I saw Ryker flinch almost imperceptibly, but he recovered quickly, striding across the room to the wall-mounted TV. He got it connected to his phone and hit Play on the first video in his gallery.
I watched, my jaw dropping.
“Fucking hell,” Dan murmured, leaning into me. “Looks like he’s been taking torture lessons from Thorpe Senior.”
“Yeah.” I winced at the distinct crack of a bone snapping, followed by an almost inhuman scream. Glancing over atmy dad, I saw him watching impassively. I definitely hadn’t inherited his surgeon’s iron stomach.
A string of Russian came from the thrashing man on the screen, and Graham inhaled sharply.Although his Russian was basic as far as I knew, whatever he could translate was enough to shock him, the colour draining from his face.
“Desmond. Get the Hoytons on the phone. We might need to bring in some of our other associates too, but we don’t know how far their reach has spread and who else is working against us.”
“On it, boss.” He tapped the unobtrusive earpiece he was wearing, waited for a moment, and then began speaking low and fast, issuing instructions to whoever was on the other end.
“Do you think—” Dan began, before the door flew open, ricocheting off the walls, and Volkov men poured into the room, armed to the teeth.
Oh,fuck.
“You sabotaged our supply lines,” Grigory Volkov roared, directing all his ire towards Graham, right before Anton burst through the door. His head twisted, scanning the room, and when he found me, he bared his teeth, his eyes glittering with malice. Reaching inside his jacket, he pulled out a gun.
A gun…which he was pointing at me.
“What the fuck?” I hissed, holding my hands up as he bore down on me. I was unarmed, other than a small pocketknife, and this man wasseriouslyaggravated. “Put that fucking gun away.” We didn’thaveguns here. Not to hand, at least—other than the security team and Graham. The rest were safely hidden away, as far as I was aware. Maybe we’d been naive. I knew a substantial percentage of the Bratva owned them, and yes, I’d seen Volkov with one in hiscompound, but there was a code of honour in the underworld, and all-out gun wars between crime groups in our territory were extremely uncommon. The last thing any of us wanted to do was to draw attention to ourselves in a place where firearms were so heavily regulated, let alone risk them getting into the wrong hands.
“Volks, the fuck you doing?” Ryker inserted himself between us. Volkov immediately pointed the gun at Ryker, and he barked out a disbelieving laugh. “You dare to point a gun at me? Are you trying to start a fucking war?”
“Idi nakhuy,” Volkov snarled. “You have your own fucking problems to deal with, Thorpe.”
“Why don’t we all calm down?” Dan stepped up to Volkov and placed his palmover the muzzle of the gunlike it wasnothing. “What’s your problem with Jay?”
“I saw the photographs,” Volkov ground out, shoving Ryker out of the way so he could meet my gaze again. He ignored Ry’s warning growl, his icy eyes boring into mine. “I warned you of the consequences.”
A chill ran down my spine. “Photographs? What photographs?”
Volkov yanked Dan’s hand away from the gun and stepped right up to me, pressing the muzzle into the underside of my jaw. My fingers curled around the knife I carried, but I honestly wasn’t sure if I’d be able to disarm him at this close range before he pulled the trigger.
Wouldhe pull the trigger? Surely not. Fucking hell. My palms were sweating.
I swallowed, my Adam’s apple pressing uncomfortably against the solid, cool metal of the barrel of the gun. “What photographs?” I rasped.
“You with my fiancée.” His lip curled. “You are not the only one. Who knows who else she’s been fucking?”
“What?” The word tore from my throat without permission, shocked out of me by his words. One thing I was absolutely sure of was that Nova wasn’t seeing anyone else. We had a connection. I fuckinglovedher. More than I ever thought was possible, and I hadn’t even realised the depth of my feelings until that moment. Even if her feelings weren’t as strong as mine, there was no way?—
“Yes. See?” The pressure of the gun disappeared, although he still held it beneath my jaw. He brandished his phone in my face, and I blinked, focusing on the screen. I was looking at a map with a blinking red dot.
Ryker and Dan crowded around the screen, exchanging confused expressions.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“My fiancée has a tracker in her engagement ring. A fail-safe should she encounter any difficulties. Out of respect to her, as we are not yet married, I had not activated it.” Volkov glanced towards Grigory. “Despite my father’s wishes.”
“Looks pretty active now,” Dan muttered.
“Yes. An anonymous source delivered a set of photographs to me this evening, and I realised I had been far too trusting. Too naive,” he spat.
Ryker jabbed at Volkov’s phone. “So what is this map? Nova’s here. Probably upstairs.”
“She is not here. She is with another man. This is not the address of any of her acquaintances.”
