“I know, buddy. I know you do. But for right now, we need to get out of here, okay?”
“I want Alyssa home.”
“I’ll see what I can do, okay?” He’s still shifting every few seconds, but he allows me to slice off the rest of his restraints. “Do you want to take my hand?”
Lev shies away from me. “I want Alyssa.”
I’m losing patience fast and the more I try to control it, the harder it becomes to control. The fact that he keeps asking for the very woman who got him into this mess in the first place isn’t helping matters.
“Lev.” Reluctantly, he turns his sad blue eyes on me. “You trust me, don’t you?” The hesitation is a touch too long for my liking, but in the end, he does nod. “Good. Then take my hand and come with me.”
He does but his hand almost slides right out of mine again because it’s soaked with sweat. I hold onto him tightly and lead him out of the room with my gun at the ready.
Outside, the coast is clear. Nikolai and my men are clustered in the living room. I note a pile of dead enemies in the corner and one last live one quivering on his knees in front of Nikolai.
“Stepan,” I order, “take Lev outside and keep him safe until we’re done in here.”
Lev keeps his head down as Stepan ushers him out of the house. Nikolai turns to me, gesturing to the man on his knees between us. “He’s the ringleader. And he’s refusing to talk.”
I meander around him as I size the guy up. He’s shorter but muscly. His eyes are a dark brown and his hair is a white, spiky blonde.
“You fuckers are getting nothing out of me.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Sounds like a challenge. Josef, Hanz—take him. He’s coming with us.”
He laughs maniacally as my boys pick him up roughly and start pushing him towards the door. “You have no idea what’s coming!” he cackles as he’s forced into the back of one of my jeeps. “No fucking idea.”
The door closes on him and I turn to Nikolai. “Did you get anything out of him?”
“Only this,” he says, holding up the guy’s phone. “It’s got a touch ID installed, but I was able to force his thumb on there. He’s enabled the automatic deletion feature, though. All these text conversations disappear after an hour.”
“Did you get anything?”
“Nothing. All wiped.”
“Fuck,” I grumble as I run a hand through my hair. “It doesn’t matter. That phone might come in handy at some point. So might he. For now, let’s get Lev home.”
We’re walking down the hill with Lev between us when I notice Alyssa’s car. What the fuck? I expressly told her to go back—
I stop short when I realize that her car is missing the side mirror. It’s actually lying on the road a few feet away, broken glass scattered across the asphalt.
“Lev,” I say gently, “go with Stepan and Yevgeny. Nikolai and I will be there soon. You’ll be able to see us from the window, okay? We’re right here.”
Lev looks wary, but he also seems keen to get into a dark, enclosed space, so he reluctantly goes with my vors. When he’s been taken care of, Nikolai and I stride quickly towards Alyssa’s vehicle.
“This is not good, Uri. It’s not fucking good.” He strokes his chin. “It’s not possible she would have just… skipped town? Tried to make it look like someone came after her?”
I glare at my brother. “Polly was with her. She’d never have pulled something like this with Pol.”
“Are you sure?”
The odd thing is that I am sure. Alyssa may not trust me. She may not even like me very much right now. But she does care about my siblings. She would never purposely hurt Lev or Polly. It’s not the most convenient realization to have when I’m absolutely determined to be furious with her, but I can’t deny that that’s how I feel.
Ping.
I turn to Nikolai. “Was that—”
“The phone,” Nikolai says, looking down at the screen. His eyes fly back and forth. Then he pales. “Fuck.”
I grab the phone and read the text message that just came in.
BOSS: We have the girls. Do what you want with the idiot boy.
My heart is beating frantically as I dial in the same number the text came from. It takes a couple of rings, but then I hear a deep raspy voice that feels vaguely familiar.
“I thought I told you not to fucking call me on this number.”
That voice. It’s unmistakable.