Wicked Mafia Prince (A Dangerous Royals Romance, #2)(9)

“Coffee with ten sugars,” Yuri says. “That was their code. Viktor, just message her that and see what she does.”

“No!” Viktor says.

Tito and Mischa come back in with the pot of coffee for all of us. Viktor pours loads of honey into his and stirs.

“She sees the console,” Yuri says. “Guys always write stupid things, senseless things—nobody will mark it.”

I click to read through the exchange archives. It’s true—men are always writing in asking her to turn, asking her what’s in her prayers, asking her to masturbate, asking what she has on under the dark robe. When guys ask the lewd questions, the others jump to her defense. Some ask more G-rated stuff—where she’s from, what her hobbies are when she’s not praying, what she likes to eat. She has quite the fan base. Everybody is curious about the nun.

“You could just be like, ‘I’d love to treat you to a ten-course meal,’” I say. “‘And after, a coffee with ten sugars.’ What do you say? Just type that.”

“No!” Viktor says. “No.”

“Why the f*ck not do it?” I try. “That’s the whole f*cking point of a secret code!”

“You do not contact a person in deep cover,” he says.

“Are you afraid it’s not her?” I ask.

“No—it’s her.”

I nod at Tito. Viktor sees the nod and guesses my intention. He springs up, but he’s slow. Tito and Derek grab him and wrestle him to the couch. Even so, Viktor fights like a madman—so hard that I have to get involved—I won’t ask Yuri to subdue him. Tito gets him in a headlock, Derek has him in an arm lock, and I grab his face and look him right in the eye. “You see what madness this is?”

“It’s her,” he grates out.

“Then why don’t you even want to confirm it? Isn’t that a little suspicious? So I’m going to do it for you, and then we’re going to get the f*ck out of here, because this is f*cked beyond belief!”

I go to the keyboard over his protests and type in the message. The ten-course meal in Gorky Park. The coffee with ten sugars.

When I’m done, Tito and Derek let him go. He angrily pushes them away and draws near the screen, swearing in Russian, vowing terrible things, I’m sure. The message I typed flashes onto the screen below, and onto her monitor mounted on the wall to her side, well within her field of vision. She doesn’t move at all.

“She saw it,” Viktor says after a while.

“How do you know?”

“She is aware of all things in her environment at all times. Perfectly aware, but she will never show it.”

“If it was her, don’t you think she’d at least shake her head no or something?”

“She doesn’t want to,” Viktor says.

I sigh.

“It’s her.”

After a while I say, “We can’t send you in.”

He spins around with a wild gaze. “You have to.”

“Look at you! I won’t put you in danger like this.”

“It has to be me.”

“No. We’ll set somebody else up to go in,” I say. “A new person, a new identity.”

“That will take weeks extra!”

“We wouldn’t have lost this kind of time if you’d come clean about this.”

“We can’t wait that long!”

I pull him up from the couch. “That is not Tanechka!”

“You have to let me go in.”

“It’s dangerous for you and dangerous for the whole crew on standby,” I say. “How do we know you won’t try to go to her?”

“Because I wouldn’t endanger her like that.” He shakes out of my hold. “That’s why you must trust me. Look—I won’t go to her unless I think she’s in immediate danger. I promise you. Once we set up surveillance and start turning their people, I’ll be able to understand what she’s doing and support her, protect her. I promise, I won’t run to her. I will not be a cowboy, brat.”

I gaze into his eyes, wanting so bad to trust him.

“I love her. I would never endanger her. I seek only understanding. It’s our mission.”

I look over at Yuri. He tips his head, inclined to trust his old friend. I study the screen. The bid on her is in the high six figures. God, is it going to go to a million? There really are a lot of scumbags out there. “You promise me when you go in for Nikki, you won’t suddenly be searching for the nun?”

“Unless she’s in danger,” Viktor says.

“Immediate danger, like a fire.”

“Immediate danger. I promise. Don’t worry. I won’t be f*cked up,” Viktor says.

“She’s so high-profile, she’ll be guarded. You get that, right?”

“Of course,” Viktor says. “And you need to understand, if Tanechka wanted to leave this place, she would be gone. Tanechka can care for herself. She’s up to something. Our success in bugging them and spying on their computers will only help her.”

“Fine.” It makes sense, and more than that, Viktor doesn’t lie to me. Except by omission, apparently. “You missed my money-laundering operation meeting. I could’ve used you for strategy.”