Desperate Victory, page 24
“A school?” Adam repeated, testing the word as if examining it for veracity, “She picks up girls from other countries and brings them to a school. No questions asked?”
“I wondered if she was just playing dumb or didn’t want to know. Desperate times.” Probably far too generous on my part. “Then she screamed something about us being too late. There was a huge sale coming, an auction, and she’d fetch a lot of money.”
Adam’s fingers dug into my hip. “The name of the school?”
“Radoslav-Tanzakademie,” I said, before translating the German. “Radoslav Dance Academy.” The name wasn’t easily found in the local information directories. “I sent the information to Fletcher.” Guilt assailed me. “I should have checked before I finished with her.”
As much as I hated to admit it, she’d pushed me too far. The impulse to strike her had been right there and I hadn’t fought it.
Now she wasn’t available for further questioning.
“It’s a name,” Adam said. “If it’s attached to anything real, Fletcher will find it. We can also do a little looking of our own.”
I twisted to look at him. “How?”
“The Mikhailovskaya head has agreed to take a meeting.” Ezra said, drawing my attention. “We just got the all clear from his people when you sent the message. It will be dinner tonight, we need to go formal and bring a gift.”
Chewing on my lower lip, I considered him and then glanced at Bodhi and Milo before returning to Ezra. “How long do we have?”
Bodhi nodded once. “And how do you want to play it?”
Just like that, the shaking left me as we tackled planning. We were closer. Not close enough, but closer.
We weren’t stopping until we found her.
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
EZRA
The apartment Bodhi arranged for us boasted some decent amenities. It was too small in my opinion, but living on top of each other while we were in Prague wasn’t a problem.
Especially not when Adam kept proving to me he could be a cuddler. I didn’t want to examine that too closely, but I’d woken up more than once, curled onto my side, with him wrapped around me.
I fucking loved it.
I reworked the tie on my tux. The black tie affair was not my idea. The Avtorityet for the Mikhailovskaya organization extended the invitation on behalf of the Sovietnik. The pakhan would not be there.
That was fine. I didn’t want to pay homage to anyone. I merely wanted to secure some support for us on the ground. Speaking fluent Russian got me a lot further than I expected.
“You’re thinking too hard,” Adam informed me as he stepped out of the bathroom shirtless. He already had his dress pants on or I would be reconsidering the knot for this tie.
I shifted a glance to the clock on the wall.
“Don’t even think about it,” Adam informed me.
“Killjoy.”
“Yes, that’s me, the slayer of all things fun for Ezra.” He smirked as he tossed the hand towel he’d been drying his face with back into the bathroom then shut off the light.
“I mean… not the worst thing I’ve ever called you.” I caught him shaking his head via the mirror as I tied the black silk one more time.
“You’re butchering that.” The dry advice had me rolling my eyes, but Adam was pulling on his own silk shirt.
Before I could respond, a light knock on the door pulled my attention. Bodhi and Milo knocked a lot harder than that. “Come on in, Kotyonok.”
Adam pivoted, drawn by that invisible tether that connected us to Lainey. An awareness of her that we always had to maintain and when she was there, that was where we focused.
The door opened to reveal her in a stunning green dress. The deep emerald shade added something almost elusive to her. I twisted around to get a good look at the dress.
It was a simple sheath with a halter top. Everything about the way the silk moved with her had me wanting to stroke my hands over her. A pair of green heels peeked out from under the dress as she moved.
Fuck me, she didn’t even have a hint of panties on under there.
She coughed lightly and I jerked my gaze up to find her watching me with amused eyes.
“You look gorgeous,” I told her. She’d styled her hair up and pinned. It emphasized the column of her throat that the halter encircled like a collar. Blood pulsed to my dick.
They were both beautiful. It wasn’t fair. I was gonna spend this whole evening with a damn hard-on.
“You do look beautiful,” Adam murmured as he closed the distance and brushed the corner of her mouth with a kiss. It was a gentle touch, possessive but not proprietary. “You sure you’re up for this tonight?”
Not an unfair question considering the news she found today. I swore, she was so damn strong it made me ache. But the sadness in her eyes and the way she’d clung to Adam left a gaping wound in my soul.
Finding news about Andrea and learning she was alive was very much a double-edged sword. She was alive. But was she safe? They were planning on selling her. Could we get there in time?
If we didn’t?
We were going to be burning our way through Eastern Europe until we found her.
“I’ll be fine,” Lainey said, cupping Adam’s cheek with her palm. “I have a knife on the inside of my thigh and I’ll have my baton and a taser in my purse.”
All weapons she’d need to close the distance with to use. Then again, if Lainey needed weapons at all it would be because someone closed in around us already.
After she set her clutch down on the nightstand, she came to me and brushed my fingers aside from the tie. “Let me,” she said and I trailed my fingers down her bare shoulders, just for the excuse to touch her while she began knotting the tie in short, direct motions.
“Thank you,” I told her and when she was done, I dipped my head to kiss her. The gleam of her lipstick said it was a gloss, but I didn’t want to smudge it.
Well, that was a bit of a lie, I’d love to smudge it. Especially if I had her mouth wrapped around my cock. Or anywhere else really.
