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Fuck. I really don’t want to have to kill my best friend.
Maks knocks, and enters room number two fourteen on the second floor. I drive around the block and find parking a little ways away, then hoof it back to the motel. I’m getting some fucking answers. Right now.
I jog up the stairs and approach the room. On the other side of the thin door, rumble two deep voices, one is Maks. The other sounds distressed. A third baritone roars in surprised fury, and two shots ring out.
That’s it, I’m going in. One shove of my shoulder into the flimsy motel door and the frame cracks. The door slams into the wall with an audible whack.
I raise my gun. Then stop dead in my tracks.
What the fuck?
Maks is standing over a man’s dead body. The stranger’s blood seeping into the dirty shag carpet. The guy’s hair is wet, with a towel wrapped around his waist as if he just got out of the shower.
A younger man sits on the bed, shaking, his feet drawn up to avoid the bloodshed. His lip is split, and the fresh bruises on his face are already starting to darken from red to purple. For some reason he looks familiar, though I swear I’ve never seen him before.
“What the fuck is going on?” I holster my gun, because this is definitely not a traitor’s planning meeting, or anything else I expected to find.
Maks glances at me, resignation in his expression. “Dimitri, meet Liam Baron. Liam… this is my boss.”
“Liam Baron? As in Blake Baron’s younger brother?” No wonder he looks familiar. He has the same blond hair and aristocratic features as his brother.
Liam rises from the bed, harshly swiping away his tears. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Kozlov. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
He’s heard a lot about me? From who?
Maks shoots him a warning glare and shakes his head. Liam’s lips press together. He hangs his head, looking like a sad, abused puppy.
The fuck is going on?
Sirens wail in the distance, spurring us into action. “Let’s get the fuck out of here. We can talk on the way.”
After Maks and I do our best to wipe the place clean, the three of us pile into the SUV out front. I send a text to one of my guys to have my bike picked up from here and brought back to Riot, grateful that I had the foresight to park a couple blocks away from this shitshow.
I drive, with Maks in the passenger seat and Liam Baron in the back. Glancing at them both, I try and fail to piece together how the fuck they know each other, and why Maks would be killing for Blake Baron’s baby brother at a seedy motel.
The silence stretches on, until I break it. “Explain yourself.”
“It’s complicated.” Maks glances at Liam.
“Then start talking,” I command, impatience roiling through me. I want some goddamn answers.
“I will, once Liam’s injuries have been looked at.”
I tighten my grip on the steering wheel. Maks rarely disobeys me, and he’s the only one I let get away with it. I’m tempted to pressure him right now, but there’s something in the way he’s looking at Liam that makes me hold my tongue.
Plus, I trust him enough to respect his decision. If he doesn’t want to talk now then so be it. I’m sure he has a good reason.
I’ll get answers out of them both soon enough.
One thing I’m pretty sure about is that Maks isn’t working with Boris. The sense I got from that scene in the motel room is, whatever this is, it’s personal, not business. Though fuck if I know how Maks and Liam Baron are connected.
I glance at Liam in the rearview mirror. He’s in pretty rough shape. The last thing I need is Blake Baron coming after us because he thinks we fucked up his little brother. My gaze slides to Maks’s knuckles. They’re undamaged, so I doubt he beat Liam, unless he used something other than his fists.
Forty minutes later, this quiet, strained car ride comes to an end. We’re at the estate. I park in the garage and usher them into the gilded sitting room. Maks goes straight for the medical supplies to deal with the worst of Liam’s injuries.
I pour three vodkas and pass them around. “Start talking. Now.”
Maks tends to Liam’s cuts and the kid flinches, but doesn’t complain. Looking at him a little closer, I’m guessing he’s around twenty years old. Ten years younger than Maks.
