Page 105 of Dirty Grovel

“I’m counting on you, Sutton. Please.Please.”

The line goes dead. I stare at the phone in my hand as though it’s a ticking time bomb.

A second later, Oksana stops in front of me.

“You’re sweating,” she observes.

“Something’s come up, Oksana. I need to go.”

“‘Go’?” she repeats. “Go where?”

That’s the million-dollar question. Sydney was adamant that I come alone and tell no one, especially not Oleg.

But the last time I tried to do things without involving him, it blew up in my face.

Quite apart from the internal politics of our three-way dynamic, I just don’t have the resources or the know-how to break Sydney out of Paul’s clutches safely.

Still, if I tell Oleg, I’ll be betraying my sister’s trust.

If I go alone, then I’ll be betraying Oleg’s.

“Sutton?” Oksana presses impatiently. “Where do you need to go?”

I glance down at the ring on my finger. It’s glinting right in my eye, reminding me of the future that’s now firmly within reach.

I look up at my future mother-in-law. “Pavlov Industries.”

32

OLEG

I don’t need to look at her to know that something is wrong.

“Sutton,” I growl, shouldering both my assistants out of the way. “What happened? Is everything okay?”

She shakes her head and I pull her into my office room and shut the door. My first instinct is to tuck her into my arms and wait until she’s stopped shaking.

“Is it the baby?”

“No.”

The relief is fast and fierce. But there are still a million things it could be. “Then what is it?”

“I-it’s my sister.”

That’s leagues and bounds better than what was going on inside my head. But I’m startled to realize that I am worried.

Idocare. If for no other reason than that whatever has happened has put that look on my woman’s face.

I take her hand. “Tell me.”

“It’s her boy— It’s Paul,” she corrects herself. “He showed up in a temper last night and ended up killing two of his own men, before abducting Sydney and making a run for it.”

“Blyat,” I mutter. “He ran?”

She stops short, her eyebrows arching. “Why does it feel like you might have more insight into this situation than I do?”

“Lipovsky is involved in a lot of shady shit, Sutton. His name has come up in multiple conversations now. I had to do something.”

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