“Do you think he tracked you back here?”
“That’s the other problem. I think he did. He won’t know it’s me, but he’ll know the location.”
My shoulders fall and I sigh, bringing a weary hand to my head. “Damn it. Now he’ll know that someone from the Knights is messing with him.”
“Nikoli isn’t going to come knocking at the gates of Raventhorn to see who’s fucking with him. He’d be shot on sight.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean he won’t try.”
“I’m sorry, Kade. I fucked up.”
“That’s not your fault. This is a game of risks. Getting caught was always going to be a worry.”
“I know, but I feel like shit. This was important to you.”
“It still is.”
“What do you want to do? We could lie low for a while and hope to throw him off while I try to get back into his accounts. He’ll know that I tried and failed, and might assume that I won’t try again.”
“That sounds like a good idea.” I don’t want to lie low but it’s the sensible thing to do for the moment. “Lying low shits all over my plans to make use of our mission time.” That starts in two nights. The elite unit will be tracking the Armenian mafia guys.
“We just have to work around it.”
“Yeah. Nikoli is going to try to find out who’s messing with him.”
“As long as he doesn’t figure out that it’s you, we’re good. He’s had many run-ins with Knights in the past, so there are a ton of suspects.”
“Then I guess that buys me some time.”
“Me too. I’ll keep trying.”
“Thanks.”
“No worries.” He nods but then gives me a curious stare. “What happened this morning with you and Isabelle?”
I was waiting for someone to ask me about that. “Not a lot.”
Dmitri raises his brows. “That didn’t look like not a lot to me. You helped her. Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Maybe because you like her.”
I stare back at him, not wanting to confirm or deny anything.
He smirks at my hesitation. “Be careful, Kade. You’re playing a dangerous game there, and sometimes it’s not easy to separate emotion from duty.” He switches his gaze from me and stares at something he sees below us. “Trust me, I know.”
I look around to see what he’s looking at and spot Mackenzie walking into the classical literature section on the floor below us.
Dmitri stares at her with the intensity of a person who has a million things to say.
Feeling his gaze on her, she looks up and the way she freezes and stares back at him piques my interest.
He’s never told me what happened between them but I know it was something bad. It’s no coincidence that they stopped talking and their families were suddenly at war at the same time Tommy, his brother, was murdered.
Coincidences like that don’t happen in our world.
If I were to guess, I’d say his family blamed Mackenzie’s for Tommy’s death. I just don’t know why. I wouldn’t know where to begin piecing that together because Mackenzie’s family isn't like the rest of us.