Page 130 of Nemesis

It will make me sharper.

When our car finally pulls up to a tall building that I must have mindlessly walked past more times than I can count, I turn to Alex.

“You need to stay here.”

“What? No.” His hand swipes through the air. “No way in hell am I sending you in there alone!”

“Yes. You are. Because if I don’t walk out of there, you need to take over. You need to survive and find another way to retrieve Kirill.”

He shudders, eyes widening as he considers my point. “You don’t understand the magnitude of this—how much power these people hold!”

“Oh, I understand,” I say quietly, raising a brow. “I’m walking into this trap with the desperate hope that these predators will hear me out before shooting a bullet into my skull, and I can only take that risk knowing that you will be sitting here, ready to change course. Nik is trigger-happy, and Ben is prideful. Maksim won’t leave Juliet. You are the only one left. Do you understand?”

His eyes roam over my face as if seeing me again for the first time. “Is this an order?”

“It is.”

I wait for painstaking seconds until he finally nods.

“If something feels wrong, you get out of there. By any means necessary.”

My head dips, fingers ghosting over my weapons one last time.

I’ve pulled open the car door when his voice fills the space, so different from the stern command he just issued.

“He would be so proud of you.”

My breath stutters.

The door slams shut behind me.

I’m not quite sure what I expected to find in the lobby of the illustrious Solokov Industries building.

But it sure as hell isn’t the high-pitched scream of a toddler running my way.

“Ophelia! Damn it,” a woman calls out as she chases the little escape artist who wobbles towards me on unsteady legs.

It’s practically second nature to catch the squirming child and lift her into my arms. When I turn, the beautiful woman, dressed in a sleek pantsuit and sky-high heels, has finally caught up, eyes flaring in concern.

“I’m so sorry! Her uncle thought it’d be funny to teach her tag, and ever since, she’s been firmly in a running phase. I swear I must be sprinting a mile each day trying to catch up to her!”

Despite everything, a small smile lifts my lips as I look down at the girl with dark brown curls and an unrepentant grin.

“It’s no trouble at all,” I say, depositing the child into her mother’s waiting arms.

But then the woman’s sharp grey gaze flicks down.

I can see the moment she recognizes the bulge in my belt.

The gun beneath.

“Andrei!” the woman calls.

A massive man materializes beside me with an assessing look.

“I mean no harm,” I say slowly, lifting my empty palms into the air.

“Then you won’t mind my head of security removing your weapons in the presence of my child.”