Page 19 of Deceptive Vows (Bound by Vows #3)

Chapter Seventeen

NAZAR

We didn’t reach the office door before I texted Pasha that I’d call him when I got to the car. If he was in a meeting, it’d give him a chance to excuse himself so we could talk. The moment I slid into the driver’s seat, I hit his number and put the phone to my ear.

“Thea’s in the car, but you’re not on speaker.”

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“The Gray Wolves are in Chicago.”

Pasha swore under his breath. “Did you see one?”

“ Nyet .” I started the car. “One of Kalantzis’s guys spotted a guy with a Wolf tattoo in the warehouse district. Near our theater deal.” I paused. “Marco.”

Pasha’s string of curses was impressive, even by Krysha’s standards. I heard him bark at someone in the background before switching to Russian. “I suspected as much. This explains why I was called back to New York so urgently.”

I shifted to our native tongue, my jaw tightening as I navigated traffic. “The timing is too perfect. Rico’s warehouse warning... my contract that prevents me from leaving Chicago...”

Each piece clicked into place, a trap we’d walked right into.

“Da.” His voice hardened. “We’ve been played.”

Bozhe moi. If not for Thea, I would already be at Marco’s estate, my knife making him confess every sin before he died.

But more than him, I blamed myself. I prided myself on thoroughness.

Researched him for weeks, and still—blind as a newborn pup.

Nyet , worse. The failure sat in my chest like a stone.

Marco was much smarter than I’d given him credit for.

I turned into the penthouse parking garage, the abrupt transition from daylight to dim fluorescent making my eyes narrow. The concrete amplified the car’s engine to a rumble that bounced off the low ceiling.

“I’ll set up a team first.” I pulled into my spot with a squeal of tires on polished concrete. I cut the engine, the sudden silence heavy between us. “We think the Wolves might have the women. We’re going to check out the warehouse district tonight and see if we can find them before the auction.”

“Nazar, this reeks of ? —”

“—a setup. South warehouse, now a Wolf sighting...” I finished his thought. “Divide and conquer. Classic.” The implications settled like ice in my stomach. If Marco was working with the Wolves, the auction, the theater—all of it was compromised. “I’m going hunting tonight.”

“All right.”

“And I don’t want you anywhere near those warehouses. Let the men take care of it.”

“Nazar.”

That tone—the one that reminded me of our boundaries. But some lines were worth crossing.

“Pasha.” I matched his firmness. “Our fathers’ ghosts would never let me rest.” A reminder that I was responsible for his safety, just as my father had been for his father. “Stay at the house. ”

Pasha sighed. “Fine. I’ll stay home.”

“Good,” I said. “Are you at the house now? Is Lara there?”

“Da.”

“I’m putting the building on lockdown.”

“Nyet.”

“For tonight, Pasha. If they’re hitting the warehouses, what’s to say they won’t hit the house at the same time? Just stay in tonight. One night. That’s all I’m asking.”

He groaned, and a few moments of silence passed. “Okay. Lock it down.” Exhaustion strained in his voice. This war with the Gray Wolves was taking its toll on all of Krysha, but most of all him.

We’d lost family and friends to them, and we’d fight until our last breath to get justice.

“Nazar, be careful tonight, my friend.”

“I will be.”

Pasha ended the call, and I rubbed my face with my hands, mentally cataloging who to position where for tonight’s operation at the warehouse and security for Pasha.

Thea shifted in her seat, angling herself toward me. “I may not have understood the conversation, but it sounded intense. Is everything okay?”

I dropped my head back against the headrest. “ Da . Or it will be.” Rolling my head, I looked at her. “I’m sorry?—”

She lifted a hand and smiled. “It’s okay. I understand.”

“ Tyomnyy angel …” Amid all this chaos and deception, she was the one bright light. “Thank you.”

“Are you still going to the warehouse district with me to look for the women tonight?” She crossed her arms over her chest. “If you can’t, that’s okay. Pasha is your Pakhan, so I’ll understand if you can’t.”

A smile broke out on my lips despite the tension building in my shoulders. “ Da , but with this new information about the Gray Wolves, we need to prepare a little better. They’ll likely be expecting us.”

“So you think it’s a trap?”

Straightening, I nodded. “They lured Pasha to New York.”

Her mouth parted in a gasp. “Do you need to leave?”

“ Nyet . I’ll be staying. My gaze swept the garage—habit, checking for threats before we exited the car .

