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I tilt my head toward the door. “Shall we ask Leon to come back?”

“In a minute.” Dimitry stares at me through narrowed eyes. “You said earlier that you were planning to talk to Leon yourself and convince him to let you go in there without me. What changed your mind?”

I laugh softly. “First, Darya. Then Leon.”

He looks at me, clearly waiting.

“Darya said she’d have to tell Roman she’d spoken to me. She said she couldn’t keep something like that from him, that it wouldn’t be fair. It made me think back to when she ran from Roman, the night the girls were kidnapped. Of the time wasted, the hurt caused, by the misunderstandings between them, and how much they’ve grown since then.

“Leon advised me to be completely honest with you. He said that whatever guilt I feel about involving you in this isnothing to the regret I’d endure if I sent you into that place without what you needed to succeed. And Dimitry.” I reach out and close my hand around his. “This is what you need to succeed,” I say quietly. “I need you to believe that. Please.”

For a moment his hand lies dormant in mine. Then, finally, his fingers close around my own.

“Go on then,” he says with a ghost of his old smile, though the tension remains writ large on his face. “I’ll tell Leon to come and join us.”

30

Abby

“Ican’t promise I’m not going to kill this fucker,” Dimitry growls the following day as Rodrigo’s black sedan winds up the mountain road toward us.

“Try to restrain yourself.” I go for a light tone, but it’s an effort. I’m not looking forward to this meeting any more than Dimitry.

I’m certainly not looking forward to going back into SK. My every nerve tenses whenever I think of it, so I’ve been trying not to.

“It shouldn’t take more than a week to get the auction set up.” Leon joins us on the patio. “I’ve had half a dozen expressions of interest in the Fabergé egg already. But we need Rodrigo on site to insist the auction is held at SK. All of this falls apart without his cooperation.”

I can almost hear Dimitry grinding his teeth in frustration. I put a hand on his arm.

“We need Rodrigo,” I say quietly. “He’s the best chance we’ve got of getting us both inside that compound, and you close enough to Jacey to kill him.”

“Yeah.” His voice is heavy with sarcasm. “I heard you boththe first fifty fucking times.” He glances at me as the sedan parks beneath us. His visible effort to soften his expression is almost comical, given the taut strain visible in every inch of corded muscle. “I said I’d work with this idea, Skip. But I swear to God if this bastard so much as looks at you sideways, I’ll kill him. No questions, no discussion.”

I grip his arm wordlessly as Leon goes downstairs to open the door. There’s no point in trying to reassure Dimitry yet again. Getting him to a point where he’s prepared to even consider my proposal was a small miracle. We’re still a very long way from him actually agreeing.

Dimitry tilts his head sideways, listening intently to the footsteps on the stairs. I know he’s counting how many there are, just like I know he has weapons strapped beneath his clothes, and more hidden in the furniture that he thinks I don’t know about.

I’m well aware that the slightest provocation will end very badly for Rodrigo Cardeñas.

I also know that if Dimitry kills him, our only chance of surviving this entire thing dies, too.

It’s an impossible situation. And it’s about to get much harder.

I take a deep breath and squeeze Dimitry’s hand briefly as we turn to face the newcomers. His fingers are like steel wire under mine, tense and ready to kill.

Rodrigo moves through the villa toward the patio, flanked by a man on either side, Leon following behind them. Despite the oppressive heat, Rodrigo is wearing a two-piece gray suit with a black silk shirt opened at the neck beneath it. Aviator sunglasses hang from the V of his shirt. Dimitry, lethally still beside me, watches them come.

“Abby.” Rodrigo steps onto the patio, his face unsmiling as he looks at Dimitry, then back at me. “When you agreed to our deal, I thought you understood the time sensitivity involved. Icertainly did not expect to wait several days to hear from you. Idefinitelydidn’t expect to receive a summons requiring me to visit you in person, potentially exposing myself to our friend at SK, whose triad minions, I should advise you, are beginning to ask some very awkward questions regarding our whereabouts.”

“I assume you’ve lied to them?” My tone is calm enough, but my stomach is lurching like a wild sea.

“Of course.” Rodrigo’s eyes rest on my bruises, his mouth widening in an unpleasant smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “But we’d better hope they haven’t seen you since my handiwork faded or my story won’t hold.” His eyes settle on Dimitry with a calculating expression. “I told them I beat you so badly that you were in no state to travel, you see,” he says softly.

Dimitry, to my surprise, doesn’t betray his fury by the slightest muscle twitch.

He simply stares Rodrigo down.

But whatever is in his eyes must send a clear enough message, because after a minute of their visual standoff, Rodrigo spits to one side and turns back to me.