“What the fuck did you do?” Gerald hissed, lunging for Sean.
“Hey. Hey!”
They both managed a few punches before they were pulled away and Kazimir glared at me, obviously disgusted. He raked his hands through his hair, confronting Sean. “What business were you discussing with Enzo?”
“What do you think? Expanding into New York. Enzo is insistent we sign a contract with the oil and gas company this coming week.”
“With them as cosigners,” Kazimir laughed.
“Yes.”
A blip almost as if a text caught my attention. As soon as I jerked out the phone, I pumped my fist.
“She turned on the tracker.” I whispered the words, but Sean had caught them. In turn, I closed the distance between us, not touching, but I didn’t need to. “Where is this?” I held up the phone.
He barely darted a glance at the screen. “I don’t know.”
“Let me see it,” Gerald huffed and I allowed him to take the phone from my hand. “That’s a building Sean owns that no one knows about. It’s abandoned.”
“Thank you, Gerald. Maybe you do give a damn about your daughters.” My eyes never left Sean. “I will make you a promise,Sean. If this game of cat and mouse turns deadly, I will ensure that you and your family spend the rest of your life regretting fucking with us.”
I pulled away, taking long strides to the door.
“I swear to God, I did not double cross you. I want to kill that motherfucker myself.”
His statement was almost heartfelt.
“The argument you saw was my termination of our contract with him,” he continued.
“You did what?” Kazimir was furious. “That wasn’t the plan.”
“I understand that, but the fucker made me angry.”
Kazimir and I exchanged glances. His impatience added a wrinkle into the game we were playing. “And what did he say?” I gritted out.
“He was furious and said I would pay for leading him on. You need to know something. It’s not empty. That building is loaded with weapons and ammunition. I can tell you how to get in where they won’t notice you. But be careful. The weapons were to be moved next week, a temporary location. After that, the building will come down.”
I lingered in the doorway. “You better hope we get to Enzo in time. If not, you will die.”
CHAPTER 25
Kirill
The art of playing cat and mouse was centuries old. There were men and women who’d perfected techniques, often to the point the instigators had no real fun in trying to dupe another.
Or as my mother had often said in Russian, “Bez koshki myshi chuvstvuyut sebya polnymi khozyayevami.”
Without a cat, the mice have free rein.
Very true.
With Mikhail, his need to destroy Kazimir was all about revenge, enjoying the long waiting game to find the right moment. The banished brother knew enough about how Kazimir would react to various scenarios, so he’d gone into hiding, biding his time for the perfect moment. The christening had been too good to pass up. In him tossing out a premade ghostly reputation and travel plans to New York, he’d all but controlled the setting.
Maybe he’d believed Kazimir would head to New York himself, but at this point it just didn’t matter. What did was that he’d remained in Italy, controlling the scene, orchestrating how I’d meet Vivian.
All because I’d protected his brother.
Over the months of peace, I’d concluded there were two distinct reasons Mikhail had snapped, one of them being he wasn’t of right mind. After all Kazimir had done for him, there was no chance he could be.
