Something more skeevy than I’d thought Jakob capable.
“They’re always willing,” he said, casting me a nervous glance when he realized what I’d started to consider.
“I don’t fucking care about your spying kink right now,” I growled. “I want to know who else was involved.”
“No one,” Sigrid hissed, snarling with her rage. “The pleasure of getting rid of your wife who forgot her place is mine alone.”
Something about her statement felt like the truth, but still… “How did you get her out of the building?”
“Faye’s cosmetic cart has wheels. All we had to do was get her stuffed into the bottom and off she went. Odina swore she could play the part of her sister and that she’d done it more times than she could count. How did you know? They looked identical to me,” Sigrid said, fishing for information. I had no doubt that she suspected Odina had turned on her, given the information required for me to know about the switch. She never could have understood that I’d have recognized Isa anywhere.
Because she was the other half of my soul. It would have been impossible not to miss that in the eyes staring back at me.
I nodded, turning back to glance at Henrik as he stepped into the room. His eyes swept over the scene in front of him: his mother on her knees in front of me with his father staring down at her nervously. Jakob had to know what would come next, and still he didn’t speak to defend the choice his wife had made.
“What the fuck?” Henrik asked, stepping into the room. He hurried to his mother’s side, laying a supportive hand on top of her shoulder. She didn’t meet his eye as he stared down at her, as if the condemnation she would find in her only son’s eyes would be too much for her to bear.
“Make sure the plane is ready, and have Gabriel track her location,” I barked back at Joaquin. He disappeared from the room, hurrying to ensure we would be able to follow Isa to Moscow as soon as possible.
“How much of a head start do they have?” I asked, watching as confusion laced Henrik’s face when he met my glare.
“Three hours or so,” Sigrid answered, fiddling with her hands in her lap.
“Who?” Henrik asked.
“Your mother conspired with Pavel Kuznetsov to abduct my wife,” I said, leveling the younger Tessin with a look and studying his reaction.
His confusion gave way to shock, his chest sinking as he furrowed his brow and studied his mother in horror. “She’s pregnant,” he said, shaking his head from side to side and taking a step away from her. “How could you do something like that?”
She didn’t answer, keeping her head bowed and refusing to meet her son’s probing stare. I touched my gun to her forehead, lifting her head until her final moments were filled with everything she didn’t want to see.
Filled with her son’s hatred.
The trigger felt firm against my pointer finger when I placed it there, finding an odd sort of calm in the midst of the cold fury that wracked every bone in my body. I wanted her to suffer, but I couldn’t leave enough men behind to guard both her and Odina.
I’d need them to get my wife back.
I met Henrik’s gaze as he looked up from watching my finger tighten, the pressure of the trigger meeting my digit as the final resistance before the woman who had raised him would no longer exist. He winced, clenching his eyes closed before backing away from her and retreating to the back of the room where he wouldn’t be touched by the bloodshed.
In our world, there would be no forgiveness. In our world, all that separated us from the people we stood against was the fact that we didnottraffic women. We didn’t sell them or give them away when they became an inconvenience.
We didn’t have many lines, but she’d broken every last one that we did have.
I pulled the trigger, watching as her blood stained her husband’s chest and the rest of the women winced at the show of violence. Their husbands may not be pleased that they’d been exposed to my brutality.
They’d see worse by the end of the day if I discovered any more rats in the house. “Go kiss your husbands goodbye. They’re coming with me to Russia.”
“If they don’t?” Aaron asked as the armed guards I’d brought with us filled the hallway outside the room.
“Then they aren’t loyal. I’ll expect them ready or dead within the hour,” I said, shoving my gun back into my holster. “Will you be joining me?” I asked Henrik. He nodded, proving his loyalty.
His mother lay on the floor, her body still warm. Still, he would push through the grief and guilt on his face to make amends for her crime against me.
He’d save my wife and unborn child.