Sofia gave her an incredulous look. Miller hoped she’d keep quiet and go along with it.
“Shut up. You do not know what you talk about.”
“No? Just sounds to me like you’re doing all the work and Arnie’s getting all the glory.”
“We get the cash.”
“And he’s going to lock up most of the city’s underworld? That seems pretty lucrative to me. Meanwhile, you get a bit of cash and all the risk? Didn’t he get you to shoot Aleksandr? And now you’re the one who has to handle the ransom with Rogan? I suppose you’re going to have to kill him as well.”
How she managed to keep her fear from affecting her voice, she didn’t know. She was a better actor than she’d thought.
“Arnie shoot your old man. Then he take care of you.”
She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from crying out in denial. Stay calm, Miller. You can do this.
“Like I said, he gets all the glory.”
Oleg scowled.
“How certain are you he won’t do the same to you he’s got planned for Rogan?”
“Because we have agreement.”
“Right, and I’m sure he’s known for keeping his word.”
“Shut up. Your words poison.” He moved over to her, leaning in to wrap his hands around her neck. “You hear me? Shut up before I shut you up. For good.”
Miller gasped for breath, her stomach churning with fear. He was going to kill her. He was going to murder her right here and now. What the hell had she been thinking, pushing him?
Someone yelled something, but she couldn’t make out the words. All of her attention was focused on trying to breathe. Her vision went black.
Then, suddenly, the pressure lifted and she took a deep breath. Then another. Never again would she take breathing for granted. Holy shit.
As her awareness returned, she glanced over to find Sofia crying, tears rolling down her face.
“Miller, are you okay?” Sofia asked. “Oh God, I thought he was going to kill you.”
Miller carefully moved her head around, wincing in pain. “Where is he?”
“Pavel pulled him off you. Oleg walked out. He was fuming. Why did you push him like that?”
“I’m trying to get us out of here alive,” she whispered. Pavel and Anton stood across the room, smoking.
“Yeah? I don’t think it’s working considering you almost died! If he didn’t need you for that call to Rogan, I think he would have finished the job. Please, Miller. Be careful.”
“Okay. I hear you. I can’t believe you pretended to date that ass.”
“Sometimes we do crazy things to protect family.”
Chapter Ten
“I found a note in your study,” Colm told Rogan as soon as he walked in the door to his house.
“She’s a smart girl, like her old man.”
Rogan turned to look at the slim-built, dark-haired male standing beside Colm. This had to be Miller’s father. He turned back to Colm, ignoring the other man.
“What does the note say?” Rogan asked.
“It’s the password for her cloud account.”
“What?”
“It means we can track her phone to get her location.”
“Provided they haven’t turned it off or thrown it away,” Cillian added as Colm led the way into his study and handed him the note.
Colm opened the laptop. “Yeah, but even if they did turn it off, hopefully her phone sent the last known location to her account. So maybe that will give us something to work with.”
Thank God he’d bought her a new phone, her old one had been smashed by Iker.
Colm turned the laptop around. “Her phone is still on. Here’s the location.”
“Let’s hope she’s with it,” Rogan muttered as he raced back to the car, Colm, Cillian and Miller’s father following.
Halfway to the location, his phone rang. He looked down at the caller ID, surprised to see Miller’s name.
“Hello?” he asked cautiously.
“Hello,” a male voice with a Russian accent answered him.
“Who is this?”
“I am man you fail to locate. I am always one foot ahead of you, MacGuire.”
“Oleg.” Bastard. “You have Miller?”
Fuck, what game was he playing? And what the hell did he want?
“Because of you and your bitch, I had to quit job, leave my place as Anisimov’s advisor. I was to be his second.”
If so, then Rogan had vastly underestimated Anisimov’s intelligence.
“What do you want?” he snarled.
“Money. Half a million. I text you bank account. Once money in account, I tell you where to find girl.”
Did he think Rogan was born yesterday?
