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  “Without killing any Saints?”

  She dropped her hand to his chest. “Honey, I want them dead as much, if not more, than you. But we have to be smart. There are few of us fighting against them. If we go up against them now when their numbers exceed ours and they’re waiting for us, then we’ve already lost. You’re too cunning to make such a mistake.”

  Damn. She was right, and he hated it.

  “It’s a good opportunity to take some of them out,” he argued.

  She dropped her hand to her side. “I don’t want to win a skirmish. I want to win the war. And it’s going to take all of us.”

  “I can’t run Sergei’s business from Texas.”

  “Yes, you can.”

  He shook his head. “No, I really can’t. The moment the Saints realize I’m gone, they’ll destroy every one of my men as well as the building. I have to stay.”

  “Then I’ll stay with you.”

  “It’s too dangerous.”

  She laughed as she took a step closer and rose up on her tiptoes to place her lips against his for a quick kiss. “That’s the life I’ve led for many years. The only difference now is that I’ll be doing it with the man I love.”

  “You know too much about the Saints,” he argued, hoping that he could convince her to go to Texas. It wasn’t that he wanted her gone. It was about keeping her safe and alive.

  “And from what I’ve learned about Callie, she can do wondrous things with the information I can share. I go where you go. And that’s final.”

  Lev turned his head and looked out over the docks. The workers there were loyal to their union. They fought to have their jobs and everything that went with it.

  “What are you thinking?” Reyna asked.

  He grinned at her as he realized the answer had been right in front of him the entire time. “I’m thinking if we’re going to stay, then we need to show the Saints who owns the docks.”

  “They’ll have people there. Dock workers who give them information.”

  “Yeah, but they won’t have Tommy.”

  She quirked a brow. “Who?”

  “I need you to go find Mia like we planned.”

  “And where are you going?” Reyna demanded.

  He smoothed back a strand of hair that had flown into her face. “I’m going to get an army. Once you’re with Mia, alert the others that something big is coming.”

  “Where do you want us?”

  “Sergei’s office.”

  She touched his cheek. “Be careful.”

  “You, too.”

  Lev waited until she was out of sight before he made his way toward Tommy Sullivan’s office. He and Sergei had once been enemies, but when the dock workers had fought for better union wages, Sergei had joined them. Their feud had shifted to an uneasy truce. Not long after Tommy had gone to Sergei for help with someone stealing from the docks, Sergei had found the culprit and turned them over to Tommy so he could alert the police.

  After that, their friendship continued to develop over the years until they were as thick as thieves. If anyone were going to help Lev, it would be Tommy.

  Lev stayed out of sight, keeping to the shadows and noting the men not doing a good job of hiding as they hunted him.

  He slipped into the office and immediately found four guns pointed at his face. Lev held up his hands, letting his gun dangle on a finger as he stared into the faces of two of Tommy’s guards.

  “I need to see Tommy,” he told them.

  The big one on the left snorted as he finished chewing a bite of his meatball sandwich.

  The one on the right shook his head. “Not going to happen.”

  “It is if you want to get the men who have taken over your docks this past week.”

  Tommy’s disembodied voice came out of a room at the back. “Bring him!”

  The guns were lowered, and the two men escorted Lev to Tommy. Lev tucked his pistol into the waistband of his pants and walked into the small office. Tommy had an ego, but it didn’t equate to a big office with a nice view of the docks. His main concern was the workers and how he could get them more as the union president.

  Unlike his guards, Tommy was as thin as a reed. Age spots covered his face and bald head. He steepled his gnarled fingers and eyed Lev as he leaned back in his chair behind the desk.

  “I wondered when I’d be seeing you,” Tommy said. “We missed you at the funeral.”

  “I wasn’t in the country,” Lev explained.

  Tommy shrugged. “You should’ve gotten back.”

  “I just did. It was Sergei who sent me to Kiev on a matter that he felt we had no choice but to be involved in.”

  Tommy sat forward, his face lined with worry. “Was this about the Saints?”

