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I brace myself for the reaction he’s going to have to what I say next. “And I’ll pay you another 5k to take me to the guy, as part of a trap.”
Pavel’s eyes saucer and his mouth quirks into a weird grin.
The sound that comes from Scotch’s chest is something I didn’t know a human could make. Half bear, half raging lion. It sends a chill to the very base of my spine that snaps me upright.
Oh no, he doesn’t. He can’t use that tactic to make me back down.
Nope. Not letting him dictate what I do. Ever.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The second Andre sees my face, he knows there’s something serious going down. He mutters, “Frickin-A,” and swipes his hand over his three-day-old beard shadow.
Holding the door to Pavel’s apartment open, I tip my head toward the living room. He steps into the small space and stalks toward the bound and tied prisoner. He lets out a huff. “Damn, Sprite. Talk about a wild fucking goose chase. Paris? I mean, could you two pick anywhere more complicated for finding someone?”
Thoroughly undisturbed, Simona waves a dismissive hand. “The food’s good, at least. It could have been much, much worse.”
He steps toward her and captures her in a bear hug. “Damn, it’s good to see you have your attitude back.”
“Well, it’s good to see you too.”
She glances at me over his shoulder but won’t hold my gaze.
For the last ten minutes, she’s been like that while we waited for Andre and she talked some nonsense bullshit about using herself to trap whoever has a bounty on her.
Fuck. That. Craziness.
If she thinks I’m letting her be any kind of damned decoy, or trap, or whatever the hell she thinks she’s going to be, she’s wrong. Dead wrong. No freaking way. Wrong.
And I don’t care how mad she is, because I can’t spend another minute thinking about her being in danger.
And that’s where Agile is going to come in. Andre and the team know the deal. Or at least, enough of it to keep up their end of it.
The rest, we have to figure out when we can all sit down and make some sense out of what Pavel has told us.
Andre lurches toward Pavel and with those gigantic hands of his, he hoists him up off the floor. A flash of light bounces off Andre’s knife as he cuts the restraints. He pushes the man toward the door. “Let’s go have a little talk.”
Simona’s eyes go wide. Panic blanches her skin. “Where are you going?”
“Unfinished business related to the other kidnapping.” Andre tosses over his shoulder as he marches Pavel into the hallway.
Simona’s mouth drops open. Then she slams it shut. “Don’t kill him!”
“Don’t worry, I’ve been given strict orders not to do too much damage.”
Crossing her arms, she huffs. “What about his mother? Scotch is supposed to help her.”
Pavel yells an address as Andre continues to push him down the hallway, farther from the man’s apartment. The sound of the two men’s boots disappears down the stairwell a few seconds later.
And I’m left with an angry brunette in a skin tight black dress glaring a hole in the middle of my chest.
Meh. What’s new?
Such is life with Simona. And I wouldn’t have her any other way. Well, except naked.
Which is my next plan.
“Come on. Let’s go to the hotel. We have a lot to talk about.”