“How do I know she’s still alive?” Rogan snarled. She was. She had to be. Because he couldn’t contemplate anything else.
“Talk, bitch,” Oleg demanded.
“Rogan, I’m all right. Sofia is here—hey!” A smacking sound then silence. Rogan saw red.
“Oleg! Oleg!” he yelled.
“Yeah,” Oleg snarled.
“You hurt her, touch her in any way, and I will kill you. Slowly. Painfully.” He was dead anyway, he just didn’t know it.
“You not make demands! I have girl!”
“I will find you.”
“The money. In my account. Then you have girl.”
“No, it doesn’t work that way. I’m going to come to you. I’ll transfer the money into your account while you watch, but I want to see Miller first.”
“No. You don’t make demands.”
“Then you don’t get the money.” Rogan held his breath, hoping his gamble didn’t backfire.
“I call you back.”
Miller watched Oleg pacing back and forth. Something about the call to Rogan had thrown him. She wished she could’ve told Rogan she loved him. Why hadn’t she said it to him before?
Because I was scared he wouldn’t say the words back. I was scared of rejection.
She’d wanted to hear the words from him first.
And now she might die without ever telling him how much she loved him.
How much she wanted to be with him forever.
So stupid.
“I call him back. Tell him he got twenty minutes to get here,” Oleg said suddenly.
“Shouldn’t we ask Arnie?” Pavel asked.
“I am in charge!” Oleg growled.
***
Rogan pulled his phone away from his ear. “We’ve got thirty minutes. How far out are we?”
“About five,” Colm replied. “Boss?”
“Yeah?”
“We’ve got a tail. It’s Maran. Want me to get rid of him?”
“Fuck.” He thought quickly. “Drop Cillian a few blocks away. Cillian, get in there and do some recon. See if you can find something we can use to our advantage. We’ll get rid of Maran.”
He didn’t have time for this.
Colm pulled over and Cillian jumped out.
Rogan glanced over at Miller’s father who had insisted on coming with them. “Time to be useful. We’re going to drive a few streets over. You can get out and distract our detective friend.”
The other man nodded. “You save my girl.”
Rogan didn’t know where this sudden parental devotion came from, but he didn’t have time to think about that now.
They pulled over. A silver sedan passed them. Detective Maran. Colm turned to look at Miller’s father. “That’s him. He’ll pull over to watch us. Think you can distract him long enough for us to leave?”
“Leave it to me.” Miller’s father jumped out.
Rogan’s phone rang. “Cillian?”
“I found the circuit breaker box in the basement. I can turn the power off to give you the element of surprise.”
“Good. I’ll text you when we’re about to enter. Give us five minutes then cut the power for two.” If they couldn’t take care of things in that time, they were screwed anyway.
“
Got it.”
“You trust Miller’s father?” Colm asked.
“No. But, right now, he’s the least of my worries. All he needs to do is keep Maran off our asses for half an hour and then we’ll be gone. Let’s go.”
Colm pulled away from the curb.
“Is Maran following?” Rogan asked.
“Doesn’t look like it. I’ll drive around for a minute to make sure we’re safe.”
Five minutes later, they pulled up outside an old, run-down building. Rogan quickly sent a text off to Cillian.
Two men met them at the door and patted them down. Both of them spoke with Russian accents.
“They worked at Solnyshko,” Colm muttered to Rogan after they’d been cleared to enter.
“Shut up,” one of them barked. Rogan had hoped they’d be sloppy enough to miss the knife in his boot.
He’d been right.
Fury nearly eradicated all the calm he’d forced on himself as he entered and spotted Miller sitting on a chair, her face pale, eyes huge and filled with fear. Through sheer force of will, he managed not to launch himself at Oleg and pound the other man into oblivion.
“MacGuire, pleased you could join party.” Oleg stepped forward, an oily smile on his weasel-like face. Rogan’s hands clenched into fists as he growled.
“Easy, Boss,” Colm muttered. “Remember the play.”
