Page 44 of Abduction

Because he could.

“Yeah, you could say that,” Maura admitted. “We’ve had a run-in with him.”

That said it all.

Before anyone could say anything, Zayn was curious.

He’d been to this rodeo before.

“Is it classified?” Zayn asked. “You know, before I ask, and you tell me to go to Hell.”

Jagger sipped his coffee as he held Maura, his hand on her belly protectively.

“It is, but I’m willing to discuss it if that means staying safe. Also, if we’ve tangled with him, I’m sure we’re not the only ones,” Jagger said. “Snakes?”

Adder shook her head.

“Not me. I’ve never heard of him. I mean, I’ve heard of him, but he was never on my radar. What I know is he was sadistic and favored torture and rape to get what he wanted.”

“That would be him,” Maura said.

Mamba shrugged.

“I know who he is.”

They focused on her.

“From what I hear, a snake named Mamba killed his wife, or so that’s the off-the-record story,” she admitted, using the third person.

That immediately made Rogue nervous as hell that his wife was talking in the third person, and that she’d tangled with the man’s wife.

He hated to be paranoid since that was Zayn’s gig, but he wanted to point out one thing.

“We have the son of a Russian general planning on taking over our city, and it just so happens that my wife took out his mother?”

She said nothing.

“And we took out his father,” Jagger stated. “The rest is classified. All I can tell you is our group eradicated the world of General Dominik. Painfully.”

Uh-oh.

“I don’t think that’ll be a coincidence,” Boone said. “Nothing here ever is. Could that be why he’s picked this city? Maybe he knows you’re here?” he asked.

“Don’t stress it,” Jinx said. “No one knows it was me. It was set up by the military when she was here on US soil.”

“Same,” Maura said. “Only, we took the General out as he was on the move through Poland. The Russians are still cranky about that. Only, he was in the process of raping a young woman, and shit like that pisses me off.”

“How’d you do it?”

Maura sipped her coffee.

“I cut out his heart and stuck it to the bed headboard with a knife.”

Zayn looked at Jagger.

“And you are perfectly comfortable with sleeping next to her with your little soldier within arm’s reach?”

Jagger shrugged.