AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I can’t.
The walk to Valentina’s dressing room is quick. The hammering of my heart propels me forward in a rush, and I burst through the door with Valentina’s name hovering on my lips.
The first thing I see is blood.
Not a lot, but enough to raise the hair on my arms. Crimson drops paint the beige carpet, with some larger patches smeared across.
Like someone injured was dragged.
Ezra starts investigating the scene, crouching to check not just the bloodstains, but the debris scattered around the room. Glass mirror shards sprinkle the floor like snow, crunching under our feet.
I pick up Valentina’s ripped veil, cursing at the strands of hair tangled with it.
Someone hurt my wife.
That someone is going to die a very painful, very slow, death.
Ezra whips out his phone and rattles off orders to his team, a group of enforcers and bodyguards threaded throughout the city. Most of them are here today, but a few are still out. “Find her,” he demands, “and if there are any turncoats in our ranks, slit their fucking throats.”
He doesn’t usually give kill orders too easily. I glance up at him, taking in the stiff set of his shoulders and the way he glares at the blood on the floor.
“Ezra.”
Turning his eyes to mine, he releases a held breath. “Yes, pakhan?”
Ezra is my oldest friend, my longest one, and a true brother to me. Titles don’t always matter when it comes to him. “We will get her back. I promise.”
It’s not easy for Ezra to love. He’s watched love tear apart families and force powerful men to do reckless things. It’s a weakness, one so cutting that it makes it impossible for him to do his job as an enforcer.
You can’t destroy things you love. You can’t feel for your enemies. If you do...you die.
Knowing him, he’s feeling the weight of Valentina’s absence just as strongly as I am.
He takes a deep breath. “I should have crushed that suka’s face beneath my fists.”
I shake my head and place my palm on Ezra’s shoulder. “No. She wouldn’t have forgiven you.”
“At least she would be here.”
I can’t argue with him on that.
Mikhail charges through the door next, his fury written all over his face. “Celia found this.” Thrusting a wad of crumpled paper in my hands, he starts pacing around the disheveled room. “That fucking bastard was here. I knew I shouldn’t have let her out of my sight. I just knew it.” His shoulders shake as he throws a picture frame across the room. Its glass shatters and frame cracks, crashing to the floor in a mess of broken pieces. Mikhail crumbles with it, crouching low and hanging his head between his knees. He takes deep lungfuls of air.
The slip of paper in my hands is delicate, ripped in multiple places from Mikhail’s rough handling. With careful restraint, I pull it open and flatten it across my palm.
Smile, moya zhena.
As fury roars in my veins, Ezra grunts and grabs something from beneath a shard of glass. He holds up the tiny square to the light, his eyes narrowing at what he finds.
When he holds it out for me, I trade him for the piece of paper.
Both of us curse at the same time.
It’s a polaroid picture, taken while Valentina stares at her reflection in the mirror. She looks perfect, golden and glowing and royal.
Caught in the mirror’s reflection is the mudak who stole her from us. Face purpled with ugly bruises. A triumphant grin pulling across his lips. Stealing a precious moment from our bride and claiming it for himself.
Claiming her.
