Leaning down, I pull the face mask off the man at my feet. He’s white and looks like he has smoked for most of his life the way his skin sags. I don’t see any visible tattoos, so I start looking at his arms and chest.
It’s there I find it. Russian prison tats.
“This one spent time in a Russian prison,” I tell Kai.
He nods. “These three as well. Seems this is a Russian problem.”
He moves closer to Declan before looking him straight in the eye. “Did Nikita do this?”
Declan starts shaking his head before Kai even finishes asking. “No. There’s no way she could have. I have her phone tapped, and she is watched twenty-four hours a day. I never let her out of the sight of me or my men.”
“She’s out of your sight now,” I tell him.
He grunts. “She’s with your wives. Not only that, but I took her phone before we got here. I knew you’d be suspicious, so this was the best way to ensure she couldn’t communicate, even though I know she’s not.”
Kai huffs, “Let’s go ask her.”
He starts to head down the stairs, but Declan pushes in front of him.
“No. I know how you ask people, and I won’t let you hurt her just because shit went down. This could have been anything.”
“Let’s calm down.” Callum meets them on the stairs, Kado and I holding back to see how it shakes out.
Kai’s in no danger. He can take care of himself even if he was, but Callum won’t hurt him, which means Declan won’t.
“We will simply talk. You have my word,” Kai assures him.
Declan thinks over his offer, but I don’t care about it. All I care about is getting to my woman, then getting my side stitched up.
“Move the fuck out of the way, assholes.” I push through them, Kado on my trail.
How the most violent of us managed to stay so clean, I’ll never know, but Kado looks like he went for a Sunday stroll instead of murdering our attackers.
Lucky son of a bitch.
I make my way to the safe room, pounding on the door.
It doesn’t open right away, so I text Daiki.
After a moment, the door opens, and I come face-to-face with my woman. She’s standing there as she protects the others from whatever threat might be coming at them.
I wish I could fuck her right now. The fierce look in her eye has my dick twitching even with the throbbing side.
Her face falls as soon as she sees me.
“Kenji? Oh my god.” She rushes forward, her hands checking me over.
I hiss when she reaches my side. She pulls her hand back, covered in blood.
I hear Callum murmur to Autumn, “It’s just a graze, I’m fine. I promise.”
“What the fuck happened?” Miya hisses.
The rest of the men step into the room to collect their woman as Kai speaks.
“We were attacked on the roof.”
I glance at Nikita. She’s holding Emily, with Declan at her side. Autumn carefully takes Emily back, thanking Nikita for protecting her daughter. Nikita looks frightened, but she doesn’t look like someone would if they were guilty.
