Page 52 of Disguised as Love

Malik’s face fell and then returned to its normal sneer. He twirled around to the guards at the door, pulling two guns from nowhere I’d been able to see on his skinny body. He aimed the weapons at their faces.

“You let someone into my apartment?”

Both men blanched.

Raisa moved as if she was going to put her body in front of her brother’s guns just like she’d done for me in the car, and I yanked her backward, holding her to me. Anger flooded through my veins. I was pissed that she’d do something so stupid. Pissed that she’d do it for these two nameless men when I’d thought she’d done it that first day in Russia because it was me. Stupid to have thought I was the one who she was protecting.

“Malik!” she hollered. “What the hell are you doing?”

He didn’t even look over his shoulder.

“Who paid you?” he demanded.

“No one,” one of the guards said. “No one came through here. No one has been here but you.”

“We have security and cameras all the fuck over the apartment. Are you telling me she came in through a window? A vent? And you’re standing here nonchalantly, acting like it isn’t a big deal? Go find her entry point and shut it the fuck down. If I don’t hear back from you in ten minutes, you’re done. Do you understand me?”

The men scrambled for the elevator, and Malik turned, but his guns were still in his hands, and I quickly pushed Raisa behind me. She struggled against me as she had from the moment I’d pulled her back, but there was no way I was going to let her go. No way I’d let her put herself in harm’s way for either of the two men left in the room, brother or not.

“Put the phone away.” Malik’s voice held a deadly quality that startled me. It was easy to underestimate the lithe man who looked more dancer than serious mafia leader. Malik’s tone seemed to surprise Yano as well because when he looked up and saw the weapons pointed at him, his face contorted.

“What the hell?”

“This is my home. No one hires security for it except me. Understood?”

Yano glared. “You promised me safety in return for helping you with your goddamn plan.”

“You’re alive, aren’t you?” Malik shoved the guns into his jacket, and I was impressed at how the careful design of the stitching shielded their bulge from view. The jacket wasn’t just for style. It had been meticulously planned. It was with a shock that I realized Malik had done it all on purpose?crafted his flighty, drug-induced, playboy persona to hide his intelligence and grit. He wanted everyone to underestimate him, and I had. Just like Volkov had. I didn’t know if I was impressed or concerned.

“No thanks to you or your damn team,” Yano said shakily.

“Who was she, and what did she want?” I found my voice.

Both men turned scowls on me. “None of your damn business,” they spoke in unison.

I ignored Yano, making my play for Malik and the side he wanted me to be on. “I’m just saying, she didn’t kill him. So, what did she want? Don’t you think that’s important? She left him, in your apartment, alive. What do you think she got out of him before she left?”

Yano hissed, stepping forward and pulling his own weapon. “Don’t even try to insinuate that, you motherfucker. Malik knows I’d never betray him.”

Raisa

INVISIBLE

“I was too scared to say out loud.

If I cannot break your fall,

I'll pick you up right off the ground.”

Performed by Linkin Park

Written by Hahn / Delson / Shinoda / Bourdon /

Bennington / Farrell / Parker

Guns and angry testosterone filled the air of the apartment as I watched the three men stand off. Cruz had widened his stance, but I could see his words had hit their mark with my brother. Cruz was building distrust between Malik and Yano at the same time he was earning it. It was a smart play?one I expected from Special Agent Malone. But it twisted a knife in me as well because, for hours, I’d been able to forget that this was why he was here with me. To break my brother. To arrest Yano. To bring our world tumbling down.

The sweetness of our day had wrapped me in a bubble world. A pretend one. The stupid bear he’d bought me that was tucked in the bag I had swinging from my wrist was only one of the ways he’d made me forget his real reason for being here. He’d also held my hand as we’d taken in the tourist sites of my homeland with wide, appreciative eyes, seeing the things I pointed out that others might have missed. The strength hidden inside our cruel history. The beauty that was tied behind the harsh stories. I’d forgotten?like he’d wanted me to?my father’s death, the Volkovs’ threats, and the danger that existed for me.

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