Stay calm.
“Rogan.” There was a desperate note to Miller’s voice as she ran her gaze over every inch of him.
As though she thought she was never going to see him again.
Not if I have anything to say about it, baby.
“Let’s get this done,” Rogan demanded. He pointed at Sofia. “What are you doing with her?”
“Oh, she special present for me. You don’t worry about lovely Sofia.” Oleg ran his fingers down her cheek as Sofia shuddered, leaning as far away as she could.
Colm stiffened beside him, growling.
“Easy,” Rogan muttered. Not his priority. But she was Miller’s friend and Anisimov’s cousin. Plus, Colm was half in love with her. “Give her to us as well and I’ll double your money. One million dollars.”
Oleg watched him speculatively. “Two million.”
“Fine.”
He gestured to Colm, who placed the laptop on the table.
“Untie her,” Colm growled, pointing to Sofia.
Oleg nodded over at the man closest to Sofia, who undid her ties. Good, one less problem to contend with. They needed every advantage they could get.
With rough hands, Oleg’s man hauled Sofia to her feet and pushed her toward Miller. Suddenly the lights went out, plunging them into darkness. Rogan moved, lunging toward the place where he’d last seen Oleg.
A gun fired and he winced, praying to God the bullet hadn’t hit anyone he cared about. Hopefully, the confusion was enough to give him and Colm an advantage over the three men. Two against three wasn’t great odds.
He collided with Oleg, the other man snarling. Something scattered across the floor. The gun. Thank God these guys were idiots. It was the only way they’d managed to get the advantage. Someone with experience would have immediately ordered his men to shoot the girls.
Rogan heard a scuffle. A feminine scream echoed through the empty building. The urge to race over to where he’d last seen Miller nearly overwhelmed him. But, right now, he needed to get Oleg under control.
The other man flailed, flinging himself about as he tried to break free. His forehead slammed into Rogan’s chin, making him swear as pain radiated up his jaw. Fury filled him with strength. He managed to wrap his hands around Oleg’s neck, squeezing until he went limp. But Rogan wasn’t letting down his guard. Keeping his weight firmly on the other man, he brought his leg up and reached into his boot for the knife as the lights came back on. Their two minutes were up.
Rogan placed his knife on Oleg’s neck.
“Wake up or I slit your throat,” Rogan hissed. The other man stiffened. Just as he’d thought, he was faking. He stood then pulled Oleg up, resting his knife back against his neck.
Rogan glanced around to find Colm had taken down the other men. He’d even managed to get hold of a gun and he had it aimed at them.
“Get on your stomach,” Colm growled. “Sofia, Miller, stand over there.”
Colm pointed to the side of the room.
As they started moving, a man stepped out of the shadows, his gun aimed at the women. “Stop there.”
They froze as he came closer.
“About time you turn up,” Oleg spat, sounding hoarse. “Let me go.”
“Drop the gun and get on the floor,” the new man snarled at Colm.
Colm glanced over at Rogan.
“Now! Before I start shooting!”
Colm set the gun down then lay on the floor.
“You two as well,” the other man snarled at the girls. Miller gave him a desperate look as she dropped to the floor.
He seemed familiar, but Rogan couldn’t work out where he’d seen him.
“Hello, MacGuire. Remember me? I thought you would since you’ve been trying to find me for the last fifteen years.”
Rogan’s breath caught. “You killed Lucas.”
“Yes. And now I’m going to kill you.” He aimed his gun at Rogan. Better him than Miller. “Let Oleg go.”
“No.”
Arnie shrugged. “No problem. I’ll just shoot you through him. No great loss.”
“What?” Oleg yelled. “You cannot do that!”
“Watch me. You were a means to an end. It was always him I wanted.”
“You waited long enough,” Rogan told him, stalling. He glanced over at Colm, who gestured to the girls to move farther away. Miller resisted and he sent her a stern look.
With a reluctant nod, she let Sofia tug her towards the door.
