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“You were there last night.” I sit up quickly and clutch the side of my head to stop the fierce pounding, swallowing down bile when the smell of the egg sandwich infests my nostrils. “She was pissed as hell when I rolled in there. Me showing up tipped off security, had them chasing us, shooting at us. If you listened to Val, the shit show at the club is all on me. Meanwhile, and this is something nobody paid much attention to at the safehouse, Alek has a leak somewhere in his organization. He may not wanna acknowledge it, but he does. And if that’s the case, last night isn’t on me, much as they want to use me as a scapegoat.”
My nostrils flare, anger sizzling in my veins. “Val didn’t want to hear it, though. As far as she’s concerned, I’m the one to blame.”
“They were hard on you. But are you going to let them get away with thinking you’re the problem?”
“Patty, stop trying to play me with that psychobabble bullshit. I’m not an idiot.” I look at Boris. “Her going in there is a bad move. And I don’t trust that girl, either, by the way.”
“You know Val.”
I scoff. “Always saving the world.”
“Sounds familiar,” Patrick says.
“Jesus, neither of you is gonna let me go back to sleep, are you?”
Boris shakes his head.
“Why the hell aren’t her brothers putting up a bigger fight against her going? Don’t they know it could be a trap?”
“They’ll be close, of course. In case of anything. But she wants to do this on her own.” He shakes his head. “I think it’s a bad move, which is why I’m here. Please go with her.”
“She doesn’t want to see me.”
“You’re wrong. I think last night she was just too overwhelmed to see things clearly. But she needs you, Quinn. We all do.” He leans closer. “And you need her. It was written all over your face last night.”
“She doesn’t feel the same way. She made that pretty clear when she let me go.”
“Don’t be too sure about that. Put yourself in her position. It was very traumatizing for her to hear all that from Stepanov. She had a lot to process.”
I drag a hand down the front of my face. She pretty much shattered my heart last night. I left the safehouse, convinced her feelings didn’t match mine. “Are you manipulating me, Boris? Because if you are, I’ll come for your ass next.”
“I wouldn’t do that, Quinn.” Boris’s smile fades. “I lost my daughter and granddaughter in a tragic accident. My daughter was just about Val’s age now. She never got a chance to find her happiness. I don’t want to see Val miss out on hers.”
“Q, you’ve got to do this,” Patrick’s voice hums in my hand.
My lips twist, conflict tearing my mind in two. “And if I don’t?”
Boris leans forward, the lines between his eyes deepening. “Then you might not get a chance to tell Val how you feel about her. Because last night might have been the last you will ever see her alive.”
Chapter38
Valentina
“Daddy, I tried… to find her…” My breaths come in short, sharp rasps, sobs shuddering my chest. “But I couldn’t… I couldn’t get to her in time before she… before she…”
I collapse into my father’s arms. He strokes the back of my tangled hair. “You did what you could, ??????.”
How can his voice sound so soothing when the vein in his neck throbs like it’s about to burst?
“I should have gone after her. Helped her get away from them. But my legs were like Jell-O. I couldn’t even move.” I squeeze my eyes shut. “And then she was gone. It was too late.”
“Not for you.” Dad pulls away and places both hands on either side of my face. “You got away. You’re safe.”
I swipe at the tears that stream down my cheeks. “I was so scared. What if they’d gotten me, too?”
“They will never get close to you again.” His blue eyes darken with rage. “I’ll make sure of that, if I have to torch the fucking Earth to do it.”
I grit my teeth and step out of the shitty Honda Civic. Vegas dry heat, my ass. I’m still sweating like a whore in church.
