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“So are you,” Mila scoffs. “But in this case, you happen to be right.”
“You can talk to her.” Dima turns to my sister. “Talk some sense into her.”
Mila frowns. “Me? Why me?”
“Because the two of you have a special bond. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”
“You’re her fucking toffee Santa Claus.Youtalk to her!”
“Enough.” I hold up my hands to silence them. “There’s no point in talking to Taylor. I’ve already made my decision and I’ve informed Taylor of what’s going to happen.”
“That’s not going to end well,” Mila warns gently.
“No, I don’t expect it will.” I sigh. “Now—the mission. Tell me everything.”
Mila and Dima exchange a glance.
“What?” I snap.
“Celine has been asking for you nonstop since she woke up. You don’t want to—?”
“I’ll give Taylor some time alone with her family and then I’ll go up there. First, I need to know where we stand with Benedict.”
They exchange another meaningful glance. I fucking hate when they do this nonverbal shit in front of me.
“The alarms were ringing when we left the extraction site,” Dima explains wearily. “He would almost certainly have been informed shortly after. The warehouse where Archie was being kept was heavily guarded, but neither Benedict nor his brother were there.”
“So they weren’t expecting it.”
“They didn’t have a goddamn clue.”
That is the first thing to bring a smile to my face in what feels like ages. I wish I could’ve been there to see Benedict’s jaw hit the floor when he realizes that he just lost his only source of leverage.
“He’s going to try to get to Celine,” Mila suggests.
“Or you,” Dima adds.
I roll my eyes. “I fucking wish he’d try.”
“Excuse me, sir?” I turn to see one of my security guards at the entrance with a solemn frown. “A car approached the gate a minute ago. They threw out a body and drove away.”
I glance toward Mila and Dima. Then the three of us rush headlong to the front gate.
74
ILARION
When they roll the corpse onto its back, I see a face I recognize: Oleg, a low-level intermediary for the Bratva. His eyes are lifeless, his throat slit wide, his shirt soaked in blood.
“Search him,” I instruct my men. “There’s a message in this.”
Dima pushes the guards out of the way and starts patting down the body himself. Just inside the left breast pocket of his suit is exactly what I was expecting to find. He hands it to me.
I tear open the seal and read through the contents. It’s fairly predictable, but I don’t doubt its sincerity. It’s practically carved into the paper with a furious pen. I can almost imagine Benedict’s face as he scrawled the note.
I will destroy you and everything you hold dear. I will burn your Bratva to the ground and I will dance on top of the ashes and laugh.
But before I do any of that, I will first come for everyone you love.
