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* * *
The door to Chloe’s room is shut, so I knock and wait a few seconds. When no response comes, I open it and walk in.
The blinds are still closed, blocking most of the daylight, but I can see a small mound on the bed under the covers.
She is sleeping, after all.
A tender smile tugs at my lips as I approach the bed and sit down on the edge. She’s lying turned away from me, the blanket covering her up to her neck, leaving only her hair spread out on the pillow. For some reason, it looks much darker in this light, the golden streaks missing.
Leaning over her, I lift my hand to gently brush the hair off her face—only to jerk my fingers back as my heart launches into a furious gallop.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I growl at my sister as she rolls over onto her back and blinks open her eyes. “Where is Chloe?”
She blinks a few more times, then slowly sits up. “What?” she says hoarsely, pushing her hair off her face with an unsteady hand. She smells like a drug cocktail, I realize, my fury growing as she asks dazedly, “What are you doing in my room?”
I jackknife to my feet. “Your fucking room?”
She stares up at me. “I don’t…” Her eyes sweep the bedroom, and the confusion on her face slowly morphs into horrified comprehension. “Oh, shit. Chloe.”
My stomach tightens with an awful premonition, and it takes every shred of restraint I possess not to grab and shake her. “Where the fuck is she? What did you do?”
My sister’s spine straightens, her eyes narrowing on my face. “Me? What are you doing in her bedroom?”
“Alina,” I warn through clenched teeth, and whatever she sees on my face convinces her that she can’t fuck with me right now.
“Look, I may have…” She dampens her lips. “I may have told her some things.”
“What things?”
“About you and… and our father.”
Fuck. “What exactly did you tell her?”
“Probably more than I should’ve,” Alina admits, even as her chin lifts defiantly. “But she deserves to know what she’s getting herself into, don’t you think?”
My hands flex at my sides, rage pulsing through every cell in my body. If it were anyone but my sister, they’d already be bleeding out. “So you told her… what? That I killed him? Gutted him like a fucking fish?”
She whitens but doesn’t look away. “I don’t remember, exactly.”
Of course she doesn’t. She was fucking high—still is, probably.
Leaning over the bed, I yank the blanket off her. This is my fault for babying her, letting her wallow in her weakness. “Get up and get dressed,” I bite out as she scrambles back, eyes wide. “We’re going to search this place top to bottom, and when we find her, you’ll tell her that you made it all up. Every last word, understand?”
“Kolya…” There’s a strange note in her voice. “Have you looked in the garage?”
My blood ices over. “What?”
“I found the keys in your bedside drawer,” she says defiantly. “And I gave them back to her. She’s a person, not a thing, and if she wants to leave, you have no right—”
“You fucking idiot,” I whisper, so overcome by rage and terror I can hardly speak. “She’s got assassins after her. If she left here and they get to her…”
And as my sister blanches, I pivot on my heel and sprint to the garage.
* * *
Sure enough, the Toyota is gone, the garage door raised.
Cursing violently, I run back into the house—only to nearly mow down Lyudmila, who’s stepped out of the kitchen to see what the ruckus is about.
“Tell Pavel I need him. Now,” I bark into her startled face and race upstairs to my office.
Grabbing my computer, I pull up the footage from the gate cameras and rewind the recording until I see Chloe’s car pulling up to the gate. The time stamp reads 7:05 a.m.—well over two hours ago.
By now, she could be anywhere.
She could be dead.
The thought is so unbearable, so paralyzing, that I cease breathing for a moment. Then logic kicks in.
Unless Chloe’s enemies were camped out right outside my compound, there’s no way they’ve found her so quickly. And with our infrared drones patrolling the area, my guards would’ve known it if they were there.
The most likely scenario is that Chloe is fine, albeit freaked out by Alina’s revelations. I still have time to find her and get her back here, where she’ll be safe.
A fraction calmer, I videocall Konstantin.
“I need you to scan the footage from every camera in a two-hundred-mile radius of my compound for any sighting of Chloe’s car in the last two hours,” I say as soon as my brother’s face fills my screen. “Start with the gas stations—Pavel mentioned the car was low on fuel.”
