Page 37 of Inked in Devotion

“Yes.”

“Were there bodyguards?”

“You already know the answer to that,” I snapped.

“Then how is it your fault?” His tone was matter-of-fact. I should be pissed he sounded so calm except I heard his terse phone calls and he was white-knuckling the steering wheel, weaving through traffic just shy of reckless driving without getting flagged down by a cop.

In fact, it was the blasting of the horn that broke me out of my self-flagellating thoughts.

“Was it you?” I asked.

Kolya chuckled darkly. “No, but that’s a fair question.”

My chest screwed tight. “I don’t know what to think anymore. I thought I was protecting our son. I trusted my brother, the De Luccis’ security⁠—”

“Let’s just get to the scene before we jump to conclusions.”

Every red light or traffic delay scraped my anxiety raw. And the only way I could keep from screaming was to dig the nails of one hand into the palm of the other hand.

I could feel Kolya throwing quick glances at me. Despite what he said about not blaming me, it didn’t mean he didn’t think it. I turned to face the window.

“Hey.” His fingers slowly wrapped around my left wrist, pulling it away from the abuse of my nails, and intertwined our fingers together. The warmth of his hand calmed the spiraling fragments inside me. “We’re here. See?” He tipped his chin ahead. “Sebastian is with Dora, and he’s fine.”

They were standing in front of the building’s awning, surrounded by men in tactical gear.

“Oh my God.”

“I’ll drop you off.”

Kolya’s vehicle barely stopped when I jumped out and hurtled toward my baby boy.

“You’re okay. You’re okay.” I hugged Sebastian. We were both crying and oblivious to all activity around me. I managed to form a garbled thanks to Dora for protecting him.

“Girl, I thought that panic room was overkill, and thank God I paid attention when Hudson was giving us the rundown.”

Ensuing activities blurred. We moved to the lobby of another De Lucci-owned building across the street. Dom, Kolya, and Trevor were in a heated discussion about security.

Theo walked in, saw us, and immediately headed our way. “Are you all right?”

“Someone tried to take him.” My voice cracked.

“Has someone looked him over?” he asked.

“Sloane,” I said. “Dom wasn’t taking any chances. Everyone is a suspect, and he’s having Sloane make arrangements with people they know.” It was a measure of relief and luck that Dom’s wife was a nurse who had experience in the ER.

Theo offered a slight nod, jaw clenched. “I’ll be back.” He walked over to join the guys in their discussion. I’d taken care of myself most of my life. When things deteriorated out of my control, I left the situation and disappeared. But I didn’t want that for Sebastian. I wanted him to have the stability I didn’t have.

Dora was able to run into the panic room with Sebastian and call for help. The intruders fled when they realized it was impenetrable. One of them was disguised as a maintenance crew member who had access to the building’s machinery, and that was how they knocked out the guards with sleeping gas.

Luckily, the panic room had its own ventilation.

They waited until I went on a date, knowing it would split up the security detail. If Kolya found out that I was meeting Daniel, then the perpetrators had access to that information too.

That was a topic the guys had been arguing about.

When Kirill showed up and became part of the guy huddle, Ivy asked if I wanted to go to Hell’s Kitchen, but after my initial relief, anger set in. At this point, Dom was talking to law enforcement, but the men I wanted to talk to were embroiled in a heated discussion.

Theo, Kirill, and Kolya.