“What is this case you’re working on?” Sailor inquired in a low voice.
“I can’t really say much about it,” I muttered. “But the Nikolaev men are supposed to help me. Or I’m helping them. I’m not even sure.”
“Vasili Nikolaev?” Willow and Sailor asked at the same time.
I nodded. “He’s like a business tycoon,” Sailor muttered.
“How do you know?” I asked dryly. “I never even heard of them until yesterday.”
“That’s because you obsess over finding the man who took your brother,” Willow answered. “I think he also has connections in the entertainment industry.”
These two knew me well. We have been inseparable since the first year of high school in Georgetown Day School. Though the entire world knew of Kingston’s disappearance, I never spoke about what happened. Willow and Sailor knew how desperately I wanted to find who took him and where he ended up, but I could never utter those words of admission.
I didn’t listen and led us right into the bad man’s clutches.
Silence stretched. Memories flooded. No words were necessary.
“Aurora.” A deep, accented voice had all three of us jumping in our seats. A tiny whimper escaped my mouth and my head snapped to the side to see Vasili Nikolaev standing at his full height, crowding our table, and he wasn’t even seated. “My apologies, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
I inhaled a deep breath, my eyes connecting for a fraction of a second with Sailor and Willow. Slowly exhaling, I let my heart find its normal pace before answering.
“Mr. Nikolaev,” I greeted him briefly. For some reason, I couldn’t call him by his first name, as he clearly called me by mine.
His eyes traveled over my girlfriends then returned to me. This man was perceptive and definitely not stupid. If he was stupid, he would have been behind bars a long time ago. The expression on Vasili’s face betrayed nothing and I prayed all three of our faces did the same.
But who was I fooling? The three of us were never a match for brutality.
Not when we were eighteen, and not now. Even with my job at the FBI as a profiler, I didn’t have a stomach for brutality. It was the reason I was fine with field work when it came to the predator. The predator never left a trail of blood, at least not anywhere that we could find it.
“Are you having a good visit?” His question was a perfectly normal one. Except there was nothing normal about the Nikolaev family.
“Yes.” I cleared my throat, meeting his gaze. I’d be a fool not to sense the danger lurking under that polished suit. “Yes, thank you.”
“My brother, Alexei, is looking forward to working with you.” Admittedly, it wasn’t exactly what I expected him to say. Especially considering how his brother acted around me.
I shifted uncomfortably, unsure how to reply to that comment. I couldn’t quite force pleasant words out of my mouth. He’d know if I was lying. Besides, working with criminals wasn’t exactly my forte.
“Have a nice dinner,” Vasili concluded icily, sending me further into a spiraling panic.
I forced a smile on my face and noted from my peripheral that Willow and Sailor did the same. Except they visibly paled.
“Thank you,” I mumbled as the man strode off, taking most of the oxygen with him. I had no idea where his brother Sasha was.
If I got out of this alive, it’d be a miracle.
ChapterSeven
ALEXEI
After Friday’s meeting in McGovan’s office, I ran into Agent Ashford in Emeril’s restaurant. As if she sensed me, her eyes darted around, but I was good at keeping to the shadows.
But she sensed me, and so did her brother.
And since then, I fought the need to stalk the young agent for twenty-four hours and failed. I blamed my brother for being a fucking idiot and approaching them in the restaurant. Sasha and I were closer in age than Vasili and I, but I swore Sasha acted like he was still twenty. Even in my twenties, I didn’t act idiotically like that guy.
My thoughts shifted back to Agent Ashford at the restaurant yesterday. The moment my sight latched onto her, my muscles tightened and my fist closed around the glass of cognac I was nursing. I knew she’d look good in a dress. No amount of bulletproof vests, jeans, nor combat boots could hide that.
But the way she looked…