Page 23 of Kneel for Me

Igor held up his hands, one holding the tablet, in a placating gesture. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. Forgive me.”

She huffed and turned away from him, reaching forward to grab James’s hand in hers. I snorted a laugh at Igor being put in his place. Adrian looked at me. “Let’s go to the house. See what we can find in the kitchen.”

I gestured toward the door and gave a bow that he rolled his eyes at. “Lead the way,kotik.”

19

Ivan

Adrian was quiet and brooding as Mark drove us to the Jackson’s estate. He just stared out the window, the muscle in his jaw ticking rhythmically. Clearly, he was lost in his thoughts, and I didn’t want to bother him. There were certain times to bother Adrian, but right then wasn’t one of them.

Suddenly, he turned to look at me, blinking in surprise for a moment when he found me already staring at him. “You have a staring problem,” he muttered. I snorted, a smirk tilting my lips.

“Only with you,” I assured him. He rolled his eyes. “Just can’t fucking help myself,kotik.” I cocked my head to the side. “Tell me what’s on your mind.”

He sighed heavily, like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. I imagined at that moment, it felt like it was.

“It has to be an inside job,” he said, a frown tugging at his lips. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. For someone to be able to get inside the house that late at night, they had to have a code and security access. When Jaxon shuts things down for the night, only us and security can get in and out. We lock it down like Fort fucking Knox.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Igor’s number. Adrian’s brows pulled low over his eyes when I raised my phone to my ear.

“What are you doing?” Adrian asked.

I held up a finger to him, making him scowl, but Igor was answering, and I didn’t want to waste any precious time we had. “What?” Igor asked. “I can’t hunt down who this asshole is if you’re calling me, Ivan.”

Christ, he got on my nerves.

“Show that video to Jaxon,” I ordered. “See if he can identify him. Adrian is confident this was an inside job, more than likely a member of security.”

Ivan grunted. “Only thing that makes sense. I thought we were all already thinking this?”

I sighed. “We were,” I confirmed. We’d already sort of connected those dots, but we hadn’t lookedthisclosely. “Have Jaxon call one of us if he figures something out.”

I ended the call, then looked at Adrian. “If he’s on your security team, Jaxon should know who he is since he’s the head of security. If Jaxon can identify him, we cut out the time needed to find out who he is and can instead utilize that time to hunt this mother fucker down.”

Adrian surprised me by reaching forward and gripping my shirt. He tugged me across the bench seat, then smashed his mouth to mine. I growled low in my throat and slid my hand into his hair, curling my fingers around the strands before tugginghard. He whimpered and moaned into my mouth, his addictive mouth parting and allowing me entrance into that hot, wet heat.

We hit a sudden bump in the road, and Adrian’s teeth clamped down on my tongue. I snarled and pulled back from him, blood pooling in my mouth. Adrian winced, his eyes wide and apologetic. “I amsosorry,” he said, cringing. “Fuck, Ivan?—”

I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath, not wanting to lash out at him when it wasn’t his fault. Turning my head, I narrowed my eyes at Mark through the rearview mirror, who was doing his damnest not to laugh, the fucking asshole.

“Miss the fucking bump next time, yeah?”

A snort escaped him before he could stop it. Rolling his lips into his mouth, he nodded, obviously not trusting himself to speak. I turned back to Adrian. “Not your fault,” I assured him. “But if I’m talking funny in a bit, don’t make fun of me.”

A tiny smile tipped the corners of his mouth. “I would never.”

This time, it was my turn to snort. “Like fuck you wouldn’t,kotik.”

His eyes glimmered with mischief, but he didn’t say another word.

* * *

We were just pullingup to the mansion when Adrian’s phone rang. He lifted up from the seat so he could slide his fingers into his pockets. Pulling his phone out, he looked at the screen, then quickly swiped his thumb across the screen to answer. He tapped speaker before he said, “Hey.”

“Definitely a fucking inside job,” Jaxon growled. “That’s Crane. He was just recently promoted. I’m emailing you an encrypted file of his employee record and his entire fucking life. Wipe him off this earth, Adrian.”

Adrian nodded once, even though Jaxon couldn’t see him. “Will do. Let me know when James wakes up. We have a doctor ready to travel with you all to the safe house. I’ll send you the address of the one I’ve picked. He’ll take care of James.”

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