  Lev’s knees nearly buckled he was so glad that he didn’t have to try and convince the man. “You know about them?”

  “Sergei told me all about them after he returned from Texas. I didn’t believe him at first, but it didn’t take much digging to learn that he told me the truth.” Tommy motioned for Lev to take a seat.

  Lev lowered himself into the chair. “They’re the ones who killed Sergei because I went to Kiev. I encountered another American who had been working with them for the last five years, spying on them after they killed her partner. The Saints came after both of us. We traveled across Poland, Sweden, and Norway before we got on a boat and came here.”

  “Damn,” one of the guards said behind Lev.

  Tommy rested his arms on the desk. “I had no alert that you’d arrived at the docks.”

  Lev shrugged. “I have my ways, and I had to keep hidden because the Saints are looking for me. I counted ten of them on my way here.”

  Anger contorted Tommy’s features. “Where?”

  “Wait,” Lev cautioned. “If Sergei told you about this group, then you know they infiltrate everything. There are no doubt Saints in your union. If you call up any men now, you’ll alert the Saints that you know about them.”

  “Then what do you suggest?”

  Lev smiled. “Get ahold of your strongest and most loyal and have them come here. Can you call a meeting with the union members?”

  “Yes. Why?” Tommy asked, frowning.

  “If we get them all in one room, then we might be able to sort out who is a Saint and who isn’t.”

  Tommy rubbed his hand along his jaw. “Do we have time for that?”

  “No, but we need your men.”

  Tommy jerked his chin to the guards, who quickly walked from the room. “They’ll get the word out that I’ve called an impromptu meeting to take place in an hour. I’ve done it before so it won’t raise any suspicions. As for the other request, there are eight men I know I can trust without a doubt. I’ll call them now. Two are already working.”

  “Get them here and armed. And I need a map of the docks so I can show you where I’ve spotted the Saints.”

  33

  The Saints were everywhere. The closer Reyna came to Sergei’s building, the more of them she saw. They had set up a perimeter that would make it impossible for anyone to get in—or out.

  Reyna ducked beside a barrel and tried to find a route to the building as she looked for Mia. The location where Mia had told her to meet was now guarded by a Saint. That meant that Mia had either moved or the Saints had her.

  Reyna didn’t want to take the time searching for Mia if she could get into the building and help Lev. More than anything, Reyna didn’t want the Saints to find her.

  If only she knew what Lev had planned.

  She put her hand over her wound, hating that it prevented her from moving freely. The last week had done wonders for healing it, but it wasn’t enough. And she refused to allow it to prevent her from saving herself, Lev, or his friends.

  Reyna turned on the balls of her feet and started to stand when she caught a brief glimpse of a woman near her. She rose, remaining bent at the waist, and moved to another set of barrels. Closer and closer she got until she came up behind the
female.

  Reyna lifted her pistol and aimed it at the back of the woman’s head. “Drop your weapons.”

  There was a beat of hesitation before the woman swiveled her head to the side. “I can’t do that.”

  “You don’t really have a choice since I have a gun aimed at you.”

  The woman slowly turned to face her. “If you’re going to kill me, then I’ll face my murderer. You Saints don’t scare me.”

  That drew Reyna up short. “Who are you?”

  “My name doesn’t matter.”

  “Actually, right now, it really does. You say the right one, then I won’t pull the trigger.”

  The woman’s eyes widened. “Reyna?”

  She instantly lowered the weapon. “Mia?”

  “Yeah. It’s me.”

  “Holy shit. I nearly shot you,” Reyna said.

  Mia’s long, black hair was gathered in a ponytail at the back of her head. Her dark eyes were large as she looked Reyna over. “I’ve been searching for you. Callie sent a picture, but it’s difficult to see anything in the shadows.”

  They both ducked down when they heard someone approach. Reyna spotted two men, heavily armed as they did a sweep of the area. They remained silent until the two Saints were gone.

  “Where’s Lev?” Mia whispered.

  Reyna shrugged. “I don’t know exactly. He said he had to go see Tommy.”

