Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 40446 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 202(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40446 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 202(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
“Oh.” I slumped, allowing him to pull me close once more. This time, I let him kiss me. Mainly because I needed intimate contact with him. “Sorry. Thinking about that time in my life makes me feel weak and defenseless. No matter how many ways I was taught to kill and torture, I always felt powerless. FSB had complete control.”
Piston cupped my face in both of his hands. “Until you took back control. You left them.”
“And I’ve been in hiding ever since.”
“Hiding in plain sight isn’t an easy task. Considering how long you’ve lived in the States and not had someone from that agency kill you is a testament to how good you are at what you do.”
I had to smile. This man…
“I hadn’t thought about it that way.”
“Because you’re out of sorts. I threw you a curve ball and you’re adapting.”
“You?” That wasn’t what I was expecting him to say. “Why would you say that?”
He grinned softly at me. “You love me.”
“So?”
“Other than your sisters, how many people in this world will you admit to loving?”
I started to respond with how much I cared about people in my club, but I realized he was right. “It’s not that I don’t love anyone,” I muttered.
“Not at all. But I forced you to admit to yourself you didn’t just care about me, but you love me.”
“Arrogant man.” But I felt smile tugging at my lips.
“You love my arrogance.” He wasn’t wrong. “So, what’s your plan? How do you want to work this?”
I stared at him several seconds, my mind working through a few possible solutions. “I’m going to call him. If everything goes well, Victor will come to me. Then I’m going to kill him.”
Chapter Thirteen
Venus
“Why the fuck did no one think to call this bastard before now?” Ripper, the tech guy for Salvation’s Bane, grumbled as he rattled off Victor Zaitsev’s phone number. Though I hadn’t wanted to involve Giovanni out of spite, I was smart enough to know we’d need his help. He was at Bane. I knew Ripper would stand up to the man if he tried to take over. Other clubs’ tech people would too, but Ripper could be special kind of scary if he wanted to be.
“I never wanted to call him before now,” I said, waving off Ripper’s blunt and disgruntled question. I had to grin at expression on his face during video call. The man was always sour on the outside, but I saw the way he treated Emmanuell, his woman and daughters. Man was big softie. “Now I do.”
“Keep him talking as long as you can.” Giovanni moved into the camera view. “He has a secure phone, but me and Ripper together should be able to find his location, then hack into the security system. It’s not going to be a simple, straightforward job though, so keep the call active.”
Ripper snorted, rolling his eyes and giving the other man an impatient look. “It’ll be more than just me and you, scooter.” Apparently, Giovanni was getting on Ripper’s nerves as well. “Venus, every single person with technical and advanced computer skills in every one of our clubs is networked and working on this. I’ll let you know when we’ve got him pinned. When we’re done, we’ll have access to every fuckin’ thing the man owns connected to any kind of network. Including his ride.” Ripper’s grin was positively evil. “You get him in any kind of self-driving vehicle, and this whole thing just got way the fuck more simple.”
I raised my eyebrows at that. “Seriously?”
“Oh, yeah. I can lock him in and drive him anywhere you want him to go. All from the comfort of my gaming chair.”
“Assuming he has a self-driving vehicle,” Giovanni qualified.
Ripper gave Gio side-eye. “Because it’s questionable whether or not one of the richest men in Europe has a self-driving car, or that he’d prefer to drive himself when Venus baits him into meeting her?” I had to bite my lip to keep from smiling. Luckily, Giovanni was too busy blustering to notice.
“Bastard,” Gio muttered.
“All right.” Ripper sat up straighter and cracked his knuckles before starting to work. “I have a secure video conference with each club’s command center. Bones, Tzars, Bane, Grim, and Black Reign. We’re live.”
“Do we know where he is now?” I didn’t want to do this in Nashville. Giovanni was right that Bohannon didn’t have everything we needed for something like this yet.
“He’s in London, Kentucky. Likely on his way to forcibly remove Katya from Bones.” Millie had taken responsibility for our half-sister because Katya was more comfortable with her. After our father died and our mother married Victor, Millie had raised Katya practically on her own.
“I don’t want him anywhere near Katya,” I said immediately. “We need to meet away from Somerset. London is less than hour from Bones compound.”