Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Ivanov had gone after Dimitri the night before, ready to eliminate him since he was no longer proving useful. Remington had several men working to find out if he’d been caught or gotten away. He assured us Dimitri—or his corpse—would be found, but I couldn’t settle down. I wanted to know if he was dead or to find him and kill him myself. Even Niko’s presence—touching him, kissing him, sucking his cock—hadn’t calmed me like it should.
I checked in with Landry and walked the perimeter of the cabin multiple times. My skin felt itchy and too tight. I needed to know something. Dante had yelled at me when I called him for a third time. He told me they would let me know as soon as they fucking did anything.
I talked to Rafe, and he chatted on about irrelevant things like the new gun Lancelot had gotten or the cool car Corbin and Bo had just restored. Nothing important. No more word on Dimitri. No better sense of whether Ivanov was buying our ruse. Would he believe the man Remington sent to him was a Lopez family contact?
He had agreed to a meeting, but that didn’t mean he didn’t suspect something.
My brothers were going in virtually blind. I didn’t like it. I wanted to be there.
What was I going to do? Somehow keep both of them behind me like they were innocents I needed to protect? They had both killed, and they would kill again. They were full participants in the family, just like I was, but they were also my little brothers. I couldn’t lose them.
“Lorenzo?”
I looked up. How did Niko manage to startle me? I sure as hell wasn’t any use guarding this place if I couldn’t even keep track of the other people who were in the house with me.
“What is it?”
Niko frowned. “Is something wrong?”
“Nothing new. I just can’t stand this waiting.”
“Well, I’ve got some good news. Alina’s in.”
Had I heard him right? “What?”
“She’s in. She’s got a view through his security cameras.”
“That’s incredible. I’ll call Remington now.”
“Haven’t we answered enough of your fucking questions?” Remington said when he accepted the call.
“I haven’t got another question. I’ve got eyes inside Ivanov’s house.”
“What the fuck do you mean?”
“Apparently, Alina is a skilled hacker. She’s gotten into the security cameras. We can see everything they can see, views of all different angles of the house, inside and out.”
“You’re fucking kidding me. Put her on the phone.”
“It’s Remington,” I said as Alina took the phone. She talked him through different locations where the cameras were, which guards she could see. She said her father didn’t seem to have increased the normal amount of security. That was a damn good sign.
Somehow, after a lot of mysterious clickety clacking, she looped Remington in so he could also see the feed, and after she ended the call, she got to work on seeing what else she could find.
Niko and I celebrated with some mutual blowjobs after she ordered us to leave her in peace. After that, I distracted myself with cooking and took a stint at Landry’s post so he could come in to shower and, I imagined, flirt with Alina.
After one of the longest days of my life, it was finally go time. Rafe and Dante both texted me, promising to stay safe and reminding me they were grown-ups.
We all hovered over Alina’s computer. It wasn’t like we could see everything. We were hardly going to get a play-by-play, but I still wanted to be there when any of our crew came into camera range.
A man I vaguely recognized from a job I’d done for Remington approached the front door of Ivanov’s house. Niko laid a hand on my leg, and I realized I had been bouncing it. “I can’t sit still right now.”
“I know. You’re worried about your brothers. It makes sense. I’m worried too. You’d be there if it wasn’t for me.”
“I could’ve sent someone else here. I chose to be here with you. You are not to blame for that.”
“He’s here to take care of me too,” Alina said.
Niko huffed. “I’m not entirely sure you need to be taken care of anymore. You seem damn capable of taking care of yourself.”
“I’ve made sure to learn a lot of skills. There’ve been times I’ve needed to defend myself. Typically, I was punished for it later, but there are a lot of bad men that hang around with my dad and don’t know any boundaries. Once he realized I wasn’t going to get him anything as someone else’s bride, he stopped caring.”
That sick fuck. “We’re going to put an end to him. I swear to you.”
“I believe you. Now, let’s watch.”
The door opened, but the angle of the camera didn’t let us see who was inside. I wished we had audio at least. I saw confusion on our decoy’s face and tensed, but he quickly relaxed and smiled, so I could let out the breath I was holding.