Page 79 of His Forbidden Obsession

“I haven’t got another question. I’ve got eyes inside Ivanov’s house.”

“What the fuck do you mean?”

“Apparently, Alina is a skilled hacker. She’s gotten into the security cameras. We can see everything they can see, views of all different angles of the house, inside and out.”

“You’re fucking kidding me. Put her on the phone.”

“It’s Remington,” I said as Alina took the phone. She talked him through different locations where the cameras were, which guards she could see. She said her father didn’t seem to have increased the normal amount of security. That was a damn good sign.

Somehow, after a lot of mysterious clickety clacking, she looped Remington in so he could also see the feed, and after she ended the call, she got to work on seeing what else she could find.

Niko and I celebrated with some mutual blowjobs after she ordered us to leave her in peace. After that, I distracted myself with cooking and took a stint at Landry’s post so he could come in to shower and, I imagined, flirt with Alina.

After one of the longest days of my life, it was finally go time. Rafe and Dante both texted me, promising to stay safe and reminding me they were grown-ups.

We all hovered over Alina’s computer. It wasn’t like we could see everything. We were hardly going to get a play-by-play, but I still wanted to be there when any of our crew came into camera range.

A man I vaguely recognized from a job I’d done for Remington approached the front door of Ivanov’s house. Niko laid a hand on my leg, and I realized I had been bouncing it. “I can’t sit still right now.”

“I know. You’re worried about your brothers. It makes sense. I’m worried too. You’d be there if it wasn’t for me.”

“I could’ve sent someone else here. I chose to be here with you. You are not to blame for that.”

“He’s here to take care of me too,” Alina said.

Niko huffed. “I’m not entirely sure you need to be taken care of anymore. You seem damn capable of taking care of yourself.”

“I’ve made sure to learn a lot of skills. There’ve been times I’ve needed to defend myself. Typically, I was punished for it later, but there are a lot of bad men that hang around with my dad and don’t know any boundaries. Once he realized I wasn’t going to get him anything as someone else’s bride, he stopped caring.”

That sick fuck. “We’re going to put an end to him. I swear to you.”

“I believe you. Now, let’s watch.”

The door opened, but the angle of the camera didn’t let us see who was inside. I wished we had audio at least. I saw confusion on our decoy’s face and tensed, but he quickly relaxed and smiled, so I could let out the breath I was holding.

When he and his “associate” entered the house, Alina switched to the view of all cameras, but it didn’t allow us to see what was happening. We waited. That was all we could do.

If things went as planned, it would be a while. There would be the pretense of negotiation, and it would be drawn out as long as necessary for others to get in place.

Moments later, Dante appeared on one of the cameras. “There.” I pointed to the screen, and Alina enlarged it. “What’s he doing there? Isn’t that room upstairs?”

“Yes,” Alina said. “He shouldn’t be in the hallway if he needs a quick escape.”

Dante crouched around a corner. I wanted to be able to tell him there was a camera on him. He needed to move. The wait was painful.

Niko ran a hand up and down my back. “Just breathe.”

“I’m trying, but how am I supposed to? My heart’s racing. It feels like it’s going to pound out of my chest. I know Dante’s in trouble. And I have no way to help him. I’m too far away. I can’t even speak to him.”

And then another man came into view. Dante leaned out, raising his gun, but the man shot first.

I watched a bullet hit my brother. He fell back, and the other man had disappeared.

“No!” I screamed. That hadn’t happened. It was a trick. It wasn’t real. “Dante!”

“He’s going to be okay,” Alina said. “The bullet hit him in his shoulder. He’ll survive.”

“Only if somebody gets to him. Call Remington, call somebody,” Niko said.