“Stepan,” I order, “take Lev outside and keep him safe until we’re done in here.”
Lev keeps his head down as Stepan ushers him out of the house. Nikolai turns to me, gesturing to the man on his knees between us. “He’s the ringleader. And he’s refusing to talk.”
I meander around him as I size the guy up. He’s shorter but muscly. His eyes are a dark brown and his hair is a white, spiky blonde.
“You fuckers are getting nothing out of me.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Sounds like a challenge. Josef, Hanz—take him. He’s coming with us.”
He laughs maniacally as my boys pick him up roughly and start pushing him towards the door. “You have no idea what’s coming!” he cackles as he’s forced into the back of one of my jeeps. “No fucking idea.”
The door closes on him and I turn to Nikolai. “Did you get anything out of him?”
“Only this,” he says, holding up the guy’s phone. “It’s got a touch ID installed, but I was able to force his thumb on there. He’s enabled the automatic deletion feature, though. All these text conversations disappear after an hour.”
“Did you get anything?”
“Nothing. All wiped.”
“Fuck,” I grumble as I run a hand through my hair. “It doesn’t matter. That phone might come in handy at some point. So might he. For now, let’s get Lev home.”
We’re walking down the hill with Lev between us when I notice Alyssa’s car. What the fuck? I expressly told her to go back—
I stop short when I realize that her car is missing the side mirror. It’s actually lying on the road a few feet away, broken glass scattered across the asphalt.
“Lev,” I say gently, “go with Stepan and Yevgeny. Nikolai and I will be there soon. You’ll be able to see us from the window, okay? We’re right here.”
Lev looks wary, but he also seems keen to get into a dark, enclosed space, so he reluctantly goes with my vors. When he’s been taken care of, Nikolai and I stride quickly towards Alyssa’s vehicle.
“This is not good, Uri. It’s not fucking good.” He strokes his chin. “It’s not possible she would have just… skipped town? Tried to make it look like someone came after her?”
I glare at my brother. “Polly was with her. She’d never have pulled something like this with Pol.”
“Are you sure?”
The odd thing is that I am sure. Alyssa may not trust me. She may not even like me very much right now. But she does care about my siblings. She would never purposely hurt Lev or Polly. It’s not the most convenient realization to have when I’m absolutely determined to be furious with her, but I can’t deny that that’s how I feel.
Ping.
I turn to Nikolai. “Was that—”
“The phone,” Nikolai says, looking down at the screen. His eyes fly back and forth. Then he pales. “Fuck.”
I grab the phone and read the text message that just came in.
BOSS: We have the girls. Do what you want with the idiot boy.
My heart is beating frantically as I dial in the same number the text came from. It takes a couple of rings, but then I hear a deep raspy voice that feels vaguely familiar.
“I thought I told you not to fucking call me on this number.”
That voice. It’s unmistakable.
Boris Sobakin.
I hang up and drop the phone into my pants pocket. “Fuck!” I bellow.
“We’ll get them back, Uri,” Nikolai assures me.
But I barely hear him. The only things ringing in my ears right now are my own doubts, my own sense of inadequacy. My own fucking failures.
Because if I can’t keep them safe…
What good am I?