Page 48 of Deceptive Vows
“Good,”I said.“Are you at the house now? Is Lara there?”
“Da.”
“I’m putting the building on lockdown.”
“Nyet.”
“For tonight, Pasha. If they’re hitting the warehouses, what’s to say they won’t hit the house at the same time? Just stay in tonight. One night. That’s all I’m asking.”
He groaned, and a few moments of silence passed.“Okay. Lock it down.”Exhaustion strained in his voice. This war with the Gray Wolves was taking its toll on all of Krysha, but most of all him.
We’d lost family and friends to them, and we’d fight until our last breath to get justice.
“Nazar, be careful tonight, my friend.”
“I will be.”
Pasha ended the call, and I rubbed my face with my hands, mentally cataloging who to position where for tonight’s operation at the warehouse and security for Pasha.
Thea shifted in her seat, angling herself toward me. “I may not have understood the conversation, but it sounded intense. Iseverything okay?”
I dropped my head back against the headrest. “Da. Or it will be.” Rolling my head, I looked at her. “I’m sorry?—”
She lifted a hand and smiled. “It’s okay. I understand.”
“Tyomnyy angel…” Amid all this chaos and deception, she was the one bright light. “Thank you.”
“Are you still going to the warehouse district with me to look for the women tonight?” She crossed her arms over her chest. “If you can’t, that’s okay. Pasha is your Pakhan, so I’ll understand if you can’t.”
A smile broke out on my lips despite the tension building in my shoulders. “Da, but with this new information about the Gray Wolves, we need to prepare a little better. They’ll likely be expecting us.”
“So you think it’s a trap?”
Straightening, I nodded. “They lured Pasha to New York.”
Her mouth parted in a gasp. “Do you need to leave?”
“Nyet. I’ll be staying. My gaze swept the garage—habit, checking for threats before we exited the car.
Thea dropped her hands to her lap. “We need to regroup. If they’re expecting us, we need a better plan.”
“I think so too, but we’ll need to be careful about it. We can video in your brothers. If one of Marco’s guys or the Gray Wolves see us meeting up, they might suspect we’ve figured it out.”
“A double, double, double cross?” With a sigh, her gaze dipped to the armrest as her hand came to her forehead.
I lifted her chin with one of my fingers. “We will find the women.”
Her fingers wrapped around my wrist. “Let’s get inside and get working on a plan.”
“Da.”
My chest tightened as I watched her gather her things. She moved with purpose, unafraid of what lay ahead. This woman... I wanted her beside me for decades. And yet tonight, I was going into battle with her. If something happened to her—nyet. I pushed the thought away. Tonight, I would be the shield between her and danger, no matterthe cost.
The warehouse districtsprawled like a bruise on Chicago’s west side—rusted metal and broken concrete hugging the river’s edge. Night had swallowed the street, turning every shadow into a threat. I killed the SUV’s headlights a block out, letting the engine’s low growl fade as we coasted to a stop behind a crumbling loading dock.
As soon as I opened the door, the air hit me—oil and stagnant water, undercut with the metallic tang of rusting machinery. It cut through the leather of my jacket and settled in my lungs. In the distance, a cargo ship’s horn bellowed, while closer, rats scurried through debris. Even the bitter November wind couldn’t clean this place.
Thea slipped from the passenger seat, a shadow among shadows. The faint streetlight caught the edge of her profile—jaw set, eyes alert. All business in that black tactical gear. I’d seen trained killers move with less precision than she did, crossing that broken pavement.
