Page 82 of Bride of Vengeance

I leave without answering, but inside I'm seething. Using Anya as bait is cruel, even for Harrison.

The elevator ride down feels even longer than the ride up. When I finally exit the building, I walk three blocks before Boris pulls up in a black sedan. Once again, Mila and the rest make sure I'm impossible to keep an eye on, and Harrison knows better than to send someone to trail me right away.

I slide into the backseat where Mikhail is waiting. The second the door closes, he pulls me against him.

"You did perfectly," he murmurs against my hair.

"He bought it?"

"Completely. Mila has everything recorded. Harrison just implicated himself in a conspiracy to entrap a federal agent."

"It's not enough. We need more."

"We'll get it. Thursday night at the warehouse."

I pull back to look at him. "It's a trap."

"Of course it is. But Harrison doesn't know we know that." His thumb brushes my cheekbone. "You were magnificent. The desperation, the doubt—he believed every word."

"And Harrison doesn't know about the baby, we confirm it."

"Good. Let's keep it that way."

Boris speaks from the driver's seat: "Alexei wants an update."

"Tell him Phase One is complete," Mikhail says. "Harrison believes he's turned Mariana. Thursday night, we move to Phase Two."

I lean against him, exhausted from the performance. "Do you think he really has information about Anya?"

"No. But he knows I'll come anyway, just in case."

I close my eyes. "God, I hate this. Pretending to betray you, even as an act."

"It's necessary."

"Doesn't make it easier."

He kisses my temple. "Two more days. Then we spring the trap, get Harrison's full confession, and end this."

"And if he's suspicious? If he figures out we're playing him?"

"Then we adapt. We know how to do it and survive. Don't forget that these bastards have spent their entire professional lives behind a desk, making calls and pulling strings while others do the dirty work for them. We're the ones who go out there, the ones who take action, the ones who do things for ourselves. We protect our family with our own hands."

Our family.Such a small phrase for such a huge concept.

But as we drive through the city, I can't shake the feeling that Harrison's smarter than we're giving him credit for. That maybe, just maybe, he's playing us as much as we're playing him.

Thursday night will tell.

Chapter seventeen

Deeper Into Darkness

Mikhail

She's been different since the meeting with Harrison. Quieter. Even though this is necessary and she asked to do it, I know this is eating at her.

"You're staring again," Mariana says from the couch, not looking up from the files she's studying.