Page 135 of Claim

Jax hops behind the wheel of the big SUV, clicking his tongue bar against his teeth. “Where to, Niki?” He glances into the rearview mirror and meets my eyes.

I know him well enough to see the nerves tightening the lines around his mouth.

None of us may come back from this.

“Let me check. Enzo sent us the coordinates, I’ll plug it into the GPS.” Nikolai leans to the dash and punches the numbers in.

“You should let me drive, I know this area better,” Alexei whines beside me.

“No.” Nikolai clips, not even looking up.

“I did fine last time I was here.” Alexei crosses his arms, leaning against the window.

Jax laughs from the driver’s seat. “Dude, last time you were here, you spent months in the gulag. I really don’t think that’s a huge vote of confidence.”

“I was set up! Tatiana is a shrewd bitch. I wonder if we’ll ever see her again?” Alexei turns to me. “She tricked me. Don’t ever make a deal with her, she’s like that Rumper-guy. Always up to no good.”

"Rumpelstiltskin?" I know the children’s story. I can’t imagine meeting someone like that in real life.

“Yea.” He grins wide enough that I see his silver tooth. “She’ll own yoursoul.”

“Is she really that bad?” I can’t imagine anyone is worse than Ivan.

All three men nod solemnly.

Great.

“Let’s put it this way. My father had my wife and I captive. Tatiana just walked her happy ass in and got us out because she felt like it.” Nikolai stares out the window. “That was hell.”

The mention of Ivan and his atrocities makes a shiver go down my spine.

What are we walking into?

“We’re here.” Jax puts the truck in park near a nondescript house in the suburbs.

It looks like every other neighborhood.

“Which one?” Alexei peers between the seats at the row of carbon copy buildings.

“That darker brick in the middle.” Nikolai points.

I jump out first.

“Hey, wait. You can’t just walk right in there.” Jax jogs to catch up to me.

Hades side-eyes him, but moves to let him closer.

“Why not? What are we going to do? If she’s in there hurting him, I need to go in.” It makes perfect sense to me.

“I told you I liked her. She thinks like me.” Alexei laughs as he strides next to Hades.

“You’re all going to get killed,” Nikolai grumbles from behind.

But I hear him work the slide on his pistol. He’s ready too.

“Should I kick it in?” Alexei bounces on his toes next to me.

“I can shoot the lock.” Nikolai moves to aim.

---