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I smirk when I think about the dowry I’m about to offer.
Rocco looks at me sideways. “Something funny?”
I shake it off. “No, but you’re right, I definitely have been holding out. I think I’m actually going to enjoy this.”
Rocco gives me one of his rare shit-eating grins. “That’s more like it, I always have way more fun with Angelo, but then again, he never lets me finish what I’ve started.”
“I’m afraid you won’t be finishing this either,” I say gravely.
“Why the fuck not?”
“Because I need Vladimir alive in order to call a truce with Aleksi Petrov.”
I can feel all eyes on me from the men in the car. Like I've lost my mind, and maybe I have.
“Why do we need to call a truce?” Enzo questions, confused. “I thought we still hated the Petrovs.”
“Because it’s the only way to buy Katiya’s freedom,” I say. “She doesn’t deserve any of this, and Aleksi will appreciate being the one to end Vladimir after he finds out that he was the one who kidnapped her.”
“Fuck,” Santino mutters. “I wouldn’t like to be him right now.”
“Tell me about it,” Rocco mutters, clearly miffed he’s not going to get all the fun, then he adds, “Maybe he needs someone to supervise?”
Some things never change.
* * *
A few hours later, we’ve got Vladimir stuffed in the trunk, and my knuckles are bruised from the punches I laid into him. I don’t feel any better about it. In fact, I wanted to gut him and watch him bleed all over the pavement. Lucky for him, he gets to live for a little bit longer until I hatch my plan.
When we get to the warehouse, Angelo is already there.
“Talk to me,” he says the minute I step out of the car. “What the fuck is going on?”
“We found one of the Russians who was involved with the abduction of Mia and Katiya,” I reply. “There could be more, and it’s not likely that he’s working alone. Let’s face it, this operation has grown legs since we took out Rombaldi.”
“Who the fuck is it?”
“Vladimir Keretov, the man Katiya is betrothed to.”
“Wait, she’s betrothed?” He blinks.
“Well, shewas.That’s all about to change.”
Angelo runs a hand through his hair. “Okay, so what do we know?”
“The hacker, Sloane, who helped Allegra, is currently housed in one of the suites at the casino,” Enzo adds in, coming to stand next to Angelo. “She put a bug on the phone and listened in on a conversation and got a name. Didn’t take a genius to work it out since this Vladimir guy told her that Katiya wasn’t to be harmed or to be shipped off anywhere.”
“I’m guessing Katiya isn’t exactly thrilled about having to marry him then,” Angelo goes on.
“She won’t be,” I balk.
Angelo eyes me. “More to the point, what is the woman who helped in my attempted assassination and the abduction of two innocent women doing in our fucking hotel?”
“She didn’t know what it was she was agreeing to,” I say. “And we believe her. She built firewalls, bugs and can hack into anything. When I sayanything, Angelo, I mean it, but I don’t believe that she truly knew the job she was undertaking was this fucked up.”
Angelo rubs his chin and glances to Rocco. Out of all of us, he’s the one who is the least biased and unsympathetic. I roll my eyes at Enzo as Santino hovers near the trunk.
“She’s not a liar,” Rocco mutters. “She laid low after she caught wind of the arrests and your twenty-four-hour death and the raid that followed.”
