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 wouldn’t have changed anything. His reach within the local government was long, but no judge on his payroll would have granted Mae Eldridge bail. Ultimately, his being there or not wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference.
Alethea wasn’t the problem. She was a crafty woman, but she could be reasoned with. She wouldn’t do anything that would directly endanger herself or her family. If he pushed the stakes high enough, she’d take the hint and disappear.
Mae, on the other hand, was a wild card.
“Does Aiden know?”
“Hard to say. It went down in New York, and Finch doesn’t seem the type to give him a courtesy heads-up.”
No, agent John Finch was more likely to hang his daughter out as bait to see if Mae would bite again. Dmitri could have told him it was a lost cause—Mae didn’t seem to have the same self-preservation that her mother possessed. She was the type who is more than happy to cut off her nose to spite her face—perhaps even literally—but she wasn’t a fool. Being arrested would infuriate her and, if she couldn’t get to Aiden and Charlie, she’d move onto the next best thing—Dmitri. Worse, Mae wasn’t governed by the unspoken rules that most of the people who moved in their world were. She didn’t give a damn about taking out innocents if it meant she was able to hurt her target.
She wouldn’t strike directly at Dmitri. Even she was smart enough to know that was suicide. No, she’d hit him where she suspected it would hurt most.
She’d target Keira and the families of his men.
They had to find her.
“Pull our men’s families into the available safe houses in the city. Ensure there are men there on a rotating schedule.” They couldn’t keep his people locked down indefinitely, but if there was one thing Mae lacked, it was patience. Alethea’s leash on her daughter had snapped, and he saw no evidence that it would be reclaimed.
He picked up the phone and dialed Aiden’s cell. Dmitri hadn’t had any intention of reaching out so soon after the last less-than-civil conversation, but the situation had changed.
“You have a lot of fucking nerve calling me now.”
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to put your vengeance on hold for the time being.”
“Fuck that. We’re coming for you, Romanov.”
He clenched his fist and then forced himself to release it. Losing his cool right now might be satisfying in the short term, but he had bigger problems than his and Aiden’s pissing match. “Mae Eldridge is free.”
That seemed to bring Aiden up short. “The fuck she is.”
“She was released on bail this morning. Her attorney claimed she was entrapped by the FBI, and the judge bought it.” He had to take a few seconds to fight down the curses that threatened to escape. “She and Alethea have dropped off the radar.”
Aiden was quiet for several long moments. Probably living through those long hours in between when Mae took his woman and he was able to rescue her. Hours when they couldn’t be sure Charlie was still alive. “She needs to be stopped.”
“I concur.” In addition to doubling the manpower he had on the search, Aiden’s help would ensure the O’Malleys didn’t move against him for marrying Keira. Two birds with one well-placed stone, though he would have rather traded barbs with the man if it meant Mae was safely locked up.
“I’ll be in touch.”
“See that you are.” Dmitri hung up and turned to Mikhail. The dark-haired man waited patiently as he always did, the ultimate hunter. “Find them. Alethea’s too smart to have gone back to the family home, but we can’t take for granted that she didn’t.” Bailing Mae out was a calculated risk. Alethea had to know that both O’Malley and Romanov wouldn’t rest until the threat to their respective women was eliminated, so she wouldn’t have made that decision lightly. Mae was brutal enough to last in prison for some time unscathed, which meant there was a deeper game being played.
Now it was just a matter of finding out what.
A pounding on the door had him fighting a sigh. Only one person dared make an entrance like that. Sure enough, when Mikhail opened it, a tall redheaded woman stood there scowling. Always scowling. Between her coloring and size, she could easily pass for a lumberjack—and she had the shitty attitude to match. Dr. Jones.
Her thick brows lowered at the sight of him. “She’s through the worst of it.”
He didn’t let himself sigh, because any outward sign of emotion was handing ammunition to the enemy. Dmitri had no illusions—the second the doctor left here, she’d call Aiden O’Malley and report everything. The only reason she’d taken his call to begin with was because she’d been on the O’Malley payroll for years. Keira might be married to Dmitri, but she was still an O’Malley in the woman’s eyes. He’d called, and she’d come to New York to help see Keira through her withdrawal.