Page 129 of Inked in Devotion

Dima dropped his eyes and reached into his pocket to hand me a note. “I met her somewhere, and she passed me this note.”

“Couldn’t she have texted you?” I accepted the note that was written on a bar napkin.

The present lives in the past.

When fire consumes rain and silt.

Remnants of a scarred heart and fractured bones are reborn.

Into a shadow that lurks until the moment of revenge.

“What the fuck is this?” I asked, confused.

“Da—sorry,” Dima said. “She loves poetry—what? It’s useful, you know, just in case you like to talk in code.”

“I don’t speak poetry,” I muttered.

Dima snorted, taking a sip of wine. “Even an eight-year-old can decipher this, and she wrote it in English just in case you need Chloe’s help. The perpetrator wants revenge against you and Chloe.”

“We have a suspect. Marena Rodriguez. We’ve connected her to several baby disappearance cases. Could the Vozhokari have expanded their business to kidnapping?” Then my jaw unhinged as a more sinister conclusion formed. “Or is she selling them babies to turn into assassins?”

“But it mentions revenge. Revenge against whom?” Dima asked.

“Many Vozhokari are unhappy with me. I’ve killed several of their assassins. If it’s Chloe, then it’s related to Esther King. She’s hired them—fuck,” I cursed softly. The one who got away.

I stared at the paper again.

The present lives in the past. This was about the past.

Where fire consumes rain and silt.

Chills raised the hair on the back of my neck and spread through my arms.

The assassins who were after Chloe and her mother. That night it was raining. The first one—I shot and killed and ran over the body. But the other one I had to use my pickup and force the motorcycle off the road. It went over the guardrails and crashed into a stone quarry and exploded. I didn’t get the chance to confirm the kill because I heard sirens in the distance and left the scene. The news reported one dead, but with the burned-out motorcycle—no body was found.

The bratva had to pay for interfering, but it was a price Ivan was prepared to accept. I had no problem killing Vozhokari to protect innocent lives.

“You know who it is?”

“I have a strong hunch.” My eyes met Dimitri’s. “I have a favor to ask.”

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

Chloe

“I fucking don’t know, Ilya,” Kolya growled at his phone on the dash. “Use your fucking sources.” Then he launched into a string of Russian. He could have punctuated it with a fuck or two.

He’d been in deep conversation with Dimitri at the party, but for a while there, they disappeared with Kirill, Rurik, and Ivan. Even Lucy asked me what was going on, and I had no idea except for the picture I received with the flowers.

It was close to midnight when we departed Ivan and Irina’s compound. Most of the guests, even Theo and Gage, had left. Sebastian was asleep in the car seat.

When Kolya ended the call, I asked, “What’s going on?”

He didn’t answer, just glared at the road in front of us.

“I’ve never seen you on edge like this, so no, I will not let you keep me in the dark. Tell me what the fuck is going on because I have a feeling it has something to do with Sebastian or me.”