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It feels good knowing she cares what happens to us, that she’s worried about me and Malice going into a dangerous situation. Something in me warms at that, and I pull her into my arms, nuzzling against her neck.
“Hey, don’t worry,” I tell her. “We’re going to be fine. I know this is new to you, but this isn’t our first rodeo.”
“I know, I just…” Willow trails off, shaking her head. She doesn’t seem to have the words to say how she feels, and I don’t push her to find them.
Instead, I pull her into a kiss, lingering a bit and then dipping in to steal another one.
When I pull away, I catch Malice watching us.
Things have mellowed between him and Willow, and the attraction between them is clearly off the fucking charts, but he doesn’t have the same ease with her that I do. Hell, he doesn’t have that ease withanyoneother than me and Victor, and that’s just because he’s known us for our whole lives.
He shoves the last of his sandwich into his mouth and snaps into business mode, taking point the way he does.
“Vic, send us the details,” he says. “Ransom, let’s go. We need to move now, while we have the chance.”
I nod, letting go of Willow and straightening up.
“Be careful,” she says, looking at me and then to Malice. He holds her gaze for a second, then he dips his head in a little nod of acknowledgement and sweeps out of the room to go get armed up.
“That’s his way of saying we will,” I tell her, then follow him out.
We take Malice’s car, the coordinates Vic sent us punched into the GPS. It looks like it’s nothing more than a hotel on the outskirts of the city, random and low profile.
“The kind of place someone stays when they’ve got something to hide,” I point out as we drive over.
Malice nods in agreement. “Yeah. Too bad he’s not as good at hiding as Vic is at finding shit.”
He slows the car as we get close, and we park a few blocks away and then walk over, not wanting to draw attention to ourselves as we check the place out from across the street. The hotel is small, just two floors, and only a half dozen rooms or so on each floor. The outside is run-down and shitty, with chipped paint and cracked brick. Every so often, someone comes out of the front door, either to smoke a cigarette or head to their car and drive off.
For the most part, it’s quiet, far enough away from most things that there’s not a lot of traffic on the road, and judging from the number of cars in the spots, it’s not a very full house this afternoon.
“We’re in luck,” I murmur to Malice.
My brother grunts, narrowing his eyes as he stares at the building. “If he’s here.”
It’s impossible to pick out which car or room might be Ilya’s, and Vic’s digging didn’t turn up a room number. All he could give us was what he’d picked up on the nearby cameras, that Ilya usually comes and goes around the same time, leaving in the morning and coming back in the evening.
We’re a little ahead of the window in which he might be returning, and the two of us are prepared to wait as long as it takes.
“We need to find a good position,” I say, eyeing the area around the hotel. “Our best bet is to ambush him when he gets back.”
Malice grunts in agreement, and we cross the street, keeping our eyes peeled. Eventually, we find a little brick alcove around the side of the building where the dumpster is tucked away. It smells like ass, but it has a perfect view of both the front and back of the hotel, and if we duck down behind the half wall that blocks off the dumpster, we can’t be seen from either area.
“You think this is close enough?” I murmur to Malice.
He leans out, checking the distance. We’re a little farther away than I’d like from some of the rooms at the far end, but it’s more important to not be seen.
“I can make it,” he says, nodding. “And he’s a big fucker. It’s not like we’re gonna miss him.”
I snort at that. “Let’s hope you’re right. I don’t want to fuck this up.”
He nods, his brow furrowed and his jaw tight.
We spend the next couple hours trying not to breathe too deeply as we wait for Ilya to return. I do my best not to let my thoughts wander to Willow, knowing I’ll get too fucking distracted if I do, but it’s hard. All my mind wants to do is replay last night on an endless fucking loop.
Finally, an elbow digging into my side snaps me out of my thoughts, and I glance at Malice to see him nodding across the way.
I follow the path of his gaze and catch a glimpse of Nikolai’s brother walking across the parking lot.
