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“It doesn’t make sense, though… Nik has been tracking you for over a week. Why is it messing up for the first time tonight?” I zoom in on the dot. It’s some residential street between North Hollywood and Van Nuys. I hold out my other hand to Mariya. “Give me your phone.”
Mariya taps the nonexistent pockets of her hospital gown. “I’d love to, but I’m traveling light today.”
“Where did you leave it?” I look around the room, but I don’t see her purse or anything beyond her IV pole and the machines.
“At the house, I guess. I thought I had it on me, but I—” She stops suddenly, frozen with wide eyes.
“What?”
Mariya looks up at me. She’s barely breathing. The heart rate monitor behind her beeps along a little faster with every passing second. “I had my phone in my jacket pocket.”
I scowl. “And?”
“And Luna was cold.” Her eyes are glazed over like she’s somewhere else entirely. Reliving the moment. “We were on the stairs and I was going outside to check on what was happening. I didn’t want to be restricted in case I had to fight. Luna shivered, and I… I gave her my jacket.”
The phone chimes again. Suddenly, it’s the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard.
New location for Little Sis.
But it isn’t Mariya’s location.
“It’s Luna,” Mariya whispers, voicing exactly what I’m thinking.
The little red dot flashes. It’s a lighthouse in the shitstorm of this day. It’s Nik… Nik saving the fucking day, even while he’s downstairs with a hole in his chest.
I press a kiss to my sister’s head and sprint for the door. “I have to go.”
“Be careful!”
I can’t promise that. This lead might be a dead end, maybe even literally. But I have to chase it. I have to do whatever the fuck it takes to save Luna and our baby.
6
YAKOV
I fly down the highway. It’s late, so traffic is light. Isay and as many men as we could muster are minutes behind me. As much as I want to slam on the gas, get to the location pinging in the tracker app as quickly as possible, and charge in to save Luna, having backup is the best way to make sure she gets out safely.
If she’s still alive.
Mariya’s phone is in a shitty part of the city. The kind of neighborhood where screams and gunshots don’t raise any alarm bells. Akim could keep Luna there indefinitely. He could torture her—kill her—and no one would ever know.
My chest aches at the thought. What if I’m too late? What if she’s already gone?
More questions like that circle around my head. Each time I bat one away, another one takes its place.
I pull out my phone and am halfway to calling Nikandr just to quiet the noise in my head when I remember he can’t answer.
Swallowing down a bitter taste, I call the hospital instead.
Mariya’s nurse gave me her direct line before I left the hospital and it doesn’t take much pushing to get her to connect me to the nurse in Nik’s operating room.
“Mr. Kulikov?” a soft voice says. “You are the patient’s brother?”
“Nikandr Kulikov is my brother, yes. Tell me what’s going on. Where is he?”
“Your brother is still in surgery,” she explains. “He will probably be there for a few more hours, at least.”
“Is the surgery going well?”