  “Tommy? Tommy who?”

  “Hell if I know. Lev said that Tommy could help.”

  Mia touched her ear. “Did you guys hear that?”

  That’s when Reyna realized Mia had a COM in her ear, likely with Cullen, Orrin, and Yuri listening. If only she had one to talk to Lev.

  “What else did Lev tell you?” Mia asked.

  Reyna shot her a crooked smile. “Just that something big was coming.”

  “It’d be nice to know what that is,” Mia said with a laugh.

  “Agreed. For now, we need to get to the office.”

  “Any ideas?”

  Reyna eyed the discarded bottles of liquor near them. “How are your acting skills?”

  “Pretty good. What do you have in mind?”

  Reyna smiled as she hid her pistol in the back waistband of her jeans. She messed up her hair and altered her shirt so that it was unbuttoned enough to show cleavage.

  “Oh, I like this,” Mia said. Then she frowned. “Honey, it’ll be fine.”

  Reyna let Mia convince Cullen as she grabbed two of the bottles. Reyna was wondering how to keep the rifle with her when she turned back to Mia and let out a whistle.

  The fighter pilot had taken down her hair so that it fell in waves around her face. She had shifted her jacket so that it hung off one shoulder. “I’ll pass then?”

  “Definitely. Are Cullen and the others on board?”

  Mia chuckled. “Orrin and Yuri think it’s a good plan. Cullen will after a little convincing.”

  “All right. We’ve got some distance to pull this off. Let’s make our way from the cars so it looks as if we came from that direction.”

  They crept quickly and quietly to the parking area, avoiding the Saints. Once there, Reyna decided to hide the rifle in case she needed it later.

  “Ready?” Mia asked.

  Reyna nodded and threw her arm around Mia’s shoulders. “I should warn you, I can’t sing.”

  Mia slung her arm around Reyna’s shoulders and began belting out a song. They stumbled, half from acting drunk, and half from being linked to each other. They laughed, missing words to the song and singing off-key, all the while appearing entirely soused.

  Reyna dropped her head forward, causing her hair to cover her face. It allowed her to look in specific locations for Saints. She tapped twice on Mia’s shoulder to let her know she’d spotted two.

  A heartbeat later, Mia tapped once when she found another. They continued in that vein, waiting for someone to stop them. And then it happened. They were within thirty feet of Sergei’s building when a Saint stepped out of the shadows.

  “Ladies, you’re going to have to stop,” he said in a loud, deep voice.

  Reyna jerked to a halt and looked at Mia. “We can’t. We’re expected,” she slurred.

  “Expected,” Mia agreed and lifted the bottle to her lips. Then she looked at it oddly. “It’s empty. Again. How does that keep happening?”

  “I don’t know. Sergei will have more,” Reyna said.

  The Saint held up both hands to stop them. “You need to turn around and go home. Now.”

  Mia laughed loudly. “I can’t drive. I’m dru...drunk,” she said on a hiccup.

  Reyna nodded hard, then leaned so that it appeared as if she were about to fall. She faked losing her grip on Mia and ended up stumbling forward toward the Saint. Reyna then dropped to her knees, the bottle she held shattering when it hit the ground. She kept her hand on the neck of the bottle that remained in her hand.

  “Ooooopsssssss,” she said with a laugh and looked back at Mia. “I think I’m just going to lay down right here.”

  “No, you don’t,” the man said as he rushed to her.

  As soon as he leaned down to help her, Reyna lifted the bottle and slid the broken glass into his skin, severing his jugular. He grabbed his neck, his eyes going wide.

  “The Saints are going to lose,” Reyna whispered to him before his life drained away.

  She reached behind her and pulled out her pistol as she got to her feet. Mia fired twice. In moments, both of them were shooting as they raced toward the building. They were steps away from the door when it was thrown open, and several burly men came storming out firing—but at the Saints.

  “In here,” one of them said to Mia, who rushed inside.

