Page 135 of Oathbreaker

We’ll discuss it when I arrive.

I look at the flight map in front of me. We have forty-five minutes until we land in D.C. If we hurry, I can get to Genevieve’s office in an hour and a half.

“Shit,” Leo hisses, and I turn my face to him. He waves his phone in the air for me to see an incoming call.

Misha.

“Here we go,” I mutter, and Leo moves to sit closer to me. He answers the call on speaker phone.

“There were issues at the airport, I hear,” Misha says as soon as Leo picks up. Leo and I share a glance, but I speak to the pakhan first.

“No issues, Misha. Your men simply misunderstood that I was taking my family property with me to examine. You’ll have it when I’m done.”

I steel my spine and Leo’s despondent and low, “Fuck,” doesn’t go unnoticed by me.

“I see,” Misha says simply.

Silence drags on the line, and the only sound to break it comes from the dulled engines and the tinkering in the galley as the crew cleans up after our inflight refreshments.

“Give us two days,” Leo adds, pasting on the charm and likely saving me from being personally assassinated by Misha Hroshko. “Please,” he tacks on.

The nose of the plane tips down in preparation for our final descent right as Misha says, “Fine.”

He’s gone before either of us could acknowledge his word.

“H?” Leo sounds as tired as I feel. “I can’t wait for all this shit to be over with.”

I finish off my whiskey. “Me neither.”

Once we touch down, I haul ass to get in the driver’s seat of the SUV waiting on the tarmac. When Leo tries to get in the passenger seat, I shove him back.

“Get your own ride,” I grind out.

His laughter is loud outside the vehicle as I drive off.

Finding parking in the district is a nightmare on any given day, but I had that fucker Rio clear out a spot for me right at the front. When I enter the waiting area outside Genevieve’s office, Rio faces me, squaring his shoulders.

I punch him dead in the face.

He stumbles back a step but otherwise doesn’t react.

“You put her life at risk ever again, and there won’t be a place far enough for you to run.”

He stands back up tall, and I have to hand it to him. He takes the consequence like a man.

“Got it, sir,” he says. He knows he fucked up, but Winter likes the fucker, and she would not like it if I killed him. And for that, he has his life. Today.

I throw the keys at him, and he catches them.

“Stay with my car. The rest of you, clear this area out, but stay close. My sister and Veronica...?” I ask.

“Back safe at Amelia Manor.” Great. Something is going right.

With a sharp nod, I instruct the men to leave the space. I sit in the uncomfortable chair when all is quiet, and the only sound is of the white noise machine on the other side of the door.

The silence forces the past seventy-two hours to push forward into my awareness. My father is dead. The stench of his decomposing body resurfaces. It’s a cellular memory now.

Misha’s men and the cleanup crew took the remains away and cleaned up the mess in the office. There was talk of sending the remains over for DNA testing, but there’s no doubt the remains are my father.

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