Dmitri kept his gaze on the door Keira had disappeared through, half listening to whatever the hell Aiden said. He finally shook his head. “Excuse me.”
Aiden opened his mouth, seemed to reconsider, and nodded. “Go to her.”
He didn’t need the man’s permission, but he recognized it for the olive branch it was. He and Aiden had managed to get through an entire conversation without threatening each other, even if Dmitri had been distracted through the entire thing. He nodded. “I’ll be back shortly.”
He didn’t like Keira being out of his sight. The night had been going too well, and he didn’t trust that. The other shoe was about to drop, and Dmitri couldn’t stand the thought of Keira being caught in the crossfire.
The hallway outside the ballroom was empty.
He stopped short. It didn’t mean anything. Keira would have wanted more space to get her head on straight, and the hallway was hardly offering in space. He doubted she’d go upstairs, so he turned toward the front of the house and strode in that direction. As he turned the corner, he half expected to find her in the foyer.
The foyer was empty as well.
Dmitri pulled his phone out of his pocket. He’d wanted to clear the house completely of his men, but it wasn’t an option. He didn’t have enough people he trusted beyond a shadow of a doubt, but he called Alexei all the same.
“Da?”
“You’re manning the cameras.” He didn’t wait for confirmation. “Where is Keira?”
A pause, a few clicks in the background. “She and Pavel walked out the front door five minutes ago.”
The front door? Why the fuck had she gone outside? If she needed air, there was the rooftop patio…Dmitri cursed. He’d never even told her about it. It was October—too cold to utilize the space—and it had slipped his mind. But Pavel knew about it. He should have known that was a safer option than standing on the street.
Alarm bells pealed through Dmitri’s head. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
He raced to the front door, not caring if any of the guests saw, and wrenched it open. Pedestrians gave him wide berth without breaking stride, but he could care less about them. He looked right and then left, and Dmitri’s heart stopped cold in his chest at the sight of Keira pressed against the wall, Mae Eldridge standing too close in front of her.
To the outside viewer, they might have been lovers having an intimate conversation. Mae had her strong arm braced on the brick wall over Keira’s shoulder, and their faces were kissably close. It was only from his angle that he was able to see the gun in Mae’s hand.
He took a step forward, but stopped short as a hand closed over his shoulder. He looked at Pavel, one of the few men he’d trusted, and he might as well have been staring into the face of a stranger. The blond’s blue eyes were cold and distant. “That’s close enough,” Pavel ground out.
Fuck. He’d found his traitor, and far too late for the knowledge to help. One of the few men he’d considered to be trustworthy. Not trustworthy enough.
“Dmitri, go back inside.” Keira sounded calm and reasonable, as if asking him to run down to the corner store to grab some milk.
Mae shook her head. “I don’t think so. You’ve got a pretty mouth, but you’re ultimately replaceable. He isn’t.” She gave him a snake’s smile, all cold eyes and tight lips. “Isn’t that right, Romanov?”
“Let her go.” Despite Pavel’s grip on him, Dmitri took a step closer. “Mae, point that fucking gun in a different direction.”
“Or what?” She leaned harder against Keira, eliciting a flinch despite his wife’s stoic expression. She had to be terrified, but none of it showed on her face. Mae laughed. “I think I’ll leave this bitch bleeding in the street. How long do you think it will be until someone manages to tear their gaze away from their phones to call 911? Will she live or will she die? It’s like a flip of a coin—all up to chance.”
She’d do it. He didn’t doubt that she’d shoot his Keira and leave her to bleed to death on the street, mere feet from everyone in the world who cared about her. Who would find her first? Aiden? Carrigan?
Dmitri couldn’t think past the roaring of his thoughts. The sound morphed into two words, repeated over and over again. Save her. “Let her go. I’ll do anything.”
Mae’s eyes widened ever so slightly. “Anything.”
“Yes, anything. Just let her go. Don’t hurt her.” Desperation made his voice rough. He could picture Keira on the sidewalk, the life bleeding out of her hazel eyes. It couldn’t happen. He couldn’t lose her.
“Kiss me.”
“What?”
Dmitri ignored Keira’s protest and shrugged off Pavel’s hand on his shoulder. “Let her go first.”
Mae considered him. “Pavel has his gun on her. You try anything and he’ll shoot her in the stomach. You know what a stomach wound will do.”
He knew. Keira’s chance of survival would drop astronomically. “Let her go.”
Mae released Keira and stepped back, watching him closely. Keira started for him, but he shook his head. “Go back inside, moya koroleva.” Go to safety.
Her hazel eyes shone and she started for the door, her fingers brushing his as she moved past him. She got two steps when Pavel blocked her way. “You’ll watch.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Keira glared up at him. “We trusted you, Pavel.”
