“You said she wasn’t in here!” Vanko roared, the gun moving right for Kairo’s face.
Isidore’s heart tripped over itself in his chest. He didn’t like that weapon so close to Kairo. The smallest little twitch could leave Kairo dead. He began to rise to intercept Vanko for Kairo, but Athena’s hands grabbed his arm and held him tightly. Something inside of him screamed,Protect Athena. Protect Kairo.But he couldn’t do both.
However, Kairo was more than capable enough of protecting himself. In a flash of movement, Kairo grabbed Vanko’s hand with both of his, twisted his body, and then twisted back with Vanko’s gun now in Kairo’s hand and pointed at the kidnapper’s face. The bodyguards started to move, but Kairo was faster, punching one in the nose and kicking the other in the balls, sending him moaning to his knees.
“Enough! I have fucking had enough!” Kairo shouted. “I’ve been drugged and dragged across the globe. Told I’ve got to do this job, and nobody’s talking to me about getting paid for this bullshit. You screaming at him about losing your leverage.” He turned his angry glare on Athena and Isidore, shocking Isidore by waving the gun at his sister. “And that one over there is climbing in windows.” Kairo turned his attention to Vanko, whose mouth was hanging open like a landed fish. He got in the man’s face as he demanded, “Is this your first fucking kidnapping?”
“What? I-I—”
“If this is your first kidnapping, I want the fuck out. I’m not dealing with goddamn amateurs,” Kairo snarled. He paced the short distance to the other side of the room with the gun still in his hand. When he turned back to find the man who was holding his bleeding nose had recovered enough to point his gun at Kairo.
Kairo stopped and glared at the man. “You speak English? You point that gun at me one more time, I’m gonna feed it to you and then shove each bullet into your body by hand. You get me?”
The goon’s wide eyes darted from Kairo to Vanko, as if he wasn’t sure what to do or think. Isidore tensed, barely able to drag air into his lungs. Kairo might have a gun, but he was still outnumbered. He wanted to help him, but right now it seemed like the best thing he could do was to stay out of his way.
As it was, his entire body was frozen, eyes locked on the stunning man moving around the room like an angry tiger in a cage. If any of them dared to move, they could be the tiger’s next target. He was beautiful. Even in his rumpled clothes, with dark circles under his eyes, Isidore couldn’t remember ever seeing anyone who looked so impressive.
Vanko slowly shook his head at his man. The bloody-nosed man lowered the gun to his side but didn’t put it away.
“All right. Common sense time. We weren’t hiding her. You watched as they searched the room. Is there anywhere we could have fucking hidden her?” Kairo ranted, waving his hands to indicate the entire room. “No. She climbed out of her damn window and into ours, because she wanted to see her brother. Send one of your men to nail her window shut.”
“What if there’s a fire? How will I get out?” Athena immediately cried.
Kairo spun around, his expression cold enough to send a chill through Isidore. Even though he trusted this man, he couldn’t stop himself from pulling Athena behind him a little more. “Don’t start a fucking fire, and you won’t have to worry about that!”
“But…” Athena mumbled softly. It didn’t matter. Kairo had turned away.
Athena squeezed his hand and Isidore met her questioning, worried gaze. He knew what she was demanding without saying a word. Could they really trust Kairo? Was he going to betray them?
Isidore smiled warmly at his sister and brushed a kiss to her forehead. This was scary, but he trusted Kairo completely. He wasn’t going to betray them. He was probably just trying to win Vanko’s trust or show that he was one of them, not one of the victims to be pushed about. It was going to be fine.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t scared. Only that he trusted Kairo to lead the way through this danger and madness.
When he looked at the scene unfolding in front of them, he saw Vanko ordering one of his men to take care of Athena’s window. Kairo then glared at his sister.
“You gonna behave yourself? You behave, you get to see your brother. That’s how this shit works,” Kairo barked.
Athena nodded, her fingers digging into Isidore’s arm.
“Good. Now go.” Kairo waved for her to head to the door.
Athena wrapped her arms around Isidore’s neck one final time in an almost bruising hug before scurrying through the angry men.
As soon as she was out of the room, Kairo took the gun he was holding by the muzzle and pressed it against Vanko’s chest, giving it to him. “Here. We’ll talk later about how we’re going to unfuck this mess and what my fee is. But breakfast first. And sleep. It’s too damn early for this shit.”
With more audacity than Isidore thought one person could have, Kairo strolled over to his bed, flopped down, and dropped his arm over his eyes to block out the sun. Isidore held his breath, waiting to see what Vanko would do. His kidnapper stared at Kairo for a second before a low chuckle escaped him. With a single shake of his head, he barked at the guy with the bruised balls to get up.
They left, closing the door behind him.
Isidore still didn’t move, listening to the footsteps of the kidnappers moving farther and farther away from them. Only when he was sure no one was close to their door did he get out of the bed, but then it was only to fall to his knees beside Kairo’s bed.
The other man lifted his arm from his eyes and flashed him the most wicked smirk. God, he wanted to kiss that smirk. He wanted to kiss him for such a brilliant performance. He wanted to kiss him in gratitude.
Just maybe he wanted to kiss him because he was beautiful.
“Impressed?” Kairo whispered.
“Very,” Isidore answered with a giggle. “You were amazing. Stunning!” It was the truth. Kairo had so distracted and confused Vanko that the kidnapper couldn’t possibly take his rage and frustration out on Athena or him. What’s more, there was a good chance now that Vanko thought he had an ally in Kairo.