Page 73 of Savage Love

“I’ll go,” I say immediately. “I’m used to infiltrating a building. I can—”

“You’re not going alone,” Liam says firmly, before I can get any further. “There’s not a chance. It’s too dangerous.”

“Absolutely too dangerous,” Niall agrees. “And besides, I’m not letting you go alone. You know that, man. It’s my wife in there too. My family at risk.”

“I know.” I run a hand over my hair. “It’s why I didn’t go looking for him the minute wheels hit the tarmac, and I was back in Boston. This is your fight too.”

“It’s all of ours,” Liam says quietly. “He sees the Kings as an adversary too, responsible for what’s happened since we made the alliance with the Santiagos. You don’t think he’ll come for us too? For my family and for Connor’s? He’ll wipe us all out if he can. It won’t end with Elena and Isabella—”

My phone buzzes in my pocket, once and then twice, and I pull it out, jaw clenching when I see that it’s from an unknown number.

I raise a finger to my lips, answering it, and a sharp, accented voice comes over the line.

“I see you’re alive, assassin. Did they all make it out, or just you?”

I don’t reply, teeth gritted, and there’s a deep chuckle from the other end.

“Fine. Keep your secrets. It doesn’t matter to me; I’ll know soon enough how many I still need to kill. You’re the one I hoped would make it out alive the most—you’re the essential piece to my little game of revenge. So here are the rules, Levin Volkov. I imagine you’ve found where I’m staying by now, the clever band of criminals that the men you run with are, but if not, I’m sure you’ll figure it out shortly. Come to find me, and come alone. And if you don’t follow instructions—well, I can’t promise that your pretty wife will die quickly regardless, but as I’m certain you know, there aresomany ways to make someone die much more slowly. I hear you’ve even employed a few of those tactics yourself, in the past. And yet they all think you’re a good man.” The voicetsks. “Come alone, Levin.” The words are repeated, flat and heavy. “Or we’ll play another game—how much flesh can a human live without before they start to die?”

It makes me sick. All of it, every word. I don’t say a single one throughout any of it, my hand clenching the phone so tightly that I think it might snap, and I hear one final laugh before the line goes dead.

It takes me a moment to lower the phone. I’m shaking with a fine, furious rage that permeates every part of my body, and I can see it reflected in the faces of the others that they, too, can tell just how angry I am.

“That was Diego.” Niall doesn’t frame it as a question. “What did he say?”

I relay the call to the others, and I can see the same fury reflected in Niall’s face, and to a lesser extent, the others as well as I finish speaking.

I can feel the fog of rage and grief crowding in, how close this is to how I lost Lidiya and our child, pressing in on me until it feels as if I could be crushed by it. This is too personal, as Jacob once warned me, but I can’t let them go without me. I can’t entrust this entirely to others.

I have to be there for her.

“We’ll all go,” Liam says firmly, after a few seconds have passed. “Except Connor, of course—I don’t think he’ll be mobile for some time yet. But you, I, Niall, Jacob, and Max will go to the coordinates Beth provided.”

“We need to find a way around his insistence that I come alone.”

Liam nods. “I have a plan for that. Beth mentioned that she could manipulate the security system. You will go in first, making it look as if you’re alone, offering to exchange yourself for Elena. Get to her, however you can talk Diego into that. And then once Beth has ensured they won’t pick us up, the rest of us—with backup—will follow behind.” He looks around the room. “Does that sound amenable to everyone?”

It’s the best plan that I can see. We go over it a few times, looking for holes or potential ways that it could go wrong, looking for alternatives. There’s not a great deal of time to hash it out, though, and once it feels like we have a solid enough grasp on what will give us the best chance, using Liam’s plan, there’s nothing to do but get ready to go.

“Jacob will send a message to the other men,” Liam says. “Let’s go and get geared up. There’s no time to waste.”

—

We can’t, of course, drive directly up to the house where Diego is keeping them. The car is parked a far enough distance off that if Diego has any patrols making rounds, they’re unlikely to find it. Liam and the others hang back as I start to make my way towards the house.

I only have my usual gun with me. I have a feeling I’ll be disarmed shortly after I get to the house anyway, so there was no point in gearing up. I just intend to make sure I get it back when this is all over.

There are several burly guards at the front of what can only be termed a mansion. I walk up, feeling tension tight in every line of my body, but keeping my expression as blank-faced as ever. If I could keep a poker face in Rio, I can do it now.

The guards move forward instantly as I approach. “What the fuck do you want?” one of them snaps, and I give him an easy grin that’s entirely at odds with the rage and fear coiling tight inside every inch of my body right now.

“Levin Volkov, here to see Diego. He called and asked for me personally. As you can see, I came alone, as instructed.” I motion to the empty space around and behind me, and the guard narrows his eyes.

“Hold on.”

It’s all the usual. They radio ahead, they get the response that I’m telling the fucking truth, and they march me to the house. I’ve been through the same song and dance before, and although I well and truly hope to hang up this hat after I get Elena out of here, I also hope that I live long enough to make that choice. It’s as familiar to me as an old choreography. I follow their lead, allowing myself to be led into the foyer. I even give up my gun, remembering the face of the man who takes it from me.

I’ll be putting a bullet in it before the night is over.

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