“You could have come running right back to me, you know? All of this could have been avoided. But you've always been too stupid to see what's right in front of you.”
I'm shaking, not just from the cold, but from the sudden realization of my catastrophic mistake.
With sudden clarity, the last puzzle piece slips into place. That connection between my paralegal Mark, Dean, and Andrey. It's like a gut punch when I suddenly understand that Andrey didn't just pull information from a source—he and Dean are actively working together.
I can see the moment Dean takes in the fear in my eyes. He steps closer, his face darkening with old anger and bitter resentment. “Dmitri Smirnov humiliated me. He fucked with my career and thinks that he can steal my woman. I simply found the means to return the favor, with interest. Dmitri thinks he's such a big shot, but Andrey is ten times the man. Dmitri is too unpredictable in his strategy, and his rage is too easy to manipulate.”
A whimper escapes, defiant as it is frightened, and Dean laughs, a cruel, ugly sound.
“Andrey laid it all out.” His voice is low, triumphant. “We're going to let Dmitri destroy himself, an impulsive, volatile criminal who destroys his own empire. It's kind of poetic, isn't it?”
I glare at him, but he only moves closer.
“Andrey and I have already set the narrative. Dmitri murdered his mole, and when you, his pregnant girlfriend, realized what a monster he truly is, you ran and told me everything.”
Dean grabs my arm and jerks me from the big guard's grasp. His grip is bruising, brutal.
“You're leverage, Clara, the perfect piece of bait to drag Dmitri Smirnov out of the shadows. He'll come looking for you, and when he does, I'll be waiting with a full file of fabricated evidence and a warrant for murder. He's going down, Clara, and you're going to help me take him down. He's goingtogo to prison thinking you set him up. Genius, huh?”
I look from Dean's possessive fury to the big men in dark suits with frigid eyes, the men that were supposed to be loyal to the Smirnov Bratva, the men who were supposed to protect me. I realize my fate is sealed, and I fear Dmitri's might be, too,because whatever Dean thinks he's going to do, I know Andrey won't let Dmitri or me get out of this alive.
The worst part of all is Dmitri will die thinking I betrayed him.
35
DMITRI
“Boss.”
The voice on the other end of the phone is one of the men guarding Clara at the hotel. My heart stopped as soon as I saw his number. And from the sound of his voice, the news isn't good.
“What's happened?”
“It's the woman. She's gone.”
“What do you mean, 'gone'?” I snap, but only to cover the panic welling inside of me.
It's been a tense twenty-four hours since the bombing. Twenty-four hours of planning a war strategy focused on hitting Andrey and the Mikhailov Bratva where it will hurt the most. I haven't allowed myself to think of Clara because she is too much of a distraction—all my attention needs to be on this. But I was only able to push her from my mind because I knew she was safe.
That is no longer the case.
Is it the baby? Did something happen from the trauma of the bombing? Did Andrey make a move on the hotel? I was positive he wouldn't be able to find it.
“She was shouting and yelling. You know Feodor and I don’t understand English well, but she sounded upset, angry, something about a fire.”
“A fire?”
“Like I said, we couldn’t understand much. But then one of the guys on the security team alerted that she was trying to get out through the service entrance. Used a hairpin to unlock the door. We managed to find her and trail her.”
“Good. You have her? You know where she is?”
My driver waits by the door of my black SUV, opening it as I approach so I can slip inside. The rush of the city falls silent as he closes it after me.
“No, boss. We followed her to someplace in Brooklyn. Some random alleyway. She met with a guy there.”
“A guy?”
“Yeah. Big, tall, looks like a cop. I think he's that cop you told us to look out for.”
