“This is making you feel really fucking important,” I snarl. “Isn’t it?”
She brushes off my comment with a wave of her hand. “So what’s it going to be, Sasha? You better think quick. This is a limited time offer.”
I sit back in my chair and contemplate my options. My airway is growing smaller by the second, and I know I need to ground myself. But I look around this room, and there’s nothing familiar. It doesn’t help the way it usually does. Panic is seeping into my every ounce of flesh, and I don’t know how to stop it. I’m pregnant. I can’t go to prison. But I can’t sell Ronan out either.
Agent Reed and I stare at each other across the table, neither of us speaking a word in the stilted silence. But there’s a smug smile on her face. Because she knows she’s caught me in her web. Fucking bitch. Fucking traitor bitch. She doesn’t give a fuck about anything but how good this will look on her record. This is all about her job accolades and what it will do for her.
I honestly have no idea what to do.
But as it turns out, it doesn’t matter. Because a moment later, someone busts through the back door and gunfire erupts throughout the house. Agent Reed shoves me under the table and I grab a chair for cover and squeeze my eyes shut.
I take three deep breaths to calm myself before I peek out to see agent Reed hiding behind a partition as she fires off shots in the direction of the intruders. A pair of leather shoes walk up behind her, and all I can see are the man’s legs.
A gunshot goes off, and she collapses to the ground. Dead.
And I’m officially in a full blown panic attack. There are some murmured words in Russian when more shoes converge in the kitchen. One of them crouches down a moment later and smiles at me. It’s the same creepy agent who was driving the car.
A corrupt fed. Who just watched these guys murder one of his own and is probably going to kill me too.
He grabs me by the arm and yanks me out from under the table. Two other men join him, and I know just by looking at them they aren’t who I want to be leaving here with.
“Where are you taking me?” I try to resist as they pull me out the door and shove me into another car, but it’s futile. The fed says something in Russian to the other guys, and confusion washes over me.
The Irish have an alliance with the Russians. Maybe they are helping me. I cling to that hope for all it’s worth. Until they put zip ties on my wrists and duct tape over my mouth.
Then I watch in horror as the two guys punch the fed in the face a couple of times until he’s banged up pretty good. I’m no genius, but I don’t need to be to see what’s going on here. He wants to make this look good to his colleagues. Which means he doesn’t plan on me being alive to contradict it.
The fed crouches down and winks at me.
“Have fun, kitten.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Ronan
“That one there.” Rory points ahead. “The black Denali.”
My eyes scan the road and focus on the distance between us and them. By the time I was able to get to Rory, Andrei’s crew already had her in their possession.
Part of me wants to lash out at Rory for not stepping in sooner. But the rational part of me knows I wouldn’t have the first clue where she was if it wasn’t for him.
I’ve failed her. Allowed my fears to overcome me and walked away at a time when she needed me the most. And now she’s in a car with Andrei’s men, who I have every intention of slaughtering like the pigs they are.
“I will protect her,” I say aloud.
“I know, Fitz,” Rory replies. “We’re going to get her back, mate. Don’t ye worry about that.”
“You shouldn’t have left her behind in the first place,” Scarlett chimes in from the back seat.
“I was protecting you,” Rory growls. “Which you seem to keep forgetting.”
“I don’t need your protection,” she answers.
“She’s having my baby,” I tell no one in particular. I just need to hear it spoken aloud. So they understand the gravity of this situation.
“Congratulations, Fitz,” Rory says. “I never pegged you for a fatherly type.”
My hand twitches on the gear shift. “I’ll protect her,” I repeat. “I’ll look after both of them.”
“I know,” he agrees. “I don’t doubt you, Fitzy. You’ll do a grand job of it.”
The car ahead of us changes lanes, and I finally get a clear view of the Denali. The one that has Sasha in it. My Sasha. And my baby. Because I’m going to be a father.
I haven’t had much in my life. Crow and his mammy and the syndicate. I made do with that before, but things are different now. My whole life is in that car up ahead. I’m going to slaughter the men who thought they could take that from me.
“Keep your distance,” Rory warns. “We don’t want them to work out they’ve got company just yet. Remember the bigger picture, Fitz.”
“I need to get Sasha.”