“Good, I think we’re running out of time.”

“She’s a fighter,” Dimitri said with conviction. “She’ll hang on so she can put a bullet in every person who did this.”

She felt them turn and slow. Just as suddenly the back doors opened and the bright sun blinded her momentarily. Four people worked to get Nicola out, and they wheeled her off faster than Nina could follow. Her legs were asleep, and the pain of standing was crippling. She stood and stared at the house where they’d be stuck until Nicola crawled back to health, but she’d done it before.

“How did this happen?” The question was inevitable, and the man asking it might shorten the timeline to her death.

“Hello, Fredrick, and I can’t answer that yet.” She turned and faced him, trying not to give away her feelings of sadness at seeing him like this. “I received a call right before this happened.”

From the moment she’d started working for the Antakov family, she’d fallen hard for Fredrick—a man too beautiful to describe. Now he was in a wheelchair with deep scars on his face, one hand shriveled up and useless. He shared his twin sister’s view of the world, and also her unforgiving nature. She told him the entire truth and waited. The man behind Fredrick seemed to be waiting for the order to kill her for all her mistakes.

“Who knew you were going there that night?” Fredrick used the toggle on the chair to go back inside and out of the sun.

“No one. We were planning to return to New Orleans that night after dinner, and she was making plans for what had to happen once we got there. She even talked about buying a new place to make the children more comfortable.” She stood, not wanting to overstep when he stopped in the large den.

“That makes no sense. There’s a dozen people who know she’s alive. It shouldn’t be that hard to find who did this.” He pointed to the teapot on the counter and the plastic cup with a straw. “She told me Sacha wasn’t happy with their meeting. Do you think it could’ve been him?”

“No, I doubt Sacha had the balls for this.” She fixed his tea and handed him the cup, touching his fingers. “I’ve been loyal to your family for most of my life. I’ll accept whatever you want to do to me for this, but before you kill me, give me the chance to avenge her and give her a reason to fight.”

“What could possibly do that?” He didn’t pull his hand away, and he stared at her in a way that unnerved her.