Page 95 of Darkest Desire

“Denis,” I explain. “He’ll want his niece kept safe. She’s the only reason I have an alliance with him. Without Sasha…”

Mikhail shakes his head. “You’re not a very loyal man, are you?”

“To my wife I am. To everyone else?” I shrug. “I do what I need to do. Now, let me know if you find anything about Liam and our wives and I’ll do the same.”

“You’ll really call me if you know where Natalya is? You’re not just going to kill her when you find her?”

“For fuck’s sake, Mikhail. I’m not going to kill your wife. Ok? My own wife would be pissed at me forever if I did. Get over yourself. I’ll call you with any news.” I storm to my car and drive away before Mikhail can bitch and whine some more.

Denis’s guards let me into his house without me even having to knock.

“Nico,” he greets, giving me a pat on the back. Oh, so now he wants to play nice after he came to Rome to confront me about my deal with Giovanni? I don’t buy it. The fucker is pissed and just pretending to be happy to see me.

“Denis. I have a situation. I think Sasha has been taken by the Irish. I need to get her back. With her being your niece and our alliance, I figured you would want to help. See this as a gesture of good will after Italy. What do you say?”

“No.”

I blink. It takes me a second to understand what he just said. “No?”

“No. I have no desire to help you. You tried to push me out of our alliance, Nico. You think I’m just going to roll over and take it? You can keep Sasha for all I care. She was always a problem for me. I have two other nieces I can use to make alliances with people I actually trust.”

“She’s in danger. And she’s the only reason we have an alliance. Do you really want me on your bad side, Denis?”

He hesitates. We both know I’m not someone you want as an enemy.

“Work with me to get Sasha back,” I encourage.

“If the Irish do have her, I don’t want to be on their bad side. I’m not sure if you recall, but I tried to make a deal with Cillian Kennedy before you killed him. I want the Irish to be my friends.”

“They stole your niece.”

“So you claim. But I’ve learned that I can’t exactly trust your word, now can I?”

I huff, running a hand down my face. “I can’t fucking believe you. Your own niece is in danger and you won’t help her.”

“She’s yours now. Not mine. And as for my other niece, Natalya, she chose the enemy when she married Mikhail. I’m going to keep the nieces I have left under my control. Have a nice day, Nico. But you should leave now.”

“I could come back in here and steal your other nieces out from under you. Marry them to allies of my own and you’ll lose all of your power.”

Denis sneers. “You can try. Now leave.”

With a huff, I quickly walk out of his house. Since Sasha needs me, I can’t get into a fight with Denis when that’s all I want.

Ironically, the only person I can rely on to help me with this is Mikhail, my fucking enemy. He has a stake in this too. Talk about bad karma. Working with the man who shot me in the back to save my wife because he’s all I have right now.

Chapter Seventeen

Sasha

Natalya and I come up with a plan to escape. It’s a stupid, risky plan but we don’t have any other ideas.

When the men eventually come back down, we plan on hiding so we can ambush them, steal their guns, shoot them, and escape. Natalya and I both know how to fire a gun since our mom taught us. She made sure to take us to the shooting range after we turned eighteen. Irina and Ana don’t know how to shoot a gun yet and now with Denis’s control over them, may never learn.

“Are we going to get ourselves killed?” I ask as we hide on either side of the door so when its opened, no one will be able to see us right away.

“I hope not. But we can’t wait around and find out what Liam O’Connor wants with us. We need to fight.”

“Nico will be looking for me. He’ll come save me.”