Good. At least Miller would be safe.
The tattooed man shrugged. “I’ve been with my uncle’s gang. I had no reason to come back here until now. But now the gang needs me. I know you want me dead and it was only a matter of time until you found out that I was back. It is you or me. I choose me. Say good-bye to your girlfriend. Don’t worry, you’ll see her soon.”
Rogan stared at the pistol, knowing he was about to die. He turned to Miller as a gun fired. He waited for the pain. Waited for Oleg to yell. But he felt nothing.
Instead, Lucas’ killer crumpled to the ground. Rogan glanced up from the body to find Cillian standing there with a gun. Cillian nodded at him calmly.
Rogan flung Oleg away from him.
“Watch him,” he ordered Colm as he moved to the man lying still on the ground.
“Is he dead?” a quiet voice asked. Miller stood beside him.
She slipped her hand into his and squeezed.
Cillian crouched, reaching for a pulse. “Yes.”
Christ. His mind reeled, but he took a deep breath. He needed to focus. “Call Alec. Tell him we need a cleanup.”
Alec was their cleaner. He’d take care of the body and any other evidence. Once he finished, no one would have any idea what had gone down here.
“Get Grady and Finn here to help. Colm, secure everyone else. We’ll take them to a safe house for a chat.”
All the details taken care of, he did what he’d been wanting to do since he’d first walked into this building. He tugged Miller into his arms.
“Are you okay? Did anyone hurt you?” he asked.
Of course they had. There was a red mark on her cheek. He touched it gently and she flinched.
“Who hit you?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Her gaze drifted to Oleg. Oh, he would pay. Rogan clenched his hands.
“I’m fine,” she told him. “I’m so glad to see you. I thought I would never see you again.”
She shook as he ran his hand up and down her back. “I will always come for you. Always.”
“Can we get out of here?” she asked.
He cupped her face between his hands and kissed her.
“Colm’s going to take you and Sofia home. I need to take care of things here.”
She grabbed his wrists, her grip tight. “No, I’m staying with you.”
No way.
“Miller.”
“Rogan, I feel safe with you. I’m scared.” For her to admit that, he knew she must be terrified.
Fuck. He needed to be close to her as well.
“How far away is Alec?” he asked Cillian.
“Should be here any minute, Boss.”
“Colm, take Sofia and keep watch outside. Send Alec in when he gets here. When he arrives, we’re leaving.”
Chapter Eleven
Miller stared down at her creamy hot chocolate. She could feel the warmth of the cup against her skin, but the heat didn’t seem to reach her insides. Sofia sat in the armchair across from her. Was that what she looked like? Pale, fragile, and in shock?
Probably. It was how she felt right now. Infinitely fragile.
She didn’t like the feeling at all. It wasn’t who she was.
Rogan stepped back into the room, frowning. Colm turned away from the window. Colm had barely said a word since they’d left the warehouse.
He’d made them both hot chocolates, given them blankets, settled them in the living room then stood at the window.
“Do you think Callahan had anything to do with this?” Colm asked.
“They never mentioned him,” Miller said quietly as Sofia shook her head. “I think Arnie acted on his own with Oleg. Arnie didn’t care about the ransom money, that was Oleg’s thing. Arnie just really wanted you dead.”
Rogan moved over and sat beside her.
“He was driving the car that tried to run you off the road,” she told him.
Rogan rubbed his hand over his face. “Thank God you left a note. If we hadn’t had that time advantage…”
Yeah, it could have turned out very differently.
“Did you see the tattoo on his arm?” Sofia asked quietly.
“On Arnie’s arm?” she asked, remembering the other woman’s reaction. “You looked like you’d seen a ghost when you saw it.”
“I’ve seen something similar before.”
“What did it look like?” Rogan asked.
“Three concentric circles, one white, one black, and one red. Inside the circles was a sword dripping with blood.”
Redemption (Cavan Gang #2) Page 14