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Rafael’s men exchange a look. Owen Price looks too scared to give the falseness of my words away. It’s a seed worth planting. It’s how Maksim would think. Make them believe the two masked men are somehow connected to the government.

“With us,” I snap. “Now.”

Owen leaps to his feet.

“You three – in the fucking bathroom.”

I wave my gun at them. My hostage reacts immediately. The marlin tattoo guy hesitates until Anton splits his eyebrow with his pistol. We get them inside, stash their guns, then shove a bed in front of the door. Then we get the hell out of there.

“They were going to kill me,” Owen pants from the backseat, clawing at his throat. “Like it was nothing. They were going to kill me.”

Anton and I remove our masks once we’re a few minutes away.

“You want revenge? You can have it with us.” My blood pumps hotly as my nervous system processes just how close to death I was.

“I don’t want it for me,” Owen says, clutching his chest. He reaches into his jacket and takes out a hard drive. “This shows bribes. It shows… the filth. It shows orders for what they cut their drugs with. It’s not just designer crap. It’s street-level stuff too. They use kids as mules. They’re in the dirt. And they killed my sister.”

“What?” I demand.

He nods. “Their drugs got to her. She became desperate. Started hanging around their club so she could get a free hit. Then she became a liability, in Rafael’s words. He’s never admitted it, but I know they had a fight. She could be fiery, you know? And hell, he basically said it once, but didn’t use the words. Smiled at me with that silver tooth like I was going to just eat shit and go on like a good soldier.”

Holy hell. This is huge. This is way bigger than I thought. Thank you, Iris.

“If you’re telling me you’re motivated to take this bastard out,” I say. “Then we’re going to do excellent work together.”

“Nikolai Volkov,” Owen says, sitting up. “I heard about DC.”

“Is that right?”

“Rafael says your brother sent you here to die.”

I grind my teeth. I want to laugh it off, but all I can muster is a begrudging smile. “I hadn’t thought of that. But now that you mention it, you might have a point.” I think. “Is that why he sent men to DC? To see if Maksim would fight back directly?”

Owen shrugs. I look at Anton. “And when he realizes Maksim isn’t, it’ll confirm it for him. He’ll think he can do anything he wants and the Bratva won’t make him bleed.”

Anton raises an eyebrow. I know what he’s thinking. Would the Bratva make him bleed? Has Maksim forgiven me? Can he ever forgive me?

“It doesn’t matter,” I snap. “We don’t need the Bratva for this. Just us three, here, we can clip this prick’s wings.”

CHAPTER 11

SERENA

The next evening, I’m standing in front of the mirror, bending forward in my VIP uniform. I got a tan today and had my hair done. Zoe came along, sitting in the salon, kicking her legs and making everybody laugh. She’s having a hard time with math, so we struggled over that for a while. And now I’m imagining what Nikolai is going to think when he sees me.

Last night, he texted me.

X: Price is safe.

Iris: Thank you for letting me know.

And thanks for the ride…

It would be so easy to add that. Then he’d know I was Iris, and we could text openly again. He could be cheesy again. But he’s doing it in real life now anyway. I’m seeing the real him. The fire beneath the flash.

I texted him back, asking what was next with Price.

X: You don’t need to worry. But I’m doing the right thing.