Thea dropped her hands to her lap. “We need to regroup. If they’re expecting us, we need a better plan.”

“I think so too, but we’ll need to be careful about it. We can video in your brothers. If one of Marco’s guys or the Gray Wolves see us meeting up, they might suspect we’ve figured it out.”

“A double, double, double cross?” With a sigh, her gaze dipped to the armrest as her hand came to her forehead.

I lifted her chin with one of my fingers. “We will find the women.”

Her fingers wrapped around my wrist. “Let’s get inside and get working on a plan.”

“ Da .”

My chest tightened as I watched her gather her things.

She moved with purpose, unafraid of what lay ahead.

This woman... I wanted her beside me for decades.

And yet tonight, I was going into battle with her.

If something happened to her— nyet . I pushed the thought away.

Tonight, I would be the shield between her and danger, no matter the cost.

The warehouse district sprawled like a bruise on Chicago’s west side—rusted metal and broken concrete hugging the river’s edge.

Night had swallowed the street, turning every shadow into a threat.

I killed the SUV’s headlights a block out, letting the engine’s low growl fade as we coasted to a stop behind a crumbling loading dock.

As soon as I opened the door, the air hit me—oil and stagnant water, undercut with the metallic tang of rusting machinery.

It cut through the leather of my jacket and settled in my lungs.

In the distance, a cargo ship’s horn bellowed, while closer, rats scurried through debris.

Even the bitter November wind couldn’t clean this place.

Thea slipped from the passenger seat, a shadow among shadows. The faint streetlight caught the edge of her profile—jaw set, eyes alert. All business in that black tactical gear. I’d seen trained killers move with less precision than she did, crossing that broken pavement.

I forced my attention to the warehouse ahead. Not the time. Not the place. But I couldn’t stop myself from training my gaze on her again.

“Lex and I will flank west,” her brother Dimitris said, his voice low and clipped as he and her other two brothers emerged from the second car behind us. “We’ll take the east side. Eyes sharp, no heroics.”

Lex nodded, his lips a tight line, while Dimitris crushed a cigarette under his boot with a muttered curse.

The guy was a walking ashtray, but I’d seen his type in Krysha—steady hands when it mattered.

They peeled off without a word, disappearing into the maze of shipping containers and skeletal cranes.

I adjusted the suppressor on my Makarov, the weight of it grounding me as I fell into step beside Thea. “I’m not one to back down from a fight, but something isn’t right.”

She turned, close enough that I caught the scent of her—gunmetal and something faintly sweet. Her eyes locked with mine, challenging. “Yeah, I’ve got the same feeling, but if we can save those women from living one more night in a nightmare, it’s worth the risk.”

The words hung between us, and I nodded before I’d even processed the recklessness of what we were doing.

My man was still chasing Marco’s client list—names that’d tell us who’d pay for flesh at that auction—but it was slow going.

Marco was a snake, coiling tighter every day, and I’d bet my left hand he’d picked this timing to keep us scrambling.

The fire had been a warning shot, and now we were willingly walking into a trap. “I know. Just… stay alert.”

“I will,” she snapped, slipping around a stack of rusted barrels. “Move.”

I swallowed a growl and followed, keeping low as we hugged the shadows.

The warehouse loomed ahead, a hulking beast of corrugated steel with boarded windows and a sagging roof.

Two floodlights buzzed above a side door, casting jagged pools of yellow across the cracked asphalt.

A single guard leaned against the wall, his silhouette bulky with muscle and boredom, a rifle slung loose over his shoulder.

Amateur. Krysha would’ve had him gutted for standing that exposed.

He didn’t carry himself like a typical Wolf.

This man was sloppy and undisciplined. I glanced at Thea and found her already reading my thoughts with a slight nod.

The silent communication sent an unexpected wave of satisfaction through me.

It was dangerous, how quickly we’d learned to read each other.

Thea crouched behind a rotting pallet, her breath a faint cloud in the cold. “One guy. Too easy.”

“Or too dumb,” I murmured, scanning the perimeter. No cameras, no second patrol, just the river lapping at the pilings fifty yards back, its oily sheen reflecting the moon. “Cover me.”

Before she could argue, I slipped forward, silently, the suppressor’s barrel glinting faintly as I closed the distance.

The guard didn’t even twitch until I was on him—my arm snaked around his throat, cutting off his air before he could yelp.

He thrashed, boots scraping the pavement, but I tightened the hold until his body went slack.

If we managed to get the upper hand tonight, maybe I could get him to talk later.