Liev steps between us, anger rolling off him in waves. “You let this happen. I don’t know how--”
“I stopped it,” Kaz counters. “Before it escalated.”
“And your solution?”
Kaz doesn’t answer right away. His dark gaze shifts to me. He’s assessing something, calculating. His expression makes my skin prickle.
“A cover,” he says finally. “Something public. Untouchable.”
“What?” Nika asks, his gaze bouncing between his superiors. Like me, the tension in the room makes him uncomfortable. We’re all on edge, not understanding why, but knowing that something is off.
“I need you to be logical,” Kaz murmurs, his eyes set on my father. “I need you tothink.He’ll take her if he thinks it’ll put the game in his favor. It won’t matter where we put her or who is protecting her. Unless she’s with me.”
Understanding creeps in slowly, dread coiling in my chest. But he can’t possibly—it would have to be something drastic, something ridiculous, to scare another cartel leader off.
“A fake engagement.”
I stare at him, then burst out laughing, the sound echoing too loudly in the underground room. “You’ve lost your mind.”
Liev doesn’t laugh. His face darkens, fury simmering beneath the surface. Nika is frozen, hand halfway to the holster on his hip, as if expecting chaos to erupt at any moment.
The laughter dies in my throat as reality crashes in.
“No.”
The word leaves me as a gasp.
Chapter 11
Kazimir
Alyona’s laughter breaks off sharply, like something snapped under pressure, and the sound echoes longer than it should in the command center. When she refuses, something inside me fractures with enough force that I feel it along my jaw, down my spine and into my hands.
No.
The word is pure defiance, but my body hears it as provocation.
My breath turns shallow, tight in my chest, and I have to brace myself against the table to keep from closing the distance between us in one stride.
There are two instincts battling for control inside me, both equally dangerous. One wants to take her face in my hands and silence her with a kiss hard enough to make her forget everything that is happening. The other wants to assert control in a way that would leave no illusion about who decides how this ends.
Neither instinct is safe with Liev watching.
“Alyona,” I say, forcing my voice into something level and cold, becoming the boss I am in the shadows. “This is not a discussion.”
Her eyes flash, bright and furious. “You don’t get to decide my life.” Arms crossed, she looks tempting. The sweatsuit she has on hugs her curves, and the zipper is low enough to show a sliver of cleavage.
I step closer, deliberately invading her space, lowering my voice so only she hears me. “I already have.”
I’ve seen her topless behind a bar, in heels and tights, hips swaying as she serves customers with sly smiles and heavy lashes.
But having herhere,under my roof, with the intoxicating scent of vanilla and citrus makes me want her more than ever.
Liev moves forward sharply. “Kaz?—”
I lift a hand without looking at him, never taking my eyes off her. “This is between her and me.”
That only makes her angrier.
