Page 81 of His Forbidden Obsession

“Fucking bastards.”

“They’re dead. Very dead. Brains splattered all around kind of dead.”

At least there was that. “Good. What about the rest of Ivanov’s men?”

“We captured some guards alive. We’ll be getting as much information as we can from them before they die. There’s no one else alive at Ivanov’s residence, and we don’t have to worry about retaliation from the Russians. The Koslovs see this as their opportunity. Essentially, we did them a favor.”

At least we were in a better position now. Dante was alive. But so was Ivanov. “We have to find Ivanov and Dimitri.”

“We won’t stop until we do. Is everything quiet there?” I could hear the determination in Remington’s voice.

“Yes,” I responded.

“Good. Keep watch. I don’t think Dimitri or Ivanov have any idea where you are, but we can’t be sure.”

“I will.”

Remington ended the call, and I pulled Nikolai to me. “Your mother was there at Ivanov’s.”

“What? Why?”

“I don’t know. She was drugged but alive. She’s at the hospital now.”

“And my father?” Alina asked.

“On the run. He was gone before they arrived.”

“Fuck.”

“We’ll get him and anyone else who got out early with him.”

“What do we do now?” Niko asked.

“I need to do a security check. We should be safe here, but I’m not taking any chances.”

31

NIKOLAI

I’d been warned to stay away from the windows, but I went and peeked out anyway. Lorenzo had gone out to check on Landry because he had been unable to get him on the phone. Lorenzo was well armed. He’d said he’d be fine, but something was wrong. I could feel it in my gut.

“Any sign of him?” Alina asked.

I shook my head. “Not that I can really see anything. It’s pitch-black out there.”

“I don’t like this,” she said.

“Me neither. Landry should have answered, and Lorenzo had plenty of time to check on him and come back. What if he… What could be out there?”

“Other than alligators, there could be⁠—”

“I didn’t really want an answer to that.”

“Get the gun Lorenzo left you,” Alina said. “We need to be ready.”

“An alligator or a mountain lion or a tiger or bear or whatever is not going to come in here.”

She shook her head. “No, but a man would.”