Victor’s hands collapse around my upper-arms from behind and he pulls me away carefully.
“Control your girl, brother,” Niklas says, his German accent always bleeding through his perfect English, but I’m so used to it now that I hardly notice anymore. He growls and takes the cigarette back into his fingers. Then he turns his head at an angle to see me and says, “I know you’re pissed right now, Izzy, but don’t take it out on me.”
“Stop calling me that!”
Victor whispers near my ear, “Fighting with Niklas isn’t going to help find Mrs. Gregory. Calm yourself, or I’ll take you back to Boston and leave you there.”
“You wouldn’t do that,” I say under my breath and without turning to face him—I know he would.
“I will, Izabel,” he says calmly and his hands slide away from my arms. “If you’re too emotionally invested in this, it could be you that gets Mrs. Gregory killed. Set your hatred for my brother aside and focus on what’s important.”
I glare at Niklas still crouched in front of the body.
He puts the cigarette out on the side of his boot, turns away from me and begins checking the pockets of the dead man.
“You’ve gone soft, brother,” Niklas says with his back to us. “Letting a woman tell you what to do.”
He rises to his feet and looks right at Victor.
“This isn’t the kind of thing we do,” he goes on. “Saving little old ladies. Rescuing smart mouth bitches from Mexican drug lords. What’s next—cats in trees? Puppies in drainpipes?”
I round my chin, but say nothing. Victor easily keeps his cool because Niklas is his brother and he’s beyond used to his behavior by now.
Niklas walks past us. “Izabel’s not the only one too emotionally invested, Victor,” he adds with accusation. He slips around the corner and out of sight. Moments later I hear the sound of the back door opening and closing as he steps outside.
I turn around to face Victor.
“This isn’t the time,” he says, already knowing the kinds of things I’d like to say in retaliation.
But he’s right and I focus on Dina and this mysterious person or people who took her.
“What do you think they want?” I ask, my eyes scanning the rest of the den for anything else out of place.
“It could be a lot of things,” Victor answers.
He steps around me to check out the body himself, crouching down beside it just as Niklas did.
“We are not short on enemies, I’m afraid.”
That’s an understatement.
I swallow nervously and go over to the coffee table. Dina’s favorite glass candy bowl sits on top of it filled with chocolates. She’s had that bowl since before I met her, and always kept it full of my favorite candy—Sweet Tarts when I was younger and then mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups as I got older. I sit down on the coffee table beside it, propping my elbows on the tops of my legs and resting my head in my hands exhaustively.
Victor stands up and turns to face me, the light from his cell phone screen glowing in his hand.
He answers it and puts Dorian on speaker again.
“Tessa isn’t picking up,” Dorian says, his words filled with concern. “I’m going to her house. I’ll get back to you as soon as I know something.”
They hang up.
We’re all thinking the same thing, even Niklas who just re-entered the den after coming in through the back door.
“I guess we’re making that two kidnappings then?” Niklas asks, having overheard.
Victor nods and then slips his phone back inside his jacket.
“Whoever it is,” Victor says, “they’re not amateurs.” He sighs. “They knew where to find Mrs. Gregory even though we’ve moved her three times in the past year.” He points at the dead man. “And I doubt he had anything to do with it.”
“But why take Dina and Dorian’s ex-wife?” I ask.
“The connection is,” Victor says, “that you and Dorian are both part of this organization. So, whatever they want has to do with the organization.”
“Do you think they’ll take anyone else?” I stand from the coffee table.
“It’s a possibility,” Victor says. “I suppose it depends on how many of us still have people in our outside lives who we care about, but hopefully it doesn’t go that far.”
I look between Victor and Niklas, an obvious question on my face.
Niklas shakes his head, manipulating his lips on one side of his mouth. “I think you both know by now that I don’t do giving a shit about anyone else. The only person I care about is my brother.” He looks right at me when he says this.
I smirk at him and turn to Victor.
But Victor doesn’t chime in because like Niklas, Victor has no other ties to the outside world, either.
“What about Fredrik?” I ask, but feel stupid after doing so.