Page 106 of Cinder
“Lars isn’t going to know what hit him when he sees you,” Belle gushes, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “I bet he falls in love right on the spot.”
Before I can answer, there’s a knock on the bedroom door and Beast walks into the room.
“Doesn’t she look beautiful, baby,” Belle says to him with a big smile.
But Beast seems to be a man of few words. He kind of just grunts as he walks over to a chair beneath the window and sits down to remove his giant motorcycle boots.
“Thank you,” I say to him. “You didn’t have to invite me.”
“Yes, he did,” Belle says. “A good president leaves no man behind.”
She winks at her husband, and he cocks his eyebrow at her. “Yeah, I’m the fairy fucking godmother.”
CHAPTER 47
Lars
Checkingout the possible Olicheckoff compound doesn’t take us long. Bear and I set trail cams on the roads leading toward the property, which looks vacant, then watch for any sign of life. A car arrives, but it isn’t Viktor who climbs out. Bear shoots a round of photographs from a long lens camera.
“He’s Bratva, all right,” he says, clicking through the images. He zooms in on a distinctive tattoo on the man’s neck. A gothic script O.
Olicheckoff.
I look out the window at the gated estate. “Gotcha.”
Up ahead, I notice a bronze Cadillac pull into the street and drive slowly toward us. As it passes, I make eye contact with the driver. He’s fifty or sixty. Italian. I don’t recognize him.But the car looks like the one that pulled into the Blue Lagoon Motel the night I followed Ella home.
I open the van door to climb out, but the Cadillac speeds off as soon as it passes by.
Bear looks at me. “Friend of yours?”
“I don’t know who he is. But I’m sure I’ve seen him before.”
I check the side mirror, but the Caddie has gone.
It might be nothing. He could be a wealthy owner of one of the many estates in this area.
But my gut tells me otherwise.
“You want to catch up to him?” Bear asks.
Yeah, I do. But another check of the mirror tells me he’s long gone.
My phone vibrates with a message. It’s from Belle.
Meet Ella at the base of the staircase in an hour.
And don’t keep her waiting.
I smile. Any mention of Ella, and I can’t help it. My heart starts to beat faster.
“Let’s get out of here,” I say. “We’ve got a wedding to get to.”
Bear ignites the engine, and we head back to the clubhouse where we update Beast and show him the photos.
“Tomorrow we strike,” he says, handing the camera back to Bear. “But today we get Sticky and Dani married. Go have some fun. It might be the last we have for a while.”
In my room, I quickly shower and dress, then wait at the bottom of the grand staircase for Ella like Belle told me to.
