Page 220 of Dance of Defiance

I stare at him, and even though part of me wants to scream at him that whatever he feels about who and what I am, I am still hischild—I don’t.

I don’t bother.

Because it’s hearing his intensions spoken out loud that make one thing crystal clear to me: I don’t have a father anymore, and Pavel Nikitin no longer has a son.

“Pavel, this is madness!!” Stepan roars. His eyes dart to me, filled with terror.

Gunner just chuckles, shaking his head as he crosses the room. “Making a cup of tea,” he grunts over his shoulder. “Any of you?”

“Ja, boss. I’ll take one,” the guy setting up the bomb mutters.

“Hey—wreckage.”

I twist my head, my pulse thudding in my ears as I stare into Val’s eyes.

“Sorry about the shitty date,” he smiles sadly. “I swear, I had better plans for the end of it.”

“Val—”

“Don’t,” he says. “Just know that I’ve never loved anyone like I love?—”

An anguished sound rips from my throat as one of Gunner’s men slaps a strip of duct tape over Val’s mouth.

My heart races as my eyes sweep the room. When my gaze lands on the man setting up the bomb on the café table across the room, I go still.

My eyes zero in on the box with the digital display that he pulls out of the duffel bag and starts wiring into the control board of the bomb.

A little rubber neon orange box, with Chinese lettering on the side of it.

Exactlylike the one Vaughn showed me from the safe house bombing.

Suddenly, the pieces fall horribly into place.

“It was you,” I growl, staring at the man. He lifts his gaze from what he’s doing, frowning at me.

“The fuck did you say?”

“It wasyou,” I snarl, nodding at the timer in his hand that isidenticalto the one Vaughn said is incredibly rare to see used outside of the Chinese military.

The man’s eyes narrow.

“What are the odds,” I mutter, “that military tech that’s barely ever seen outside China gets used twice in the span of weeks, in the same American city.”

Stepan's jaw tightens before he walks over to me. “What are you saying.”

“That timer,” I growl, dipping my chin at the orange device. “It’s the same type used at the safe house.”

He scowls. “You have proof?—”

“Yes,” I hiss. “It's sitting on my desk at home.”

Fire ignites in Stepan’s eyes. His back to Gunner's goons, he slides his hand into his jacket pocket and starts to pull out his gun.

“My okruzheny vragami i predatelyami!” he barks, looking at the Nikitin men.

We are surrounded by enemies and traitors.

It all happens in the blink of an eye.