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“What’s wrong?”
“Seth came by,” I ground out. “He said the explosion was a failed hit on me. Apparently, Nikolai wants me dead.”
Carter huffed. “Motherfucker! I’d give anything to kill that son of a bitch. What happens now?”
I squeezed my steering wheel so tight my knuckles turned white. “I don’t know, but I need to figure it out fast.”
CHAPTER19
REAGAN
Iworked with Annika all morning, making her do some meditation exercises to clear her mind. Finn watched us for a while, and I could feel his eyes on me the entire time. His attention made me wary. Guys like him weren’t the kind to accept no as an answer. Neither was Braden, but he wasn’t a mafia boss. The rules were different with them. I’d already seen with Nikolai that human life didn’t mean shit to his people; they killed without a second thought. And here I was about to enter the lion’s den on the arm of a man I barely knew.
The limo ride to the hotel went by fast as I went over various scenarios with Annika on how to get out of different types of holds if her opponent were to catch her off guard. Finn added in a few tips as well. I wanted her to be prepared for anything.
When we arrived at the resort, the driver pulled around to a private parking deck filled with millions of dollars worth of fancy cars. He drove us up to the door where Marcus, Finn and Annika’s cousin, waited for us with another behemoth of a man stationed at the entrance. Marcus was built like a bodyguard with hulking muscles. I saw him training with Finn’s fighters the other day.
Marcus opened the limo door and reached in to grab Annika’s hand. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, clutching her bag to her chest. “Here we go.”
I watched her carefully get out in her little black dress and walk through the door with Marcus.
“Are you ready?” Finn asked. No, but I smiled and pretended I was.
“As I’ll ever be.”
Finn slid out first and reached in to grab my hand. “Don’t be nervous.”
As soon as I was out of the limo, I slowly pulled my hand away to straighten my dress. “Is Nikolai in there?” I asked, nodding toward the door.
His jaw clenched. “Yes. And I’m going to tell him that you and your family are off limits.”
“Will that cause problems for you?”
Finn shook his head and placed a hand on the small of my back as we walked to the door. “Nikolai’s smart. He’s not going to fuck with me.”
The giant man standing guard nodded at Finn and opened the door for us. Inside was a long hallway and there was another man in a suit and sunglasses guarding an entrance.
“How many security checks do we have to go through?” I questioned.
Still keeping his hand on my back, Finn chuckled. “Only one more. We have to go down a set of stairs to another hallway.”
“Wow,” was all I could say. Nikolai had sent my sister a video of Carter fighting in a secret lair below a hotel. I was pretty sure I was in the same place. “Is the room we’re about to go into red?”
Finn glanced over at me with a curious expression. “How did you know?”
“Nikolai,” I grumbled. “He sent Emma a video of Carter one night and I watched it.”
He turned his attention back to the hallway. “I wasn’t here to see those fights. I heard he was intense.”
That he was. I’d never seen Carter so violent in the ring.
“I’m just glad he survived,” I replied. Finally, we made it to the other door and the guard let us through. “If it wasn’t for Seth, I don’t know where we’d be right now.” We walked down the stairs to another cement-lined hallway. It was creepy and cold, with no sound other than my heels against the floor.
“How close are you to Seth?” Finn asked. “Are you two …?”
My laugh echoed all around us. “No. He had a thing for Emma. They dated a couple of years ago. He’s protecting us because of her, but I don’t hold much faith in him.”
Finn’s brows furrowed. “Why is that? He’s always been good on his word. If anyone in my world can be trusted, it’s him. He’s known for his outright honesty, no matter the consequences.”
