AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“They didn’t mention you by name, no,” she clarified. “I have forty-eight hours to hand over the package, or I’m finished.”
From the corner of my eye, I noticed the package stir in her seat.
Alyona glanced over at one of her armed men and gave him a little nod. When he reached into his pocket and strode over, offering her a phone, Dallas growled and resumed his defensive stance.
Diana reached out and rested her hand on his head, perhaps realizing he was on edge. Or maybe she needed him, not the other way around.
“You ditched the iPad back in Riga. Made it harder for me to locate you,” Alyona noted as she scrolled through the phone, and her guy kept his eyes trained on Dallas as if worried he’d bite.
Maybe you should. “You think I didn’t know you were tracking me with that thing?” I arched my brow. “Besides, I know you enjoy your games. I couldn’t make it too easy for you to hunt me down.” She’d clearly found the breadcrumbs we’d strategically left for her between Riga and here. “After you tipped off the Serbians their location was compromised, it was a coin toss if you’d track me down,” I answered honestly. “In your attempt to remain blameless in Diana’s rescue, you inadvertently put a target on your head.”
“I was ill-advised, and that person has been handled.” She nudged the phone my way.
I swiped through the screenshots, reading over the messages. Checking out the photos there. “They’re blackmailing you.”
“That’s a lot more than blackmail.” It was quite possibly the first time I’d ever seen this woman rattled.
Alyona also had no idea blackmail was what ultimately led to Rebecca’s demise, and now wasn’t the time to be weighted down by the past. I needed to stow away that memory for another time. If Alyona was truly being screwed over because I’d come to her for an assist, then I owed it to her to help before she died because of me.
Proof, yet again, Diana wasn’t safe around me. I had to remember that. Never fucking forget it. It also . . . crushed me.
“They have me by the balls, Dominick.” She focused on Diana. “They know every one of my offshore accounts. The location of my properties. They have my parents’ and sister’s addresses.”
“This has intelligence written all over it.” POTUS is right. The lab hit was an inside job. “Not the CIA or NSA.” Anyone with that level of intel on her in our government already knew Diana was secure, and they wouldn’t need Alyona’s assistance. “Someone has been stockpiling shit against you, and they were waiting for the time to use it.”
“Regardless,” Alyona began, closing her hand into a fist and placing it over her heart, “I need the package more than you do.”
“No.” The word came out before I could stop it, ricocheting around the otherwise quiet room. I heard Dallas begin to growl, and it only firmed up my resolve Diana wouldn’t be going anywhere with anyone other than me. “I’m not letting you take her.”
“The package has a name,” Diana spoke up at the same time Dallas’s growl intensified.
Alyona whipped her green eyes her way, but only for a second before pinning me with a hard, determined look. “Don’t make me fight you, because I will. I won’t let these assholes hurt my family.”
“Then fight back. You’re not one to give up like this.” I’d never known her weaknesses before, but her family . . . apparently they were her kryptonite. “Our interests are aligned. Whoever is blackmailing you is my target, too. I’m sorry I involved you, but we’ll take this group down. There’s a lot more at stake than you realize.”
“I’m not taking chances. Let me have Diana, and you can track her to the drop-off point. You can find out who’s after her that way, but I need to do my part and hand her over.”
I wanted to help her, but I wasn’t going to sacrifice Diana to do that. “Blood will spill between us before I so much as consider that plan,” I seethed, hating she was putting me in this position, even if I first put us here by reaching out. “We’ll find another way. We’ll let him or her think you have Diana in your possession. Buy us time in figuring out who’s behind this.” I angled my head toward her two men on guard in the room. “Tell your guys at the house, and the men you have as a backup five mikes out, to stand down.”
“What makes you think I have more men in the wings?” she challenged.
“It’d have been unwise for you not to, and you’re anything but that.” I tensed at the possibility that . . . “Are you currently transmitting your location?” Was this a Trojan horse play from her, or another error in judgment? “Were you tailed?”
“You think I’d let someone follow me here and lose any leverage I have to keep myself and my family safe?” The woman wasn’t an eye roller, but at my doubting expression, she honored me with one. I just had no desire to punish her for it like I would’ve in the past. No, whatever I’d felt for her, even though it’d been sexual only, was gone. Left in the past where it belonged. Where it’d die.
“I knew you were coming,” I shared. “We spotted your men crossing the German border. It’s possible someone else knows, too.”
“We know each other well, Dominick. You saw me because I let you. Because I wanted you to. This phone is also untraceable. So no, I wasn’t spotted by anyone other than your people.” She stepped back and opened her arms. “Go ahead, have your people check us for trackers.”
I wouldn’t be refusing that offer. Considering she was stressed about the blackmail, I also wouldn’t make the assumption she was playing with a full deck. I had to assume the worst, that our location was potentially compromised.
“Check them,” I told Easton, then I covered my other ear where my secondary team awaited orders. “Did you hear that?” I asked Gray over comms.
“I did. We’ve got eyes in the sky and are checking for any additional movement. It’s pretty quiet out here. Her backup crew is still holding position, and no radio transmissions from them yet.”
I relaxed the smallest bit after Gray shared what I wanted to hear. “Roger. Keep me posted. Out.”
I hadn’t planned to bring Falcon there, but the moment I’d had concerns Alyona might be a problem for me, I’d pulled them into action. I’d had the team (minus Gwen) board my second jet and fly to Europe, arriving in time for the showdown with Alyona. They were currently my alternate, contingency, and emergency plans all rolled into one.
