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My heart stutters. Is she going to help me? Can she help me without getting herself hurt?

The man—Pavel—shakes his head. “You know I can’t do that, Arie.”

“I need to do a full-body check. Are you really going to stand there while she strips?” Arie shoots back, and he visibly blanches, almost making me smile.

“You have ten minutes,” he mutters, then quickly leaves.

“Clothes off, please,” Arie says, loud enough for him to hear outside the door, but gestures for me to actually follow through.

Understanding I need to support her story, I do as she says, stripping down until I’m standing naked in front of a woman I’m not sure is an ally or foe.

Arie glances behind her, confirming the door is closed, then turns to me and takes my arms in both hands, her whisper thick with disbelief she’s clearly been holding in.

“What the hell, Gracie? Why are you a prisoner here? Were you the one who gave Dima the shot?”

21

DIMITRI

Once Arabelle is done fussing over me, I send her to check on my little would-be assassin.

I know how I’m going to make her confess, but first, I need to know she’s healthy enough to handle it. Not that it should fucking matter.

Frustrated, I make my way to my study and sink into my chair, pulling up the backlog of messages that accumulated while I was unconscious for three days. Three fucking days gone from my life. My grip tightens around the phone as I scroll, and I force myself to relax before I crack the screen. If she had hit the vein instead of going just under the skin there would be no catching up to do. There would be nothing.

I exhale slowly and take out my Volks smart tablet from the hidden drawer beneath my desk. The screen lights up, flooded with notifications. I scroll past all of them until a message from Vanya, sent the night of his wedding, catches my eye.

Stop digging into Luciano.

I read it twice, frowning.

Luciano is the brother of Melani—Vanya’s new wife. The young man went missing a few weeks before Vanya met her, and we’d initially assumed he was one of the men who’d been “vanished” by our enemies during a stretch of kidnappings. But that theory fell apart when we found our missing men, and he wasn’t with them—further information suggested he may have run off on his own.

Vanya had me look into his disappearance because Melani had been worried sick about her brother. That concern is what led to the two of them actually meeting. She thought we might have been involved and got herself a job at Zvezda, Vanya’s nightclub, to get closer to answers.

So why the sudden order to stop? What happened while I was unconscious?

I tap my desk as I dial Vanya’s number.

He picks up on the third ring. “If you’re calling me this early, you must be feeling better.”

“I read your message. You want me to stop looking for your brother-in-law?”

A door opens on his end before he answers, “Yeah.” There’s a faint grunt, like he’s settling into a seat, and then the thud of a door closing, suggesting he’s probably getting into his car.

“Did you find anything?”

“I suppose you could say that. Luciano reached out to us himself—well, to Melani. He told her to stop looking. Said he’s fine.”

Huh. “And you’re going to take his word for it? You’re not curious what he’s up to? We could keep digging quietly. Melani wouldn’t have to know⁠—”

“Are you suggesting I lie to my wife?” Vanya’s tone turns sharp, like the idea itself is offensive. “No. If the boy wants us to back off, we back off. We don’t know what demon he’s battling.”

I sigh, getting his point. “Fine. I’ll call off the searches.”

“Thank you. And Dima? It would’ve been a shame if you went and died like that.”

“Fuck you.” But I’m smiling. “Goodbye.”