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Desmier is the first to move, and Zakh looks at him as if for guidance.
“We’ll double up on security,” Desmier states. “I’ll put eyes on them and check in with our allies in Mexico and Brazil.”
“I’ll send some men ahead of our visit,” Zakh chimes in. “You need to stay here, Desmier. It’s best.”
“I’d feel better if I went with you.”
“The bloodline mustn’t fall. And you are our leader.”
My God, it sounds like they’re preparing for war. They’re actually talking about dying. I didn’t even consider that anyone would have to go to Mexico, but of course they would need to. The Navarro Cartel is based in Mexico, and those allies Malik told Diego to speak to are all there.
“The fucking bloodline won’t fall.” Malik finally speaks. His voice sounds like thunder roiling across the sky in the midst of a turbulent storm. “You guys are talking as if we’re low level assholes who can’t even use a gun.”
“It’s called being careful, Malik.” Zakh gives him a hard stare. “We can’t just declare war the way we have and not the measures we need to minimize risk.”
“They would not be that foolish to kill all of us. One of us, of course, but not all. The Knights would obliterate them.”
“We still need to keep in mind that they could kill us all.” Desmier looks at both of them with a dark warning in his eyes. It’s the look of a leader who knows not to underestimate anyone or assume you’re invincible.
It’s the absolute opposite of Malik, who seems to not care about dying or death. That scares me. He had the same look when he faced off with Conrad and his men back in Wilmington.
Malik says something in Russian that sounds angrier than normal and Zakh snaps back at him in Russian. The two start arguing back and forth. I don’t understand a word and that only amplifies my fear of what’s going to happen next.
Desmier finally breaks up the argument with one sentence in a raised voice that shuts Malik and Zakh down.
That silence returns and I use the opportunity to cut in.
“What should I do?” My voice is so meek it sounds out of place.
Malik faces me. “You’re going home now. Come, let’s go.”
He takes my arm and practically hurries me out the chair.
“But I—”
“Home, Gwen. That is all.” He talks to me as if I’m a petulant child and ushers me out of the room as such, too, leaving Desmier and Zakh behind.
Yuri and Vladmir follow us as we walk down the corridor.
Everything that just happened crashes around in my mind as I try to process it and my heart starts racing.
I have so many questions but I don’t know what to ask first.
We get on the elevator and make our way down to the ground floor.
When we reach outside and I see the car that’s going to take me away from here without the chance to get answers to my questions, my brain pops back into focus.
I can’t just go back to the house not knowing what’s going to happen next.
We reach the car and I wrench my arm free from Malik’s grip, glaring at him.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I blurt. There are so many things I want to throw at him, like how he got my DNA sample and why he never said anything about Mexico, but the question I asked is the most important one. “Why didn’t you tell me what happened to you and your captain?”
I look him over and put more pieces of his past together. That incident was what ended his career in the Navy. The injury he said he got is from that. When he said he would still be serving if not for that, he did mean it.
“You didn’t need to know.” His voice is as emotionless as his appearance.
“Why wouldn’t I need to know that?”
