Page 141 of Ivory Oath

I realize a second too late that the call is ending. “Be careful!” But the screen is already black.

“He’ll be careful,” Anatoly assures me. “Mikhail and Raoul know what they’re doing.”

“You aren’t worried about them?”

I study Anatoly and he may not be worried, per se, but he’s antsy to fight alongside his brothers. He’s been the designated babysitter for weeks. He has a lot of pent-up energy and nowhere to put it.

“It could be a trap.” I don’t want to give voice to all of my darkest thoughts, but I have to. “They could be bombarded as soon as they get there. Dante might already be—” My throat closes.

I can’t say it. I can't even think it.

Dante is okay. Mikhail will save him.

Anatoly pockets his phone. “Of course I’m worried. But I trust them. You should, too.”

“I trust them, but I—I can’t go back to that mansion and sit and wait for them, Nat. I have to do something. Don’t you want to be there to help? Aren’t you tired of sitting around and doing nothing?”

His jaw works side to side and I realize too late what I said.

“I didn’t mean?—”

“The only thing that will happen if we show up at that mall tonight is Mikhail will be pissed and distracted. He’ll go in to find Dante, but his head will be outside with you.”

“He can forget about me long enough to save our son!”

But I hear Mikhail’s whispered confession in my ear. If I could turn it off, I would.

Anatoly ignores me. “I’m going to do the best thing I can do. I'm going to take you home and make sure he doesn’t have to worry about where you are tonight.”

I chew on my lower lip. “I’m sorry, Anatoly. You do a lot for him—for me. I didn’t mean it.”

He sighs and then wraps a heavy arm around my shoulders, shaking me gently. “I know. You get worked up and think with your lizard brain. Lucky for you, I’m here to keep a close eye on you.”

I bump his hip and shove him away. “You’re an asshole.”

He smiles, but in the next second, it wilts. There’s nothing to smile about tonight.

We go back to the house and do the only thing we can do: wait.

58

MIKHAIL

The mall is a dark smudge against the cloudy sky. Cracked asphalt stretches out in every direction. Weeds and scraggly blades of grass have pushed their way through, but in every other way, the place is a hulking, desolate wasteland.

And my son is inside.

The manager at the club told us as much as he knew—Christos was planning something big. All the security cameras at Greek-owned clubs around town had been turned off in case Christos needed to use them as a stash point.

He didn't want evidence tying Dante to any of his business. But if the plan went off without a hitch, he wouldn’t need them.

“He owns some big piece of property outside the city,” the manager said.

I knew what he was talking about immediately. Christos invested in the mall in the late 1980s. When it closed for good a few years ago, he didn't bother selling it. The retail side of things never made him much money anyway. He gets much more use out of it now that it's abandoned and forgotten and doesn’t draw any unwanted eyes.

“Do you think she’ll stay away?” Raoul stands next to me, assessing the bland exterior of the building.

“If Anatoly knows what’s good for himself, then yes.” After the clinic fiasco, I don’t think Anatoly would risk taking Viviana anywhere against my wishes again.

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