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“Anika, I’m going to send some people after them. I need you to stop before you hurt yourself.” That got her attention, and her ire.

“Now, Roman.” She stopped jumping for my phone and locked her arms around her waist.

Interesting. Twenty minutes ago, she’d been afraid to have any of us too close. Mention her daughter and self-preservation went flying out the window faster than Kirill’s pants could hit the floor.

Maksim shut the door to the guest suite before Anika could run out the door to handle the problem herself. Based on her expression, she’d do it.

My phone pinged, and I opened the message my investigator had warned me he was sending. A breath stuck in my lungs, and I turned the phone toward Maksim. “They have a picture.”

“Of Nora?” Anika’s voice cracked and she lunged toward my phone.

“No.” I lifted it too high again. “Of you.”

“Show me.” Her breaths shook through her entire body, and when I didn’t immediately give in, she bared her teeth at me. “Roman, if you make me fight you for that phone, I swear to God I’ll find something heavy and make you regret it.”

I turned the screen around, not because I felt threatened but because I hoped this would finally prove to her the world she’d accidentally stepped into. We were no longer a threat to her, but others were.

The picture had been taken outside her bakery. Anika was walking through the door with a tray balanced against her hip, her hair piled into a loose knot and flour smeared across the front of her apron. Nothing about it stood out except the fact that whoever had taken it had stood close enough to get a clear shot at her. That was the warning I needed her to see.

Her thumb hovered over the screen. “I’ve never seen this.”

“I had assumed you didn’t pose for it.” I pulled the phone away. “I need to contact my team.”

Anika’s jaw locked, fury sparking in those beautiful eyes I’d nearly drowned in so many times during our night together. “I’m going to get Nora.”

“No. You’re not leaving this property while someone is actively looking for you and your child.” I tapped out several messages. “I’m sending a team after them.”

“No.” Anika stepped between me and the door. “Absolutely fucking not. You are not sending six men built like refrigerators to my apartment building. They’ll scare the hell out of Miss Helen, and when they try to walk out with Nora, she’ll go bat-shit crazy.”

“Four men.” I corrected her by holding up four fingers. “Six is too many.”

She raised one eyebrow slowly. “That’s the part you focused on?”

Maksim ignored us, and interrupted by tapping Anika’s shoulder. “What does Helen need to know we’re the good guys?” The last two words came out strained, and Anika gave him a sour look.

“Keep telling yourself that, hot shot. Maybe one day it could be true.” She huffed and ran a hand over her eyes. “She needs to hear from me. She knows I’d never send strangers to pick Nora up without warning her first. If a bunch of armed men show up at her door, she’ll barricade herself inside and call the police. She might be seventy-three but she keeps a bat under her couch and she used to be a famous softball player with one of the highest percentages of home runs. She might not hurt them, but she’ll damned sure try.”

She was rambling. I recognized it a few seconds into her valiant speech, and I let her keep going because it seemed to help. By the time she stopped talking, she wasn’t staring at the floor. Her shoulders had drifted back, and her chin had lifted so she stared at us instead of around us. I hadn’t expected her courage to abandon her, but she recovered well enough.

“I like this woman. We’ll bring her with Nora?” Kirill remained next to the windows that overlooked the gardens.

“Yes.” I added it to my orders, sliding a look toward Anika. “I’m sending two vehicles. Men in plain clothes that are not built like refrigerators and carry no visible weapons.”

She wrapped her hand around my phone. “Stop planning like I’m not here.”

“You’re remarkably comfortable touching my belongings when you objected to me looking at your bank account mere minutes ago.” I pulled free. “And I’m not planning around you. I changed my plan at your request. You can’t have everything you want, Anika. We are in charge here. We will allow for some freedom. Do not mistake that for incompetence.”

“Oh, fuck you.” She threw her arms around her stomach and held on to the robe.

There was something almost refreshing about how quickly her fear disappeared when Nora was involved.

“Your men need to know what to say. Nora has an emergency word they’ll have to use or she’ll hide from them. And trust me, she’s excellent at hiding.” Her chin came up again, the glittering ice in her eyes almost triumphant.

God this woman was infuriating. I shouldn’t find that attractive, but I loved a woman who wasn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with me. I hid my smirk and sighed. “You gave a four-year-old an emergency word?”

“Damn fucking right I did. I’m a single mother in the middle of the city.” Her shoulders lifted in a shrug, but she was not sorry in any way.

Maksim nodded toward my cell. “Let her call.”