Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 100416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
It’s what Keira would do in her situation.
“That’s what I suspect.”
“She’ll kill him anyway.” The Eldridges were still new players in the game as far as Keira was concerned, but Alethea had proven to be both brutal and merciless. Her daughter and heir, Mae, was even more so. “She’ll do it for spite.”
“That’s my thought as well.” He nodded. “Tracking his cell is the first step. A moment.” He picked up his phone, and it was like watching him cloak himself in a mask. Gone was the man who watched her with that indefinable emotion in his gray eyes. The easy posture, the lack of tension in his shoulders, gone as well. In their place was the cold bastard who could order deaths without losing sleep at night, the one who didn’t see people as people but as objects on a scale that needed to tip in his favor.
He dialed, his long fingers moving over the keys. Whoever was on the other end of the line answered almost immediately. Dmitri’s voice sounded even colder, as if he’d breathe ice instead of air. “Alexei, I have a task for you. Track the last known location of Mikhail’s phone.” He listened for a moment, and then his voice went hard. “Then find someone who can. Immediately.” He hung up.
She whistled. “Do you practice that voice when you’re alone? It’s not as douchey as Batman’s, but it’s something else.”
“Keira.” He shot her a look, and a flicker of amusement lit those gray eyes before he doused it. “It’s entirely possible that Alexei won’t be able to find a tech expert who’s trustworthy to carry this out. Mikhail took the only one we have with him.”
Which meant he was likely already dead if Alethea wasn’t using him as leverage as well. It wasn’t a good sign that she apparently knew exactly which pressure point to use to trigger Dmitri to do what she wanted, but they’d deal with that after they had his man back safely.
Then she realized what he was very carefully not asking her. “You want me to bring in Cillian.”
“That’s your decision.”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s very nice of you to give me a choice, but you just said Alethea has your man, which means he’s at Mae’s mercy, and I saw Charlie’s cuts from that bitch.” Mae only had Charlie for an hour or two, but it was more than enough. She’d had Mikhail for longer. “You know that whatever Cillian knows, Aiden will know.”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
That decides it. Dmitri wouldn’t ask for outside help unless he absolutely had to. That he was so willing meant he was desperate. Her asking was barely one spot removed from him, and he had to know that. She held out her hand. “Give me the phone, please.”
He grabbed his cell from where it’d fallen on the floor and passed it over. She considered for a second and then dialed the landline to the O’Malley home. If Aiden was still keeping his normal hours, he’d be up. Her brother didn’t sleep much, especially when there was a crisis in progress—which felt like more often than not these days.
Sure enough, he answered with a brisk, “I don’t have time for your shit, Romanov.”
“It’s Keira.” She put the phone on speaker.
Instantly, his tone changed. “I can have men there in a few short hours.”
She sighed. Always the same song and dance with her brother. Keira didn’t hold it against him, though. He wanted to protect her, and his heavy-handed tactics might be annoying as hell, but he genuinely loved her. It didn’t mean she was going to let him steamroll her, but she still had to steel herself against the soft feelings that rose when she thought of it. Soft wasn’t what she needed right now. Dmitri called her a queen, but she wasn’t a queen to the O’Malleys. “My decision hasn’t changed. I’m actually calling to talk to Cillian.”
A hesitation and then her brother disappeared, replaced by the leader of the O’Malleys. It was a tone she was familiar with—he wore it every time she fucked up and had to be hauled before him in his office to explain herself. Aiden’s words were clipped. “It’s business, then. Otherwise you would have called him directly.”
“It is.” She’d considered going around Aiden, but there wasn’t a chance in hell of Cillian keeping this request a secret, so it was better to do it officially. Neither of them would like it, but she wanted to be taken seriously, and time was of the essence if the Eldridges had Dmitri’s man.
“Give me a minute to get him.”
“Of course.” She could feel Dmitri’s gaze on her, but she kept her attention on the painting on the wall behind his desk. It was a winter landscape, a dark forest under a blanket of new fallen snow. Breathtaking in its stark beauty, but something about it gave the impression that, just behind one of the trees, blood marked the virgin snow. An unwary soul would face certain death in that forest, be it from the weather or the predators that she was certain she could feel out of sight.