Page 183 of You Only Love Twice
Byrnes scowled. "Fine. I'm going to enjoy the look on his bloody face when Malloryn sees us. I'm going to remind him he's in our debt every time he gets that constipated look on his face. This will give me years of ammunition against him. This trumps every debt we've ever owed him. Dukes don't crawl? Ha. I'm going to insist upon him kissing my boots."
"I'd like to see that," Kincaid said, pushing to his feet. "How do we do this, Gem? You're in charge."
She met Obsidian's eyes. The tide of the room was shifting. Relief flushed through her. He smiled a little dangerously. Her dark angel.
"Russia is dangerous. But we have a trump card up our sleeve." Gemma straightened, meeting every single eye in the room. "They will never expect us to come for him. Balfour's men know fear, not loyalty. Not love. They don't fight for him or each other. They’ve been double-crossing each other at every turn, and now we have an insider who can assist us. I won’t pretend this will not be a difficult, well-nigh impossible task but we have to try. Who's with me? Who's coming to Russia?"
Every hand in the room rose.
"Can I bring Molly, miss?" Herbert asked.
"You candefinitelybring Molly. I would like to ram that rocket-launcher right down Balfour's throat."
And Gemma started planning.
* * *
"Before I forget,"Charlie called, as Obsidian went to run Gemma a bath. "I’ve got something for you."
Obsidian paused on the stairs. Charlie ran up them as if hadn’t just fought a cataclysmic battle, faced a nightmare, and somehow survived.
He handed over a thick file stuffed full of bloodied pages.
"Sorry." Charlie grimaced, trying to wipe some of the blood off. "Your friend, X, came upon us just as we discovered the files. Got a bit mucky for a while. I think most of it is the good doctor’s."
His name was on the front. Obsidian frowned. "What is it?"
"All of Dr. Richter’s notes about you. Thought you might like to read it. I think there’s some mention of where you came from."
His heart skipped a beat as he slowly looked up.
"We didn’t look through it," Charlie assured him. "Just enough to ascertain it might be important to you. There’s a family tree in the front I think you’ll find interesting."
Fingers trembling, Obsidian slowly opened the file. The occasional memory was coming back to him—mostly odd irrelevant flashes that meant little—but nothing solid. He’d long given up on the idea of ever piecing together his past, though the ache of it bothered him.
The second he saw the golden crest at the top, he froze. He recognized that seal, and the family it belonged to.
Grigoriev.
The heat drained out of his face. Dmitri, Nikolai, Yekaterina, Irina and Evgeni. The names stirred something within him. He could see a pair of young children scampering through snowdrifts, their cheeks rosy as they laughed and hurled snowballs at each other.
If this was real, then….
Sergey Grigoriev was his cousin.
The same Sergey who’d allegedly murdered the entire Grigoriev family years ago in a bid to take their power.
The Sergey that Balfour had tasked him to guard.
What did it all mean? How had it happened? Was he truly Dmitri Grigoriev, the eldest son of the former Prince of Tsaritsyn? Who had Marina been?
How had he ended up in London?
How much had Balfour and Dr. Richter taken from him?
"Thank you," he said, slowly. The world reeled around him.
Charlie clapped a hand on his shoulder, gave a wink, and then headed up the stairs. "You’re one of us now, Obsidian. Rogues have got to look out for each other."
Gemma was right. The young man truly was a treasure.
He stared down at the file as Charlie disappeared. A damned shame the doctor’s throat had been torn out.
Now there was only one man still alive who might know the truth.
It was a good thing he was already planning on heading to Russia.
He was long overdue a certain chat with Lord Balfour.
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