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I follow him out of the room, even though I don’t really have a choice because he’s gripping my arm tightly. My legs are jelly as I will myself to keep going. My mind races, thoughts spinning out of control as I try to process everything. The house that’s supposed to feel like a fortress feels like a trap, every creak of the floorboards and whisper of the wind outside making me jump. We gather in a second room, thankfully, because the one besidethe living room still holds the body of a man bleeding out… or dead.
Tension is etched on everyone’s faces as Ollie stands near the window, his hand hovering near his gun as he scans the grounds outside.
Ekaterina stands close to him, her fingers twisting nervously around the hem of her shirt. “Renata,” she says gently, “Are you all right?”
I shake my head and don’t answer.
“What’s happened?” Polina asks, her face pale.
“We’re locking everything down,” Ollie snaps, his words clipped and sharp. He’s already shifted into commander mode, the warmth he showed me earlier buried under layers of cold calculation. “No one leaves until we know the house is secure. I questioned the man who infiltrated us. He told me that Carlos is here.”
“Here?” Polina’s voice wavers, her face a mask of barely contained fear. We all feel it—the unspoken terror that Carlos could be in the very walls around us.
Ollie laughs mirthlessly. “Unfortunately, that’s as far as we got. Your guess is as good as mine.”
Polina and I share a glance.
“I wasn’t able to get more information out of him. He could’ve been referring to New York for all I know.” His stance tells me there’s no damn way he believes that to be true.
But we all know the greatest threat is if he’s in this house.
“Bring it,” Polina says as she pulls out a gun.
“Who the fuck gave you that?” Ollie asks.
“You think only the men in this family carry weapons? Where have you been? Oh, right. Moscow. Paris. Colombia. Guess what, brother? While you were globe-trotting, Isabella trained us in self-defense, and Harper recently gave us shooting lessons.”
I’ve heard that Harper is a master with guns, and I love that she’s shown them how to use one.
I’m next, girls.
“You know how to use that?” Ollie asks. I cringe.
The sound of outrage from me, his sister, and his mother all at once makes him put up his hands like a little boy. “Okay, okay. I just want to leave with my balls intact, thank you.”
“Say something like that again, and I will show you exactly how good I am at using this gun!” Polina says, glaring at him.
“Which part?” he says. “The part about using the gun or my balls being intact?”
“Yes,” she says.
“Fine, so you know how to use a gun,” he mutters. I’d think he was being a dick if I didn’t know he was worried about us. “Mom?” he says.
“I’m not as good as Polina,” she says. “But there’s no one who can get me in a chokehold that I can’t get out of.” She smiles sweetly at him.
His eyes widen slightly. She’s so badass.
Ollie turns to me. “Renata?”
“I’ve only just begun lessons, but Isabella tells me I’m a quick study,” I say. Somehow, being around his mom and sister reminds me that we are part of something different, something bigger. I get one little glimpse of what it would be like to be truly one with this family.
“We need to lock everything down,” Ollie says. “Aleks is going to check for biometric markers. I want a full sweep, inside and out.”
He has a hurried conversation on his phone in Russian.
“Are they at the bunker?” Ekaterina asks quietly. Ollie gives her a short nod.
“Is he inside this house?” She doesn’t ask how he got here, butifhe’s here. I see the fear in her eyes, in the way Polina clings to her, and I know this isn’t the first time they’ve been in a position like this. The question hangs in the air, the unspoken terror we all feel is undeniable. If he’s in this house, we’re sitting ducks, and I fucking hate that.
