Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
“I. Don’t. Know.” He glared. “I didn’t order this. If it was Sergei, it was done without my knowledge.”
“Liar.” She jerked back to hit him with the gun, but then arms were around her stomach, hauling her off him. Olivia screamed and fought, but they were iron bands holding her in place while someone else took her gun.
“Sweetheart, stop.” Cillian’s voice in her ear, angry but a thousand times calmer than she felt. “We’ll get answers, but if you kill him, we aren’t getting shit.”
“He’s not going to tell you the truth.” She lunged for Dmitri, more animal than human, but Cillian jerked her back again.
Then Seamus O’Malley was between them, managing to look down his nose at everyone in the room. “If you can’t control yourself, I’ll have you locked in a room until this is over. Decide.”
That got through to her. No one cared as much about Hadley as she did. It wouldn’t be personal to them. Even if they decided to help her, it would just be a job. She couldn’t afford to be shut out. So she let Cillian guide her to the other side of the couches—though she never took her gaze off Dmitri. I’ll kill him if anything happens to Hadley. Him and Sergei and anyone who gets in my way.
Seamus sent her a disgusted look, as if he could read her thoughts, and turned back to her half brother. “Explain yourself.”
“I don’t have to explain anything to you.” He’d taken the few seconds everyone was focused on her to straighten his suit, his calm mask firmly in place once more. “This is family business. I’m sure you understand.”
“I’m equally sure that you’ve been dicking around with us for months, Russian. The girl might be your sister, but she’s in our territory with my son. That makes it my business.”
“As I told my sister, I know nothing about that.” He looked directly at her. “You know how I work, Olivia. You know what I’m saying is true. If I was going to take her, it wouldn’t have been like this.”
She didn’t want to agree with him. In fact, all she wanted was to get out of Cillian’s arms so she could go over there and follow through on hitting him with the damn gun. But…he was right. She stopped struggling. If he didn’t order Hadley taken…Oh my God. “Sergei is off the rails.”
“It would seem that way.” He gave a shrug that meant nothing at all. “I do apologize, Seamus, but one of my men has decided to take matters into his own hands—without my knowledge, of course. There’s little I can do.”
Cillian hugged Olivia tighter. “Where is he?”
“How should I know? I’m not the man’s keeper.” That one moment where Dmitri might have been a real human being was dead and gone. He adjusted his cuff links. “If that’s all…”
“It’s not.” Seamus glanced around the room, his brows slamming down. “Everyone out except the Russian. We have other business to attend to.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Cillian kept a hold of Olivia until they were out of the study and had a closed door between them and Romanov. He didn’t think the man was lying, though things would have been a whole hell of a lot easier if he was. If he hadn’t ordered Hadley taken, then there was no telling where her ex was.
Carrigan sauntered over. “Your kid is gone?”
“Yes.” Olivia didn’t sound like she was about to leap into a blackout rage, but Cillian hadn’t expected her to go after Dmitri, either. He’d known she had a gun, but it never even crossed his mind that she might use it. Stupid.
His sister nodded. “We’ll help however we can.” She glanced at James, who crossed his arms over his chest. “We’re not huge fans of people who prey on the weak.”
That was all well and good, but the chances that Sergei came back to Boston after taking Hadley were slim to none. Olivia must have realized the same thing, because she gave a brittle smile. “I appreciate the offer, but I think I need to search beyond your reach.”
Teague approached, his arm around Callie. “We can help, too.”
Callie took Olivia’s hands. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through. If your half brother didn’t order this, where would this man have gone?”
“If I knew that, I’d be there instead of here.” Olivia stepped back, extracting herself from his sister-in-law’s grip. “If you’ll excuse me.” She walked down the hallway away from them, checking each room and then ducking into the bathroom and closing the door. He wanted to follow her, to wrap his arms around her and tell her that everything would be okay. Maybe if he did that, he would actually believe it.
Because things were starting to look pretty fucking stark. He turned to Aiden. “Dmitri Romanov’s man came to our house in Connecticut, butchered three of the men I had watching the house, and then abducted a fourteen-month-old toddler. I don’t care what our father says—this is personal.”