Chapter 30 Lorenzo
LORENZO
Time seemed to slow as the next day creeped along. We were all tense, knowing that once it was dark, the attempted infiltration of Ivanov’s compound would begin. Every hour dragged past, except the ones I spent showing Niko how much I enjoyed pleasuring him.
Ivanov had gone after Dimitri the night before, ready to eliminate him since he was no longer proving useful.
Remington had several men working to find out if he’d been caught or gotten away.
He assured us Dimitri—or his corpse—would be found, but I couldn’t settle down.
I wanted to know if he was dead or to find him and kill him myself.
Even Niko’s presence—touching him, kissing him, sucking his cock—hadn’t calmed me like it should.
I checked in with Landry and walked the perimeter of the cabin multiple times. My skin felt itchy and too tight. I needed to know something. Dante had yelled at me when I called him for a third time. He told me they would let me know as soon as they fucking did anything.
I talked to Rafe, and he chatted on about irrelevant things like the new gun Lancelot had gotten or the cool car Corbin and Bo had just restored.
Nothing important. No more word on Dimitri.
No better sense of whether Ivanov was buying our ruse.
Would he believe the man Remington sent to him was a Lopez family contact?
He had agreed to a meeting, but that didn’t mean he didn’t suspect something.
My brothers were going in virtually blind. I didn’t like it. I wanted to be there.
What was I going to do? Somehow keep both of them behind me like they were innocents I needed to protect? They had both killed, and they would kill again. They were full participants in the family, just like I was, but they were also my little brothers. I couldn’t lose them.
“Lorenzo?”
I looked up. How did Niko manage to startle me? I sure as hell wasn’t any use guarding this place if I couldn’t even keep track of the other people who were in the house with me.
“What is it?”
Niko frowned. “Is something wrong?”
“Nothing new. I just can’t stand this waiting.”
“Well, I’ve got some good news. Alina’s in.”
Had I heard him right? “What?”
“She’s in. She’s got a view through his security cameras.”
“That’s incredible. I’ll call Remington now.”
“Haven’t we answered enough of your fucking questions?” Remington said when he accepted the call.
“I haven’t got another question. I’ve got eyes inside Ivanov’s house.”
“What the fuck do you mean?”
“Apparently, Alina is a skilled hacker. She’s gotten into the security cameras. We can see everything they can see, views of all different angles of the house, inside and out.”
“You’re fucking kidding me. Put her on the phone.”
“It’s Remington,” I said as Alina took the phone. She talked him through different locations where the cameras were, which guards she could see. She said her father didn’t seem to have increased the normal amount of security. That was a damn good sign.
Somehow, after a lot of mysterious clickety clacking, she looped Remington in so he could also see the feed, and after she ended the call, she got to work on seeing what else she could find.
Niko and I celebrated with some mutual blowjobs after she ordered us to leave her in peace. After that, I distracted myself with cooking and took a stint at Landry’s post so he could come in to shower and, I imagined, flirt with Alina.
After one of the longest days of my life, it was finally go time. Rafe and Dante both texted me, promising to stay safe and reminding me they were grown-ups.
We all hovered over Alina’s computer. It wasn’t like we could see everything. We were hardly going to get a play-by-play, but I still wanted to be there when any of our crew came into camera range.
A man I vaguely recognized from a job I’d done for Remington approached the front door of Ivanov’s house. Niko laid a hand on my leg, and I realized I had been bouncing it. “I can’t sit still right now.”
“I know. You’re worried about your brothers. It makes sense. I’m worried too. You’d be there if it wasn’t for me.”
“I could’ve sent someone else here. I chose to be here with you. You are not to blame for that.”
“He’s here to take care of me too,” Alina said.
Niko huffed. “I’m not entirely sure you need to be taken care of anymore. You seem damn capable of taking care of yourself.”
“I’ve made sure to learn a lot of skills.
There’ve been times I’ve needed to defend myself.
Typically, I was punished for it later, but there are a lot of bad men that hang around with my dad and don’t know any boundaries.
Once he realized I wasn’t going to get him anything as someone else’s bride, he stopped caring. ”
That sick fuck. “We’re going to put an end to him. I swear to you.”
“I believe you. Now, let’s watch.”
The door opened, but the angle of the camera didn’t let us see who was inside. I wished we had audio at least. I saw confusion on our decoy’s face and tensed, but he quickly relaxed and smiled, so I could let out the breath I was holding.
When he and his “associate” entered the house, Alina switched to the view of all cameras, but it didn’t allow us to see what was happening. We waited. That was all we could do.
If things went as planned, it would be a while. There would be the pretense of negotiation, and it would be drawn out as long as necessary for others to get in place.
Moments later, Dante appeared on one of the cameras. “There.” I pointed to the screen, and Alina enlarged it. “What’s he doing there? Isn’t that room upstairs?”
“Yes,” Alina said. “He shouldn’t be in the hallway if he needs a quick escape.”
