He peered down at her, arrogance like a shield. Arms crossed over his chest. “Not happening, Rhia. You might as well stop now. You’re leaving.” He bent to her level, those fire-lit eyes flaming with a challenge. “Or I can tie you up and hand-deliver you to your brothers personally. Either way works fine for me. I think your brothers would applaud me.”
“You know as well as I do Dimitris is only the face of who you are after. You need me. He’s going to want to work with you but you both will need my company in his eyes. I can provide that. Lure him in so you can take him and whoever he is working with down once and for all. I don’t need to tell you the whole cut one head off two grow back in its place analogy. I show up with you and we do this together.”
“Fuck me,” he roared into the office, rattling the windows. A snarl curled up the back of his throat.
Son of a bitch.
He was going to fight her on this. Okay. “I’m going to this auction, Sevastyan. I can walk in on your arm and with your protection as your fiancée. If this is to work you must respect me. I demand nothing less, Sevastyan Volkov. Nothing less you hear me? And besides, it would look suspicious if you left the wife-to-be at home when the invitation was extended to both of us.”
“Or,” he stated flatly, a tight grin on his face.
Her fingers clenched at the edge of her borrowed shirt. “Or do it like I did with Haven. Walk in on my own and let the lions at me. I’m sure Dimitris wouldn’t mind a closer partnership with someone that can take my father’s place for him, providing the same services. More.” She could fight dirty when she had to. She would do whatever it took to get in on the inside, but she was no fool. She couldn’t help all the women Maya spoke about on her own.
The corners of his lips tilted a bit when he realized he’d been outmaneuvered.
“You think you can convince me to do something neither of us wants.” He laughed a husky sound that had her insides quivering. He backed her up until the edge of a wooden desk pressed into her from behind.
He pressed so close his nose touched hers. “The justice I’m looking for doesn’t come with handcuffs, Rhia. I’m not walking in there to read him his rights. There’s a reason no one knows about us and why we’re dead men walking. You’re no longer in your cute little world where cops run around with handcuffs trying to do ‘what’s right’. You’re in mine and blood is the only currency we collect. When it’s owed it means your life. When it’s taken there’s a cost. There’s always a cost.”
The deep accent in his voice grew and served as a warning.
Something possessive and dark and oddly sheltering swirled inside her gut, pulling to the surface the need to love this man a little harder.
“I know.” As much as it scared her to say it, she understood what was about to happen and it would not leave her unscathed before she saw the next sunrise.
“And so be it.” Too many people were being killed and worse. She finally understood what Roman meant by death not being the scariest thing that could happen to someone.
She didn’t dare mention Indigo had ideas of wanting to do that very thing to her. He’d lock her inside a dungeon somewhere and never let her out all in order to keep her safe.
“Do you understand? Really?” Sevastyan kept his anger pointed in her direction. “These people know you and are waiting for you to walk into their trap. It doesn’t take a genius to know they want the daughter of the man who turned on them. Don’t entertain the idea of them wanting to work with you. That would be foolish. Sick doesn’t begin to cover what these people are and their twisted sense of humor at turning you into their shackled whore would be right up their alley. Your father hid this part of his life because he wanted to protect you, and you waltz into my club like a lamb.”
He took a deep breath.
“You placed yourself directly in front of them and waved a red fucking flag. Might as well have loaded the guns for them and pulled the trigger.”
She pushed off the desk and nailed his chest with a stiff finger.
The bleak smile on his face told her he believed every word he uttered.
Her brows nearly touched her hairline. “I came to the club looking for answers. I followed the trails of dead bodies, missing persons reports, and my father’s own drawing to you. If anything, you’re the one that should be scared that I could find you so easily. Me, nothing but a mere accountant with a penchant for research.”
He was standing toe to toe with her. “There’s nothing simple about you, and krasotka, I don’t scare. I fucking scare people.”
“Well, you don’t scare me.” Her voice climbed. “We’re not married and I don’t need you to save me. I will do this with or without you. Your choice, Sevastyan, and that goes for all of you.”
The broad expanse of his chest heaved with a heavy growl. “You do me. Every damn day you scare the shit out of me. How can I protect you if you don’t trust me to do that? To figure out how your father got tangled up in all of this nasty shit and set it all right?”
Her anger weakened. “Why do you think you need to save the world? I have a feeling we aren’t talking about tonight anymore, are we?”
He fumed with anger so hot she could basically see the steam coming off his head. She’d never seen him so mad but her words triggered something. His expression closed and his eyes became hollow.
Damn it. Tonight was not supposed to go like this. It was dead silent beyond the doors of the office, andshe knew the others could hear every word they said.
“Look, my father meant everything to me. He was a womanizer, gambler and liked to smoke too many cigars. But he was there for me when I needed him. And for my brothers. He made sure I knew I was loved. And for a girl, that’s like being a princess. I didn’t wear a tiara, but he might as well have put one on me the day my mother dropped me off in the rain with nothing but a backpack and not so much as a goodbye. She drove away with her new lover. I learned something that day about people and myself. I learned you protect those that care for you no matter what because there are not many in this world. And that I refused to be the type of person who turns my back on others. Might not be the wisest philosophy but it’s mine. Maya needed me last night and today, Lucian. He bled for me. You took a bullet for me. It might have been stupid to go off half-cocked—”
He huffed. “No might to it. You placed yourself in danger. Hell, the men, myself, we all wake up knowing it could be the last day we draw breath. But you went in thinking you would make it out wearing nothing but a flimsy blouse and skin-tight pants. Our guns and determination do not make us immortal to bullets, but you didn’t give a shit about the shells of men you would leave behind if something happened to you. We’ve already lost one person in our lives. I refuse to lose another.”
And there was the truth behind his stubbornness. “You did?”