Page 39 of Merciless Bratva Soldier

Deep breath. I pray that this isn’t going to massively backfire on me. “One call,” I say. “Now, while I’m with you. Then I bring him in.”

“What if he doesn’t answer?” She looks at me with her honey-brown eyes, and I deserve a medal for not pulling the car over and fucking her right here in my car.

“He’ll answer.” And if he doesn’t, he’ll wish he had.

She slides her hand out from under mine, and I miss her touch the instant it’s gone.

“V?” Daniel answers on the third ring. “I didn’t think you’d call.”

“Why, Daniel?” Vera has the call on speaker for my benefit. “Because you sold my alarm code to people you owe money to?” She pauses. “Or maybe it’s because you sold them photographs of me instead?”

My heartbeat drowns out the sound of Daniel’s breathing on the other end of the call.

“Is he there?”

Vera looks at me from the passenger seat.

“Yes,” she says.

The line goes dead.

Vera stares at the blank screen. “What happens now?”

“Now, we’ll do this my way.”

Vera doesn’t try to talk me out of it. She doesn’t tell me not to hurt him, and I leave her to be quiet with her thoughts.

At the bakery, I enter first and check that all is as it should be before I fill my lungs with oxygen. I’ve been dealing with men like Zorin for most of my adult life, but this one feels heavier because it involves Vera.

I stick around while she bakes. I drink my coffee and watch her move around the kitchen, hands working dough, flour creeping up past her wrists, and one lock of chestnut hair consistently falling free of its band. I nearly tuck it behind her ear, but I stop myself. I can be patient, and I’ve never met anyone more worth waiting for.

Rosa arrives by taxi at six. Her eyes meet mine briefly before she removes her coat, hangs it on the stand in the staff room behind the kitchen, and comes back tying her apron around her waist. She’s all hard wire and controlled energy, and I acknowledge with a brief nod that she’s still a formidable woman who will never back down without a fight.

“I’ve called my friend Denise,” she says. “She’s coming to install a new alarm system this morning. I told her it was an emergency.”

“Did you tell her why?” Vera asks.

There’s a mischievous glint in her eye when she says, “I told her a bear got in and now the whole damn forest wants a slice of pie.”

17

VERA

Denise and her small team work quickly and efficiently. By the time the bakery opens to customers, we’ve already agreed that cameras will be placed above the front door, in the kitchen facing the rear of the building, and outside in the alleyway above the back door where I first met Nikolai. He and I will receive image alerts from the cameras, and Rosa’s number will be used for backup as her old phone can send a text message and make calls, but nothing else.

I try not to think about why we’re doing this, but the image in my head of Daniel accepting an envelope filled with cash for information about me is skulking behind my eyes and making me feel nauseous.

I don’t hear from Nikolai again until early evening when Denise’s team is testing the alarm from the kitchen.

We went to his apartment. He wasn’t there.

I text him back. Because I called him?

The answer comes almost before the message registers as delivered. Maybe.

I stare at the phone until the test alarm jangles my back teeth. I know I cost Nikolai the element of surprise by speaking to Daniel this morning, but I also understand that he did it for me. I only hope I haven’t made things worse.

I’m scared of what will happen to the bakery. I can’t lose it now when I’ve waited so long and saved so hard to get it.