Dante crouched around a corner. I wanted to be able to tell him there was a camera on him. He needed to move. The wait was painful.
Niko ran a hand up and down my back. “Just breathe.”
“I’m trying, but how am I supposed to? My heart’s racing. It feels like it’s going to pound out of my chest. I know Dante’s in trouble. And I have no way to help him. I’m too far away. I can’t even speak to him.”
And then another man came into view. Dante leaned out, raising his gun, but the man shot first.
I watched a bullet hit my brother. He fell back, and the other man had disappeared.
“No!” I screamed. That hadn’t happened. It was a trick. It wasn’t real. “Dante!”
“He’s going to be okay,” Alina said. “The bullet hit him in his shoulder. He’ll survive.”
“Only if somebody gets to him. Call Remington, call somebody,” Niko said.
I knew they wouldn’t answer. If they were all involved in a battle, they wouldn’t be able to go get Dante. They had to be fighting for their lives too. What the fuck had gone wrong?
“I have to do something.” But there was nothing I could do from so far away.
“It’s going to be okay,” Niko said, but there were tears in his eyes.
“He can’t die.”
Alina held out her hand. “Give me the phone.” I handed it to her, and she held it to my face. “Unlock it.”
I looked at the screen, and then she started tapping on it. A few moments later, I heard Rafe’s voice through the speaker.
“Rafe, we need to—”
Alina held up her hand and spoke instead. “We saw Dante get shot. Bullet went into his shoulder. He’s upstairs.” She explained how to get there.
“I won’t let him die,” Rafe said and ended the call.
Niko pulled me to him, and I held him tight against me, pressing my lips against the top of his head.
When I let him go, I paced the cabin. I tried to have hope.
I tried not to blame myself, but it was so fucking hard.
I’d made a choice. I’d come here instead of staying to protect them. I’d sworn I would protect them.
“Dante’s a grown man, Lorenzo,” Alina said. “He’s like thirty, right?”
“He’s only twenty-seven.”
“Hmm. He must’ve gotten his PhD rather fast.”
I nodded. “He did. This is his second year teaching.”
“He’s an adult with a doctorate, and he’s had the same training you have. He might have already gotten himself out of that house.”
He was brave and strong as fuck, but that was asking a lot. “Why don’t they fucking call me?”
“Lorenzo, you know they can’t,” Niko said. “You know they’ve got to fight their way out of there.”
“I know.” I did. I knew exactly what it was like, but that didn’t matter. This was my brother, my little brother. I’d watched my cousin die. It had been my fault, no matter what they said. And now—
My phone rang. It was Remington. I braced myself. Niko grabbed my hand and squeezed so hard it hurt.
“Dante’s alive.” My knees buckled, and I sank onto the couch. “Rafael’s driving him back to my house, and the doctor is meeting them there. If they have to, they’ll take him to the hospital, but he’s already insisting he’s fine.”
“Thank God.” If Dante was arguing with people and trying to be stoic, then I could believe he would survive. “The bullet—”
“Went all the way through. It will be a while before he can use that arm easily, but—”
“He’s not dead.” Obviously not, but I needed that confirmation.
Remington chuckled. “No, he’s not. He managed to make his way to a bedroom, where he barricaded himself in and texted Rafe.”
“What the fuck happened?”
“Ivanov wasn’t here.”
“Goddamn it. So he’s still alive?”
“As far as we know. He’s on the run. Probably out of the country by now, but we won’t let this go.
His trafficking has been exposed to the authorities, and the rest of the family is scrambling to distance themselves.
They refuse to let this bring everyone down.
Also, Nikolai’s mother was there—she was hopped up on something and barely conscious.
One of my men has taken her to the hospital. ”
Damn right we wouldn’t let it go. “So who answered the door?”
“One of his assistants and a few men who were getting young men from him.”
“Fucking bastards.”
“They’re dead. Very dead. Brains splattered all around kind of dead.”
At least there was that. “Good. What about the rest of Ivanov’s men?”
“We captured some guards alive. We’ll be getting as much information as we can from them before they die. There’s no one else alive at Ivanov’s residence, and we don’t have to worry about retaliation from the Russians. The Koslovs see this as their opportunity. Essentially, we did them a favor.”
At least we were in a better position now. Dante was alive. But so was Ivanov. “We have to find Ivanov and Dimitri.”
“We won’t stop until we do. Is everything quiet there?” I could hear the determination in Remington’s voice.
“Yes,” I responded.
“Good. Keep watch. I don’t think Dimitri or Ivanov have any idea where you are, but we can’t be sure.”
“I will.”
Remington ended the call, and I pulled Nikolai to me. “Your mother was there at Ivanov’s.”
“What? Why?”
“I don’t know. She was drugged but alive. She’s at the hospital now.”
“And my father?” Alina asked.
“On the run. He was gone before they arrived.”
“Fuck.”
“We’ll get him and anyone else who got out early with him.”
“What do we do now?” Niko asked.
“I need to do a security check. We should be safe here, but I’m not taking any chances.”