  Reyna followed. In moments, the men were back inside with them. Bullets hit the door, but they bounced right off.

  The same man who had urged Mia inside looked at Reyna with black eyes. He was a tall, hulking man that reminded her of Arnold Schwarzenegger. His light brown hair was cut short on top and cropped on the sides. “It’s an armored door.”

  “Thank God, Sergei thought of that,” Mia said.

  The man shrugged, his face becoming sad. “It was just put in a week ago.”

  Reyna looked at the hallway and the men staring at her. “Those men out there are looking for me. And Lev.”

  At the mention of Lev, all of the men straightened.

  She cleared her throat and said, “Lev is coming. He had to make a stop, but those people out there can’t get him.”

  “He should’ve been here for Sergei,” someone behind her said.

  “It’s not my place to tell you why he wasn’t,” she said as she looked at each of them. “If you know Lev, and you knew Sergei, then you knew their bond. You should also know that if it had been in Lev’s power, he would’ve been here.”

  Mia moved to stand beside her. “She’s not lying. Lev will explain it all when he arrives.”

  “And,” Reyna continued, “the people out there now are the ones that killed Sergei. They’re called the Saints.”

  The man in charged nodded. “I’m Arnold.”

  She held back her chuckle after having compared him to Schwarzenegger. “I’m Reyna.”

  Arnold jerked his head for them to follow him as he walked past. He ordered two men to inform the others to get armed. Reyna and Mia followed him into a back room where he left them.

  Reyna looked around at the large office where a desk was situated, as well as a sofa, tables, and chairs.

  “Every time I came into this office, Lev stood there,” Mia said.

  Reyna turned to where she pointed and found herself looking in a corner near the desk. That’s when she realized that they were in Sergei’s office. “Lev intends to take over.”

  “It’s what Sergei wanted, so I’m not surprised. But is Lev doing it because he feels obligated, or because he wants it.”

  “I think it’s a little of both.”

  Mia blew out a breath and walked to the sofa whe
re she sank down. “Cullen, we’re inside and unharmed.” She smiled. “Love you, too, babe.”

  Reyna turned away, feeling odd listening to Mia’s conversation. She thought of Lev and hoped that he had made it to Tommy’s and had gotten what he needed. She’d gotten so used to having Lev near that she didn’t like being without him. Not to mention, she was worried that the Saints would find him.

  “If anyone can get around these docks, it’s Lev,” Mia said.

  Reyna looked at the woman over her shoulder. “Is my worry that obvious?”

  Mia grinned. “Only because I’ve had that same kind of concern before. And now,” she added, brows raised.

  They shared a laugh as Reyna turned to face her. Then she walked to the sitting area and chose the chair opposite Mia. “Thank you for trusting me.”

  “I’ve not known Lev long,” Mia said. “He saved my and Cullen’s life. We owe him a huge debt. In the short time I’ve known him, I’ve realized that he is a man of few words but of action. If he trusts someone, it’s because they’ve earned it. You did that, and because of that, we trust you.”

  Reyna swallowed. “I almost killed him in Kiev.”

  “Almost doesn’t count. You two were meant to be on this journey together.”

  “I wouldn’t be here without him.”

  Mia chuckled. “A lot of people can say that about Lev. He doesn’t expect or want any praise. That sets him apart from others.”

  “And his skill. He would’ve made an excellent spy.”

  “I think he found his calling with Sergei.”

  Reyna leaned back and began reloading her gun. “I’ve been in the middle of the action for so long that it feels weird to sit back and let the others do it.”

  “Oh, I take full advantage of these times. Soon enough, we’ll be in the middle of the fray again.”

  “I just wish I knew where Lev was.”

  Mia checked her pistol and pulled out bullets from her pocket to reload the magazine. “By the way he talks about you, I have a feeling he’d move Heaven and Earth to get to you.”

  Reyna smiled at hearing that. “I fell in love with him while running for my life.”

  “The two of you have been through something terrible and came out better for it. Lev doesn’t do anything halfway. So, if he’s in, he’s all in.”