Page 47 of Savage Little Secret

“How much?” Andrei asks, staying behind me.

“Not enough to be lethal. Enough to hurt,” I reply as I stare down at the small, dried-up puddles of blood on the interior of the roof.

“She’s probably alive then,” Andrei tells me, hope seeping into his voice.

So, where the hell is she? She vanished like a goddamn ghost!

“There are tire tracks over here!” Isaak calls out from a little way down the road.

They can’t belong to her. The car didn’t make it that far, but someone else did. Someone else was here.

“Maybe someone stopped to help her and took her to the hospital,” Andrei suggests.

“We already checked all the hospitals in the area,” I remind him with a shake of my head, ice cold dread trickling down the back of my neck.

Something doesn’t feel right. Nothing has felt right since she left.

I walk around the entire car, searching for evidence of impact. The body is dented and messed up from rolling, but the back of the car catches my eye.

“Fuck,” I breathe out as I stare at the smashed up rear end.

Andrei hurries over to me before freezing. “Shit.”

The impact isn’t from the roll. It’s from behind, clean and intentional.

I take a step closer, my fingertips brushing over the crushed metal. “They must’ve driven her off the road, caused the crash.”

“So, they took her. Whoever it was,” Isaak comments as he strides toward us. “If she was dead, they would’ve left her body here.”

“Or already dropped it off at my doorstep or her father’s,” I grit out as I rip my eyes away from the damage, my pulse thundering hard and fast in my chest.

I walk away from Andrei and Isaak as they continue inspecting the car, my chest feeling crushed. A shaky breath barely fills my lungs, making the pressure that much harder to deal with.

I trudge back to my other car, unable to look at the wreckage any longer. “I’m going back to my place. Isaak, get this cleaned up and taken to storage.”

“Yes, sir,” Isaak replies before pulling out his phone to call over some of the men who are still willing to work for me.

“What do you want to do now?” Andrei asks as he approaches me. “This doesn’t look good, Dmitri.”

“You think I don’t know that?” I snap at him before exhaling slowly and pinching the bridge of my nose. I feel like I’m about to explode. All the uncertainty is killing me, and I’m fucking scared of what’s happened to her.

Why didn’t I let her stay? Why didn’t I try harder to figure out a way for us to be together sooner?

“I’m sorry. I just need to talk to her father about this,” I tell him as I lower my hand.

“You don’t actually trust a word that comes out of O’Malley’s mouth, do you?” Andrei asks with a frown.

“I’ll never trust Sean, but I only have so many people willing to help me right now,” I say as I pull open the door to my Lexus. “I’ll reach out with an update if there is one.”

Andrei nods and takes a step back from the car as I shut my door.

I don’t even look at the wreckage again before driving off and heading back to my place, numbness spreading throughout my body. Every single day has been a failure, and it’s impossible to sleep at night knowing that I’m failing her.

Knowing that Cara’s out there somewhere. Probably hurt. Probably scared.

Possibly dead.

My fingers tighten around my steering wheel as I press down on the gas to tear through traffic. Everything is a blur until I arrive at my building and see Sean waiting outside next to Leo.