed to save my people, as well as Gavril’s, who were currently fighting against the fractured Collective. I turned away fromgazing at my hero and faced the grisly, blood-stained map on the wall.
All the points of attack had pins in them, and before I could even ask, Gavril pressed his phone into my hand.
“You need to warn them,” he said. With a mild look of disgust, he crouched down and patted Luigi’s pockets until he found the dead man’s phone. “I’ll do my best to call off as many of the attacks as I can, but we’re going to have rogues who won’t listen to reason.”
The guard slapped his fist into his palm. “That’s where we come in.”
Gavril began giving him instructions in low tones, while I called Aleks.
“Who the hell is this?” my cousin answered.
It was obvious he hadn’t enjoyed the last twenty-four hours too much. Being called to the other side of the country on a rescue mission, being ambushed and having to shoot his way both in and out, all to have me snatched out from under his nose. A strange number ringing him up in the midst of several of his businesses suddenly being under siege wasn’t going to improve his mood.
“It’s me,” I said. “I’m okay, I’m fine.”
I waited out the string of swear words, then, while he shouted the news to whoever was in the room with him. I imagined my sister wasn’t in the best of spirits and was glad she no longer had to worry about me.
“Tell me where you are,” Aleks said. “This time we won’t mess around.”
I couldn’t tell him where I was, not yet. And I didn’t have much time, because I was sure his experts would find a way totrace me somehow if I stayed on the line too long. Masha’s new husband, Anatoli, had made his fortune with software dedicated to tracking and tracing people.
“I’m going to send you a map,” I told him. “Every point on it is either under attack right now or going to be very soon. We’re doing all we can to stop the upcoming ones, but—”
“Who iswe?” he asked. There was a split second of silence. “Don’t tell me. God, Lilia, please don’t tell me.”
Of course, I wasn’t going to tell him. Not yet, anyway. “Here comes the map,” I said and ended the call. As soon as I snapped a clear picture of it, along with the notes that Luigi had tacked up beside it, I sent it and then turned off Gavril’s phone.
“He’s suspicious that I’m with you,” I said.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, he cracked a sardonic smile. “I wonder why?” he asked, then sent his guard off on whatever orders he’d been given while I spoke to my cousin.
Gavril moved to my side and put his arm grimly around my shoulders as we perused the map. “Tell me which ones are most important to your family? Where will they try to defend first?”
There wasn’t even a minuscule hitch of doubt when he asked that question. I pointed to a warehouse park. I had no earthly idea what was stored there, but it was always getting new shipments, and several of my cousins also used one of the buildings as a meeting place. Among other things.
Right now, they’d want to protect their goods and get any people who didn’t have fighting capability out, so no innocents would be harmed. The same with an out-of-the-way office building that was solely owned by my family. There werelegitimate businesses in it, and it was in danger—whether that be by a bomb, a raid, or fire, they’d rush to that building right away.
Gavril got back on Luigi’s phone, giving me a deadly and satisfied look every time he shocked the hell out of one of Luigi’s unsuspecting men.
“That’s right, your boss is dead,” he said to each one. “And if you don’t want to follow him into hell, you’ll stand down and recognize who’s actually in charge here.”
Some of them stood down, either to disappear before they could be punished or hoping for the best that they could weasel their way into Gavril’s ranks and keep their cushy jobs.
He then made a few calls to his own men, fresh in from Russia and champing at the bit for the fight they’d been promised. He sent them after the ones who thought they still had a chance to overturn the power structure. They were ordered to go hard against Luigi’s men, no holds barred, but step back immediately when any of my family’s people arrived.
“I have no doubt they can clean up whatever’s left,” he said. “This way, there’s no confusion and the least amount of my people get hurt. And none of yours,” he finished.
