She wasn’t waify. She waswiry.
“We need to go shopping, Dusha, and we will go first to meet my Birkin rep and then to the couture consultation.Get out of our way.”
“Miss Kaas, I cannot in good conscience?—”
“I said, move it. We’re leaving.”
I wanted to yell“Just kiss already!”at them, but becoming the target of their increasing exasperation seemed more dangerous than just standing here, watching them. Those two would totally turn on me.
“Security protocols are currently in place such that—” Dusha said, his voice lowering further.
“I don’t care. Lexi and I are going shoppingright now.”
I might have to escape Clementine’s clutches rather than get in the car with her. Her crack about driving aggressively on theverycongested streets around the Strip hotels was terrifying.
A tremor shot through every one of the security guys, and they touched their earpieces with a synchronicity that made them all look like extensions of the same controlling AI, and then they turned outward, encircling Clementine and me in a ring of strong, black-clad backs.
Some of the hotel reception staff ducked behind the counter. One concierge watched us warily, his legs braced and his arms spread as if he were deciding which way to bolt, but the other guy rolled his eyes and leaned against the wall, checking his phone.
Clementine stomped her foot on the carpeting. Her grip on my arm loosened. “Are youserious?Did you call a code just to win the argument? Because that’scheating.”
Behind us, Ueli muttered, though not to us, “What happened?”
Just a quick downbeat of time, one signal from Ueli, and Dusha wrapped one arm around Clementine and tucked her head, grappling her like a squirming cat at the vet.
Clementine shouted,“Ew!Getoffme!”
Ueli grabbed me with a lunge and lifted me off my feet with one arm, mashing me against his side.
“Which way?” Dusha asked Ueli, ignoring Clementine’s flailing.
I tried not to fall because Ueli’s thick arm was around my shoulders and about to slip up around my throat.
He wouldn’t strangle me, right?
But if Ueli accidentally killed me, that sure would solve Nicolai’s problem of the divorce and annulment. He wouldn’t even use up one of his three marriage strikes with the Orthodox church if he were a widower.
Ueli might do his boss a solid, whether Nicolai actually wanted that or not.
I lifted onto my toes and grabbed onto Ueli’s strong biceps and wrist as if I could stop him from crooking his arm a little more and pinching off my circulation and airway.
“Cars,”Ueli announced and marched for the front door. “The transports should be here. Nechtan, the principal is in the lift. Wait for him with Delta Team.”
The horde of security guys split like they were square dancing, a small cadre heading for the elevators while the rest rustled Clementine and me toward the exit.
“No,”Clementine insisted as Dusha hurried her along, one arm around her shoulders and the other under his coat at his hip. “I acquiesced to your ridiculous security standards yesterday, but today, I will drivemy own damned car!”
Dusha scanned behind them and ahead as he trotted and hauled Clementine. “It would be helpful to know whether you are trying to get yourself or your cousin killed.”
“My cousin was upstairsalonewhensomethingobviously happened. Your protocols needwork.”
Ueli’s arm was still cinched around my shoulders and collarbones and inching upward. Above my head, he said, “Secured. Your cousin is not pleased with the delay. What’s the situation?”
My feet scrambled on the carpeting and then the sidewalk as Ueli dragged me to the door and outside into the late morning’s fetid heat.
The SUVs were waiting at the curb, engines rumbling above the growls and sharp commands from the security guys ringing me.
Being separated from Nicolai felt wrong. “Where’s Nicolai? Is he okay?”
