of hired guns. You need to tell your hired guns to communicate with me as if they’ve come over to the dark side. We can set something up via Reece here where it looks like I’ve bribed them.” He pauses, which I’m sure is for dramatic effect. “They are going to be instrumental in this. I tell Aram that these men are now in my pocket. Show him the communications between us and tell him you’re in a load of shit because you’ve relaxed your guard.”
“Go on,” I say when he pauses.
“I’ll say that Andrius has left to see Allyov, and you’ve sent Bohdan back to Moscow. Alexei is also gone with Andrius. He thinks you’re alone at the house. Only the men I’ve bribed as your guards, and he will also believe I’ve hacked your security again. We come to hit you in the dead of night. I’ll get a message to you beforehand stating when and how many men he has. Then you take the fuckers out, with my help. Andrius is a damn good shot; I should know.” He laughs. “You have him on sniper duty up in that faux turret of yours; what’s with that, by the way?”
“Shut the fuck up, and hurry this along.”
“You get the plan. He’s turning up with a small army, but he thinks you’re unprepared. He’s going to be outnumbered and out skilled. His men are unfocused. They’ll be weak without him as their leader. Once the head is off this particular snake, it won’t grow a new one.”
I look to Reece. He nods, once. “Give me two hours,” I tell him.
I’m going to speak to Damen, Bohdan, and Andrius and then I’ll make a final decision, but I already know I’m going to go for it.
Later that day, we’re all packed and have four hours before the plane leaves. Maya comes up to me in the kitchen, where I’m making a coffee.
“You’ve only got a few hours left in Paris,” she says with a smile. “This house is beautiful, but don’t you think Cassie might like to see a bit more of the city?”
I bite back the desire to tell her to fuck off out of my business and instead ask, “Where would you recommend, oh wise one?”
“Oh, that’s easy. The Musee d’Orsay. It’s stunning, Konstantin.”
“I know,” I snap.
She smiles at me and doesn’t bite back. “Of course. Cassie might like it, though, don’t you think? Shall I take her?”
“You?”
“Yes,” she says innocently. “I think she should get to see something beautiful while she’s here. She’s been through a hell of a lot.”
“I’ll take her,” I state. If anyone gets to see Cassie’s face light up at the beauty that is the d’Orsay it will be me. Not Maya.
God, maybe I’m in this worse than I can grasp if I’m jealous of her friends now.
“Take who where?” Bohdan asks.
“Musee d’Orsay, with Cassie. And you need to come.”
“Why?”
“Need extra protection, despite the threat being low. You know me, Paranoid.”
“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you,” Bohdan jokes, then turns serious. “Okay. Is there a back way in there? I don’t like you being in there without someone carrying.”
“There’s always a back way,” I say with a grin.
An hour later, I’m outside the Musee d’Orsay with Cassie. Bohdan and another armed man will be waiting in the main foyer inside when we go in, but they’re going to keep a discrete distance.
Before I agreed to this little trip, I did an assessment of the safety. The intel Damen had before we even agreed this trip was that the Armenians weren’t here in Paris, and that hasn’t changed. The museum is a busy place, and not the sort of place someone is going to want to do a gang hit. So far as safety goes, we should be good.
We pay and enter, and the moment we step into the magnificent building, Cassie stops, causing me to bump into her. She’s staring all around her, and her face, her face hits me so hard in the gut. She’s got a look of such ecstatic happiness on her beautiful features; it makes my heart lurch.
I’m never going to get to see this again if I let her go. Some other man will. Some other man will make her look this way in utter awe. As if to underscore the point, a man walks by and smiles at her. It’s a smile I recognize. One of male interest. It makes me