Page 81 of Breaking the Rules
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
They had four minutes left in their timetable to get everyone downstairs and out the door if they were catching a ride with Tony. With one more body than expected, it was going to be damned crowded in the back of the produce van.
This time, Xavier claimed the lead and signaled Waverly to bring up the rear. He hated to let her get that far from him, but right now, she was the only one out of their motley group that he even remotely trusted. And after what he’d witnessed upstairs, he wasn’t feeling too generous with that trust. Xavier was thankful that his training allowed him to compartmentalize. Because seeing Waverly completely unfazed by finding her “lover” in bed with another woman meant she’d been lying to him the entire time. Again.
He wasn’t going to think about that now. No, he was going to save that for when they were alone… and then possibly shoot her.
But first they had to get out of the house. With the all clear from Micah, he led the way down the back stairs.
“I’m missing one,” Micah muttered in his ear. “I’m only counting six. There should be seven guys lurking around the house and grounds.”
Shit.
Xavier’s hand flexed restlessly around his gun. They made it to the first floor without incident. But with the way Petra clomped down the stairs like a prized Clydesdale, he’d be amazed if they made it out of the house. The girl had no stealth. She kept whispering questions to Wrede, who only half-heartedly tried to shut her up.
“Shush, darling.”
Xavier hoped he’d get the chance to shoot him in his British ass.
“Stop!” a thickly accented voice rang out.
“Oh, fuck. Found him,” Micah muttered.
Xavier spun around, pulling Dante and Petra behind him. A short, beefy guard in a black-on-black suit had his gun trained on Waverly.
He didn’t know what surprised him more: when Waverly held her hands up toward the ceiling or when she began speaking in rapid-fire Russian. The Russian meatball nodded and frowned.
Xavier caught the name Anatoli and the word leg. And that was it.
Waverly looked at him. “Linen closet,” she said. “Dante and Petra first, then you.”
He wanted to argue, but there was no time. He wrenched open the closet door and gestured Dante and Petra in. He followed, keeping them at his back, his gun trained on the guard.
Waverly backed in in front of him and then the guard entered. When he shut the door, the man flicked the switch on the wall and the light stayed on this time.
She began spouting off again in fluent Russian. It seemed like a question and answer session to Xavier.
Then Anatoli was asking Petra something and she was nodding her head violently through tears as she gripped Dante’s arm. Wrede, for his part, kept Petra at his back against the wall.
“A minute and half. Where are you guys?” Micah demanded.
Waverly was speaking again, drawing Anatoli’s attention.
He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple working in that tree trunk neck.
“What’s happening, Angel?” Xavier asked.
“Dah.” Anatoli said with a brisk nod.
Waverly tucked her gun back into her waistband and patted the guard on the shoulder. “Anatoli’s coming with us to help ensure Petra’s safety.”
“We’re not all fitting in the fucking van.”
“You have to leave in the van. If the guard at the gate catches on that you didn’t leave with Tony, we’re in trouble. The rest of us are leaving with Anatoli in one of Petra’s cars.”
“No.” He wasn’t leaving her alone on this. Not with an agent he didn’t trust and a private security guy who would probably shoot her in the driveway.
“X,” she cupped a hand to his face. “Please trust me. We’ll meet up down the road and switch cars.”
