“You fucking traitor,” I hiss. “I gave her to you to protect.”
Maksym eyes us both curiously, still holding Glen. He picks up his phone.
“I have her. East side, below the large white awning.”
He tucks his phone in his pocket.
I blink. Oh, God. Is he working with Amaranov? Does this go even deeper than I thought? I look at him curiously, but he remains impassive, like a big, burly brick wall.
Instead, I turn to Glen. “What did you do?” I ask.
“Tried to save your ass,” he says with a scowl.
“Mine?” I say. “The one thing I asked you to do was protect Calina.”
I start at the sound of a familiar voice behind me.
“Why don’t you clang some gongs and announce your presence? Shoot some flares, perhaps?” No. It can’t be. But then it dawns on me.
Maksym didn’t call Amaranov. He called Demyan, who was smart enough to know exactly where I would go.
I turn to him, my heart squeezing at the sight of him. My pulse races, my mouth dry. I love this man. Against all odds, against my better judgment, against all that is right and true and smart in this world, I love this man, and when I see him, I know then that this is all going to be alright. That together, we’re going to fix this. We have to.
But he hurt me. He broke me. I tremble when I look into his eyes.
“We don’t need your help,” I tell him coldly. He broke my heart and I won’t give him a second chance. “Go. We’ve got this. You don’t need to be here.”
He rolls his eyes, effectively dismissing me. “It’s time we find your sister,” Demyan says to me, his voice tight, before he looks to the house. He doesn’t touch me or even look at me, remaining detached and aloof.
But he came. And even though I’m pissed at him, the truth is, he came here to help me find Calina, and I’ll never forget that.
“They had her in his office,” Glen says with a sigh. “He wouldn’t want news of her death to leak to the media, so my guess is he had her brought to a guest room to be seen by a doctor before he covers this up.”
Glen points to a window to the right. “My guess would be there. The best way to gain access would be to enter the kitchen. This time of day it will likely be vacant.”
Glen knows this house because he lived here. I shake my head. There are too many questions and not enough answers.
Demyan takes Glen by the scruff of the neck and forces him to lead us toward the kitchen. He doesn’t trust him. He doesn’t trust anyone. I can’t say I blame him after all that’s happened.
I pick the lock while Demyan scowls at me, clearly not pleased with my skills. But I don’t look at him. As soon as the door swings free, we all pad noiselessly inside. Is it too late? Will Calina be okay? God, I’ve fucked this up so badly.
We go up a small flight of stairs and down a hall toward a room Glen points to. But when I round the corner, guards stand at attention on either side of the door. I pull back, my back flat against the wall, and look to Demyan and Maksym.
“What now?”
Demyan looks at the man guarding the door. “We could easily take them, but how much of a commotion would that cause?”
“We could try a means without force,” Maksym says. “Filip says Amaranov is in his office. Amaranov wants Calina. It’s all he really wants. If she offers herself to him and asks to be taken to her sister…”
“No fucking way,” Demyan growls. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Dem, I mean just to get an in. For Christ’s sake, listen. It could work.”
But Demyan shoots him such a withering, furious look, Maksym clamps his mouth shut and shrugs.
“Maksym has a point. Ambushing and brute force will end in bloodshed.” I shake my head. “We can’t do it that way.” I turn to Glen. “Where is the office?”
Demyan releases Glen and reaches for me, but it’s too late. Glen has already pointed down the hall to a doorway. Before anyone can stop me, I take off at a run.
The guard in the hallway shouts for me to stop, and there’s a commotion behind me, but I ignore it all. I yank open the office door, and breathe a sigh of relief when Amaranov himself, clad in a suit, a pen in hand with a pad of paper in front of him, sits at a desk. Behind him there’s an adjacent room that looks like a library.
He isn’t alone. My heart gives a great lurch when I see Calina laying on a couch in the library. She isn’t in the guest room at all. I slam and lock the door behind me, so Demyan and Maksym and Glen don’t fuck this up.