“I like you on your knees,maya. You’ll get more rewards, besides this,” he says, his fingers still touching over my lips, “later on our flight. Now, though, if I am forced to listen to Santiago’s excuses for his friend Ronin, so are you, my sweetness.”
He helps me to my feet, his thumb brushing over my nipple. And while I’m all in for showy displays of him being my Alpha, I’m not about to jump into a serious discussion with flaky lips.
I swipe a hand over my mouth, wiping most of him away, earning me a harder twist of my nipple.
“What do you mean about Ronin?”
Santiago and Kade step back into the room, both looking more relaxed than before. The kitchen behind them is neat, the dogs both lying on the floor.
“I don’t think we’ve fully covered our Victor issue, and fate’s spiderwebs, but we do need to go through our other issues too,” Santiago says, passing over a glass of champagne.
“Ronin’s an issue? I thought you guys were close.”
Santiago looks over my shoulder, and I twist around, catching Aleksei laughing. “Ronin and I are as close as we have always been, but I have a dilemma.”
“And that is?” I prompt, including them both in my question.
Aleksei brings up the blanket again, wrapping me like a burrito and sitting down on his chair, taking me with him.
“People say the Russians are the crazy ones, but the Irish are the ones you have to watch. They’re overly emotional, lazy, like to blame others.”
Kade pushes his way through and snatches me off Aleksei’s lap, putting me in my own seat. “Aleksei has a large bounty on his head, Quinny, because the night we arrived, when Dmitri’s men were breaking into the Petrov Estate, Aleksei was in Ireland, trying to eradicate the O’Connors. Ronin O’Connor wants Aleksei dead and tasked Santiago with helping track him down.”
My mouth falls open in horror as I look at them all.
Aleksei is smirking, again, and I glare back at him, which only makes him laugh. “Maya, if I was there to eradicate them, do you think any of them would be alive? And that is a seriousquestion. The answer is no, by the way. Sergey sent me there to warn them, but it was done as a favor to one of Sergey’s friends.”
And then Aleksei stops talking and holds his hand up, signaling at everyone. He’s deep in thought, and he looks at Kade. “If you joined Interpol to find your sister, and you knew who Sergey Petrov was, why not come and arrest him for the drugs? Or at least take him in for questioning?”
Kade takes a steadying inhale. “Don’t get fucking angry at me, Aleksei, but that’s why I asked Quinny if she was sure before about reporting Victor to the authorities. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe her. It was, I think I’m realizing what he’s been doing. The images we have of Sergey Petrov in our system have been manipulated. And given when the file was first opened, and the note inside it, the duplicity has been happening for a while. Sergey does not look like the Sergey Interpol is looking for. As soon as I saw him, I recognized him as the person who gave my sister the drugs one night in…”
“London,” Aleksei finishes for Kade. “We went with our mother to see the Christmas lights. He was an asshole prick then too. He snuck out for a night of partying, which is probably when you saw him. I only knew he was dealing drugs when he stashed a fuckton of MDMA tabs in my luggage, and I got stopped by customs. Father was angry. Very angry. When father was angry, he was violent, and this happened.” Aleksei points at his face.
“My brother didn’t help when father dished out his punishment. He stood there, grinning. When the doctor came, he sat in my room, pretending to be concerned. The minute the doctor left with my mother, Sergey held me down, pushed his fist into my bandages, and said he hoped I was blind forever.”
“What a fucking prick,” Kade snarls.
Santiago is stoic on the surface but his scent leaks empathy. He waves the conversation on.
“I’m not looking for sympathy, Santiago, I am doing puzzling.”
“You’d get my sympathy, even if you don’t want it, Aleksei. We’re pack, and your issues are mine and vice versa because Quinn is our focus. What do you mean puzzling, though?”
“Putting everything together, what do you think it means?” Aleksei shakes his head. “Quinn said Victor had people cover for him, he wasn’t questioned. That was back then. But now perhaps we’re seeing what they have been doing while the trafficking side had to die down because the Trinity Alliance became a force. One they had no control over. Then, because Quinn burned the warehouse down, they had to rebuild from the ground up, which took time.”
Santiago sits down, leaning forward, completely invested in the conversation.
“I get sent to Ireland to help one of Sergey’s ‘friends,’ but the friend I met ensured I wasn’t stopped by customs or anyone in a uniform. Even after the streets were flooded with police and emergency workers in Ireland, I was essentially provided a police guard back to the airport after I shot a bullet or two.”
Santiago stares Aleksei down. “Not a bullet or two, Aleksei.”
“You worry too much,” Aleksei throws back, grinning. “And I said I helped the Irish show where they are sloppy. I assure you, our wife will never be put in that situation in the first place.”
“Too fucking right, she won’t,” Santiago barks.
“Ahh, see, you understand me.”
“Can we stay on track, please?” I ask, looking at them both. Their moment of bonding is put to the side.
