Page 116 of Forged By Sacrifice

Realization started to hit me. This wasn’t really about Georgie, or Raisa, or even Malik. This was about her stepdad. “They want Petya.”

She nodded. “I’m sure they do. But I don’t know anything that they could use. I’m not sure what Raisa knows. I’m sure Malik knows more than his share because Petya has been grooming him for a while, but now, with the drugs… He’s going to be so pissed.”

“Like pissed enough to kill his own son?”

“No…” Georgie said, but I could see the doubt in her eyes. “I don’t think so.”

I’d been saying all along that her family didn’t matter. That it wasn’t a big deal, but her words settled on me like gravity hitting you after you’d been on the moon. Her stepdad was a Russian oligarch dealing in who knew what. If not drugs, probably guns. Maybe other things. There might never be a happy ending to this…to us. And the thought of that tore at me.

I rubbed my hands over my face, trying to hold myself together.

“I’m so sorry,” she said quietly, her voice full of anguish. Pain that echoed across my own like a shot in an empty garage. “I’m sorry you’re angry and disappointed and…”

She trailed off. I pulled her to me. She rested her head on my chest, arms wrapped around my waist.

I told her, “It’s been one hell of a shitty night. But I’m not disappointed in you. You… You’re incredible. Brave and smart and?”

“Wanted by every enforcement agency that exists.”

We stayed there, holding each other.

“What happened with Dani? Is she okay?” Georgie asked.

“She’s okay. That asshole, Fenway, attacked her in an elevator.” My voice cracked, and Georgie looked up at me, eyes wide.

“Oh, no, Mac…” She looked in the glass doors to where my sister was sleeping on the couch. “Did he… Is she…” Her voice trailed away.

“No. He didn’t. But he’s going to regret ever having touched her,” I said, my tone ominous.

She looked at my hand and saw the cuts and bruising. She pulled it to her and kissed it gently, the heat from her lips making me wince.

? ? ?

My eyes were heavy as they drifted open. I wasn’t sure what had woken me as I lay there with Georgie wrapped in my arms. We were both in the clothes we’d been in the night before. We’d lain down on the bed, holding each other, trying to breathe comfort into one another.

I heard Dani’s soft voice from the door. “Mac?”

I slowly moved away, trying not to wake Georgie. I ran a hand through my hair and over my face, trying to circulate blood, trying to shake off the grogginess. I went to the door and opened it. “What can I do?”

“Mom and Dad are here,” she said quietly.

I shut the door behind me and went down the hall. Dad was in his uniform, hat on the counter. Mom was in the kitchen, searching the refrigerator and coming up with eggs and bread. Leave it to Mom to want to feed us in the middle of a crisis.

Dani looked better than she had the night before. She had her game face back on. The one I’d seen on her every day on the Hill. While my hand was purple, Dani’s face just bore a red mark, and I was glad that, for whatever reason, the hit Fenway had given her hadn’t been a hard one.

“What’s the plan?” I asked, pouring a cup of coffee and joining my sister at the counter.

“Your grandfather has a copy of the tape they tried—unsuccessfully, might I add—to confiscate. Seems like somebody at The Oriental knows better than to listen to some shitty security team,” Dad said. “I’ve got some folks editing it, and then he’s going to send it to every news station who’ll take it.”

I glanced at Dani. “You okay with this?”

“They’re editing her face out,” Mom said for her, but I just continued to stare at my sister, waiting for her to say she was all-in or not.

“I told them not to even bother editing it. I’m not going to be quiet about this.”

“Daniella, we know you want to go at this head-on, but we want to give you the chance at anonymity if you choose it,” Dad said.

She didn’t respond. I wondered how long her silence would last.

---