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So when a brother asked him for help—even when that help meant betraying a father?
Well, his father had made a fucking stupid request…to rape another brother’s wife?
If there were no boundaries, no rules or laws they lived by, how could any of their men trust them or give them true loyalty? His father might prefer to rule out of fear and tyranny but it was just fucking unnecessary.
So Alexei had taken action. His father could lose this one without any harm done. He’d helped Nicholas plan his escape, every step taken to provide plausible deniability. It had to be done at the very last moment. Everyone’s presence had to be accounted for. Alexei went to the airport, ostensibly to try to talk to his father about a new idea. Bo had come up with all the ways to evade surveillance, telling Nicholas how to take the picture of the alley and set up the fake. Also where the GPS was located in the car and how to disable it.
And Veronica—well Veronica had driven the getaway car. She’d rented a car and driven Sloane across the bridge to Staten Island and then come right back to take over the store again, thereby providing an alibi for herself.
All in all, a nice and tidy escape from this hellhole for two good people.
And, Alexei couldn’t say he minded giving Veronica a different opinion of him along the way. She’d even smiled at him when he’d ordered his black tea and number two special yesterday.
He inhaled one more long toke before passing the blunt off to Bo as if toasting his friend.
“All in a day’s work,” Bo said. “All in a day’s work.”
Epilogue
SLOANE
Sloane waited in the car, crouched over with her head on her knees and the blindfold that Veronica had given her as soon as she’d gotten in the car back in the alleyway secured tightly around her eyes.
Her eyes were also squeezed shut for extra good measure. If she couldn’t see that she was outside, she could pretend she wasn’t. It was a child’s logic, but hey, she was clinging to anything keeping that link between her and sanity open.
She could not believe everything that had just happened in the last couple of hours. Nicholas’s texts. Veronica, showing up like that in the alley.
And Sloane, Sloane actually managing to conquer her fear for once in her life and run to that damn car, Nicholas’s demanding voice ringing in her ears: Do you trust me?
Goddamn him for doing that to her.
And yet, as soon as she’d gotten in the car and Veronica had sped off down the alleyway, Veronica had also started talking. She told Sloane about the horrible pressure Nicholas had been under—about the evil direct order Dimitri had given him. Nicholas hadn’t considered it even for a second. Veronica told her how he’d worked with Alexei—Alexei of all people! And their friend Bo. It seemed insane to have trusted them. Nicholas had always said they were his brothers, but Sloane had only ever seen bratva as a destructive thing.
Maybe, if Dimitri were ever deposed of his kingship, it didn’t have to be.
But for now, she and her beloved would run.
If only he would get here. Taking a deep breath, she lifted up from her crouched position and peeked out of her blindfold at the clock on the dashboard. Worry churned in her stomach when she saw the time.
Nicholas should have been here by now.
She yanked the blindfold back over her eyes against the dim light of the covered garage and resumed her crouched position. Her heart pounded in her ears, but to her surprise, her breathing was fairly even.
Where the hell was he? She swore, if he’d gone and gotten himself killed, she’d kill him. But no, she shook her head, rocking herself back and forth. He’d had a plan. He was smart. He’d gotten them both this far.
Do you trust me?
He’d trusted her. He’d trusted that she’d be able to face her fear and make it this far. In the end, it wasn’t that he was really a master over her other than when they played in the bedroom—it was that he’d known she could do it, he’d just believed she could.
His faith in her helped her trust herself and take that first step over the threshold. And once she’d gone, there was no going back.
Maybe it wouldn’t be for always, but it was for today, goddammit.
So she steeled herself again, sat up, and yanked down the blindfold. She looked down at the burner phone Veronica had given her. No new calls or texts. They’d ditched her old phone in the alley on their way out. Did Nicholas have her new number? They’d call if something had gone wrong. Wouldn’t they?
Her foot started to nervously tap and her hands moistened when—
