AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The only thing I’m reevaluating right now is the idea that I can trust her blindly. I can’t believe I’m letting myself be fooled by my own wishful thinking.”
Dmitri places his hand on my shoulder. “You’re only saying that in the heat of the moment. You’re out of your mind with worry for her, and it’s driving you a little crazy. I don’t think for a second that you actually mean that.”
I shake my head. “I’m not so sure about that, Dmitri. Why would Kat do this? Why does she always have to go behind my back? This little stunt makes me wonder what else she’s been hiding from me.”
“May I suggest you take a deep breath before making any impulsive decisions you might regret later?”
On the brink of losing control, I snap at him. “Watch it. I’m very tolerant with you, Dmitri. More than any other man in my position would be. But don’t mistake my tolerance for weakness.”
“I would never, Nik,” he says in a slightly pacifying tone that is a bit insulting.
“If McGuire gets his hands on her—” I choke. “If something happens to her, Dmitri, I don’t know what I’ll do.”
“Nik, nothing will happen to her. Kat’s a big girl. I’m sure she’s completely fine. Don’t start thinking of worst-case scenarios just yet. Besides, I have some good news. It might cheer you up.”
I scowl. “Not now, Dmitri. I’m not in the mood.”
“You will be once you learn who I ran into just a few blocks from here. Guess who it is.”
I impassively stare at him for a moment, waiting for him to go on. When he doesn’t, I say, “I honestly hope for your sake that it was a rhetorical question and you aren’t actually expecting me to try to guess.”
With a sigh, Dmitri says, “Connor Daniels. I caught him scouting us. Now, I’ll admit I wasn’t sure if I should bring him back here, but I figured you’d like the opportunity to talk to him yourself.”
Even though it’s terrific news, I almost can’t focus on what Dmitri’s telling me. Connor is McGuire’s right-hand man, and this could be a game-changing development for us. Still, it’s hard to let go of the urge to set out to find Kat right now, tracking down wherever she’s hiding from me.
In the end, Dmitri’s advice sticks with me. Maybe Kat does need some space from me and this whole mess with McGuire. For all her faults, she isn’t careless. She is brave and bold to a dangerous degree, but never needlessly reckless.
It goes against my every instinct not to hunt her down and drag her back home, but I can’t afford to lose her. She knows I’m only one call away if she needs me. Besides, there’s no better way to ensure her safety than to find out where McGuire is hiding and kill him at last.
“Bring him up,” I say. “But tell Vladmir I want him to find Kat. I don’t want him to let her spot him or try to bring her home just yet. I just need him to keep an eye on her.” If nothing else, Vlad will be glad to have a chance to fix his mistake.
“No problem,” Dmitri says.
My mind is elsewhere, and my heart isn’t in it—but Dmitri and I mercilessly question Connor. We quickly learn the reason he ventured so close to my home. He was searching for Kat. His orders were to take her at all costs.
My blood runs cold upon hearing the man’s bold confession. I don’t even realize I’m choking the life out of him until Dmitri physically stops me from prematurely killing him.
Connor tries to put up a show of loyalty to his boss, but McGuire isn’t the type to inspire self-sacrifice in his men. In the end, bloody and beaten, Connor tells us what he knows. “You know the story as well as I do,” he says, sputtering while struggling to catch his breath. “Your pal Maxim came to be in Patrick McGuire’s service because there was a rebellion within our ranks. My predecessor was their leader. He was a cunning bastard. Good ole Jack.”
Connor pauses for a second, coughing up some blood.
“What you don’t know is that, close to the end, Jack had a feeling that old man McGuire was onto him. But Jack was a clever man. He wrote down everything he knew about Patrick in this small black book—and he knew a lot. Every dirty secret or minor detail about the man’s operations or assets Jack could think of went on the little notebook. Not satisfied, Jack stole millions of McGuire’s money. Legend has it that he buried it, noting the location in the same book. And then he hid it. It was supposed to be his insurance against McGuire, you see. Unfortunately for Jack, he was taken out in that nasty car accident. Or maybe it was for the best. At least he died before Patrick got his hands on him.”
“And why is it again that we should care about any of this?” Dmitri asks.
As he struggles against a hacking cough, Connor says, “Because Jack’s little black book was presumed to be lost forever since his unexpected demise. But then we learned he kept a lady on the side. Someone he kept a secret from all of us. This woman had no lost love for Jack, so she was more than happy to tell McGuire all she knew in exchange for some coin. And what she told him drove the old man up a wall. You see, according to her, before dying, Jack had only trusted one person with the location of the book. Imagine our surprise when we learned that person was one and the same with your good friend Maxim Petrovski.”
Connor’s fantastic story surprises me, and it takes me a moment to process his words. Dmitri, however, promptly scoffs. “Do you honestly think we believe in this fairy tale of yours? You’d say anything to save McGuire and yourself.”
Connor shrugs. “Believe what you want, pup. It makes no difference to me. It’s the truth, though. I have no reason to lie. Whether it’s by Nikolai’s hands or McGuire’s, I knew my life was forfeited the moment you managed to drag me back here. Why do you think Patrick didn’t throw a fit when your boss brought Maxim back from Siberia? The old man saw it as his chance to get his hands on that book and retrieve his money. It was going to be tough to get a chance to interrogate Maxim when he was all the way across the ocean in your territory. Now, if he was here… Unfortunately for us, though, we never got a chance to get our hands on Maxim. That’s why we went to that museum party, you know. McGuire meant to grab Maxim once he had a few drinks in him. But someone else got to him before we could make our move.”
“You expect me to believe your boss had nothing to do with Maxim’s murder?” I ask, barely managing to keep my temper in check.
Connor shrugs, grimacing in pain. “Like I said, it doesn’t matter to me if you do or not. I know I’m as good as dead. All I can hope for now is that it’s quick and painless. The way I see it, maybe if I tell you what you want to know, you’ll grant me that mercy.”
“Nik, you don’t believe this crap, right? Connor’s obviously full of shit,” Dmitri says with a scoff. “I say we kill him to send a message to McGuire.”
I stare at Connor, debating my next steps. A heartbeat later, I completely lose my train of thought once Kat’s familiar voice echoes outside my office, just before an angry baritone voice responds.
