Lucian was pleased to see she hadn’t ruined one of his favorite things about her. Yasmeen’s pearly canines were sweetly pointed. He still remembered how much he’d enjoyed feeling them sink into his shoulder on that night two years ago.
He should have felt a softening in his heart at her offer of company. He didn’t. He felt something else. Something that would scare this exquisite girl into running from him.
Not that she’d get far.
He watched her walk through the foyer, lingering over the perfection of her body. When the door closed behind her, he waved his driver over. Sorin came in closer, too.
“You’ll be picking Ms. Michaels up tomorrow morning at ten,” he instructed Isaac as he ignored his caretaker’s hovering. “She will attend the service. When it is over, rather than take her home, you will bring her to the airport.”
As expected, a low grunt of disapproval came from Sorin. Isaac knew better because he nodded and left.
“Is Ms. Michaels aware she has travel plans in her immediate future?” Sorin asked.
“No.”
The big body that had prevented Lucian’s death more than once came around to block his way when he would have gone back to take his place on that uncomfortable bench.
“Will she be made aware of them?”
Lucian perused the room. He detested every single soul present. The one he wanted in his life was gone. The one he needed. “When she wakes in Rasnov she will be.”
“Lucian.”
He looked at Sorin, holding that dark gaze without conscience. “Yes, Sorin?”
“Just so I am clear. You are taking Ms. Michaels to Romania without her knowledge?”
“Yes, Sorin,” he murmured as he strode away.
THIRTY
Markus’s funeral and the days that followed were some of the most difficult Alek had ever been through. He’d attended too many memorials in his short life, had lost more people than an average thirty-three-year-old, but he’d never been directly responsible for any one man’s death. Regardless if Sergei had mistakenly shot Markus in place of Alek or if the psychotic sonofabitch had targeted an innocent man for his own reasons, no one could deny Markus had been in the parking garage that night because of a task he was performing for Alek. Which meant he was responsible for his friend’s death.
Even though he accepted it, he couldn’t deal with what it meant at this time and he eventually had to shut it down and switch over to autopilot. He buried his emotions. He would bleed for his friend, he would mourn him, he would grieve, but not now. Not when Markus’s murderer was still out there, possibly preparing to take another of Alek’s loved ones.
Meetings were had, and discussions took place as they tried to figure out how to get one step ahead of the turncoat he and Vasily were ashamed to call family. And as more and more of Sergei’s activities came to light, their shame grew right along with the pile of bodies.
Anyone Sergei had been partnered with in the years he’d spent in the States was now gone. According to Yuri’s estimates, the deaths had all occurred around the same time Markus was killed, which meant, within twenty-four hours, Sergei had gone from location to location and quietly murdered eight men.
That’s when it became apparent he was trying to erase all evidence of his life in the U.S., and that’s when Maks suggested they worked to figure out where Sergei had spent most of his time. Where would his memories take him next?
Aside from the home he’d shared with Renee and Evan, which had been checked the day they’d learned Sergei was the mole, they narrowed it down to the Brighton Beach warehouse, Rapture, and Vasily’s house. With the warehouse already gone, they’d sent in teams of sweepers to meticulously go through the two remaining places.
Late last night, in the basement of Rapture, Micha and two others had found what they’d hoped not to; clear evidence Sergei had intended the club to be a target. Small packs of RDX—that wasn’t theirs—had been hidden among crates of stored HMX. Thank Christ the job had been abandoned. They’d found no connectors or ignition which would have signified completion. Had Sergei had the time to do this one right, there would have been nothing but a crater to mark where Rapture had once stood.
That final discovery proved without a doubt any location Sergei had access to in the last month could not be deemed one hundred percent safe. Which was why a mass evacuation was currently taking place.
No one wanted to separate, but the boys understood it was the smart thing to do. Gabriel was taking Eva north, Vincente was going west with Nika, and Maksim, who’d appeared torn in half when he’d left Vasily’s house a little while ago, was going south with Sydney and the kids. With Vasily’s full blessing, they were each taking a team of Moretti men with them, as well as their usual muscle.