The idea was unthinkable.“Why would I?”I asked.“He’s behind this.He has to be.”
“It could be the Russians.”The theory was presented in a flat voice.“They might have?—”
I snapped, shaking my head.“No.They wouldn’t kidnap her.If they’d found her and wanted to make an example of her as a message, they would make a spectacle of it.”
“Are you sure?”His voice was low, tight.“Or is that what you need to believe?In a situation like this, you cannot afford to go off of what you need to believe.We have to think the way they think.All of them.”
I hated him for that, no matter how right he was, telling me what I needed to hear no matter how little I wanted to hear it.Still, there was no forcing myself to believe the Russians would be brought into something so easily cleaned up in-house.“It’s Nico.Any whiff of trouble could mean much bigger trouble for the entire organization.He’s desperate.Threatening Nova, hinting at having murdered her mother.”
He muttered something ugly under his breath.“You didn’t tell me that.The fucker.”
The idea of Nico doing the same now sent fire racing through my veins, burning away everything but the certainty of what needed to be done.I would kill him.He would suffer to his last breath.
By the time we reached Nova’s apartment building—a short drive that only felt like it took an eternity—a pair of black-clad men stood beside a truck I recognized as Max’s.One of them shook his head at Grayson as we pulled into the spot beside it.Rather than wait for a briefing, I went straight to the stairwell leading up to her floor.There was no time to waste.
“Wait,” Grayson called out behind me, his voice filling the concrete space.I barely noticed, taking the stairs two at a time.She lived on the fifth floor, if memory served.I might not have personally guarded her, but I’d made it my business to know things like that.Not that it made a fucking bit of difference.She was gone.She needed me, and she was gone.
Grayson caught up to me in the moments between opening the metal door on the fifth floor and throwing myself through it.“Goddammit, I said wait.Don’t go in there.”He touched a hand on my chest, blocking me with his body.“Let me get an idea of what’s inside before you go in.”
“I’m not waiting.”Shoving him aside, I found her front door guarded by another one of his guys who moved his ass out of my way when Grayson grunted behind me.Fuck, I could barely breathe, my throat a pinhole caused by fear, dread, and the sick certainty that Nova was dead.That she had been dead for hours while I sat in meetings and shared a drink with my friends.I hadn’t been able to help her in the end.Ihad let her die.
With my heart in my throat, I crossed the threshold then fell back a step.“Oh fuck,” I groaned at the gruesome site.Blood, brain matter, all of it splattered across a cream-colored rug dried to an ugly shade of brown that had also splashed across a pale pink sofa.What was left of Max’s face revealed his blank, staring eyes, but not much else, thanks to the blood that had coated his skin.
“Her purse is here.”Grayson lifted it by the strap from where it had been left near the door, and I took hold of it, almost greedy for the feel of anything that belonged to her.She had been holding this when… what happened?When they were ambushed?What the hell took place in this apartment?Whatever it was, it hadn’t been loud enough or prolonged enough for anyone to notice and call the police.
“According to the guys who got here first, the rest of the apartment is clean.No sign of a struggle, just a blood trail starting outside the bedroom that leads here to where he fell.”Grayson was grim, his voice tight.“Goddammit.The fucking bastards.”
“It had to be Nico,” I decided after looking over the scene, and he agreed with a grunt.If she was taken to a separate location rather than being executed here, this was about more than silencing her and sending a message.Digging through her bag, I found her phone, revealing every missed call from me.She didn’t even know I was frantically trying to reach her.
Think, dammit, think.Thinking clearly was the last thing it seemed my brain was capable of doing.How could I when I didn’t know where she was, what he had done?Why not kill her right away?Why not leave her here along with Max’s body?
“Why didn’t he get the body cleaned up?”I muttered to no one in particular.One of the many questions burning inside my skull, where a drum pounded painfully, incessantly.“Why leave him here?”
“A message, maybe.He wants us to know he holds the cards,” Grayson concluded.“He’s telling us he could kill her at any time.”It would have been kinder if he’d hit me.He might as well have since the idea of losing her knocked the wind clean from my lungs.
Then why hadn’t he?
Of course.“He wants to learn something first,” I whispered, my certainty growing along with my horror and the understanding that I was the key.“Son of a bitch.I overplayed my hand.I never expected they would take it this far.”
Our eyes met, and Grayson’s shoulders sagged once he understood.“Because if you know what they’ve been doing?—”
“Who else knows?”I concluded, fresh fire flooding my system, searing my brain.“Fuck, he could be torturing her as we speak.”A scream built in my chest, fueled by rage and helplessness and the certainty I was right.
Would he believe her if she told the truth and said she hadn’t told anyone but me?
How long would the bastard drag it out before he believed her?
How long did I have to find her?
“Where would he take her?”Grayson asked while his men worked out the specifics of getting Max’s body out of there.The less the authorities were involved in any of this, the better, and they knew best how to avoid complications.I left them to that while focusing on remembering anything I could about Nova.What had she told me about herself?
Where would Nico take her?The casino?Much too risky.“Does Mancini own other properties?”I mused, pacing, my heart sinking when I thought about the miles upon miles of open desert surrounding the city and its suburbs.
“I have my team working on that now.”He had the luxury of being able to look at the big picture.He hadn’t fallen in love when he least expected it.He hadn’t essentially painted a target on the back of the one person he wanted most to protect.
To think it took something like this for me to accept the truth of my feelings—the depth of them.
“Wait.”I stopped, staring at the hardwood floor.“They had a vacation home somewhere.She said she hadn’t been there since her mom went away.They never went back.Riccardo wouldn’t allow it.He finally told her he sold it.”
