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Every instinct I owned demanded I remove it from her hands, lock her inside the safe house, and surround the building with the men I wasn’t taking to the harbor. A week ago, I would’ve done exactly that. Her fury wouldn’t have mattered as long as she remained alive. “Anika.”
“Maksim, I'm going. My daughter is hiding somewhere filled with metal and bad smells. Alina has already evaded everyone who's been sent after her, and both of them will run from armed strangers. I'm your only chance.” She slipped the vest over her head and faced me. “Nora might stay hidden even after your men reach her. Alina will assume you’re there to punish her, and she won’t trust any promise you make while you’re carrying a gun.”
“She took our daughter.” The anger escaped before I could crush it, the heat of it consuming me.
“And then she gave Nora a phone.” Anika’s chin trembled, but her hands remained steady on the vest straps. “I don’t know everything Alina has done or why, but she told Nora to hide instead of handing her to that man. If either of them hears my voice, they’ll answer me.”
Roman entered with four headsets hooked over one arm. “She gives us the best chance of bringing them out without a confrontation.”
Roman’s agreement removed the last excuse I had to leave her behind, no matter how badly I wanted him to be wrong.
Kirill stopped beside Anika with none of his usual humor. “We keep her in the center.”
Locking her in the safe house would make it easier for me to breathe, but I’d be doing it for myself. I’d already confused my need to control Anika with protecting her once. I wouldn’t repeat the mistake while Nora and Mikhail’s lives depended on making the right decision.
I took the loose strap from Anika’s fingers and pulled it snug. “You stay on my left. If I tell you to get down, you don’t ask why.”
“I can do that.” She lifted her arms so I could check the fit of the vest without fighting me over every strap.
“You remain behind armor until we know where the threat is.” I checked the other side of her vest, then fastened a transmitter beneath her collar. “If I lose sight of you, Roman drags you out himself.”
Her gaze cut toward him. “What about Kirill?”
“Kirill would make a show of it.” I put a headset over her hair and adjusted the microphone near her mouth. “You’d make Roman miserable.”
A tiny burst of air escaped her, nowhere close to laughter but enough to loosen the panic drawing her face tight. She rose onto her tiptoes and put her forehead against mine. “Take me to my daughter.”
“Stay with me, and I will.” I released her only when Kirill opened the door to the private stairwell.
Four vehicles rolled out of the safe house less than six minutes after Nora’s call ended. I hated the reason behind it, but years of preparation had made us damned fucking efficient. The rest of the operation traveled separate routes, spreading toward the harbor without forming a convoy that would trigger suspicion. Roman sat across from Anika and me with his laptop braced on his knees. Kirill occupied the rear bench, turning his knife over and over with a deadly calm he rarely employed.
Anika called Nora’s phone again. The same recording answered, and her thumb hovered over the red button before she ended it. “Could Sokolov trace her call too?” She tucked the device beneath one thigh as though her body might shield Nora through the useless connection.
Roman turned the laptop so she could see the network path. “He could identify the device if he controls the right equipment. We won’t know until we get there, but we’d be better off assuming yes.”
The color drained from her cheeks. He hadn’t softened the truth, and I didn’t interrupt to make it easier because she needed to know exactly what she was walking into.
“What happens when we get there?” She lifted her gaze from the map.
I showed her the perimeter instead of offering a promise none of us could guarantee and walked her through the plan.
Her knee jigged up and down, the flash of streetlights creating hollow pockets of light across her face. “What if Alina runs?”
“You call her.” I covered the hand she’d closed around Nora’s phone. “No one fires unless they see a weapon.”
“And Mikhail?” Her fingernails pressed into the phone case. “If he’s with them, he doesn’t know me.”
“He knows Alina.” Kirill stopped the knife between his palms. “We keep her alive, and she brings him out.”
No one added an if. We had enough uncertainties without giving that one a voice.
She turned her palm beneath mine and held on. Roman’s fingers paused over his keyboard, and Kirill’s attention dipped to our joined hands before returning to the dark window.
The first teams reached the harbor ahead of us, exactly as planned. Their reports filled my headset as our driver turned away from the waterfront and entered a neighborhood of shuttered repair shops and empty lots. No guards outside the shipyard. No vehicles moving. One workboat chained to the northern dock. An empty property drawing that much power should’ve had machinery or men inside. The absence of both made me twitchy enough to want my gun in my hand.
We stopped three blocks away, windshield wipers swishing back and forth to clear the drizzle of rain falling.
Anika stepped down behind me and covered her nose for a second. “It smells funny.” Nora’s description stopped sounding childish as the stench of fish and chemicals burned my nose.
