Chapter 27 Maxim #2
“He would be hoping someone on that list might bring one of the girls. Some of them would be attending especially the guys buying weapons.”
“We need to go to the ball.”
“No. I’m not risking you, Grace. We will find another way,” I tell her.
“You’ve been up all night trying to find other plans, and you have nothing. This is your only chance to find Elena and Anna. I won’t take that away from you and Sergei.”
“Grace, I can’t let you do that,” Sergei argues.
“This is not up for discussion, Grace. I forbid you to go,” I say angrily.
“You fucked up,” Mateo whispers to me.
Grace jumps out of my lap and stands in front of me with her hands on her hips. “How dare you tell me what I can and can’t do.”
“When it comes to saving your life, I don’t care how it sounds. You’re not going. We will find another way.”
“Let me help. I want to help. This is going to be our only chance,” she pleads.
“I can’t risk you, Grace. Do you understand? I can’t lose you.”
Grace falls to her knees in front of me as she places her hands on my legs. “I trust you with my life, Maxim. Please let me do this for you.”
“Wildcat, I can’t. Please don’t make me. Just hearing his voice last night gave you a panic attack. What will happen if you see him in the flesh? I will start shooting up that ball if he lays a finger on you and that means none of us will be coming out alive.”
“Maxim. Let me do this,” she says sternly.
“Grace, I think you should really think about this. I’m with Maxim. How are you going to be facing him?” Sophie asks gently.
“I have to go. You said they are expecting a Jewel and Zoe can’t go, can she, not with the baby,” she states, looking between Mateo and Tomas.
Oh, shit. Zoe’s pregnant.
“I can do it. Just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean I’m an invalid,” Zoe says, walking out into the living room.
“Sweetheart, come. You know you can’t go. We won’t risk it,” Mateo says.
“But you’ll risk my sister?” she asks her fiancés. They don’t say a thing.
“Zoe, you can’t go. I will not let you sacrifice your happiness to save me,” Grace tells her sister.
“Zoe, you’re not going, period. Grace, it would make this easier for us as Dmitri is expecting you, but Maxim is a liability if you do go,” Sophie explains.
“We need to take Dmitri down once and for all. I’m sick of this one little man having so much control over me and my family. Enough is enough. We need to save your sister, and we need to find Anna.”
“It’s too dangerous, and I’m not just talking about Dmitri. He is only one person you need to watch,” I tell her.
“You’ll be there and so will Sergei.”
Sergei nods.
“I have two of the world’s best assassins protecting me. I think I will be safe.”
“No,” I say, digging my heels in.
“My sister is very strong-willed and stubborn. It will take a miracle for her to change her mind once it’s been made up,” Sophie tells me.
“I won’t allow it. Dmitri isn’t the idiot you think he is. He’s pure evil. He did way worse stuff to me than Nikolai ever did,” Zoe says, breaking down. Mateo and Tomas pull her into their arms.
“Exactly. I can’t let you do it,” I tell her.
“What if Grace wasn’t alone?” Damon interrupts.
“Keep talking,” Brooks says.
“If we could guarantee no harm would come to her, would that help?”
“Yes,” Grace says.
“No,” I say.
“You can’t guarantee that, Damon,” Sophie says.
“Maybe not one hundred percent, but ninety-eight or ninety-nine.” His face lights up, excited by his plan.
“What are you talking about?” Brooks asks.
“We have access to the latest technology, thanks to Tomas. I’m sure Maxim has some stuff too. We’re talking next-level James Bond kind of stuff. I could also create something specifically for Grace to keep her safe.”
“We don’t have time to test the tech, the ball is next week,” I tell him.
“We can stay here and work on the tech. I’ll work around the clock if this means we can destroy Dmitri,” Grace says enthusiastically.
“I can get what the kid needs,” Sergei says to me in Russian.
“You’re honestly thinking about this plan?”
“It’s the only plan that makes sense. You want to build a future with Grace always looking over your shoulder for Dmitri?”
“We won’t have a future if he fucking touches her.”
“Look at all these people in the room. Do you seriously think they would let anything happen to her?”
“I can’t believe you’re considering it?” Zoe pipes in, surprising Sergei and Me.
“You speak Russian?”
“Yes. I was a language major,” she answers in perfect Russian.
Huh. Didn’t know that.
“Would you all stop speaking Russian, please? It’s rude,” Grace complains.
“Is there a way to get us into the party too?” Brooks asks, changing the subject.
“There’s no way in hell you can go. They know your face and same with you Damon and Tad,” Sophie reminds them.
“They would shoot you on sight,” I tell him.
“What about me.” Sophie stands up.
“Fuck, no, sugar. There’s no way in hell you’re going in there, plus Dmitri already knows your face from the interview you did with Mateo and Tomas when Zoe was missing,” Brooks reminds her.
“Fuck,” Sophie curses as she sits down.
“I don’t think any of my family should go. They would distract me,” Grace states.
“They can’t distract you if you’re not going,” I bite back.
“Fine, let me call Enrique then and see what he thinks,” Grace pushes.
How fucking dare she bring up that man. She knows that’s going to make me react. “If you want me to shoot him then certainly give him a call.”
“No shooting my cousin,” Tomas calls out.
“What about me? No one knows me,” Mackenzie adds softly.
“No way in the world,” Sophie says.
“They would eat you alive,” Grace tells her.
“I’m a fucking doctor, I’m not useless,” she argues.
“We’re not getting anywhere, and we are wasting time on semantics.
Maxim. I love you, but this is my fucking life.
That man took so much from me, and I think it’s only fair that I do the same to him.
Eye for an eye and all that. I’m the only one who can stop this.
You know he won’t stop until he thinks he’s won.
This time we are on the front foot instead of always being on the back with him.
We only have one chance, don’t miss your shot. ”
“Did she just quote Eminem?” Mateo asks.
“She’s lost it,” Sophie adds.
She’s right.
“You will be there. She is strong. You have a week to train her to be the best. She can do this,” Sergei says in Russian.
I look over at where Zoe is sitting nestled between her two men, I know she understood what Sergei said. I see the tears fall down her cheeks as she nods her head.
“I don’t like it. But if I get a hint of something going sideways, I’m pulling you, Grace, no matter what.”
“Of course.”
“I don’t like it, but it seems like the only plan that might work.
This plan must be worked out to the nth degree.
We need backup plans too. I have a home in Moscow that the Bratva don’t know about, a safe house.
I can give you coordinates, Brooks, Damon.
We can meet forty-eight hours before to start recon.
But the rest of the family need to stay here. ”
“Hell no,” Sophie says.
“Soph, it’s for the best.” She glares at Brooks.
“There’s a chance Dmitri has eyes on you already. It would be too risky to take this many people with us and try to stay under the radar.”
“I agree with him,” Brooks says.