Chapter 37 - Lev

As we tore up through the hills to the coordinates, Hardy gave me, my phone rang. I tossed it to Max, telling him it was my second in command up in San Francisco and to put it on speaker.

"I got a hold of someone pretty high up," Artur said.

He had the same flat, bored voice he always had, sounding the same when you wished him a happy birthday as when he'd just finished thoroughly interrogating someone.

"Tell me," I said, knowing better than to waste our time by asking unnecessary questions about whether or not he'd gotten straight to work on this person. If that man was still alive at the moment, he was wishing he wasn't.

"There's a whole slew of people on the way to where they're keeping your assistant."

Max raised a brow at me, and I made a face. When I kept a secret, I kept it right.

"How many?" I asked, stepping on the gas.

"A dozen, but they're coming from up here, so you've got a good lead on them."

"We're just about there," I said, nodding.

We could make the grab, deal with the Hardys and be out of the area before their people were clearing the bridge traffic. How we dealt with the Hardys depended on what state Jenna was in.

"And uh, Boss?" Artur asked, sounding uncharacteristically uncomfortable. "This guy also said your girl's in on it."

I laughed out loud despite the serious situation. "Not a chance."

"People don't usually lie in the state he was in. He wasn't exactly just saying stuff to save his ass at that point. Supposedly, Hardy's been ordered to get her to go along with some plot to take you out, and he's been in contact with her for a while now."

"Not a fucking chance," I said, ignoring Max's look, which was full of pity.

"You sure you don't want to hold back? Maybe just let this chick hang? The info's good, I'm sure of—"

"It's not good," I snapped, telling him to keep tabs on the other Russian organization's people who were on the move toward this direction.

"What the fuck?" Max asked quietly when I ended the call. "You think it's true?"

I was furious, and not at Jenna. This was a ruse to put a wedge between us, trip me up, something. There was no way she would betray me.

But what if she did? The idea that she might be a part of this tore me up to the point I was gripping the steering wheel hard enough to hear a cracking sound. Not sure if it was my bones or the wheel, I forced myself to loosen my hold. Take a breath and think. Could I be walking into a trap set up by the woman I loved?

Even through the heartbreak that thought caused, I still loved her.

And it wasn't like I'd been completely honest from the start. I'd not only tricked her into believing I was someone I wasn't, but I'd had her over a barrel so that she had no choice but to marry me. I'd seen her anger on our honeymoon night when she found out the truth. Could that have been simmering all this time and culminated in this?

I shook my head, my foot pressing harder on the gas. "There's no way," I said to Max as well as myself. "No way in hell she'd do something like this. She's a good person. The best person I know."

Max snickered without a trace of humor. "Could that be why she did it? We're not exactly on her side of the law."

"Not a damn chance in hell," I repeated, refusing to glance his way and see more of that pity. He knew me. There was no hiding the pain I felt that it might be true. "There's only one way to find out."

Face the music and let it play out however it would. Either way, I had to make sure she was all right. She was mine. No one messed with what was mine. I'd see her again, safe and sound, and then find out if it was true.

Which it wasn't. But if it was?

I had no idea what would happen then, because I'd never faced true heartbreak before. Going up against something that might end my life didn't even make me pause. That was part of the game. But something that might shatter my very existence? Finding out that Jenna was working against me would do just that, and it would be something I'd never come back from. A bullet would be easier.

"There's no fucking way," I said, positive of it this time. Or so I kept telling myself.

The road turned to little more than a barely wide path for the car to creep along. Unfortunately, by the time I got sight of the small cabin in the midst of the woods, Hardy's wife was outside, keeping a lookout.

Max jumped out before the car stopped, trying to grab and silence her, but she'd already started shrieking for Hardy as she raced inside. She slammed it behind her, and just as I heard her fumbling with the lock, I kicked it in, sending her flying backward.

I barreled in with Max on my heels, both of us raising our guns. We dropped them to our sides at the same time, freezing when we saw her regain her balance just in time to grab Jenna from where she sat.

She hauled Jenna in front of her like a shield, one arm wrapped around her throat. Rage prickled in me when I saw at a quick glance that they'd dared to tie her hands together. Her wrists were red and raw with smudges of dried blood where the plastic ties dug into her skin.

More importantly than that was, Hardy's wife now had a gun pressed to the side of Jenna's temple. Our eyes locked for a split second, and time seemed to stand still. This was the woman I adored and that I'd do anything for. Was this part of the ruse?

"Be careful," she cried out, her eyes darting to the side.

Hardy had quietly appeared from a back room and was lifting a gun of his own to aim at me. His trigger finger twitched, missing the mark and giving me the split second I needed to put a well-aimed bullet through his wife's hand. The gun she had pressed to Jenna's head clattered out of her grasp as she shriveled to the ground in agony, dragging Jenna with her.

Max lunged for the councilman and wrestled the gun from him with ease, then pinned him to the floor and knocked him over the head with it.

"Nice shot," he said as I rushed to get Jenna free from Mrs. Hardy's choke hold.

I had to give the old bat credit for her tenacity. Not too much credit, though, as I popped her in the jaw to get her to stop squawking about the tiny gunshot she took through the hand.

"Extra time at the range," I told Max, grateful I'd been concentrating on my aim lately.

Hauling Jenna to her feet, I took out the knife I had in my pocket and sawed through the zip ties at her wrists. At the same time, my phone rang, and I tossed it to Max in irritation. Jenna's hands were swollen, and she groaned as I gently rubbed some feeling back into them, dabbing at the harsh scratches on her wrists.

