“Good.”Keisha slid into the passenger seat.“I’m counting on it.”
Her rage mirrored his.I went beyond fear, beyond desire.Sergei buckled in.He glanced at the clock.8:17 PM.Three hours, forty-three minutes to save Tiana.To start a war.
Chapter 11
The full moon was highin the night sky as Keisha’s sneakers slipped on polished marble.Her right hand grabbed air, left clutching the wall.Sergei caught her elbow.She pulled free once steady.
“Watch it,” Sergei whispered, voice low.
She nodded, biting back a snap.She didn’t need babysitting.Her jaw clenched, tremor twitching her hand.A few minutes before midnight.Nearly four hours since Tiana vanished from the foster home.Guilt knotted her gut.She should’ve reacted faster.Kept Tiana from walking into the line of danger.
“She here?”Keisha kept her voice low, scanning the corridor.
Sergei nodded, face tight.“Pavel’s cyber tracks are all over.Same system that hit your audits.”
His hand was steady even with a gun in it.He had his knife, too.Sergei moved, boots silent on marble, shoulders shifting under his t-shirt, pausing at doorways, checking threats.
For Tiana.
A red light blinked on the ceiling.Pavel’s surveillance.Keisha froze, but Sergei stayed in its blind spot, gesturing for her to follow his path.She stepped where he did, hating his expertise.
“Third door,” he mouthed.
Moonlight hit a camera’s barrel.Sergei ducked, movements trained.His enforcer past chilled her.
“Stop thinking about what I was,” he said, not looking back, reading her.“Focus on Tiana.”
Tiana was trapped because Keisha failed her.She pushed past Sergei, urgency beating caution.“Which room?”
His hand caught her arm, firm.“Trip sensors.Electronic locks.Pavel’s dirty.”
“Me too,” she said, twisting free but staying put, knowing the risk.A collapse now meant capture.Tiana lost.
Sergei’s jaw worked, pulling a device from his pocket, attaching it to a baseboard wire.It blinked green.“Thirty seconds,” he said, moving to the door.
Keisha followed, counting steps to stay calm.Oil paintings glared down.Proof of Dmitri’s laundered money.Her cheek stung as another tremor hit, mouth dry.
