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“Raff…he’s gone.” I cleared my throat. Talking wasn’t easy, and it sucked the energy right out of me.

“Gone, like replaced with another guard?” Alex’s tone held a smidge of panic.

“No. He was here, and now he’s gone. Hasn’t come back. They are taking me up for an MRI now, but something is wrong, I feel it.”

“Lewis is close. I’ll have him there soon with others, and I’ll try and call Raff. We will be there as fast as we can,” Gideon said and while that was reassuring, I was still very unsettled.

We stopped in front of the elevator, and the PCA hit the button and returned to the top of the bed, ready to push me in.

“I’m going to lose you in a second, just be careful. Something’s up.”

“I’m coming to you, babe,” Alex whispered, but obviously he wasn’t quiet enough.

“Babe? Did you just call him babe?” Gideon asked.

I disconnected the call and handed the phone to the PCA because we were getting on the elevator.

“Thank you.” He didn’t take it, and I couldn’t turn to see him so I shook it a little. “Here’s your phone.” But he still didn’t take it.

Then the doors opened again and it wasn’t to another floor, it was a parking garage. An ambulance was there with the rear door open and a guy smiling.

“Mr. Brooks.” I didn’t know who he was, but he was Russian.

“Funny, I shouldn’t be shocked that Vladimir Ivanov wouldn’t keep his promise.”

The man chuckled. “I’m sure you know, your boss has taken him…so we are taking you. If I had more time to plan, I’d have taken someone not so banged up so they could at least walk into the ambulance, but I work with what I’m given.”

A sharp prick in my arm made me jump and hiss because my body was a mess. “What’s that?”

“Something to help you rest. I don’t want you in pain while we travel. In you go.”

I was jostled but half-asleep. I was in fact in pain but too drugged out to do or say anything about it. My head lolled to the right, and the last thing I saw before my eyes closed was Raff sitting on the bench beside me, his eyes closed and blood dripping from his head.

I woke with a start in a dark room that smelled of dust and decay. I couldn’t see very much, and I didn’t want to call out for Raff or anyone in case the wrong person answered. I didn’t know if Raff was even alive. He looked dead, but that didn’t mean he was.

Pain was radiating everywhere, making me nauseous. I wasn’t surprised they hadn’t given me meds. After all, in the end I was likely going to die.

A light turned on, and I heard footsteps coming closer. “Mr. Brooks, it’s good to see you awake. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Sergey Ivanov.”

Vladimir’s eldest son…of course we hadn’t been keeping an eye on him since we’d been zoned in on Vladimir.

“I’m assuming you’re aware who I am?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” He smiled. “All this could have been avoided. One simple promise kept, and everyone dead would be alive.” He sighed. My eyes followed him as he paced in front of me.

“My father was generous to the Popov family, set them up financially, let them live free from the Bratva. And in return for money, security, and freedom, Mila was to marry Maksim. So easy.”

“And your father could have let it go. Let Maksim love who he loved and Mila and Alex live forever. But he’s a monster; you all are.”

Sergey huffed. “Perhaps, but the agreement was made.”

“Not by Mila. That’s the thing. You all failed to talk to her.”

He waved me away. “It wasn’t her choice.”

There was no way to win this argument, and the pain was going to make me pass out in a minute.