"Are you okay?" I asked. "Any other injuries?"

The other questions could wait. Right now, I just wanted to hold onto her, breathe her in, and make myself believe she was all right. And not part of this.

"Other people are coming," Jenna said breathlessly.

"We're not out of the woods yet," Max piped up at the same time as he ended the call. "Artur just told me the guys are closer than he originally thought."

Was Jenna warning me or trying to save her own skin? The terror in her eyes was very real, and so was the blood matting at the back of her head. If she was in on this or not, those assholes had hurt her.

There wasn't time for any questions, and with a growl, I picked her up and hauled her to the car. Max followed with Mrs. Hardy, who he dumped in the backseat, while I went back for the revered councilman. The only place for him was in the trunk, and even that was too good for the sack of shit.

Jenna swayed, holding onto the side of the car, and I tossed her the zip ties I'd found in Hardy's jacket pocket. With a look of grim determination, she tied up Hardy's wife's ankles and wrists, shoving her over to the side of the backseat so she'd have room to fit.

"Sit up front," I told her. "Max can drive us back, and I'll keep an eye on this one."

She shook her head, all but grabbing for the gun I had strapped to my side. "Now it's my turn to be the one holding the gun," she said, giving Mrs. Hardy's limp body a filthy glare.

For a split second, I kept my hand over the gun, wondering if she'd turn it on me. When I handed it over, she grasped it in both hands and slid in, only aiming it at the unconscious woman. We got out of there, tires skidding in the churned-up dirt. I kept casting surreptitious glances back at Jenna as we made our way back to the resort.

She was clearly exhausted, but kept a steady aim at Mrs. Hardy, who woke up shortly after we left the cabin. I'd had her pegged as an idiot, but she had the good sense to stay quiet and keep her eyes closed until we met up with Aleks, halfway to the spa.

Max jumped out to transfer our two captives to that car, where he'd take them up to San Francisco while we decided what to do with them. Since they were so high profile, simply getting rid of them wasn't an option, though that seemed to be what they planned to do with Jenna and me.

As soon as my brother had the wife dragged out of the backseat, I tensed, sitting in front of Jenna, who still had my gun in her hands. It was just us now, and she could have easily turned it on me and put a bullet through my skull. If she was determined enough, she might even get the drop on at least one of my brothers before they realized what had happened.

Would she turn my own gun on me? Was my second-in-command's intel good, and was she part of this failed plot to bring me down? I turned slowly and caught her gaze, morbidly curious to see if she'd complete the plan to her satisfaction. Was I about to let her kill me, if that was what she wanted?

She blinked as if she only realized she was still holding the gun and wilted out of the tense posture she'd been maintaining while Hardy's wife was in the car. I jumped in the backseat with her since Aleks could drive us back to the resort while Max took care of our captives.

"It's over now. They're not going to mess with you again."

She swayed toward me, going pale as all the adrenaline began to drain out of her. Would she be so quick to lean on me if she was really working against me? Or was it just weakness getting the best of her? Everything in my being was fighting the belief that she had anything to do with this, but Arturo's information-gathering techniques were second to none. If he found out something, it was usually a fact.

"I'm okay," she said, swaying back toward the window on her side. Was she trying to keep her distance?

"All that blood on the back of your head says otherwise," I told her, my voice harsher than I meant it to be.

"I got smashed into a tree," she said, shocking me with a small laugh. My brave girl.

"Son of a bitch is going to pay, don't you worry," I told her.

She nodded, winced, and closed her eyes, remaining silent for the rest of the ride. Aleks wanted me to try to sneak her up to her room once we returned to the resort, so Katie wouldn't see the blood and freak out. He pulled up to a side entrance, and I helped Jenna, who was wobbly on her feet but making an effort not to fall over and get inside. It should have worked, and I could have helped Jenna get cleaned up and changed, but her sister had some sort of telepathic powers and was staking out that very entrance.

Pacing and pressing her hands into her sides, she caught sight of us and hurried over, grimacing as she hauled Jenna into a hug.

"Oh my God, I'm so glad you're okay," she said. Instantly turning on me, her smile turned to a death glare. "Why didn't you take her straight to the hospital?"

Aleks appeared from dropping the car off at the valet up front, getting as worked up as his wife that she was out of bed.

"She's fine. Now get your ass back to your room and rest."

Katie grabbed Jenna's shoulders, making her groan as she tilted her head around. "Look at that. Does that look like strawberry jam to you? It's blood, and she needs to be looked at by a doctor, or I won't be able to rest."

Jenna gathered her strength to pull out of her sister's anxious clutches and stepped back, reaching for my arm so she wouldn't tip over. "I'm fine." She looked Katie up and down, frowning. "But you don't look so good."

We all honed in on Katie, who was chalk white, her lips tight with suppressed pain. Her hands were held tight at her sides, and she barely kept herself from doubling over.

"Damn it, are you trying to cover up the fact you're freaking going into labor?" Jenna accused. The sight of her sister in trouble gave her a burst of energy, and she stood up straight and dropped her grip on my arm. "You're having a contraction right now, aren't you?"

"What the hell, Katie?" Aleks roared, picking her up and carrying her toward the lobby. "You guys run ahead and get the car back from the valet."

I stood there, stunned at the turn of events and about to argue that Jenna was in no condition to run anywhere.

But my wife, who had been close to passing out a few seconds ago, grabbed my arm and shook it, dragging me forward. "What are you waiting for?" she demanded, like she'd never been kidnapped and put through a harrowing ordeal. "We have to get to the hospital. My sister's having a baby!"