“What servers? What are you talking about?”
The third person, Andrea, I assume, strips her mask off, and somehow, she is just as perfect as usual. She steps up and answers my question. “We’ve been working to take out the Capri family for a while now. Ever since Adrian met Valentina. Sal, one of the heirs to the Capri family, was her fiancé. He’s super dead now.”
Kai snickers a bit, and we all swing our gazes back to him. “What? That piece of shit deserved it. So now, we are taking on this end of the Capri operations. They send out illegal porn and images to those who might now want to purchase an entire human being.”
Nausea rises, and I grab his arm to steady myself. She’s with him right now. “We have to get in there and get him out. I don’t want him in there longer than necessary.”
Kai nods and jerks his ski mask back on. The others as well. “We are going to lead you in like we caught you sneaking around. When we have an opening, we’ll make a move to kill the other guards. You get to Michail while I destroy the servers.”
Seems like a reasonable plan. There are so many ways this could go wrong. But we have backup. That’s better than nothing. I nod once and put my hands behind my back for him to zip tie. He does it quickly but leaves enough room that I can slip my hands out easily.
“I’m going to be extra bitchy to you in particular,” I say.
That makes him chuckle as everyone else goes over the plan and gets tied. They lead us in a line, at gunpoint, into the warehouse. This used to be the old council meeting place. Now, most of the time, we meet at the event center since it was easier, as most of our meetings occurred during events.
Kai leads us around the center of the room toward a bedroom in the far back, the one corresponding to my chair. This fucking bitch.
When we stop, Kai speaks to a guard outside the door quickly. The guard disappears into the room, and in a second Margery exits, a wicked wide grin on her face. “You came to join us, after all.”
I want to wrap my hands around her throat right here, but I can’t risk it, not with Michail still in there in Lord knows what shape. “Where is he?”
“Resting after our time together.”
She’s changed, but she doesn’t look like she’s been at Michail’s mercy. Trust me. It leaves a mark. “You’re lying. He doesn’t want you while drugged any more than he does sober.”
Kai steps around us, and I glance out of the corner of my eye. He gives a subtle nod that even I understand. Keep her distracted while he slips into the room to check on him.
“So, is this about him, or me, or did you just want my job from the very beginning? Why didn’t you run like every other candidate?”
Her smile is gone, and her eyes flash fire. “Everyone knew you didn’t actually run. You were Mommy and Daddy’s perfect child. Destined to take the throne when they abdicated. No one could have run against you.”
A gun shot makes me jump. Her eyes fly toward the door behind me, and then everything jumbles together really quickly, like a movie on fast forward.
Kai exits the room with his arm propped around Michail. Andrea and the other man from outside swing around to take out the guards. A couple of other guards close in on their friends from behind until the only ones left standing are the ones with the pins on their shirts. Absurdly, I feel the need to count them all. Five in total, which means wearing one of these masks is the infamous Adrian Doubeck, in the flesh. Someone like him came for Michail too?
The guards with pins on our side of the room split off and join us. The others stare around, confused, until Kai raises his voice. “If you don’t want to be lined up against that wall and shot, you better walk out of here right now.”
The extra guards flee, except the ones nearest us.
He doesn’t answer, and I spin to look at the rest of the guards who crowd in close. They’ve stripped their masks to reveal every member of Michail’s team. Even Adrian has folded himself into an empty council chair, looking every inch a king on his throne.
I stare down at the woman. Someone I thought was my friend. She’s never been a particularly nice person, but I didn’t think she could be capable of what is racing through my head. Of what Kai told me.
No. How could I have missed it?
One of the guards who had been waiting for us to return walks calmly through the group, a gun held barrel first in his hand. When he reaches Michail, he strips off his mask one-handed and wraps Michail’s fingers around the stock of the gun. They share something for a moment, and I step back to line up with the other guards. This is something he needs to do for himself.