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“I think we were supposed to capture them, but they were going to get away, and we stopped them.” Ivan sounded defiant and defensive.
How surprising that an untrained militia hadn’t followed orders.
“So did they find the bodies?”
“Not yet. Someone said they saw footprints going into a cave, so maybe the other two survived.”
“We can always kill them later,” Vadisk said with a shrug.
Ivan nodded. “One of them is a woman. An American who’s supposed to be famous. I hope she is alive so we can get her.”
Cold rage slid down Vadisk’s back. “Famous…” he said slowly, as if thinking it through. “She has money? Ransom?”
Ivan shrugged. “I don’t know.” The possibility of ransom clearly wasn’t what excited Ivan about capturing Dahlia. “But maybe when Minister Abduramanov is done with her, we can have her.”
Vadisk forced himself to laugh when Ivan did, though he felt sick. He should have found somewhere safe to hide Dahlia. Except nowhere was safe. At least if they were together, there was a chance they could protect one another. He’d move heaven and earth to keep these men away from her.
Ivan showed Vadisk his other favorite weapons. The boy’s opinion seemed to be based on the size of the gun, not the actual capability or accuracy of any of them. Vadisk casually tucked the first gun he’d picked up into his pocket. By the time Ivan was done waxing poetic about firearms, Vadisk had three guns, three extra clips, a stun grenade, and a pocket Taser tucked into his waistbands and pockets.
No one was paying any attention to him as he strode out of the room, heading up the stairs with the air of a man who knew where he was going.
That had taken longer than he wanted. Had it been more than half an hour? Hopefully his husband and wife weren’t panicked.
The hall outside Sinaver’s office was empty, and Vadisk froze. What if they’d been identified and taken? Surely if they’d been discovered, there would have been some sort of alarm he would have heard.
The office door opened, and a slim hand appeared in the gap, fingers curling in a rapid “come here” gesture.
Relief made his knees bend, but Vadisk started forward, slipping into the office. The instant the door was closed, he wrapped his arms around Dahlia, hugging her tight and kissing the top of her head.
She returned the embrace but then looked up at him, worried. “Are you okay?”
He nodded, exhaling, then handed her a gun.
“Uh… Thank you?”
“Do you know how to fire a gun?”
“Pull the trigger? It can’t be that hard.”
Sadly, it wasn’t, and the gun he’d given her was an old model with no safety.
Vadisk looked around. “Wait, where’s Montana?”
“In here,” came a muffled response.
Dahlia let him over to a section of wall that swung out when she tugged. “We found a secret room.”
Vadisk stepped in. The windowless room was about the size of a bedroom and lined with shelves and storage lockers. There was a bank of monitors above a computer terminal. One monitor showed the hallway he’d just been in. He grinned, scanning the other monitors.
Montana was at the computer, and when Vadisk leaned in, his husband tipped his cheek up without looking away from the screen or stopping his typing.
A bit bemused, Vadisk kissed his cheek. “I have a gun for you,” he said, setting a weapon down by Montana’s elbow.
“Who needs a gun when we have code?”
“We do. We need a gun.” Vadisk shook his head and turned to Dahlia.
She plopped down to sit on a heavy weapons trunk, the apron and fake baby bump gone, leaving her in the all-white spa worker ensemble. “I stopped trying to talk to him about ten minutes ago. Everything okay?”
