Page 79 of Craving Dahlia

“I have the right to decide how to best protect my wife.” I cross my arms over my chest. “You’d do the same if you felt strongly about how to protect Evelyn?—”

“Don’t change the subject,” Dimitri snaps. “I clearly told you what I, as yourpakhan, wanted. How I wanted this trouble handled. And you went over my head.”

“You don’t get to decide how to handle my trouble!” The old resentment, the old feeling of being trapped, starts to rear its head again. “It’s my problem. She’s my wife. I’ll decide how to put an end to this. Your help is appreciated, but I don’t need?—”

“Vik has found some hints of where he might be hiding out,” Dimitri interrupts. “We think we have a path to finding this man.” He runs a hand through his hair. “I didn’t know he had ties to the KGB. A former operative, apparently. Alek, that’s something you should have told me.”

“I was focused on rescuing my wife.” It’s my turn to run my hands through my own hair, tugging at the roots. “And now I’m focused on keeping her safe.”

“Alek. Slow down. We’ll find him. But I can help you better if we talk about all of it.”

“I want to know what Vik found.” I’m already striding towards the office, and Dimitri lets out a heavy sigh from behind me, his footsteps quick and sharp as he follows me all the way back to his office.

Vik is inside, scrolling over a street map on a laptop. “We think he’s at this hotel.” He points to a pin on the map, and I lean in, noting the address that pops up. “Traffic cams on the street show some suspicious figures coming in and out of the back entrances. And we saw a man fitting the description come out earlier today, and get into a dark-tinted vehicle.”

He zooms in on the video, on the blurry clip of the man’s face, but it’s all I need. I could recognize Gregoriy Volnov in the dark, after all the time we spent together. My stomach clenches, a dark, vengeful anger rippling through me, and I realize I’ve curled my hands into fists.

“That’s him.”

“Well, then we take out the head of the snake.” Dimitri looks at Vik. “We’ll need all of our best men that didn’t go with Dahlia on this. Get them together, and we’ll come up with a plan of attack. Soon,” he promises me, seeing the look on my face. “We need to be smart about this. Vik, quick as you can.”

“Yes, boss.” Vik nods, picking up the laptop and walking out. Dimitri looks at me, and his gaze is suspicious.

“Wait for us to make a plan, Alek,” he says firmly. “Until then, Dahlia is safe, the way you wanted her to be. We go in force, and this man will be wiped off the map. Anyone left will fade back into the shadows. You can put this behind you for good.”

I nod, saying nothing. Once again, I have no intention of lying to my brother.

But I also have no intention of waiting…or of taking my only remaining blood family into the nest of snakes that I plan to burn to the ground.

I won’t bring Dimitri into this any further than he already is. I’ll put an end to Gregoriy and anyone who might be close enough to him to pick up his mantle, and then this will be done. And it will be donetonight.

It’s the early hours of the morning when I leave the estate. I take more than just my usual gun with me—I have it tucked into my waistband, two more in holsters beneath my jacket, and enough ammo to make sure that I can take out a fucking army of Russian operatives. I know the way to the hotel that Gregoriy is at, and I know which floor that Vik saw them coming and going from. As far as I’m concerned, that’s all I need.

Gregoriy Volnov is going to die tonight. And he’s going to know who did it, and why.

It won’t be quick, either.

I cling to that as I ride into the city, that vengeful anger burning through me like a wildfire. I couldn’t have waited another night, another fuckinghourto finish this. Gregoriy ruined my life. He ruinedme. And then he tried to hurt my wife.

I can’t wait to fucking kill him.

I leave the bike a block from the hotel, close enough that I can get to it with only a short run, but far enough that I can slip through the shadows and not be seen.

There’s a few people out on the streets—it’s Manhattan, so of course there are—but I keep my hood up and my eyes down, heading around to the back hotel entrance. I can feel the weight of the guns under my jacket, more firepower than I’ve ever brought to a job before, but I don’t plan on letting a single one of Gregoriy’s men live if I can help it.

I sneak up the back stairwell, cautious of any sounds that I hear. But the hotel is silent, full of that eerie stillness that comes with it being the wee hours of the morning. I slip down the hall to the edge of the floor that has the room that Gregoriy is staying in, and I lean against the wall, my hand at my gun as I listen.

I can hear the low hum of voices. Two men, it sounds like—probably outside the room. If it’s a suite, which it probably is, there will be more men inside.

When I lean slightly around the edge of the wall, I see I miscalculated. Therearetwo men just outside the room, but there’s more on the floor itself, leaning at various intervals and keeping an eye out. They all look bored, as if nothing particularly interesting has happened all night, and my jaw tightens.

I’ll give them something fucking interesting.

There’s seven men just outside the room. I have no way of knowing how many more are inside with Gregoriy. I can’t take down seven men without alerting them—even if I’m fast enough to drop all of them before one of them manages to shoot me, they’ll get a chance to sound the alarm.

The smart thing would be to leave, go back to the estate and admit to Dimitri that I did a little scouting, and then wait for him to give the go-ahead to make a move. With Dimitri and his men at my back, we can take out whatever Gregoriy has here. It wouldn’t be a problem. And I know Dimitri will let me do what I please with Gregoriy.

I should leave. I know in my gut that I should, but my feet won’t move. He’sthere, behind that door where the two guards are standing, and I can’t walk away. Not when my vengeance is so close.

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