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Kirill’s coat and shirt were soaked with Alina’s blood, but he tipped his head toward the ambulance. “She’s alive. The medics are working on her.” His nose wrinkled. “You smell like literal shit.”
“Yeah?” I wiped a hand over my legs, where the muck was the worst, then swiped it over his chest. “Now you do too.”
“Classy.” A huff of laughter cut off as our radios all went off at the same time.
One voice burst out, the words falling clipped and precise. “Sokolov took the Pakhan. Repeat. Sokolov took Pakhan Maksim.”
35
KIRILL
Less than an hour after Sokolov took Maksim, Nora painted my left thumbnail purple while I planned how to break into the rat bastard’s headquarters. Glitter spread across my skin, the safe house table, and one corner of the building plans. It made the detention levels look festive, which I considered an improvement.
Nora sat sideways in my lap in pajamas my man had picked up for her on our way here, refusing to go downstairs with Miss Helen and Mikhail until we let her help. Apparently, help involved nail polish, which I absolutely considered imperative to our success.
“Daddy Maksim needs purple too.” She added another thick stripe to my nail. “So he knows we missed him.”
“Maksim prefers black.” I held still and enlarged the second detention level on Roman’s tablet with my free hand. “It matches his bright and cheerful personality.”
Her nose wrinkled. “Black is boring.”
Roman sat beside us, clean but still smelling faintly like the harbor. “She’ll tell him you said that.”
“I’m counting on it.” I examined Sokolov’s prisoner-transfer routes until my eyes blurred. We were making progress but not fast enough for my liking. “He’ll be too annoyed to complain about the manicure, which means I’ll achieve my lifelong dream of seeing Maksim like this.” I wiggled my pinky for emphasis, making the color catch the light.
Nora made a noise resembling a feminine snort, and I returned to my search. Three detention levels connected through an elevator, two guarded stairwells, and a freight conduit too narrow for breathing room. I liked it already.
Anika leaned over the table. She’d showered, but Alina’s blood still darkened the edges of her nails, something I didn’t dare point out. “Can you tell which level he’s on?”
“The tracker died near the second.” Roman rotated the plans toward her. “They removed it, destroyed it, or took him below the signal barrier.”
“We start there.” I slid my knife along the freight route without cutting the paper, enjoying the sound it made as I imagined doing the same to Sokolov’s neck. Perhaps I should return to the mansion and grab the paperweight I’d used as a ball gag the night of the breach. Sokolov deserved a few shattered teeth and I did so love the sound it made. “Roman kills the power. His team takes the stairs while mine crawls through this miserable pipe and opens the corridor.”
Roman moved my blade away from the map. “Your team creates the diversion. You’re too recognizable to cross the lobby without drawing every weapon in the building.”
“That’s the point of a diversion.” I pictured Sokolov’s men realizing who’d crawled into their building and nearly laughed. “I’m very distracting, which is why I’ll be in the freight conduit.”
Anika rubbed the silver ring on her finger, spinning it around and around. “What does Sokolov expect us to do?”
Roman opened the two messages from the drive. Both demanded Alina and our evidence, and neither proved Maksim remained alive.
“He expects us to protect the organization before Maksim.” I tapped the empty chair, keeping my voice light for the little girl painting glitter over my knuckle. “He thinks we’ll negotiate because he would.”
Nora stopped painting and stared up at me. “You’re bringing him back, right?”
I closed my hand around hers as the brush threatened her pajamas. “Your daddy made me promise to look after everyone. I’m a shit replacement for Maksim, so we’re bringing him back.”
“Promise?” Her lower lip trembled, and she gave me such a pitiful look that I swallowed my initial sarcasm.
“I promise, little one. Save enough purple for all ten nails.” I kissed her forehead and passed her to Miss Helen. Mikhail waited in the hall until Nora grabbed his hand. “Take them below and lock the doors.”
Nora waved the polish at me. “Don’t mess up your nails.”
“That might be the hardest part of tonight.” Once the secure door closed, I drew my knife across Sokolov’s throat on the tablet. “Now we can discuss how much blood I’m willing to spill.”
The medical alarm erupted upstairs. I cleared the table instead of going around it, vaulted Roman’s chair, and beat him to the stairs with Anika’s shoes striking every step behind me.
Alina had ripped off the monitors and dragged herself into a wheelchair by the time we made it to her. Blood seeped through her dressing as a medic blocked her halfway to the elevator.
