Chapter Thirty-Six
Igor
We arrived at the compound in record time, and I turned to Dmitry.
“You’re dead tonight no matter what, Voronov.
The only question is will I make it quick or will I take my time.
” With those words, I rushed from the car and shot straight into the house to find April.
What I found first, however, was Ivan. He was laid out in the foyer with an angry looking wound across his forehead.
“Ivan,” I shouted and kicked at his foot, unsure what the fuck was going on. “Ivan, wake up goddammit.”
He stirred which meant he wasn’t dead—yet. He groaned and grunted until his eyes were open. When his gaze landed on me, his brown eyes widened in surprise and then fear. “Igor. Shit.”
What little control I possessed, snapped and I snatched him off the floor and pushed him up against the wall. “Where the fuck is she? What did you do to her?”
His brows dipped. “Not me,” he answered calmly. His body was slack and his face a mask of concern. “It wasn’t me, Igor. I would never.”
“Then where the fuck is she?”
“Mikhail,” he said quickly. “I found him heading up the stairs and asked what he was doing here. That was the last thing I remember,” his hand went to the open wound, still bleeding and the knot that had formed underneath it. “Shit.” He darted up the stairs and shouted once again. “Fuck!”
I didn’t have to ask because his face said it all when he returned moments later, a little unsteady on his feet. “You were supposed to keep her safe.”
Ivan nodded, his face full of apology. “I should have kept her safe, but I figured it out a few seconds too late.”
“Figured out what?”
“I was going through the footage from Maria’s place,” he began and I interrupted him.
“Maxim already did that. Several times.”
“I know, but when I was recovering from the stabbing, I remembered something. Maria was lowkey obsessed with this gopher family on the internet. She rolled her eyes and called the man a ‘silly American’, but she loved watching them eat carrots and radishes, at their tiny picnic table,” he laughed, lost in his memories for a moment.
“Anyway she put up a few small cameras around the vegetable garden. She said it was to catch the thieving fuckers, but that wasn’t it,” his smile was sad, and he shook his head.
“She was hoping to find her own little family. She was lonely.”
“Ivan,” I growled, unwilling to think of another woman I couldn’t save when there was one out there, I could still save.
“Right. Sorry. Once the cops cleared out, I went back.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “Too many things felt coincidental lately and it didn’t sit right with me. I remembered the cameras. She didn’t want you or Maxim to know about them because she thought you’d find them silly and remove them.”
Typical Maria to keep her soft side hidden from those who knew her best. “And?”
“Minutes before Mikhail arrived, I figured it out.” Ivan pulled out his phone, tapped the screen a few times and turned it to me.
I watched as Mikhail entered the property late at night by hopping over one of the garden gates. He slipped inside easily and minutes later he left, telltale blood all over his face and hoodie. “Son of a bitch!”
“Exactly. I figured you would want to know first, and I didn’t think tonight was the night to disturb you, but suddenly Mikhail was here. I like April, she’s always nice and polite, and she felt bad about me getting stabbed. What can I do?”
“I just need to find her,” I shouted. “Now. Where would he take her?”
“To Voronov would be my guess.”
Mine too. “I have Voronov.” Now that I knew Mikhail was the asshole traitor, I would take my time with both of them.
“Then he must still be on the compound. Voronov would want you to find her body.”
Shit, he was right.
I was going fucking crazy because there was nothing to do but wait or scour the property in search of her and hope it wasn’t too late.
At that moment, my phone rang. It was a video call from an unknown number. I answered, “Hello?”
“Hello, Igor,” Mikhail said. He sounded so fucking amused. So proud of himself.
“Mikhail, what have you done?”
He shrugged. “What I had to do in order to survive. A man has to make a living. It’s the American dream, isn’t it?”
Money. He did this for fucking money. “Where is she?”
He flashed a smile and the screen moved in a gliding motion. It bounced over a wall of shotguns and then rifles, and fishing poles and then there she was. April. She was safe. She was alive. She looked worried. “Igor.”
“April, are you okay?”
“Yes.” She nodded and her gaze bounced around the room as if she was planning something. “Mikhail is working for Dmitry.”
The screen jerked away far too soon and filled with Mikhail’s smirk once again. “After tonight I will be a very, very wealthy man. And I will be the one to end the Romanov line once and for all.”
“You better hope the money is already in the bank because I have Voronov, asshole.”
“Too bad,” he began with another fucking smirk. “Either way, this is going to hurt you more than it hurts me,” he made a big show of pulling out his gun, but a shot rang out before he took aim.
“April!” The phone fell and another shot rang out. My heart was in my throat, and it was only when Ivan grabbed my shoulder that I refocused.
“Come on, Igor. I know where she is.”
I nodded and we both took off at a full run.
To save April.
To preserve the Romanov line.
To end this shit with Voronov once and for all.