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Inhaling her purity.
“Stay with me.”
She clasps her hand in mine.
“Always.”Chapter 22It’s one full week since Maksym’s been taken. Calina is recovering well, in a room by the library on the first floor of the compound. She doesn’t remember a thing about Amaranov or her brief captivity, and seems to think her room is a sort of upgrade from her hospital stay. But Larissa is with her now. It warms my heart to see the two of them walking the grounds, hand in hand, sunshine beaming down on them like a benediction from above.
“Will you please let me,” she begs.
“You aren’t helping,” I tell her. “If I have to lock you up to keep you away from all of this, I will.” Though I warn her, she doesn’t heed me, pacing up and down in the dining room while she rants at me and my brothers.
“I’m better at this than any of you,” she says without a hint of humility, because she’s right. In the past few days while they held Maksym, she’s shown she knows her way around a computer better than any of us.
“I belong here,” she says. “You know it and I do, too.” The other men raise their eyes to me, likely surprised I’m allowing her to talk to me this way, but after what she’s gone through, I need to let her speak her mind. I will not silence her again.
“And anyway,” she says with a note of triumph in her voice. “I’ve already tracked the call.”
I look quickly at Filip, who looks back at me and nod. “She’s right,” he admits. “She’s better than I am. We need to listen to her.”
“Let me at a computer,” she says. “I’ll find him.”
And she does. She fucking does. Her fingers stroke the keys with expert precision, her bottom lip drawn between her teeth while she focuses. Within minutes, she’s on her feet, my men already loading their weapons, ready for a take down.
I’m on my feet, pacing in the second room beside mine that is now an office. My men have been trying to track down Maksym, but we’ve come to a roadblock every time. Every night, though Larissa is with me, I toss and turn, knowing my brother is out there. Likely being tortured, trying to find out the secrets he’ll take with him to the death.
“Where is he?” I ask.
“In a compound in the city,” she says. “Take me. I’ll help you break in.”
I scowl at her. I don’t want her anywhere near where someone can hurt her. But at the same time, I despise the thought of her being taken.
“I can handle myself,” she says, noting my hesitation. I narrow my eyes on her, but I can’t help but admire her gall.
“I’m sure you can,” I tell her, pausing for a second to run my hand through her hair. “But I want you safe.”
“If you want me safe, then protect me,” she says. “I’ll let you if you give me a fucking gun.”
I love her. Christ, I love this fierce, brilliant, headstrong woman.
She’ll let me protect her.
“Fine,” I tell her. “You come with me but Calina stays here, and I swear to God if you don’t do what I say you’ll regret it.” I give her what I hope is a forbidding look, but she only shakes me off. “You come with me, but you follow commands like anyone else in the brotherhood. Understood?”
She nods eagerly and squeezes my hand. “Let’s go get him,” she says in a heated whisper.
It takes thirty minutes for us to get to him. We go over how we’ll rescue him with my men, and when we arrive, it looks like they never expected us at all. There’s one sleepy guard by the door, and none on the perimeter. They thought they were in the clear, but none anticipated Larissa’s ability to discover them.
I whisper commands to the men and Larissa. She’s to stay put, the rest will ambush the one man, except one who will remain as scout.
“On three,” I say, holding up my fingers.
One.
Two.
Three.
We move like lethal assassins, swiftly and silently. Larissa stays behind, shooting me a scowl because she wants in on the action. I’ve been teaching her how to shoot and she fancies herself quite the shot, but she’s got a ways to go yet. We reach the door, and the man quickly opens his eyes and grabs at his gun, but it’s too late. He’s on the ground, immobilized, while Filip focuses on the lock.
“They’re coming!” I hear Larissa hissing behind me. “Skip the fucking lock. Knock out the window!” But it won’t work. Maksym’s way too large to fit through that window. I shake my head, push Filip out of the way, and do my best to undo the lock, but it’s encrypted and beyond my skills. We hear shouts in the distance, and I curse, my fingers fumbling.