“Later,” she said, as though she could read the lust in my eyes. Fuck, maybe she could. It wasn’t like I could hide it anymore.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
When she picked up my jacket, I let her hold it while I slid my arms into it. The gun I wore under it was hidden well. As tailored suits went, it wasn’t the best. But we’d had to get them on short notice, so I wouldn’t complain.
I tracked Lainey as she drifted toward Adam. He just held out his tie to her. There was a stillness to Lainey, a hesitation of action. Like everything she needed to do and say was on hold, bubbling under the surface and just waiting to explode out of her.
If I had to guess, she was keeping herself under rigid control. I hated it though. I preferred it when Lainey could let herself just be. Fuck, who was I kidding, I liked it when we could all just be who we were.
This wasn’t one of those times. We were trapped by the world we inhabited. There were rules we couldn’t break, and lines we should never stretch. Yet, we’d done all of that. Tonight was about shoring up a potential ally, but it was also about taking another step in the direction to find Andrea.
One was far more important than the other. And as much as I wanted to find their sister, I was also a selfish bastard. I didn’t want to lose either one of them to do it.
Lainey smoothed down Adam’s shirt after she finished the tie. Then she reached for his shoulder holster and helped him slip it on.
“You don’t have to go,” Adam told her quietly. “Ezra and I can handle the meeting. We can take Bodhi with us, you and Milo stay here while we deal with this.”
“I’ll be fine,” she assured him. “Unless you really don’t want me there, then let’s go ahead and fight about that so I can win and we can go.”
I snorted a laugh at the bland, easy delivery.
“What?” Lainey said, glancing at me over her shoulder. “Do you think I won’t win?”
Adam settled his hands on her bare shoulders and she faced him once more. The closeness between them seemed to blur away all the hard edges. They belonged in that bubble of closeness. Their mutual grief and terror bonding them further.
“Of course you’ll win,” Adam said without an ounce of irony or argument. “But you shouldn’t have to do this if it’s going to upset you any more than you already are. You did the hard part. You got us a lead and you dealt with a problem.”
Dealt with a problem. She dealt with it all right. She ended the shopkeeper. The woman would disappear and become just another mystery. I might experience a twinge of guilt if she hadn’t been involved. That said, she participated in trafficking and stealing girls.
She could die in a hole, buried alive for all I cared. As it was, Lainey ended it quickly for her. Maybe too quick, but again, the printer wasn’t the important one.
“I admit,” Lainey said as she leaned into Adam and stretched a hand out behind her. I wrapped my hand around hers and closed in against her back. Then Adam and I were wrapped around her. “I want nothing to do with some technically challenging meal where we have to make nice with criminals.”
I opened my mouth to correct that, then just let it go. She wasn’t wrong. They were criminals. Not that we were much better. Not a point to argue on. “You don’t have to,” I assured her, dropping my head so I could press a kiss to the bare skin below the collar of her halter. “You don’t have to do a damn thing.”
“Ezra’s right,” Adam agreed with me, but I doubted he thought she’d take him up on it any more than I did. “If you want or need to sit this out, we’ll take care of it.”
Lainey lifted her head and leaned back against me, and I looped a hand around her waist. “Can I tell you how much I like that this is a discussion and not an order?”
“Orders never really worked on you,” Adam told her without a hint of apology.
“Never stopped you from barking them out.” The smile in her words belied the accusation.
“No, because I will always choose your safety first. Always.”
Adam had one hand on my shoulder and the other cupping her chin. His gaze bored into hers and I drank in the sight of them together.
“As much as I want to lock you away and keep the rest of the world from ever touching you again,” Adam told her in a silky soft tone that wrapped around us like an embrace. It was Adam at his most dangerous.
Indulgent and sweet, wrapped up in the most deliciously dark promises that he meant every single word. Goddamn the man made me hard.
“But?” Lainey prompted him, her smile almost as indulgent as his.
“But—that’s not what you need from me. From any of us. You’re more than our equal, Lainey. It won’t ever stop me from wanting to keep you safe or protecting you every chance I get.”
“It won’t stop any of us,” I added. “Just like it won’t stop you from protecting us.”
I almost said trying to protect us. But Lainey had protected us. My kotyonok was ever fierce with her teeth and her claws.
“That’s the way it should be,” she said and Adam lifted his gaze to meet mine. I read the worry there. The worry he wasn’t sharing with her. The worry for her as much as about her.
“It is the way it should be,” I said, turning the words over even as I spoke them. Adam’s look of reprimand made me grin. That wasn’t what he wanted from me right now. “It is though,” I told him as much as her. “When we’re together, we can look out for each other. Fuck knows, Kotyonok is much prettier than any of us. They’re going to be trying to steal her when they see her tonight.”
Adam’s lips flattened and I had to swallow back a little bit of glee at the retribution-filled promise in his eyes. “You’re not making this case for her.”
“I don’t have to make it for her. She’s already made it. And again, we’ll be right there. How much you wanna bet anyone who gets too frisky will disappear five seconds after Bodhi notices?”
For a brief moment, Adam opened his mouth then snapped it shut. A vicious gleam entered his eyes. “He really does have a way of dealing with interlopers.”
