Cormac held her tighter, dropping a kiss on the top of her head. “This should be the part where I tell you I’m not. To reassure you—be all big and strong—but I am, too. I’m petrified you’ll get hurt, and I’m man enough to admit it. Going in with some fear is a good thing. It means we’ll be cautious. But I need you to be careful, Teddy. Do everything as we planned. Follow the script, because I’m pretty sure I couldn’t handle one more person taken from me—especially not you.”
“I’m gonna try like hell to do this right, I promise. I don’t want you to be cheated out of buying me guns and ammo. Oh, and camouflage. I love camouflage.”
Just as Cormac barked a laugh, Nina poked her head around the corner of the great room with Marty right behind her, fiddling with the red wig she’d secured to her head. “Saddle up, girls. Tonight, we ride!”
Squaring her shoulders, Teddy tried to focus on all the things Cormac had said—especially the part about having a future where they would really get to know one another.
It beat the alternative.
Which was dead.
Chapter 14
“Who the hell is this?” the heavily accented Russian voice, deep and thick, growled into her ear.
Nina gripped her hand as Teddy clung to the burner cell and Carl sat at her feet, letting his head rest on her knee.
Be confidant, Teddy Bear. You’ve got what they want.
“I think you know exactly who this is.”
Yeah. Grrrr, you cold-blooded killer!
Nina gave her the thumbs up while Cormac smoothed his hand over her back.
“Tell me, malutka, what can Stas do for you this snowy evening?”
She licked her lips and closed her eyes. “I have what you want.”
“And what do I want, Poopsie?” he drawled, clearly amused.
She imagined him sitting behind some long, shiny black desk with sexily-clad women draped on his arm, a cigar dangling from the corner of his mouth, surrounded by burgundy drapes on tall windows and leather furniture as he laughingly considered her words while he stroked his exotic Bengal tiger.
That rather burned her britches. So she dropped the bomb in his lap. “Cormac and Toni Vitali.”
There was a pause, a stomach-turning, nerve-racking pause, and then he laughed, a deep, gurgling belly laugh before he barked out a demand. “Speak!”
“Meet me at Leningrad’s Vodka Bar—one hour. I’ll have them with me. I trade them for my freedom from you.”
“And how do I know you speak the truth, malutka? What proof do you have that my sweet Antonia is with you?”
Not a question that was in the script. Shit! “You’ll just have to trust me,” she countered with alarming confidence that surprised even her, her heart punching the inside of her chest. “And it has to be you or no one. I’m not meeting with one of your flunkeys. If you’re not there, no deal.”
She held her breath while she waited for his answer. Seconds ticked by—seconds that felt like hours.
“Dah. You come. You bring my precious Antonia and her brother. We’ll drink to old friends.”
And then the line went dead. Just like that, she had exactly one hour before the universe decided if she and Cormac would see another day.
Cormac sat in the back of the black SUV Nina drove through the sleet and snow like she’d been possessed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and willed his thoughts to the task at hand. Forced himself to stop letting his imagination get the better of him, to stop letting endless scenarios of doom play out in his mind and just focus.
Get himself and Teddy out from under Stas’s thumb and get the evidence they needed to put the son of a bitch and his buddies in jail. Oh, and maybe knock the shit out of Andre for biting him.
Teddy sat in silence beside him, her jaw clenched, her eyes glazed, her hand cold and clammy.
As they turned into the side street a block away from Stas’s favorite hangout and Nina pulled to an abrupt stop, he grabbed Teddy’s hand, pulling her to him. “You do exactly as you were told. Just like we rehearsed it, you hear me? If one thing goes wrong, get the hell out, Teddy. Get out. Don’t think about me and what could happen—just get to Nina and Arch.”
She nodded, her breathing shallow and rapid.
“Be safe, okay? Don’t let him get to you. No matter what he says or does, stick to the plan.”
“You, too,” she whispered, gripping the front of his sweatshirt.
He pressed a hard kiss to her mouth before letting her go. The dome light in the car clicked on as Marty opened the door and hopped out, her heel—heels Toni would have worn—landing on the snowy sidewalk.
Arch turned around then, his fedora jauntily covering one eye. “When you are through with this ruffian, we shall celebrate, Teddy Bear. Hot toddies for all.”
Teddy gave him a wisp of a smile and nodded, squeezing his weathered hand.
Nina looked into the rearview mirror and winked. “Kick some fucking Russian ass. You got this, kiddo.” Then she looked to Cormac and nodded. “You watch my girl in there, Pooh Bear. Don’t go gettin’ your ass shot.”
He gripped her shoulder briefly and nodded. “Will do. Be safe. Lay low.”