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Lacey rolled her eyes and lowered her weapon as she moved toward me. “You owe me two.”

“Wait a minute now, damn it. I didn’taskfor you to ruin my wedding. No way I owe you for this one.”

“Let me guess, you were going to murder her tonight and then what? Escape unseen from a Bratva owned hotel?” Laceydrawled. “I did you a favor putting an end to this ridiculous farce before you got yourself killed with whatever nonsense you had planned.”

“Okay, fine.” I scowled. “You might have a point. So what do you want?”

“For the van, you sign over your claim to be the head of our family to me.”

“Done, I wasn’t interested in ‘taking my place’ anyway.” I said, finger-quoting to express my annoyance at her insinuation I would evenwantto be the family heir.

“I haven’t quite decided what I want for this one. I will let you know when I’ve decided.” Lacey continued.

“Wait… hear me out. Wouldn’t it be in your better interest to have that favor owed to you by the new head of the Sidorov Bratva?” I jerked my head to the woman behind me, shaking in fear. “The horsemen aren’t in a position to grant favors right now, but–”

“Leighton–” Lacey attempted to interrupt.

“Just hear me out, Lacey, damn. Ksenia here doesn’t even know how toruna family, let alone the entire organization you so kindly just dropped in her lap. She’s gonna need someone to be her second and train her up. Who’s better to do that and help take control of a Russian mob than you? Just think about it. The Laurent name and wealth combined with the full power of the Sidorov’s behind you.”

Lacey pursed her lips, her eyes boring into me as she considered my words. “While I am well aware you’re just trying to flatter me out of holding you to a second favor, I can’t argue with your logic. I’ll accept what you’ve offered,thistime.”

“Fantastic,” I grinned, clapping my hands together. “Now unchain me and take me to my motorcycle so I can get home to my girl.”

Chapter Thirteen

Victoria

I sat drumming my fingers impatiently on the dining table, staring into space as I turned over what limited information I had about what happened to Leighton for what felt like the millionth time. It had taken a while to get anything out of the guys, especially with Joey now only speaking to me long enough to insult me, which always started an argument between him and the other two. Az did eventually tell me what they knew, and it sent alarm bells off in my head.

From what I understood, what happened wasn’t in the playbook for anyone on the board right now that they could think of. But something was itching in my mind and driving me crazy, like a puzzle I was putting together without all the pieces.

“Victoria, honey,” Dawn’s voice broke through my thoughts and made me nearly jump out of my skin with a yelp. I turned to her, my hand to my chest as if I could keep my heart from leaping out of my chest. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you, dear.” She smiled at me sheepishly.

“It’s alright, I was just… lost in thought.” I said with a shake of my head. “Did you need me?”

Dawn held out a cream envelope with delicate calligraphy addressed to me, a puzzled look on her face. “This was in ourmail, and there’s no return address or anything. It didn’t feel right for me to open it but… well, here.”

I raised a brow and took the envelope from her, turning it over as if I’d find some clue on the outside. “I don’t know who would have sent it either…” I said absently, opening it slowly. I pulled out the elegant six-by-nine card, and my jaw hit the floor.

I stood from my seat so fast that the chair toppled over. I barely had time to register Dawn’s shocked expression before I was running through the house toward Ian’s office. The guys had been holed up in there since breakfast, but I didn’t hesitate to barge in without knocking. The door slammed against the wall as it flew open causing all three of their heads jerked up to look at me.

“I know where Leighton is!” I said breathlessly, waving the wedding invitation in the air. “We have to go…Now.”

“Whatever it is, no.” Az replied without hesitation. “One, we aren’t going inanywhereblind, and two,youaren’t equipped or trained to handle a rescue mission. You’ll stay here, period.”

“It’s a fuckingwedding,Az-hole. His fucking parent’s are marrying him off and wehaveto stop it.” I shouted, throwing the card at his head.

The weight of the cardstock wasn’t heavy enough for it to do much beyond twist and flutter in the air before landing on the floor a few inches in front of me. I bent over and snatched it up before storming to the desk and shoving it in his face.

“How did you get this?” Az asked, studying the delicate calligraphy outlining Leighton’s wedding details.

“Dawn said it was in the mail for me.” I snipped. “Now can we fucking go? The wedding is in less than an hour, we have to leave now or we won’t make it in time.”

“There’s no way this isn’t a trap.” Az said, moving to pass the invitation off to Craig. “Clearly, the Laurent’s are the oneswho found us here, but given Alistair and Cicely’s opinions of the three of us, I doubt they sent this with good intentions.”

Craig studied the invitation, turning it over in his hands much like I had done when I first opened it. “Even if there was the remotest chance itwasn’ta trap, if we let you just walk into a wedding with Russian Bratva in attendance, as well as his parents… Leighton would be so pissed he’d beat us to hospitalization just on principle.” He said, passing the card to Joey.

“But it isabsolutelya trap. So the answer is still no.” Az said, deadpan.