They murdered infant babies simply because they were female?
The bite in her voice became even more pronounced, worrying Gedeon even further. He was out of the open meadow and heading back to his vehicle. He’d told her of the practice. She knew that in some remote villages in other countries in modern times the practice still held true. Male children were prized, for whatever reasons. Females were always less than . . .
His woman could get riled. She did have a temper. It took a lot to get her there, but when she went off, she went nuclear. They needed her calm, able to move freely around and know exactly where she was going. The palace was a labyrinth of secret passages, apartments, and secret entrances and exits. It was not simply the front rooms they presented to visitors. It was a mini city. In one night, they would need to navigate that city without being caught. They had the added burden of finding Cosette and bringing her out with them.
Getting worried, baby. This is a difficult one. You have to keep your head in the game.
There was a short silence, and then she flowed into his mind. Meiling. The way she did. Filling him. Her strength. Delicate, but so fucking strong. She’d taught him that women could be like that. Gentle, able to bend when the wind came at them with the force of a hurricane, but they didn’t break. They were that strong. She was that strong. Meiling would stand with him no matter the cost to her. Together they wouldn’t allow these men to continue their reign of terror.
My head is totally in this game, Gedeon. I would never risk your life by losing sight of what’s important. I’ll be in that room with you to back you up. I’m being cognizant of the time. After, I can do more exploring. The kitchens are hotbeds of gossip. There are three kitchens.
It occurred to me that if each of the five has his own home within the palace, Cosette would most likely have been taken by one of the Russian lairs. The men looking for her were made up of Russians from the Amurov lairs. They were bratya. Shifters. If you come across any of the three lairs, those are the ones I would check first.
You’re right, Gedeon. I was looking at the palace as a whole and making it into a grid pattern in my mind to section it. We would have been here for months looking for her.
He would have taken one of the mighty Dragon Justices prisoner and tortured him to get the information, but he wasn’t going to admit that to her. She probably read that shit in his mind, but if she did, she wouldn’t condemn him for it. She never did, not even when he expected her to.
Gedeon returned to his vehicle and boldly drove right up the road toward the gates.
Making my way up their drive now. Half their army is on me. If I were an ordinary man, I might be intimidated.
I’m so thankful you’re anything but ordinary.
He drove the Jeep right up to the fence. Up close it was even more impressive than in all the photographs they had of it. For one thing, the iron was far thicker than it appeared in pictures. There were barbs, metal hooks, woven into the anchors, so if anyone dared to try to climb the fence, those barbs would tear into their flesh and eventually hold them in place. It was a wicked but very effective way to prevent an army from getting to those inside the palace.
Gedeon, after close inspection, was brought up the wide marble steps—steps he thought ostentatious and useless when trying to escape or fight in winter or during a rainstorm; they would be as slick as hell. Marble might show off wealth, but it was a mistake if one wanted to be certain they could fight off an army. The five Dragon Justices counted on the fence to keep out their enemies.
He entered through the highly decorated double doors. Thick with gold inlay. Real gold. The enormous wings of a dragon made up the two doors while the body and head were carved in the center. When the doors were opened simultaneously, the dragon appeared to move. Gedeon thought the artwork was incredible, breathtaking. Reds and blacks made up the dragon, but the scales were all gold. He would have liked to take his time studying it. Rene would have loved it. Rene was a huge fan of art.
He was ushered into a very large room meant to impress visitors. The ceilings were high. The walls shimmered with ivory. A long table of black enamel was surrounded by high-backed chairs all edged in gold. The chess set Meiling had told him about dominated the center of the room, with two ornate chairs on either side of the playing board. The chairs represented the chess pieces, one a red dragon, the other a black dragon.