Page 34 of Fierce Vows

Chapter Thirteen

Sometimes They Fall Down

Rafe

Iknow the moment wecross over into Russian airspace.It’s the moment Dom’s arm flexes across the back of Thalia’s seat where he hovers over her like a watchful hawk, protective and brooding and all the things I wish I could be for my wife but can’t.

And so I watch the man who is all the things I’m not in this moment and pray my wife isn’t a static body when I find her.

That phone call—it ruined something inside me.

Something about the entire scenario seems too simple, too easy.I know she’s hurting.That much was evident in her voice, the way she kept the conversation light and flowing, right up until she said Thalia’s name.

My attention drifts back to my healer, and my friend beyond.Not so many months ago we promised to head our own families, take on a separate path.Yet here we are again, forging forward in the same direction, for the same reason, again, as though the fates aren’t yet finished with us.

Thalia, alone, seems to be unaffected by the location.I know she’s never been to Russia before, but both Dom and I have a history here.Lost in her head, she stares at the empty pale leather seat opposite her where Regina or Willow would have sat otherwise.

Today, she is the sole female passenger on a plane full of men equipped with enough hardware to take down a small nation.

Or a Bratva.

I know what we are walking into, and what we might not walk out of.Dom, too, will have prepared Thalia, given her the chance to back out of the deal but her presence on my plane says everything.

And, as always, we are entering the country through a network of various unofficial channels that will get us to all the places we need and back out again—God willing—while it seems as though we never left the U.S.in the first place.

The plane dips in the air and Dom’s hand flexes again as our descent takes us closer to Willow.I lean forward, peering through the clouds, but the barren ground beneath gives me no more clues than the waiting bulletproofed car with its heavily tinted windows minutes later.

Thalia sits between us, my men scattered throughout the convoy with Willow’s captor’s team driving.It reduces the amount of his teams in the car, but it also heightens the likelihood of a kamikaze run for the drivers.

Take out a few of his own to rid the world of one moreFamilia.

It’s not as though I have a lot of friends in this nation.

“She’ll be fine.They wouldn’t put us through all this if she wasn’t,” Dom lies through his teeth to my face over Thalia’s head.

I smile through tight lips and meet his eyes, letting him see the desolation there.If this goes wrong, it won’t just be the driver’s potential suicide run he’ll have to worry about.“Just get her home safe.That’s all you need to do,” I say softly, glancing down at Thalia.

Dom doesn’t pause to clarify whichherI mean.

Smart man.

He nods curtly, mirroring my grimace as the cars pull up in front of an ornate palatial building topped with colorful domes that remind me of a Fabergé egg my mother had in her bedroom at one point before it was destroyed in a random shoot out by one of my father’s many collected enemies.

Armand gave it to her for an anniversary and she was so incensed to lose that piece she hunted the shooter down and attacked him with a pair of sewing scissors that she had on her person until he was unidentifiable.

My smile loosens as I wonder if I should try to purchase one of the decorative eggs for Willow.

Knowing my wife, she’d probably throw the million-dollar piece at my head.

“My friend.”A blond man with a severe face and scar reaching from the outer corner of one eye to the curve of his lip greets us as we tramp up the steps to the grand house.His hands rest in his pockets, and he gives no outward signs at all of holding my wife hostage.

I manage not to glare at him and keep my gaze assessing.“Are we friends?”I ask idly, stifling a yawn behind my hand.“Apologies.My man snored for the majority of the flight.I believe I have someone to introduce to you.”

The blond man’s eyes light up.“Ah.You must be—”

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