CHAPTER TWENTY
Roman
I wake up with a start, my body moving as if still in motion. My vision is blurry as my arms shoot out, searching…protecting.
Everly. I have to protect her. I have to—
A sharp pain comes crashing down on top of my head. It feels as though someone has taken an ax to it.
“Motherfu—” I bite back the curse and wince, gripping my temple and hoping the pressure from my fingers will alleviate some of the pain.
Strong hands grip my shoulders and force me back down. “Settle down. You’re no good to anyone right now, cuz.”
With a harsh breath, I force my body to relax and focus on the man leaning over me.
Black hair, pale blue eyes, and a smirk I want to punch greet me. I remember when Ben first came to live with Grandfather and me, not long after his parents had died. He had only been five and followed me around like a puppy. An annoying, nosy puppy who copied everything I did.
“You shot me in the head.”
He rolls his eyes. “I barely grazed you.”
I grunt.
“You look like shite, by the way,” he says, his smirk turning into a grin, complete with dimples. So innocent he looks. “Then again, an old man like you…your reflexes have to be slowing.”
Brat.
Although I’m still suspicious of him, it is a comfort to find his face above me.
I hold out my hand. “Help up an old man,” I order.
He takes it and pulls until I can sit on my own. My stomach roils in the opposite direction of the spinning room. Darkness threatens to overtake me, but I refuse to go down again. Instead, I picture Everly. Her face, her sweet smile…the trust that had shone in her eyes.
I have to find her. “Where is she?”
“With Viktor.”
Terror for her turns my veins to ice, nearly paralyzing in its intensity.
“He won’t kill her because he believes you dead and therefore unable to kill Sebastian or Vladimir,” Ben says pleasantly, sitting across from me. He pulls a knife and an apple out of his pocket, rubs the fruit on his trousers, and then begins to carve.
My vision sharpens on his knife. Despite his playful cockiness, my cousin the computer nerd is just as much of a killer as I am. He was raised in a killer’s household, and while Grandfather might be grooming him for other things, every Romanov knows how to take a life.
“Why did you let him have her?” I swallow, not in fear, but because my mouth is dry. How long have I been out?
My cousin gives me a look, then pops a slice of apple into his mouth, taking his time as he chews and swallows. “I had no choice. I couldn’t take you and her at the same time. He would have become suspicious.”
“Viktor assured me that the financier planned to kill Everly should I not perform the task at hand,” I say through clenched teeth. “How did you get me out of there? I can’t imagine Viktor not confirming my death.”
“He thinks I’m on his side and trusted me to dispose of your body.”
“His side for what?”
“Viktor’s working with someone who promises him that he will be his second in power. Rather crafty, if you ask me. No one goes after the bloke who’s second in command. Apple?” He holds out a slice to me, knife in his grip. I could take it from him in an instant and slice his throat. He knows this. He knows many things, some of which I do not, including the full story of how he was able to bring me here.
“No.” I look around the room. It’s old, but not in disrepair. There are dozens of computer screens displaying codes or live camera shots hanging above a large table covered in keyboards and empty bottles of water. A large black chair is in the middle of it all. Command central, I suppose. “Where are we?”
“Berlin. One of my safe houses. It’s been forty-eight hours since you were shot.”
Panic flows like ice through my veins. My hands fist. “And Everly?”
“Also in Berlin.”
“At least there is that.” My jaw works.
“She’s unharmed, Nikolai. The last time I checked on her, she was still under the assumption Viktor and his team were the good guys.”
The last time he checked… Jesus. “He will get nothing from her. Nothing. She knows less than nothing—only what I’ve told her.”
Ben’s eyes are knowing as they rake over me. “You really do care about her, don’t you?”
“I care about her safety. I’m the reason she’s in this mess in the first place.” I swing my legs off the bed, smoothing down my shirt and frowning at the drops of blood. Tentatively, I touch my head as I stand. Dizziness has me swaying, and my hands grasping at thin air.
“Head wounds are a son of a bitch, yeah?” Ben jumps to his feet, steadying me.
I grab Ben, twisting his shirt with my fist and putting my face millimeters from his. “Do. Not. Play. Games. With. Me.”
My cousin’s eyes widen fractionally, but I know it’s not because he’s afraid of me. No, it’s because I’m not composed.
But I’m past giving a damn.
“I’m on your side, Roman. Always have been, always will be.”
“Blyad,” I mutter. Letting go of the material, I shove him away and stumble to the bed.
“If you recall, I was the one who helped you recover the last time you were shot.”
I sit down, exhaling against the sudden pounding in my head. “You were ordered to.”
“Was I?” He goes back to his apple, slicing and eating it as if he hasn’t a care in the world. “In any case, Everly thinks you are—were—a double agent gone bad. He also told her that she was to be your next victim, once you were done with her.”
Is he serious? I could never be done with Everly, but I did have another rather large problem—bad reputation notwithstanding. “To her, I’m dead.”
“Shall we leave her with Viktor then?” Ben cocks his head to one side, studying my reaction like a good little assassin. “Perhaps he’ll let her go. After all, you say she knows less than nothing.”
Terror gives way to raw fury. “I won’t leave her with him. Would you leave the woman you…” I grind my teeth together at the unexpected rush of emotion that I feel at the thought of never seeing her again. Never touching her soft skin or seeing her smile. “…were responsible for with that cold-blooded bastard?”
Ben lets out a thick sigh, as if my response has disappointed him. “I would not. Yet, it is in your best interest to remain dead.”
“How so?”
Ben smiles slowly, and in that smile I see myself. Never again will I underestimate my cousin. “A dead man can’t be killed.”
“What’s the plan?”
“Kidnap her.”
I grunt. “Do you really think that will work?”
“It worked in Prague,” he reminds me. The little shit.
Slicing my gaze to the monitors, I consider Ben’s surveillance system…and his cockiness.
“When do we leave?” I ask. My body is amped up, ready to do murder.
“In twelve hours. You need a bit more rest—and most of the guards have plans to leave by then, since Viktor thinks he won’t need them anymore.” With a grin, he hands me a gun that I didn’t see him grab. “Don’t worry, Nikolai. We will get her back.”
“I’m not worried.” Tucking the gun away, I look at him. “Viktor, however, should be very afraid.”