“Dani?” he scoffed. “C’mon, Savage. I thought you were smarter than that. Don’t you want your
money?”
“I just wanna take my girl and go. We don’t want any trouble.”
“That girl is notyour girl. That’s Anastasia Romanov. The daughter of Nikolai Romanov, my
deceased brother. And I’m Rasputin Romanov, her uncle. Now, be kind and move out of the way. I’d
like to take my niece in my arms. I haven’t seen her in years, thinking she was dead. I missed her and cannot wait to take her home.”
Over my dead body.
Sia clung to my cut, sobbing quietly. “Jesse?”
I counted Rasputin’s men. Four plus whoever was in the car. All armed. Where the fuck were my
brothers? They warned me over a text. Why weren’t they here to help? “She doesn’t wanna go with
you, and I don’t want your fucking money. Just leave us the fuck alone.”
“I’m afraid I cannot do that. Nastya belongs with her family.” He walked and tapped the top of the
SUV twice with his fist.
The door opened on the driver’s side, and a bulky man came out and dragged a gagged one out of
the car with his hands tied behind his back, pointing a gun to the back of his head. Cottonmouth. Fuck.
My VP swore through the gag, his body jerking out of Rasputin’s driver’s grip in vain. Another
Russian climbed out, holding Racer and Viper, a gun pointed at them, too.
“Leave my men out of it!” I shouted.
“With pleasure.” Rasputin smirked. “Once you give memy girl, you can have your boysandthe money. I’m a man of my word.”
“Jesse, it’s okay. I’ll just go with him,” Sia whispered.
“No,” I said through my teeth, and then nodded at Rasputin. “How much?”
His smirk became a sickening smile. “The whole one hundred thousand.”
“That’s not the bountyyouset.”
With his smile gone, his expression became menacing and animalistic, something I was used to and
preferred to the previous stupid disguise. “It’s the only one the Romanovs set, whether it’s me or her grandmother. I wasn’t aware there was a higher one set by another.”
“Two-hundred for her head.”
He didn’t flinch. “If you want more money, it can be arranged. Just because I’m so happy Nastya is
alive and appreciate you kept her that way.”
I got the threat in his voice and was certain my theory was right. He was the one who wanted her
dead. The second he took her, he’d shoot me and my brothers, take the money and kill Sia.
