Page 96 of Desperate Victory

I had no idea if I’d even survive the dinner, but what a way to go…

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

LAINEY

Acar was waiting for us when we came down. The driver—Kellan Traschel—was a familiar face. The Vandal slipped out of the driver’s seat and opened the back door for us. He was dressed in a black suit and had the look of a professional chauffeur.

“Miss,” he murmured in polite greeting, ignoring Milo’s snort of amusement as the others waited for me to get in first.

“Thank you.” The back of the vehicle was quite spacious. I didn’t take any of the edge seats. Instead I chose the middle seat facing forward. Ezra climbed in next and he dropped into the seat right behind the driver. Adam took the seat on my right with Bodhi going across from him and then Milo next to me on the left.

“You have the address?” Milo asked after Kellan climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Yep. Already scouted the area and Jas is there keeping watch with Rome.”

“Efficient,” I said even as Milo threaded his fingers with mine.

“Not taking any chances,” he said by way of explanation, but I waved it off. I didn’t need them to tell me about mitigating risks. We were in an unfamiliar city, meeting with unfamiliar people with a measure of influence.

We needed allies here. If we couldn’t find them and we had to do this on our own… Well, there were people we could hire to bring in if necessary.

So, no chances needed to be taken beyond what we were already doing. The drive from our apartment to the home of the evening’s host, Dimitri Solohub, took just a little under thirty minutes. I wasn’t sure how much of that was the roundabout route that Kellan took or the fact it was further out.

I could let my mind wander while we were in the vehicle. I needed to focus when we were inside. The house turned out to be a luxury villa in the Troja district. It occupied a hill with a pair of other villas flanking it. Close, but not immediately on top of it.

“All three homes are under the control of the Mikhailovskaya as far as we can tell. Doc called his friends. Alphabet did some looking and they reached out to some people they know in the region. Most won’t have anything to do with the Mikhailovskaya because it’s not good business.”

“Good to know,” Bodhi said. “Any warnings?”

“Just the standard,” Kellan replied as he pulled up the drive and then reached out to choose a button on the call box. No challenge was offered, just a buzz and an accented voice saying something in Russian.

“He said come up,” Ezra translated. No one said anything more until Kellan’s window was closed and we were moving once again. “It took us three days to get someone to even consider an introduction, now we’re invited to dinner.”

He rubbed at his jaw. The playful flirt from earlier was absent and replaced by a far more troubled man.

“And we’re here…” I let that trail off, waiting him out. Despite the assurances earlier that they wished I would stay behind where it was “safe,” we were all here.

Ezra and Adam would have fought a lot harder if they suspected a trap.

“We’re here,” Ezra agreed. “I just don’t know what we might be walking into.” Then he glanced at Bodhi. “I don’t think it’s a physical trap, but it feels more like they got an idea of who we were and that opened the door.”

“Which could be a problem all by itself,” I murmured. Adam settled his hand on my thigh.

“Whatever it is,” he said. “We’ll deal with it.”

Then we pulled up in front of the house. Before he got out, Kellan turned his head so he could glance back at us. “Hit the panic button if we need to crash in and get you out. Jasper and Rome are watching, I won’t be far. Hopefully they’ll just let me stay. If they won’t—not a problem.”

“We got this,” Milo said and he patted the pocket of his jacket. “Let’s not keep our hosts waiting.”

Despite the familiarity of formal attire and a luxurious location for our dinner “party” or whatever they called it here, unease settled in my bones. I liked when events were a little more predictable.

Especially when we weren’t sure if we were dealing with potential friends or new enemies. Allies didn’t have to be friendly, but they did need to be trustworthy.

The cooler air sent shivers rippling over my skin. I had a wrap but it wasn’t as warm against the breezes here as it had been next to the apartment building. I took a good look around, letting the scenery appear to capture my interest as I scanned who was here with us.

So far, I hadn’t seen any guards standing out. Didn’t mean they weren’t here. If anything, they were more than likely watching us from several locations. Jasper and Rome were out there too, but I hadn’t expected to see them and I didn’t.