“Something’s very wrong,” I tell him. “Misha has taken Svetlana.”
Dmitri frowns down at me. I’m tall, but he’s far taller.
“What do you mean, taken her?”
“He wants me to poison Enzo,” I explain quickly, “and he’s taken Svetlana and is holding her somewhere. He said if I don’t do what he wants me to do, he’ll kill her.”
My brother’s face falls. I don’t think his reaction is a façade. Dmitri is many things, but he’s not an actor.
“What are you talking about?”
I relay everything that happened during my conversation with Misha the day before. When I’m finished, Dmitri is pale.
“He’s gone too far,” Dmitri says. “Even for Misha. Svetlana took good care of us, and she looked out for you when no one else would.”
Tears prick my eyes. I’ve been holding them back, but I’m thinking about Svetlana always being there for me, pushing me to be my best, the smiling face in the audience ready to cheer all my successes. She saved me from becoming like my brothers. And now it’s up to me to save her from Misha.
“Do you have any idea where he could be keeping Svetlana?” I ask, getting more desperate by the minute.
By now, Enzo will have learned I’ve gone rogue. He’ll come looking for me. I need to find my stepmother before it’s too late.
“I might have an idea,” Dmitri says.
I notice the hesitation in his voice, but I don’t care. He’s probably afraid of Misha, just like I’ve been. But the time for that is over.
“Then let’s go,” I tell my brother. “We have to find her before it’s too late.”
“It’s not going to be that easy, and you know it,” my brother counters. “Misha doesn’t listen to anyone out of the goodness of his heart. If he wants Andriani dead, he’s not going to back down on his own. We can’t just approach him with our demands. I’m going to have to find out where Svetlana is first.”
He’s right, and I know it. But it’s not what I wanted to hear. Disappointment laces through me, mixing with the helplessness that’s been drowning me alive ever since yesterday.
“What do you think we should do?” I ask. “How are we going to find her? She could be anywhere.”
“Calm down and let me think. She’s not just anywhere. There are only certain places Misha could take her, only a few people he would trust. Since he’s become Pakhan, he’s paranoid about everything. He’s convinced someone is trying to kill him.”
“Considering how he came into power, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were. I’m sure Misha has plenty of enemies.”
Dmitri gives me a look. “Your husband among them.”
His phone goes off, and he instantly kills the ringer, not bothering to answer.
“Enzo’s not trying to kill him,” I deny quickly, even though I don’t know if that’s true.
My brother shakes his head. “You forget how well I know Scorpion. You wouldn’t know it if he were.”
I don’t like Dmitri’s inference that he knows Enzo better than I do. He may have known him longer, but I know my husband intimately. I know what he looks like when he sleeps. I know every inch of his body.
That has to count for something.
“I would know,” I insist, and I’m not sure why.
Dmitri’s look turns pitying as his phone starts to ring again. “Then why did you come to me instead of him, if you trust him so much?”
He dumps the call to voice mail, ignoring it.
“I didn’t want to drag him into my problems. I wanted to do this on my own.” After a pause, I admit the rest. “I also wasn’t sure what he’d do.”
“He being good to you?”
