Page 228 of Merciless Daddy

The beep sounded.

I could not speak.

I sat there with my forehead against the edge of the bed, phone held tight in my fist, while silence filled the message she might never hear.

When the tone sounded again, I made myself breathe.

“I’m sorry, little one,” I said.

My voice broke on the last word.

I ended the call.

For a moment, I looked at the whisky bottle in the cabinet across the room. It would have made the ache dull. It would have given me an excuse to stop hearing every possibility my mind was building.

Then I saw Yelena’s face in my memory. Her pale eyes. Her small, fierce voice.

Daddy.

If she was alive, she needed me clear-minded.

I put the notebook inside my jacket, directly over my heart.

Then I stood.

I would find her. I had to.

By the time I entered the operations room, Tonio was already shouting.

He stood at the far end of the table with a bandage visible beneath the torn collar of his shirt. Stitches pulled at his shoulder. Blood had dried in a rust-colored line near his sleeve.

He looked like he wanted someone to give him permission to become a weapon.

“Mill Basin,” he said. “We hit it now. Hard. Every Sokolov office, every truck, every man carrying their money.”

“No,” Pietro said.

Tonio rounded on him. “No?”

“We do not know she is there.”

“We know Gianni has ties there.”

“We know he wants us to think he does.”

Tonio’s hands curled into fists.

“You want to wait?”

“I want to bring her back alive.”

The secure screen brightened.

Kiryl appeared from the underground location Tonio had taken him to. He looked pale. Smaller than he had yesterday. A blanket rested around his shoulders, though he would have hated anyone mentioning it.

“I should go,” he said.

Every person in the room stopped.