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She shot me a knowing look and picked up the kamikaze shot that just got delivered. “I’d say that crush was a two-way street from where I was standing.”
“Hell, yeah it was!” hollered Hannah as she raised her glass. “To Ivan and Emmy—finally!”
I blushed and smiled, raising my glass happily to that. We all drank our shots, the second ones going down much more easily than the first.
“By the way, Delaney, I’m so sorry for dragging you down here in the first place. Everything ended up being a huge misunderstanding. You mention feeling like an idiot, but I’m the real idiot of this story,” Hannah lamented. I wrapped my arm around her and gave her a consoling hug.
Delaney gave her a forgiving smile. “It’s okay. I think we can all agree that if anything can make you crazy, it’s a man.”
“I’ll drink to that!” I concurred heartily. “Anton, another round of shots!”
Chapter 43
Ivan
I burst into the warehouse, practically salivating for Orlov’s blood. The whole ride down to the South Side all I could see in my head was Emmy’s beautiful face riddled with shock as the truth about her father was revealed.
My stomach had been tied up in knots ever since we left.
Doubts floated through my mind about not telling her sooner. It still felt the reasoning for not telling her had been valid, but the way she learned about her father was fucked. I dropped a fucking detonated bomb in her lap and walked out the door. I hadn’t wanted to leave her—a recurring theme for me lately—but I needed to get this fucking information from Orlov.
I also needed to put a fucking bullet in his head for the shit he’s done to Emmy. Maybe about ten of them. As I marched toward the room where they were keeping Orlov, Will flanking me on the right, the picture of Emmy’s stupefied expression gave way to the picture of her face twisted in terror as Orlov hovered over her.
By the time I flung the door open, fury was exploding in my brain like a mushroom cloud. Orlov was handcuffed to a folding chair in the center of an empty room with stark walls and concrete floor littered with blood stains.
My expression must have given away my state of mind because a large, strong hand gripped my shoulder tightly, stopping me as I moved like a freight train toward Orlov. I snarled and jerked my head to Drago, ready to shake him off.
His jaw tensed at my aggression, his scar flexing. “Soon, Ivan. We need information before you start dismantling him.”
I knew he was right, but now that I had Orlov in front of me, the need to see his brain matter splattered all over the room consumed me.
Orlov unleashed a smirk, twisting the features of his battered face. Even his obvious injuries didn’t do much to calm my violent impulses. “I see you guys rebuilt the warehouse after I helped destroy your other one. Let’s see if you guys can keep this one intact.”
“Jesus Christ, if you didn’t have information…” I muttered.
“Yes, I have information about our girl. You can’t kill me before—”
Unable to stop myself, my fist was swinging toward Orlov’s the minute he called Emmy our girl. Satisfaction pooled in my gut at the sound of my knuckles making contact with Orlov’s face and watching his head to snap to the right, blood spilling out of his mouth.
Instead of reacting with anger, Orlov merely gave a bloody smile. “Did I get under your skin, Petrov?” he asked.
I shrugged my shoulders to release some tension. I had to get a hold of myself. I never acted this way, been this reactionary and impulsive. I was letting Orlov get to me and I needed to get it fucking together.
“Why would I be upset? You may have deluded yourself that Emmy was yours, but we both know I’m the one who possesses her. She gives herself to me.”
Orlov’s eyes hardened with hatred as I taunted him, his sneering mouth turning down and curling with anger. “Well, it doesn’t matter what she’s decided. Armstrong already has a plan for her and there’s no way you’re going to get in the way of what he has set up. You should have let me get her out of here. Then she would have been out of his reach,” he added, as if his plan had been rooted in altruism, rather than his desire to kidnap and defile Emmy.
I snorted in disbelief. “You think you’re a better option than whatever Armstrong has planned for her?”
“She—” Orlov started but was interrupted by Drago.
“How the fuck do you even know what Armstrong has planned?” Drago asked.
“I was working for him. How the fuck do you think I was able to change my face, get enrolled in fucking college, all that shit? Even the almighty Bratva wasn’t able to figure out who I was. You guys were holding your dicks, chasing who the fuck knows what, while I outsmarted all of you dumb fucks.”
The shock of what he revealed took precedence over his attempts to provoke me. My mind reeled with this information, but it fit. I had wondered how a small-time piece of shit like Orlov had managed to set up this elaborate scheme. Armstrong’s involvement made sense.
He continued. “I met him when I was working for Yuri. He was fucking over people left and right and nobody trusted him anymore. He needed to demonstrate his reliability. That’s where Emmy comes in. He started telling people he had a daughter, that she was very important to him, and he was hiding her to protect her. Now that he’s given her value, he can use her to get access to South America. Of course, it was all bullshit because he doesn’t give a fuck about her, or anyone, really.”
