Page 73 of Arranged Control

“That’s true, but still. Ruslan’s not a psychopath.” Finn pauses and brushes fingers through his hair. “Well, he’s not stupid anyway.”

“Even if Ruslan did agree to a divorce, what kind of message does that send? It lets everyone know that I can be pushed around. That the Whelan clan is weak. A couple of deaths, some creepy notes, a decent threat or two, and we cave.”

Finn’s eyebrows raise. “You care about our image?”

“I run our street ops. All I do is manage our fucking image and make sure nobody in this city thinks they can fuck with us without repercussions.”

“What are you going to do? Sounds like you can’t win either way.”

I nod to myself and look up at the ceiling. “I could always jump off a bridge.”

“Not funny.”

“I know. Not helpful either. Alina would just have to marry you, and then you’d have to deal with Molchanie.”

“Please stay away from bridges. I’m not really interested in a wife right now.”

“Then you need to find Molchanie for me.”

He snorts softly like he thinks I’m kidding. Then he sighs when he realizes I’m not and finishes his drink. “That’s not going to go well.”

“And it won’t be easy, but what other choice do we have? Find Molchanie, take her out, and our problems disappear.”

“She’s a trained, skilled assassin. There’s no way she’s going to leave herself exposed.”

“You’ve got a week. That’s plenty of time.”

“Why me?”

“Because Cormac’s got a family to worry about, and Declan will run straight to Mom and Dad the second he finds out what’s going on. You’re the only person I trust.”

“Well, shit.”

“Yeah, I hear you.”

“I guess I might as well give it a try. She’ll probably cut my throat in a week either way.” He sighs and pushes himself up.

“I appreciate you, brother.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ll keep you updated.”

I watch Finn go. I hate myself for involving him, but I can’t do this alone. I’ll need some family resources, but Dad will notice if I’m devoting too much of my time to hunting down Molchanie.

Finn’s got more leeway in our family. He’s not assigned to anything specific and is free to float between tasks. And because he’s a Whelan, that gives him more clout. He can pull a few soldiers and reassign them as needed without too much issue.

But I can’t rely on him. I have to figure out who Molchanie is and why she cares about Alina. Once I know that, I might be able to find a way out of this situation.

The TV ison softly when I close the door to Alina’s apartment behind me. It’s a little past two in the morning, and I stayed at the bar for as long as I could.

Eventually, I had to come home.

Alina’s sitting on the couch. She’s in a crop top and a pair of flannel pants and looks absolutely perfect. She’s pretending like she doesn’t know I’m home. Her eyes are glued to somepaperback she’s got in her lap, which gives me a second to study her.

There are bags under her eyes. She looks stressed and unhappy. But she’s still so damn beautiful it breaks my heart.

“Are you sleeping in the guest room again?” she asks casually, not looking over.

“I planned on it.”