Page 86 of Alik

I look around while pulling on my shirt, as if a safe room will happen to catch my eye or something.

“Do you want me to wait for you?” she asks, her knees drawing up.

I turn on the lamp to find my shoes and catch the angelic look in her eyes. Soft. Sweet. Caring. She’s a killer, yet at the same time, she’d never hurt a fly.

I’m helplessly drawn to her by the spell she casts on me, and I promised her last night, in my mind, that I would stop fighting it. It didn’t strike me until now what an irony the two of us are. I once called her the moth to a flame type, but I had it wrong.

She is the flame.

I am the moth.

And I have to protect her even if it kills me.

“No,” I say, slipping my phone into my pocket. “No, it’s all right. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. It could be all day… Tell you what, though, if I’m not back by tonight, call your dad.It should be safe out here for you, but it doesn’t hurt for him to send a few guards.”

“Guards who won’t let you in.” She laughs nervously while I focus on pulling on my jacket.

“Alik?”

I bend down and kiss her lips. “I gotta go. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

I pull away and head out the door, leaving her to sit in her confusion. If I’m not back by tonight, it means I’m probably dead.

During the drive to Roman’s, winding through a random route just in case someone spots me so they won’t have any idea which direction I’m coming from, I repeatedly tell myself they don’t know where she is. If they did, they would’ve shown up.

There are ten or so vehicles parked in Roman’s drive when I pull in, which is … strange. I park behind Maksim then head inside.

My chin is high, and I’m confident the blood has returned to my face, but my heart still races as I weave through his halls toward booming voices.

She’ll be fine.

If they knew where she was, they would be there.

Over and over, I repeat it.

It isn’t until I throw open the doors to Roman’s dining room, revealing all lieutenants sitting at his long table, that the words trail from my mind.

All heads turn my way.

I stare at them, roaming my eyes up the two rows to land on Roman at the head of the table. Every person who holds power within the Bratva is in this room at four thirty in the morning, except Nikita. Which means…

This isn’t about Olive.

Can’tbe.

“Did you hear?” Boris, a laid-back man I occasionally work for asks, his hands clasped behind his head as he leans back in the dining chair.

I point my stare at Roman. “Hear what?”

Roman stands. “Nikita has been arrested.”

My eyes narrow slightly.

Arrested?

The Pakhan.

The police arrested the Pakhan.

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