AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He nodded at the guard, turned on one heel and left the room without another word.
Anna sunk back on the chair, glaring at the door as it closed. The implications of what was about to happen to her ran through her mind. How could she get out of this? How could she signal her father without Vasili finding out?
The first part of the plan had been about the lie: the happy couple attending the party in order to carry out a clandestine mission.
The second part had been about the trap: getting Vasili Kuznetsov to believe that he was being invited to the arrival of the Incendiary and planning an ambush, with the ledger as their most valuable tool in the following confrontation.
How could she let her father know that the plan had backfired spectacularly and that, if he made a wrong move, she would lose her memories?
***
They hadn’t sedated her. The receptor had been put under her skin using a thick needle and it had hurt like absolute hell for about two seconds, but when the needle came out, the pain subsided quickly. Anna had wondered how they’d managed to develop technology that wasn’t immediately rejected by her shifter genetics. She supposed there could be some form of magic involved. There usually was. She hadn’t asked. She hadn’t wanted to seem interested even in the least.
Once the receptor had been successfully inserted, she’d been told to stand, and rather than being dragged back to Vasili’s office, she’d been allowed to walk there without anyone touching her. It had felt like a respite. She hated that there was helplessness to it all that was impossible to shake, feeling slight gratitude at the freedom given to her for the short stretch between the rooms.
Zeke got to his feet when she entered. The men in the room had been waiting for her arrival, all heads turning to her. Two of them were Vasili’s sons, and they both wore rather triumphant expressions. She wanted to scream.
Instead, she walked up to Zeke, wrapping her arms around his waist in a tight hug. He held her to him, hand gently stroking her hair before it placed itself at the back of her head, squeezing her lightly to him in a supportive hug back. When he rested his chin on her head, she knew she had her chance and murmured, “We have to get the button.”
He wouldn’t understand, she knew that. But at least it was a place to start. Sure enough, when she pulled back there was a quizzical expression in his eyes, but she gave him a small shake of the head to stay quiet.
“Nikolai,” Vasili said. “You’re going to take these two lovebirds back to the Aslanov estate. You won’t leave their side for anything.” Vasili looked at Anna. “You will tell your father that Nikolai is there to ensure all is done above board. Insurance, of a sort. You will tell him I request a phone call. Then you will suggest to him that it would benefit all three families if I were to join in the reception of the Incendiary. You will do this subtly and secure me my invitation.”
“My father will never agree to it,” she spoke up, ignoring the quivering fear within.
“Then you will make him see reason,” Vasili replied.
She gave a nod. Vasili offered a smile. And they were done.
“Come with me,” Nikolai instructed, holding his arm out in an invitation for Anna and Zeke to walk ahead of him through the door.
They did.
“What happened?” Zeke demanded.
She hesitated, unsure of what she was allowed to tell him, but grabbed at the chance to tell him something.
“I’m compromised,” she said. “They’ve put something in my neck that’ll make it look like I’ve had a stroke. I’m pretty sure it’s untraceable. Vasili would never gamble with anything that could leave a trail back to him.”
“What?” Zeke sounded truly abhorred, his hand grabbing her wrist, wanting her to stop walking so he could take stock.
They couldn’t stop. It was too late for that. Instead of slowing down, she picked up her pace.
“Hey,” Nikolai said behind them. “Enough chatting.”
“We have to get Vasili’s cell phone,” she said, voice lowered, glancing back at Nikolai who looked less than pleased.
“I said shut up,” he said with a meaningful expression on his face, letting her know exactly what would happen to her if she didn’t.
The cell phone was the only way out of this. For her, but for the rest of them too. She was expendable to their fathers, Zeke was inheriting the crown, but she wasn’t expendable to Zeke. Vasili was banking on that. And on her will to survive. What he wouldn’t expect would be for all of them to work together. Truly work together. For her to pull it off, she would need a small miracle. She hoped she might find it in her father’s study.
Chapter 15 - Zeke
The fake ledger weighed heavily in his hands as he walked with Anna by his side, Nikolai a few steps behind them, up the steps he’d last climbed on the day of the bonding ceremony. Now the Aslanov house represented that night more than anything else and oddly, after all these years, it felt like coming home. Much more so than stepping into his own father’s house ever had.
Zeke knew the stakes had been raised; that there was something that had been done to Anna, that there was something in the back of her neck that was a threat to her. A stroke. What the hell did that even mean? How was it possible that there was a technology that was a threat to them at all? He’d never heard of such a thing. If a shifter was mortally wounded it was often due to magical interference since they healed so quickly.
Anna had also said something about getting Vasili’s cell phone…