“You trusted wrong.”
The longer they stood on the street, the greater the chance that something could go sideways. It felt like they’d been there a small eternity, but Dmitri suspected they were still well within the window of the previous tech blackouts John Finch had reported. He marched to Mae and hooked the back of her neck. She shoved her gun against his thigh, but he ignored it and kissed her. She tasted of cigarettes and rage, and he wanted nothing more in that moment than to snatch the gun from her hand and put her out of her misery.
But there was Keira to think of.
He’d kill Mae, but Pavel would kill Keira.
Unacceptable.
Once the appropriate amount of time had passed, he raised his head. “You disgust me.”
The lust bled out of Mae’s eyes and she sneered. “You say that now.” She leaned into him, the gun never moving from where she had it pointed—right at his femoral artery. “You’ll change your tune before too long.”
“Dmitri, no.”
“Keira, get back in the house. Now.” He didn’t look at her, couldn’t look at her. I love you, moya koroleva.
Seconds passed, and she finally cursed and shoved Pavel out of the way. He pinned the man with a look, daring him to make a move as she stalked down the sidewalk and into the house. Safe. Keira was safe. He could bear any punishment Mae would deliver because he knew she was out of that bitch’s grasp.
“Let’s go, Romanov.” She laughed again, the sound dark. “I’m going to enjoy the hell out of playing with you.”
* * *
Keira couldn’t wipe the picture of Mae forcing Dmitri to kiss her out of her head. That bitch is going to pay. And Pavel, too. Traitor. Enemy. She’d trusted him, had worked with him to secure the reception, and he’d been planning to betray them all along.
Mae had Dmitri.
Keira bypassed the ballroom—she’d get to them in a moment—and headed straight for the lounge where the guards spent their time. She threw open the door, startling half a dozen men into reaching for their guns. A quick sweep of the room, and she found Alexei situated by a monitor. Only get one shot at this. If she didn’t play it right, they wouldn’t follow her, and Dmitri would be as good as dead. “That bitch took Dmitri.” She let the pause drag out a beat. “But we’re going to get him back.”
She held up a hand when Alexei started to speak. “Mae took Dmitri. She took Mikhail. She will kill them all if she’s given the chance, which means we can’t fuck this up.”
One of the men, a blond whose name she couldn’t immediately place, spoke up. “Why should we take orders from you?”
Keira iced over her tone the same way she’d heard Dmitri and her brother do. “Did I fucking stutter?”
He tried to hold her gaze, but chickened out halfway through. “Nyet.”
“Dmitri is gone.” She met each of their eyes in turn, holding their attention just long enough to make them uncomfortable. “That means I am in charge for the duration. He’s my husband, and I want him back. Alethea and her bitch daughter will pay for the insult they dealt us, and they’ll pay fully. I don’t give a flying fuck what you think of me, but don’t you forget for a second that Dmitri chose me. He married me.” He saved me. “That’s all that should fucking matter to you. Obey and you will be rewarded.” She lifted her chin, focusing on ensuring her hands didn’t shake and her voice never wavered. “If you can’t guarantee you will obey, then get the fuck out of the way for the men who will.”
Not a single one of them stepped back, but she didn’t allow herself to breathe a sigh of relief. “We need to clear out our guests. I’ll handle it—just follow my lead. Then we’ll find Dmitri and deal with the Eldridge threat once and for all.”
Keira’s phone pinged, and she almost ignored it. But when she looked, she found a text from Dmitri.
I’m sorry, moya koroleva. This wasn’t how it was supposed to play out.
“Dmitri,” she breathed. She typed out a quick response. Where are you going?
We’re still in the city, but I can’t be sure of more than that. I’m in the back of a van with the windows painted over and they’ve blocked off the space to the driver’s seat.
Not good.
Another text pinged through. I love you. The various bank numbers are in the safe in our room. The code is 0693821.
“Oh, no you don’t.” She strode into the ballroom as she typed her reply. Knock that shit off. You’re living through this so I can scream at you later. Hold, please.
This situation needed to be handled as in-house as possible, but there was only one person with the skills that Keira trusted to track Dmitri’s location—Cillian. The only problem being that he had no reason to do her any favors, and he wouldn’t without Aiden’s blessing. Damn it. With that in mind, she turned to the rest of the room. They watched her with varying degrees of concern. “Thank you all for coming. Unfortunately, something has come up that requires our attention. My men here will show you out.” She motioned to Alexei and the six men who had fanned out behind her.
“Keira, what’s going on?”
