Page 85 of Hiding Desire

“But torture is so messy and slow,” Viktor mused.

His accent was much less pronounced than his father’s.

I rubbed at my torn wrists and flexed my hand as pain lanced down from my shoulder. As soon as I staggered to my feet, I grabbed Amy. She fell against me, crying. I cradled her hands, making sure she kept hold of the grenades.

“Do we need to be on shite watch until you pass those pins? Or did you not swallow them?” I asked her.

“No.” She hiccupped. “They are behind the crate outside.”

“Might as well use them to start the fire.” Viktor mused.

“Of course, you wouldn’t have a problem with arson on my property,” I said.

“Naturally,” he replied, smirking.

“What is going on?” Rada’s voice shook as she glared at Viktor from Loch’s arms.

“There is a change in Stefanov’s leadership,” I said.

“Why are you aligning yourself with them? Fucking traffickers.” She glared first at me, then at Loch.

“Viktor plans to clean up his organisation. He hates trafficking and is shutting it down. Our organisations will work together just as we planned originally.”

We both knew alliances were more lucrative than war.

“We’ve been working to our mutual benefit for months. But we needed to flush out the traitors. Viktor’s brother made a deal with Declan for a different alliance,” I said.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she rounded on Loch.

Someone was in trouble. He began frantically trying to explain to her in a low voice.

“No, Loch. We could work with him to find my sister!”

“We will. I only just found all this out!” Loch sent me an angry look.

“If he closes down the trafficking, we might never find her,” she sobbed.

Viktor was studying the exchange with a curious expression.

“Did you know he was my father?” Amy’s tear-stained face suddenly held the same accusation.

I could have lied and told her I didn’t believe she was Boyan’s daughter.

“I suspected it.”

The hurt behind her eyes cut into me deeper than the press of Cian’s finger into my gunshot wound.

“I guess that makes you my half-sister,” Viktor said. “Pass me those.” He carefully took the grenades from Amy, and I pulled her into my arms.

My heart sank as I realised how stiff she was.

“Let’s go. You can throw them in from the rear door,” I said, heading for the fire exit.

Viktor jogged along with us. “Run,” he barked as we reached the door.

We flung ourselves into the field behind the warehouse at a dead run. A distant clanging and feet pounding behind me told me Viktor had chucked the grenades and was running, too.

The explosion burst into the night, and a wave of momentum threw us forward. I landed on top of Amy, who screamed. Loch rolled forward, clutching Rada. I turned back to see the colossal fireball engulfing the warehouse. I scrambled off Amy, checking her for injuries, but she just huddled in on herself.

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