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None of us are sure it will work, but it was the only option we could come up with. The only way to protect Willow and keep Malice out of prison. We’re walking a tightrope, hoping not to lean too far to either side, and we won’t know if it worked until we hear back from X.
Tapping my fingers against the desk, I check for a message in response to mine, but there’s no reply yet.
It only got sent a few hours ago, I remind myself.He’ll respond soon. The only thing we can do now is wait.
Needing to keep my mind occupied, I move on to the next pressing item on my mental list, which is tracking down Ilya Petrov’s whereabouts.
The work of that is soothing at least, and I start in the logical order. The hotel itself doesn’t have any security cameras, but there are a few buildings nearby that pick up parts of it with their cameras. I already downloaded the security footage from around the time of Malice and Ransom’s attack on Ilya, deleting it from the servers afterward, and now I scan through new footage to see if I can pick up Ilya’s trail.
It’s easy to let everything else fall away while I do this. My brain gets into a kind of zone, latching on to the rhythm of this work and pushing the outside world away.
My fingers fly across the keyboard as I move from camera to camera, tracing a line from the hotel to a nearby street to the next location, trying not to lose sight of Ilya’s large frame as I go through the footage.
“Fuck!”
The curse cuts into my concentration, and I frown, looking up from my computer.
It’s not rare for Malice to wake up in a bad mood, but that was definitely Ransom’s voice, and he sounds pissed.
I’m about to get up to see what’s going on when he steps into the doorway of my room. His pants are hanging off his hips, and he’s tugging on a t-shirt, his hair still messy from sleep.
“Wake Malice,” he says in a tight voice. “Something is wrong.”
“What?” I ask. “What happened?”
He meets my gaze, worry gleaming in his eyes.
“Willow is gone.”
