Page 41 of Possessive Mafia Bodyguard

I straighten my spine. “You’re forgetting that I’ve seen them. I know who they are, and I would recognize them again.”

“They tried to kill you last time. We’ve already lost Ivana.” Andrej shakes his head at his own lack of sensitivity, his expression softening. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it the way it sounded, but with her injuries…”

“Please, Leonid.” I ignore his brother. “I’ve seen their ships.” I swallow bile as the image floods my mind. I can’t lose my shit now or Leonid will never agree to letting me accompany Andrej. “If they’re behind this incident, it will be a deliberate distraction from their operation, and they would only need a distraction if things are not going according to plan. I think the woman I saw is getting too close to taking them down.”

“Singlehandedly?” Andrej furrows his brow. “Either she has a death wish, or she knows something about them that we don’t.”

I turn on him with a scowl. “What if she does? Shouldn’t we be working together to stop them?” I know I’ve crossed a line when Andrej’s eyebrows slide upwards, but I don’t take the words back.

“She has a point.” The interruption comes from Victoria, who has remained quiet until now. I like her. She isn’t loud and arrogant the way her brothers can be sometimes, but she has a quiet calmness about her that makes people pay attention whenever she chooses to speak. “The Petrovs are arrogant because they’re winning right now. They’re playing the authorities by offering them more than we are paying them, but they’ve covered their tracks so well, I haven’t found a fucking thing to hold against them.”

“Yet,” Leonid adds for her.

“Okay, fine.” Victoria shrugs. “I’ll keep digging and maybe I’ll find treasure, but in the meantime, the Petrovs are trying to bury you in the fucking shit they’re creating, and it’s working.”

I don’t know how they are doing it, but Andrej is unfazed.

“They can try,” he says, “but we’ve been around a lot longer, and while we’re standing here discussing the merits of Petrov shit as opposed to Ivanov shit, the Iroquois Landing is on fucking fire, and they’re walking away scot-free.”

“The Irish have already been sucked in.” Victoria holds his gaze but addresses Leonid.

“I can handle the Irish,” Leonid says. “Once the Petrovs have been dealt with, the Irish will bend over backwards to lick my ass.”

My pulse races. Is the Irish mob involved with the Petrovs? Was Finn at the docks the night we met because he was acting as look-out for Leonid’s Russian enemy?

Disappointment and anger swirl around my gut like oil in water. He’s been lying to me this whole time. He never intended to help me find Ivana, he was tracking me to report our movements back to his boss and fucking me was just a pleasant interlude for him.

“I’m going with Andrej.” I go to the door and hide my face before Leonid realizes that this is personal.

A couple of beats pass, and I sense the siblings communicating silently behind my back.

Then Leonid says, “It’s fine. Tamara knows the layout. I’ll be at home when you have more information for me.”

Andrej and I don’t speak on the journey.

Maybe when his child is born in a couple of months, he will melt in the same way his brother has, but for now he is in full-on alpha protective mode, and he is angry with me for persuading Leonid to overrule him on this.

I don’t give a fuck.

I’ve wasted too much time thinking about Finn when I should’ve focused on finding my sister. I dropped my guard for a moment and let the wrong person in; this is what Leonid meant when he said that love is a weakness. I let Finn get under my skin, and he used me to reach my Pakhan.

My disappointment is slowly consumed by rage.

If they’d killed Leonid because of my weakness…

The Iroquois Landing is a mass of flashing neon lights when we arrive. The CPD, the fire department, paramedics… all are in attendance as Andrej parks up at a distance and we approach the scene on foot.

Smoke billows from one of the warehouses serving the dock. Several police trucks are parked up outside, firefighters still working to contain the flames and prevent them from spreading to the surrounding buildings. But it’s the forensic team erecting tents around a crime scene on the quayside that has my stomach churning. The paramedics are treating several workers on the steps of the ambulances nearby, but the tents can only mean one thing: there were fatal injuries.

Ivana!

I have no evidence that my sister has been here, but my gut is telling me that she is in danger, and I can’t ignore it.

I don’t wait around for Andrej’s orders. I’m sprinting down to the containers where I was trapped less than a week ago, navigating as close to the crime scene as possible.

“Tamara!” he yells, but I don’t acknowledge him.

I’ve circled them and am emerging onto the dock between mountains of coiled ropes, empty pallets, and unused machinery, when Andrej grabs my arm and swings me around to face him.