Right on cue. She turned to Aiden as he approached. She had to play this exactly right, or Aiden would muscle in and take control. Her men wouldn’t follow him, and his men didn’t give two fucks if Dmitri lived or died. All they cared about was killing the Eldridges. While she could get on board with Mae being removed from the face of this earth, she wouldn’t risk Dmitri’s life to make it happen.
She loved Aiden, but she couldn’t trust him. Not in this.
His brows slammed down. “Something happened.”
“I need to borrow Cillian again. Just for as long as it takes him to track a number for me.” There. That was nice and neutral. She could do this. She didn’t have any other choice.
If anything, he looked more forbidding. “Dmitri gave his word that he wouldn’t cut me out. Is he going back on it so quickly?”
Goddamn it, this isn’t a power play. She didn’t say the words aloud. They weren’t the truth—every single damn thing was a power play in their world, the current situation included. If it wasn’t, she could have asked her big brother for help. “Dmitri isn’t here right now. I am.” She stared him down, refusing to let even a hint of doubt creep into her. “Are you willing to create an incident to push this?” This was it. This was the moment when he’d either call her bluff, or he’d actually believe that she was in control of herself and the situation.
He broke her gaze and swore. “Goddamn it, Keira, you know I’m not. I just want to help.”
“You can help by leaving—and by lending me Cillian. Now, please.”
The tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife. Finally, Aiden nodded. “I’d like an explanation when this is all over.”
“You’ll have it.” Easy enough to promise. If she succeeded tonight, there would be little enough to report. If she failed, her brother’s anger would be the least of her concerns. I can’t afford to think like that. I won’t fail. I haven’t come this far to have happiness torn from my grasp before I have a chance to enjoy it. “Aiden.” She waited for him to look at her. “Thank you.”
He nodded. “Charlie.”
“I’m here.” She slipped through two O’Malley men and hurried up to give Keira a quick hug. “Be safe.”
“I will,” she lied through her teeth. Every second she wasted here was a second she wasn’t in pursuit of Mae, but she couldn’t leave these people in her house—not even her family. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Okay.” Charlie let Aiden take her hand and guide her to the door, taking their people with them. The rest of the guests followed, and Keira’s expression must have been forbidding, because not even Teague chose to approach and contradict Aiden’s decision to let her handle it.
For that, she was grateful.
Ivan slowed in front of her and slid his arm around Natasha. “If you think it would help, I can leave a few men to pad your numbers, but it’d be best if we weren’t directly involved with his rescue.”
She loved him a little bit for never doubting that there would be a rescue. “While I appreciate the offer, we’ve got it covered. I’ll have Dmitri contact you once he’s home.”
He nodded. “Tell Dima that he’ll never live this down, and I expect the full story next time we have dinner.”
Natasha pinned her in place with those whiskey-colored eyes. “You bring our Dima home, Keira.”
“I’m going to.” She wouldn’t allow herself to believe anything else. “Travel safe.”
“And you as well.”
She glanced at Alexei. “Take your men and make sure no one wanders off on their way out the front door, and then lock this place down. Get everyone equipped and meet me in Dmitri’s office when you’re ready. I’ll have the location by then.” I hope.
It was a risk allowing Cillian into Dmitri’s office, but it was a calculated one. Aiden had trusted her to loop him in when necessary. Dmitri’s men trusted her to find him. She had to trust Cillian to do the job she asked of him. He whistled softly when he saw the computer setup. “Independent circuit?”
“I don’t know what that means, so shelve the geek talk. That one has Internet.” She pointed at the laptop on the corner of the desk. “I just texted you the number. Can you track it?”
“Yeah. If the phone’s still turned on, it will be cake.”
“Please hurry.” A fine tremor worked its way through her, and she had to turn away while she fought against the urge to scream herself hoarse. Hold on, Dima. Just…hold on. They would get to him in time. Her standing over Cillian and demanding he hurry wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference.
The door opened right as she got herself under control. Alexei poked his head in. “Mrs. Romanov, we’re ready. The house is cleared except for this one.” He motioned at Cillian.
“Good.” When he hesitated, she raised her eyebrows. “Yes?”
He glanced at her dress, a silent inquiry. Of course. She was hardly inconspicuous at the moment. Keira cleared her throat. “Stay with Cillian.” It would only take her a few minutes to change, and she wanted to be prepared for whatever situation they were about to walk into.
“Yes, ma’am.”
She turned to find her brother watching her. “What?”
Cillian smiled through bloodless lips. “When did you become a leader?”
“Trial by fire.” She let her hands drop to her sides. “Cillian, do you need anything else from me at this second?”
“No, but I should have a location in ten minutes or less, so whatever you need to do, do it fast.” He cracked his knuckles and got to work.
Keira nodded. “I’ll be right back.”