Page 70 of Defiant Devotion

Eva grabbed her arm as Kelly tried to run out of the room. “No. You’re not.”

“Soldiers don’t just call a wife,” Irina said. “There is protocol and?—”

“No!” Kelly screamed. “I need to know if my husband is dead!”

I grabbed my phone and called Ben. Irina did the same, probably calling Vik for confirmation. Eva continued talking Kelly down from her panic, but it didn’t help when none of the men could be reached. I tried Lev. Then Ben again. Even some of the other upper soldiers who I knew went with Rurik and Vik against the Ilyins.

No one answered.

But that didn’t mean anything. Today was intended to be a complicated and stressful day of lots of bloodshed as ourenemies were eliminated. That was why Oleg was resting. A nap was best for him while he still recovered from his ordeal.

“Kelly, we will all stay here and wait. Word will come. And you have to consider this could be a trick, a trap, or a?—”

The lights cut out. The hum of the fans and air units in the house died down. It was already dark with the storm out there, but now, no light shone to cut through the bleakness in here.

The power was down.

I caught my sister’s gaze, knowing this had to be deliberate. This wasn’t some little house. This mansion was state-of-the-art, equipped with generators if a storm were to sever a line.

Someone’s here.

I nodded at her, knowing that she’d understand without a word.

She dipped her chin once in reply, herding Kelly back toward the couch. “Come on. Irina, let’s sit together.”

She would keep them there.

I ran off to grab a gun.

It didn’t matter that I’d only been living in this house for a few days again.

I was defiantly devoted to my family and always would be.

If someone dared to break in here, they’d have to get past me.

28

BEN

“Dammit. I’ve got no reception,” I told Lev.

I wanted to always be accessible to Sonya if she would ever need to reach me. Lots of things were happening today, and lots of things could go wrong. That was just the nature of this life.

Lev checked his phone as we pulled into the lot for O’Malley’s offices. “I don’t either. Fuck. I hate that.”

“This damn storm,” I muttered. The rain had stopped for a while, but with how gray the sky remained, more would come. It was windier, with trees whipping branches to and fro, and it looked nasty out there. Losing reception on a night like this wasn’t shocking.

“We’ll make it quick,” Lev said.

I hoped so. In and out. Between the two of us, a bullet had to hit the older man and end the threat he posed. No other politician would ever be in the position to meddle with the Baranovs again. Just the mere thought of that urged me into action.

Lev parked and we both hurried out. We didn’t run, but we were incapable of walking or going at a slow pace. I had my fingers wrapped around my gun but I kept it in my pocket. Lev did the same. Like primed and revved-up predators on the chase, we were committed to hunting this man down.

“Shit.” Lev gritted his teeth and started to jog.

I saw the same thing that triggered him. Across the parking lot, O’Malley exited the office building. In a long black coat that flapped in the wind, he held his hands up to shield his face from the gusts. As he walked away from the office building, he spoke with an Ilyin leader. It wasn’t Geoff, but someone I recognized as an upper supervisor within their organization.

It didn’t matter who he was. He was going down—now. He was a dead man. So were the two Ilyins walking behind them.

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