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“Possibly,” Misha had to admit. “It would seem likely.”
“No way of knowing who they are?”
Misha shook his head.
“Not before they make a move.”
“Go back to the saferoom,” Dmitri instructed. “Get my family out of there. They’ll look for them there first. Don’t let anyone else come with you. You know where to take them.”
Misha nodded and left the room.
“Stay behind me at all times,” he instructed Alina before he stepped onto the window ledge and reached over for the ladder.
He began to climb, slowly, cautiously, keeping his eyes on the ledge of the roof, looking for any sort of shadow outlining itself against the night sky. Should he shift? The roof wouldn’t take his weight so it wasn’t really an option, but once he was up there, should he shift and take flight?
No. Not unless absolutely necessary. Satellite images were already a danger and having a satellite image capture a dragon right above his home would probably bring more than law enforcement. It wasn’t exactly like he wasn’t watched for his criminal activities already, even if the humans had no clue there was much more to him than met the eye.
Alina was right behind him when he reached the ledge of the roof, creeping over it slowly. She followed, quiet on her feet, stepping onto the roof with a soft scrape of her shoe. Their eyes met. She nodded as a gesture that she knew she needed to be even more careful, and then she slipped her hand into his.
It surprised him. And it wasn’t that it wasn’t appropriate to keep track of each other, but rather that she’d choose that option. Her grip tightened as they hunched down and crept along the low balustrade running along the edge of the roof.
“Should we shift,” she whispered.
He shook his head. She nodded that she understood.
A scrape came from somewhere not too far off, both of them freezing in their tracks, eyes turned to the sound as a man’s shadow rose from behind one of the smaller chimneys.
“Gregor!” she yelled, letting go of Dmitri’s hand. “Stop this!”
Then a hand grabbed Dmitri from behind, gliding around his throat, pressing tight as he was pulled back against the man who had him caught in a vicelike grip. The cold mouth of a gun pressed against his temple. When it began to burn against his skin Dmitri realized it must have been hexed or spelled somehow. A gun to kill a dragon.
Alina turned wide eyes to them, looking first at Gregor, then to Dmitri, who felt his chest clench at the thought of it ending here. Whatever this was.
“What are you doing?” she demanded. “What do you want?”
Gregor huffed a laugh.
“What do you think I want?” he asked. “This is what’s known as a hostile takeover, sweetheart. Better strap in—this ride is about to get bumpy.”
Chapter 7 - Alina
“You’ve lost your mind,” Dmitri said, the gun pushed harder against his skull, making him wince.
Alina stared at Gregor with disgust roiling in her chest. She wanted to push him off the roof. She wanted to get the gun away from him, at least. Yet she stood there, doing nothing. What could she do?
“I have plenty of people in my corner,” Gregor said. “Plenty of your father's enemies want him dethroned and declawed.”
Dmitri strained against the hold on his throat, but the gun kept him from making too sudden a move.
“Fuck you,” Dmitri spat.
Gregor chuckled.
She wanted to scream.
The shadow by the chimney morphed into several shadows, the men approaching their former boss with looks of chilling glee. Of course, she didn’t recognize a single face, but she could see Dmitri did. Their treachery cut him deep.
“Why?” he asked.