“Exactly,” I said, then to my delight Lainey laughed as she leaned back against me. The earlier smile had been more than welcome, but her laugh? That was a gift.
“You two are terrible.”
“The worst,” I agreed. “But like us, Bodhi wants you safe and he has far fewer lines that need to be crossed before he takes action.”
“True,” she said in the same breath as Adam. “However, I suggest we keep it as business-focused as we can tonight. I’ll play arm candy.”
I snorted. “Not that you aren’t stunning, Kotyonok. But you are so much more.”
“I love you too,” she said, tilting her head back and then winking at me.
“Every once in a while, you remind me why I didn’t drown you when we were kids,” Adam informed me and I just smirked.
“That and I can suck a dick like a god.” Since I had literally done that between finishing my shower and starting his, Adam really couldn’t disagree.
He shook his head then focused on Lainey. “Remind me to put him in a timeout later.”
Yeah. Timeout my ass. That sent a wonderful shudder through me. I wouldn’t be opposed. “Fine, let’s go, the sooner we get this fucking dinner over, the sooner we get back here. I’m in the mood for Lainey to suck my cock and Adam to watch. He can enjoy all the things I do to you, Kotyonok.”
“That you do to her?” Adam challenged.
“Oh yes, that I do to her. You already got your dick wet today.”
“Asshole,” he muttered and I grinned. Lainey’s soft laughter circled around us. The distraction wasn’t much, but I’d grab every single bit of one I could with both hands.
“Keep laughing,” Adam murmured next to my ear. “I bet I can make her come more times than you can.”
Liquid heat spilled into my blood. “Challenge accepted.”
“Come along boys,” Lainey said, still chuckling. She claimed her clutch and headed for the door. I wasn’t the only one groaning because that silk sheath flowed with her steps as though caressing her.
I had no idea if I’d even survive the dinner, but what a way to go…
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
LAINEY
Acar was waiting for us when we came down. The driver—Kellan Traschel—was a familiar face. The Vandal slipped out of the driver’s seat and opened the back door for us. He was dressed in a black suit and had the look of a professional chauffeur.
“Miss,” he murmured in polite greeting, ignoring Milo’s snort of amusement as the others waited for me to get in first.
“Thank you.” The back of the vehicle was quite spacious. I didn’t take any of the edge seats. Instead I chose the middle seat facing forward. Ezra climbed in next and he dropped into the seat right behind the driver. Adam took the seat on my right with Bodhi going across from him and then Milo next to me on the left.
“You have the address?” Milo asked after Kellan climbed into the driver’s seat.
“Yep. Already scouted the area and Jas is there keeping watch with Rome.”
“Efficient,” I said even as Milo threaded his fingers with mine.
“Not taking any chances,” he said by way of explanation, but I waved it off. I didn’t need them to tell me about mitigating risks. We were in an unfamiliar city, meeting with unfamiliar people with a measure of influence.
We needed allies here. If we couldn’t find them and we had to do this on our own… Well, there were people we could hire to bring in if necessary.
So, no chances needed to be taken beyond what we were already doing. The drive from our apartment to the home of the evening’s host, Dimitri Solohub, took just a little under thirty minutes. I wasn’t sure how much of that was the roundabout route that Kellan took or the fact it was further out.
I could let my mind wander while we were in the vehicle. I needed to focus when we were inside. The house turned out to be a luxury villa in the Troja district. It occupied a hill with a pair of other villas flanking it. Close, but not immediately on top of it.
“All three homes are under the control of the Mikhailovskaya as far as we can tell. Doc called his friends. Alphabet did some looking and they reached out to some people they know in the region. Most won’t have anything to do with the Mikhailovskaya because it’s not good business.”
“Good to know,” Bodhi said. “Any warnings?”
“Just the standard,” Kellan replied as he pulled up the drive and then reached out to choose a button on the call box. No challenge was offered, just a buzz and an accented voice saying something in Russian.
“He said come up,” Ezra translated. No one said anything more until Kellan’s window was closed and we were moving once again. “It took us three days to get someone to even consider an introduction, now we’re invited to dinner.”
He rubbed at his jaw. The playful flirt from earlier was absent and replaced by a far more troubled man.
“And we’re here…” I let that trail off, waiting him out. Despite the assurances earlier that they wished I would stay behind where it was “safe,” we were all here.
Ezra and Adam would have fought a lot harder if they suspected a trap.
“We’re here,” Ezra agreed. “I just don’t know what we might be walking into.” Then he glanced at Bodhi. “I don’t think it’s a physical trap, but it feels more like they got an idea of who we were and that opened the door.”
“Which could be a problem all by itself,” I murmured. Adam settled his hand on my thigh.
“Whatever it is,” he said. “We’ll deal with it.”
Then we pulled up in front of the house. Before he got out, Kellan turned his head so he could glance back at us. “Hit the panic button if we need to crash in and get you out. Jasper and Rome are watching, I won’t be far. Hopefully they’ll just let me stay. If they won’t—not a problem.”
“We got this,” Milo said and he patted the pocket of his jacket. “Let’s not keep our hosts waiting.”
