“Here. He was inside the church. Then again at the reception but dressed as a waiter. But he looks different. His head is almost shaved and he has a goatee. But the eyes. They never lie.”
Both Kazimir and I looked at each other. The fucker had been watching, stalking, paying close attention.
“Find my sister, Kirill. She deserves her happiness and I’ve never seen her so happy. With you.” Her smile was guarded yet I could tell she was being truthful.
“I’ll find her. Don’t worry.”
There was no way of calming my rage. I burst into the small conference room, tossing Sean against the wall. With my one hand wrapped around his throat, he had no idea how close I was to snapping his neck.
Every soldier in the room reacted, weapons drawn.
“Hey. Hey. Hey,” Kazimir yelled. “Not this way. Not here.”
Dimitri was on one side of me, Dante on the other trying to pull me off. “Kazimir is right. Not like this.”
“What is going on?” Gerald tossed out, bristling but not yet attempting to come to Sean’s assistance.
“Your daughter is missing as anticipated. However, it would seem this bastard decided his business was worth more than his niece. Isn’t that right, Sean?” Kazimir asked.
I studied Sean’s reaction. “If she is hurt, you will die.”
“Just let him go,” Kazimir directed.
While I did, backing away almost immediately, I was eager and ready to end his life if necessary.
Sean coughed, using hand signals to tell his men to back down.
“Talk,” I hissed. “What did you do?”
“For the love of fuck,” he wheezed, coughing a few additional times. “Enzo isn’t an idiot. I expressed my… anger at my niece getting married to Russian scum. He said nothing other than that he would make arrangements to handle the situation after he arrived in New York. How the hell else would I manage to lure him to New York to see if I was betrayed?”
“I think you’re the one who decided which side you were on and it isn’t with your niece,” I snarled.
“Bullshit!” Sean insisted.
Gerald suddenly made a move. “This wasn’t what we agreed on, Sean. You took one daughter. I refuse to allow you to take another.”
“I love Vivian and Nikki,” Sean insisted. “Yes, business is important, but I will not allow anyone to betray us. No one.” He tossed out the last remark for my benefit.
As if I gave a damn.
There was another presence and I took my eyes off the Irish asshole to find out the cause of the interruption.
“How she was taken from the hotel was easy to find. Too easy,” Stash said. In his hand was an iPad, showing Kazimir the screen first before bringing it toward me. “To get into the employee garage you need a key code.”
“The fucker has been working here all along,” I said absently. There was something to be said about a patient man. He always caught his prey.
Not this time.
There were two men who’d managed to garner access to the employee elevator that led to the garage dedicated to them as well. The decision was clever and another indication someone had been working inside the hotel long enough to know their way around.
While initially the kidnappers’ backs were turned, one lifted their head on purpose. Enzo. He was looking directly at the camera as if knowing it was there. This was all just a continuation of the game.
Every step they’d been ahead.
“How much of a head start?” Kazimir asked.
“Fifteen minutes,” Stash answered. “They knew exactly what they were doing.”
