Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 101 - Chapitre 110

SERGEI "Anything?"I barked the word into the phone before the man on the other end had even finished his sentence, pacing the length of my study for what felt like the hundredth time that morning."Nothing, boss. No sightings or word from anyone on the ground," he said. “Viktor has definitely gone deep underground."Keep looking." I hung up before he could offer another useless apology.Three days.Three days of calling every contact I had left in Moscow and St. Petersburg, every rat hole Viktor had ever crawled through in the last twenty years, and I had nothing to show for it but a headache and a growing, gnawing feeling that I was chasing a ghost."Any luck?"Nikolai's voice came from the doorway. I didn't even bother looking up."No."He walked in and dropped into the chair across from my desk, arms crossed, watching me the way he always did when he thought I was about to say something he wouldn't like."I think to solve all of this, I'm going to have to go back to Russia, mysel

SERGEI "The fuck is wrong with all of you?"I shoved the first guard so hard he stumbled back against the gate, his hands coming up in useless surrender. "One job. You had one job. Watch the gate. Watch who comes and goes. And you're telling me she just walked out and none of you thought to stop her?""Sir, she said she was just stepping out for air…"I grabbed him by the collar before he could finish that sentence. "Do I look like I give a damn what she said?""Sergei." Nikolai's voice cut through, and I felt his hand close around my arm, pulling me back. "Enough. This is not going to solve anything."I let go of the guard, chest heaving, and he scrambled backward like I might change my mind and go for him again."We need to find her," Nikolai said, his voice steady. "That's what matters right now. Not this tempter tantrum.""She didn't go to her own house. "I was pacing now, the gravel crunching under my boots. "She would have to be an idiot to go there, and if there's one thing we

SERGEI “She isn't here, Pakhan.” One of the boys said from the back bedroom.There I was in the center of the living room, taking in the space that was supposed to be Iris' apartment.Nikolai appeared in the hallway, shaking his head. “The house is empty.”“If she isn’t here, then where could they possibly be?” I finally asked.I was running out of patience and it was showing in my voice.“I will have people keep looking.” Nikolai said,A lot of thoughts were playing out in my head now. To think that I had been played by her, just because I had let her get under my skin."Let's go," I finally said. "We are wasting time."I reached the front door first, hand on the knob, already running through my next course of action.I pulled the door open and stopped.The woman on the front step froze mid-step, one hand still raised toward the door like she had been about to unlock it herself. Keys dangling from her fingers.Her face went through a series of changes in the span of a single second.

SERGEI"We have her."Those three words were all it took for every other thought in my head to go silent."Where?" I was already moving, already reaching for the duffel bag I'd packed three days ago and left sitting by the door, just in case."It was as you said, she went to the vault.”"I'm on my way."I hung up and slung the bag over my shoulder in one motion.By the time I reached the entrance of the house, Lily was already there waiting, her own bag at her feet, sunglasses pushed up into her hair despite the fact that it was barely dawn."About time," she said. "I was starting to think you'd changed your mind.""Not a chance."Nikolai came down the stairs behind us, still pulling a shirt over his head, his hair a mess from being woken up too early. "I'm coming.""No, you're not.""Sergei…""I already told you. Your place is here." I zipped the bag shut and looked at him. "With Katya. With your kid.”Katya appeared at the top of the stairs then, one hand resting on the small curve

RENEE I fucked up.That single thought kept circling in my head, over and over, the entire time they dragged me down what felt like an endless stretch of hallway, a blindfold pressed tight over my eyes and a hand gripping my arm."What is going on?" I asked, my voice bouncing uselessly off walls I couldn't see. "Where are you taking me?" No one answered. I hadn't really expected them to. From being escorted from the reception, I had been hauled into a car and blindfolded immediately.The obvious answer to who was behind this settled into my chest somewhere around the third turn they dragged me through, and it made my stomach twist violently. It had to be Sergei. These were his men.It was the only explanation that made any sense. He was the only one with enough reason and enough resources to actually track me down and pull off something like this. And if he knew I was in Russia at all, that meant he'd figured it out through Iris. Oh God, Iris. Is she okay?My heart was racing so