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“Are you hearing me, Yakov?”
I wave him off, trying to hear what the man is saying through the glass. I’ve been on high alert all night, but right now, all of my senses are pinging.
Nikandr curses under his breath. “I can tell you’re pissed, but I don’t care. You don’t have to handle everything on your own all the time.”
Then the man turns towards the waiting room and I lunge at Nik.
I drag him down to the floor as he struggles against me. “I’m not gonna fight you over this, Yakov. I can handle things, too. You need to let go and?—”
“Shut the fuck up and listen,” I hiss in his ear. “One of Akim’s men is standing outside this door.”
Nik goes deathly still. “What’s the call?”
I could grab him and question him here. Nik could block off the waiting room easily enough. But if the man doesn’t talk, we will have wasted time and still be no closer to Luna.
“I’m going to follow him,” I decide. “I’ll see where he goes and hope he takes me to Luna.”
“I’m coming, too.”
“You need to stay here with Mariya.”
He shakes his head. “She’s stable and sleeping. Plus, there are guards in her room. She’s safe. You, however, might need backup.”
I want to argue. Enough people I care about have been in danger tonight. I’m not interested in adding to the list.
But Nik is right. He may be my little brother, but he’s also my second. He’s never stood in the way of me doing my job. I won’t stand in the way of him doing his.
Akim’s soldier walks past the window and I nod. “Fine. Come on.”
Nik and I take the stairs down to the lobby and wait for the man to step off the elevator. He’s still on the phone.
In the bright fluorescents of the main floor, I can see the bruise around his eye socket and the scrape on his cheek. The bandage on his arm disappears under his jacket. It looks like his shoulder was dislocated.
“Do you think Mariya did that to him?” Nik asks, no small amount of pride in his voice.
“I wouldn’t be surprised. She is a Kulikov, after all.”
I’d love to watch the footage back and see how long she fought them off. But I can’t watch Luna get taken again.
The man stands outside the glass front doors of the hospital for a few minutes before a black car pulls up and he climbs inside. The windows are deeply tinted.
“Shit,” I growl. “I parked in the garage next door. By the time I get to my car, he’ll be gone.”
Nik grins and points to the dark SUV with the stolen plates we drove to the club tonight. It’s somehow parked only feet away from the front doors. “And that is why I keep a fake handicap tag in my wallet for emergencies.”
We climb in, flip an illegal U-turn, and tail the car at a distance as it weaves across the city. We drive in silence for twenty minutes before the black car pulls into an asphalt lot behind a warehouse. Nik and I hang back as three men climb out of the car and walk towards the back door of the warehouse.
“She’s in there,” I say. “She has to be.”
Nik turns the car off and grabs the keys. “Let’s go save your woman.”
74
YAKOV
Nikandr’s lip curls in disgust as he takes in the site. “This place should be torn down.”
“It’s not far from it.” I point to a faded red and black sign dangling from a metal post. Warning: This Property Is Condemned.
