Page 156 of The Enforcer’s Pawn

That nearly puts me on my knees.

I close my hand around hers, toy and all. “Cara.”

She looks up, and I see grief first, then disgust. It hurts worse than hate. Patrick was filth. Patrick was also her brother.

“He told enough,” she whispers.

I run my thumb along the side of her hand. “You did enough.”

Her eyes drop to my mouth, and mine go to hers before I can stop them. Wrong place, and wrong moment. I still want her.

Smoke hangs near the ceiling. Men shout orders over Patrick’s blood. Cara is here with a toy car crushed in her fist and her mouth inches from mine.

She takes one broken breath. My hand moves from her shoulder to the back of her neck.

“Stay with me,” I say.

“I am,” she answers, but her voice shakes.

I touch my forehead to hers for one beat. Then I pull back because Morozov is being loaded into a van, and Cara needs me steady.

“Eyes on me,” I say. “We’re walking out of here.”

Yuri speaks in my ear. “The proof package is moving.”

Maksim says, “Send it to the men who know what it means.”

“Volkov allies first,” Yuri answers. “Rival channels next. Political protectors after that.”

Kirill adds, “The full chain is going out now.”

Phones start ringing inside jackets. Abramov reads names from a sealed list, and Kirill confirms each delivery as it lands. Soon, every man who protected Morozov will have to answer in writing.

Morozov leaves through the service lane under a hood, wrists bound, coat torn at the collar where Dima dragged him down the stairs. No one cheers. He doesn’t get a final word. He goes into the back of a plain black van between four Volkov men, and I watch the doors close before Roman guides Cara toward our car.

Cara doesn’t argue when I put her in the back seat beside me, and she keeps Mikhail’s blue car locked in both hands while Roman pulls away from the hotel.

Behind us, men bag phones, strip laptops, and carry hotel servers out through the same service door Patrick tried to use. Cara needs one thing from me right now. She needs me to take her home.

The estate doors open before we reach them. Lidiya stands in the foyer with two guards behind her, and Elena comes down the main stairs in a pale robe with her hair pulled back.

Cara looks at her, then at me, with Mikhail’s blue car gripped in one hand.

“He’s safe,” Elena says before Cara can ask. “Kathryn is with him. Sergei is outside the nursery. No one has touched that floor.”

Cara’s face crumples for half a second, and she catches it fast. I put my hand at the back of her waist and bring her to Elena.

“Take her upstairs,” I say. “Doctor first.”

“I want my son,” Cara says at once.

Elena gestures for Lidiya. “Let the doctor clear you, and I’ll put your son in your arms myself.”

Lidiya steps close with a blanket and wraps it around Cara’s shoulders. Cara lets her do it, but her eyes stay on me.

I touch her cheek once with the backs of my fingers. “I’ll come up.”

“You’d better,” she says.