Page 126 of Scarlet Secrets

“The drug manufacturing business?” Niko churns out high-grade drugs that are then cut to low grade. I know the business front. I know where it is. I’m on my feet, gun in hand.

“Yeah. He has a routine scheduled delivery tonight. When he was leaving, he saw Niko enter with a kid that matches Sasha’s description. He noticed because of the hour and the fact the kid seemed distressed. Also, he only delivers on nights when the place is empty.”

“Meet me there.”

I’m half out the door, phone in my hand, barking out orders for teams to be at the ready and to meet me there. To arm themselves to the teeth. I get my driver and a guard, and we take off.

Shit. If it’s Sasha… It’s got to be. I need to let Erin know. No, I need to tell Ilya. I try to calm myself so I can deal with this. I can’t afford mistakes.

Ilya doesn’t pick up. It rings to voicemail. What the fuck? Maybe he’s on the phone.

We drive and when we arrive, the laundromat is quiet. Dark. I glare at it. The fury and the need for my son building in my veins.

Fuck this noise.

I’m going to storm the fucking place and—I stop and make myself breathe. I then grip the door, shaking.

A man appears in front of the door, and then he slides into the front. Pavel looks at me over the seat. “You’re not going in alone, Boss.”

I grit my teeth. There’s only one reason he’s not dead or bleeding on the pavement, and that’s because I didn’t open that door. Not because he stood there in an attempt to block me. I appreciate he knows me well enough to know I just might storm in.

But I’m no good to Erin or Sasha dead.

And storming in without backup could be a suicide mission. I don’t know what’s in there.

Niko.

With my son.

And a whole lot of guns.

“The guy said the place was empty. When he delivers, it’s always empty, and he has to go through to the back to put the chemical barrels in. Hook them up, take out the old ones. His job is a straight man’s job. He delivers, he takes the empties, he leaves. If the cops?—”

“I fucking know what a straight man is, Pavel,” I snarl. We use them too. A safeguard middleman, a witness that everything’s on the up and up. “Where the fuck are the reinforcements?”

“On their way,” the guard says.

Pavel types something on his phone. “We’re making sure we’re ready for anything.”

The protocol is spot-on and it drives me fucking insane. I don’t want to do this by the book. I want to storm the gates and rain hell down.

Any other time, I would.

But it’s Sasha.

An innocent two-year-old.

My son.

And I owe Erin to get him out safely.

If he’s there.

Fuck.

I call Ilya again, but it goes to voicemail. Whoever he’s talking to or whatever is going on with his phone better be vital or I’m ripping his heart from his chest.

A black SUV arrives. No lights.

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