Page 84 of Her Silver Fox Mountain Men

Lev gives him a startled look. “I can’t believe you and Kara kept this from me.”

“What, that we suspected your precious firstborn of killing Elise’s parents? Igor is the fucking apple of your eye.”

“You know that’s not true.”

“You named him your sole heir,” Andrei retorts. “You relegated Kara and me to mere administrative duties.”

I shake my head slowly. “Pardon me for not giving a single shit about your family politics here, gentlemen, but I do need to know where you all stand as of this moment because my sole purpose is to get Elise away from Igor forever. I’d rather do it with your blessing and without having to kill the bastard, which, right now, is my only option.”

“You will do no such thing,” Lev barks.

“You will not take the law into your own hands in my town,” Sheriff Van Pelt adds.

“We’ll work something out,” Andrei offers. “By the time we’re done with Igor, he’ll sign the divorce papers, and he’ll leave her alone—for good. That, I can promise you.”

“How can you promise that?” Michael asks him. “Igor is still number one.”

“I’mthe number one, boy,” Lev cuts in. “And if I have to disinherit that foolish man to restore order within my family and my organization, then so be it.”

“I still think we need to get the feds involved,” the sheriff says.

“Do you trust me? Do you trust us?” I ask him. “Me, James, and Oliver.”

“Of course,” he replies. “You’re good men. Protectors of this town. Hard, honest workers. Veterans. Yes, I trust you. I just don’t know how to best handle a situation that I never saw coming in the first place.”

“We’ve got this,” I tell him. “Get your deputies ready. Get the state troopers on the line and apprise them of the situation. Tell them we’ve got a Russian mob operative on the loose around Rustic, and that your people are already tracking him. They just need to be ready to come in and slap some cuffs on when you call.”

“I can do that,” he says. “What about you? What are you going to do?”

Just then, a ping comes through my earpiece. “Hold on,” I reply. “Yeah, talk to me.” My blood runs cold as James tells me what happened when Kirby tried to get our girls to the safe house. “Alright. Send me everything you’ve got. I’ll meet you as soon as you give me a location.”

Once I hang up, it becomes obvious that the entire room is aware of my mood shift.

“What’s going on?” Lev asks.

I exhale sharply. “Elise ditched our security detail in town at a stoplight. We don’t have a current location on her.”

“Why would she do that?” Michael asks, “especially after Igor showed up at your doorstep?”

“I can’t get a hold of Kara either,” Andrei says, checking his phone. “She still hasn’t answered my last few messages.”

“And Igor?” I ask. He shakes his head. “Figures. We’re pretty certain he’s still tailing our bait vehicle, but if Elise is out there unprotected, it’s only a matter of time before Igor hears about it and circles back to her.”

Lev gets up from his seat. He frowns, creating a deep crease between his eyes. “How can we help?” he asks, and I give him a curious look. “If the sheriff here is willing to trust you, if Elise trusted you enough to put herself in your care, I might as well take a leap of faith and work with you, rather than against you. I want Igor to live and pay for what he’s done.”

Igor stole from his own father, then killed his friend and accountant to cover his tracks. For years now, Igor has been playing Lev for a fool. Marrying Elise must’ve been the cherry on top for that sociopathic bastard, except it’s all crumbling now unless he gets to Elise first.

“We know Elise is keeping the evidence against Igor somewhere safe,” I tell Lev, Andrei, and Michael. “Once I get confirmation of where it is, that’s where we’ll go first.”

“Do you want me to put a BOLO out on Elise?” the sheriff asks.

“Can you send a few of your deputies out to look for her as discreetly as possible?” I ask. “Whatever she’s thinking of doing, we don’t want to spook her.”

30

Elise

Ifind Kara in the same coffee shop I spotted her outside of talking on the phone. It’s pretty crowded but that’s a good thing. The more people around, the easier it is for me to blend in and not draw attention.

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