Page 76 of Twisted Secrets
“You care about my sister. If I don’t miss my guess, you love her.” Dmitri’s brows rose. “Fascinating.”
Hearing that word—thattruth—from an enemy’s lips made his blood pressure rise. He hadn’t hadthe luxury of exploring his feelings for her, not beyond knowing that he had no intention of letting her go. To have this man call him out like that…Cillian took a step forward. “Think hard, Romanov. Because otherwise Olivia and I are going to work our way through your people, and you’re not going to like the results.”
“You threaten me?”
“Cillian.”
He ignored his father and focused solely on Romanov. “No, I’m telling you plainly what will happen. You think three percent is a way to undermine our operations. Let’s see how you feel when I start chipping away at yours.”
“Impossible.”
“You can take that risk, or you can fix a problem that you’re partly responsible for. Call Sergei. He’ll answer.” Cillian hoped. If the man was as loyal as Olivia said, there was a decent chance he’d pick up before he had a chance to think better of it if Dmitri was calling. He might have gone off the deep end, but old habits died hard.
Dmitri gave a put-upon sigh. “Fine.” He pulled a phone out of his jacket and dialed. After a second, he switched it to speaker so all three of them could hear.
“Da?”
“English, Sergei.”
“Yes?” The man on the other end sounded tired. Exhausted, even.
“You’ve displeased me.” Dmitrilookeddispleased. But then, he would be. A king was only in power as long as he was obeyed without question. The second someone started doing things without permission, everything started falling apart. It was why such drastic measures sometimes had to be taken to ensure loyalty. If everyonesaw some dickhead disrespecting the one in power, they might start doing the same damn thing.
The background noise was the type you’d find when someone was driving, which meant he could be anywhere. “You don’t understand, boss. Olivia wasfuckingthat Irish bastard. She has to be taught a lesson.”
It was everything Cillian could do to keep his mouth shut. That piece of shit might disrespect Olivia, but the endgame was more important than the fact that he wanted to reach through the phone and strangle him.
For his part, Dmitri didn’t seem to like hearing that, either. “That’s for me to decide.”
“You were taking too long.”
And he was losing Sergei. If he didn’t do something to reel the man back in, they wouldn’t get the information they needed. Cillian crossed his arms over his chest, which made Dmitri raise an eyebrow. “Tell me where you are so we can fix this.”
“You should have let me keep her. If you had, none of this would have happened. It’syourfault she left me.”
“That may be so, but stealing her child isn’t the way back into her heart.”
“I don’t want to be back into her heart. I just want her to suffer as much as she’s made me suffer.” A child wailed in the background, and Sergei cursed and spat out something in Russian.
Then the line went dead.
Fuck. That had been their one chance of finding out where the bastard was going, and they’d just blown it. Cillian ran a hand over his face. “What a clusterfuck.”
“Hardly.” Dmitri slipped the phone back into his pocket. “I know hisdestination.”
“How in the hell did you figure that out?”
“He’s not coming in, which means he won’t be with any of my men or in any of the various locations I have control of.” He straightened his tie. “He’ll be going south, to Philadelphia. He has an aunt there that he doesn’t think I’m aware of.” But of course the man was. He didn’t seem like the type to let much get past him. He grabbed a pen and scrawled an address on the notepad on the desk. “If we’re done here?”
“Go.” Seamus spoke from the spot he’d taken behind his desk. When Cillian made to follow, he said, “Not you.”
He waited for the door to shut to turn and face his father. “I know this isn’t what you wanted, but I’m not going to let a little girl suffer for your politics and pride.”
“So I gathered.” Seamus steepled his fingers and tapped them against his chin. “You care for this girl enough to challenge me and the rest of your family.”
“Yes.” No point in denying it now.
“Go. Take Liam and as many men as he thinks you need.”
