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“What the fuck is the plan?”
“I don’t have all the details, but everything is under control.”
Under control? An aggravated breath heaved out of my chest and my fists clenched until the bones cracked. “So, we just stand here holding our dicks, while Emmy gets groped by that Colombian motherfucker?”
Drago grabbed his phone, presumably to contact Mikhail, or at least look like he was so I’d leave him the fuck alone. I went back to staring at Emmy, her pale, terrified expression gnawing at me. I was having a hard time deciding who I was going to kill first—her deranged, soul-dead father or the guy who put his motherfucking hands on her.
“Okay, Mikhail’s making his move, let’s get ready.”
“What is he doing?”
“He's going to join the party.”
I gaped. “You don’t think Armstrong is going to shoot first and ask questions later when the Bratva comes into the hangar? He knows Emmy has been with me, that my sister lives with you. He’s not nearly as dumb as I fucking wished he was.”
Before Drago could answer, I heard something that caught my attention.
“Are you worried about the Russians retaliating? I heard the family of your daughter keeps company with those fucking animals,” Martinez said disdainfully.
Armstrong laughed loudly. “Not at all. You’d be surprised at the support we have for this agreement. While the Chicago Bratva may have some attachment to my daughter, the Pakhan in Moscow has no affection for her. We have communicated for some time, and he indicated I’d be doing him a favor by taking Emmy out of Chicago. Apparently, one of his men has become difficult due to his interest in her, making him quite a liability.”
Martinez shook his head. “Weak!”
What the fuck? My stomach bottomed out, as suspicion and betrayal stung me like a swarm of bees. Will stared at me in disbelief, indicating this was also the first he’d heard of this. My gaze swung to Drago, but he wasn’t looking at me, but his phone. His lack of response was the only thing keeping me from exploding.
I looked back in the warehouse and saw Emmy’s body stiffen in shock. I swear I could see her tremor from here and my mind unraveled further.
This couldn’t be true…could it? Were we getting double crossed by Mikhail? Was he teaching some kind of brutal life lesson in domination and hierarchy?
I was drowning in doubts, but my attention was once again brought back to the warehouse. I needed to think of how I was going to save Emmy if Mikhail had aligned with these motherfuckers.
“Ah, here he comes now,” Armstrong said smugly.
“What? The Bratva is here? Are you fucking crazy, Thomas? Why would you think you can trust them? This is obviously a goddamn set-up.” Martinez's voice rang with anger and panic.
“Relax, Eduardo, Mikhail has been an ally for a long time. He heard through the grapevine that Emmy was my daughter, probably Orlov, that useless little fuck. He knows how this world operates and approached me about relocating Emmy out of Chicago. I didn’t tell him we had an arrangement, but he made some suggestions of who to connect her with and you were in the group under consideration.”
“But why bring him here now?” Martinez sounded a bit calmer, but his voice still had an edge to it. A man didn’t stay on top of a cartel by being trusting.
“He reached out and mentioned he had another woman he needed removing. He said to consider her a parting gift for doing him a favor.”
Martinez responded with another barrage of questions, but my mind was casting about to understand what was going on.
Another woman? I shot another look at Drago, who was finally looking at me. Although he looked solemn, he didn’t look worried.
“Who? What the fuck is going on?” I barked at him.
“We didn’t exactly have time to inform everyone of the plan, Ivan. Like I said, I don’t even have all the details, but I trust Mikhail. Just fucking relax,” he ordered, clearly indicating I should shut the fuck up and let this shit show play out.
Mikhail’s Town Car rolled into the hangar, which was getting pretty fucking crowded. A part of me was hoping that Emmy would find a way to sidle her way out of the hangar in all the commotion, but unfortunately, Armstrong was keeping a firm grip on her.
Mikhail got out of the car and my jaw dropped as I watched him pull Anya out of the backseat. I barely recognized her. She had gotten some kind of make-over with a full face of cosmetics and her long, blonde hair styled loose down her back. She was also wearing a dress, which I was pretty sure I’d never seen ever. It was odd to see the tough-talking enforcer look so meek and feminine.
“Mikhail, what have we here? I’m not going to lie, I’m tempted to take this one for myself,” Armstrong booms merrily, as if trafficking women was some kind ofdelight.
“Hello, Thomas, Eduardo,” Mikhail’s voice echoed through the hangar. “I appreciate you letting me crash your party at the last minute. I must admit, we haven’t been in each other’s company for quite some time, so it’s good to have face-to-face contact once in a while. Since you are doing me a favor in removing Ms. Prescott, I thought it was only fair to offer something to sweeten the deal. She is available to either of you. I guess you’ll have to fight about that amongst yourselves,” Mikhail said with a good-natured chuckle.
Fuck, Mikhail was pretty fucking convincing. If Drago wasn’t looking so unfazed by this conversation, I wasn’t sure I’d be so calm. In fact, I knew I’d be storming in there, guns blazing.