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“Natalia?”
Metal scraping against metal and shattering glass has me stunned for a moment once Natalia’s ranting is abruptly cut off. I sit up as I hear nothing but a car alarm going off. Other than that, it’s just an eerie calm that greets me down the phone.
“Natalia?”
I stand this time, Sebastian following suit.
“Beck…”
His voice trails off, and I ignore him.
“Natalia, fucking answer me. What the fuck just happened?”
I start to pace, passing a hand over my head to stop myself from losing my mind. I’m no fool. I know what I just heard, but a part of me wants to be ignorant that it could’ve happened. The other just wants to hear her laugh and tell me it was all a sick joke.
“Beckett.”
Sebastian’s hand finds my shoulder, dragging me back to the moment, making me suddenly alert, and I react.
“Find out where the car is,” I order, walking back to my desk to grab my keys. “I think they’ve crashed.”
“What?”
“The car. I think it crashed.” I remain calm, unwilling to be anything but. “Natalia! If you’re there, I’d really appreciate you not fucking around on me right now.”
There’s nothing.
I don’t stop the moment my hand wraps around my car keys. Sebastian is quick behind me, getting someone to trace the car. I’ll worry about the destination once I’m driving. Until then, I need to get there. Minutes tick by agonisingly as we descend into the parking garage, and Sebastian rattles off coordinates that mean fuck all to me, but he says when we’re in the car he’ll make sure it’s good to go before I can even put a toe on the accelerator.
“Natalia,” I call out, keeping the phone to my ear as I get into the car. “Fucking answer me.”
“They’re sending help,” Sebastian says when I fail to get another response. “I’m sure they’re okay.”
I know he’s doing it to balm my concern, and while we’ve both had moments where we’ve admitted Natalia isn’t our favourite person, we have a past with her.
“I know that was stupid to say.”
“What else can you say, though?”
He shrugs, putting the postcode into the in-car satnav, and while it narrows down our journey, I see instantly they’re not far from the palace. I don’t slow my speed out of the garage for that reason. If anything, I pick up speed, wanting to cover as much ground as possible.
“Knowing Natalia, she’s doing this to punish you.” His quip, while light, is missing all of the usual mirth he speaks with. “She did leave fuming. And I heard her on the phone… she was that loud.”
“She’ll probably use this as a way to escape,” I reply, frowning as the thought grows in clarity. “What if this is what it is? She’s mentioned her men time and time again, and we couldn’t get them all.”
“Kidnapping her back…” Sebastian rubs his jaw thoughtfully. “It’s clever.”
My heart sinks as I turn the corner, and all thoughts of Natalia double-crossing me evaporate. I see the mess of the cars before we even pull to a stop. The black Range Rover I sent Natalia off in is now a mangled mess of metal after evidently being t-boned by another car that sits smoking and crushed.
“Beck…” There’s an unease in Sebastian’s voice.
I don’t listen. I’m out of the car before he’s barely pulled to a complete stop.
“Natalia!”
I don’t give a fuck when my scream garners attention. I just want to find Natalia and read her the riot act for giving me a fucking heart attack. I round the smouldering mountain of metal and find Sean and Dylan. They both look fairly unscathed, but Natalia’s nowhere to be seen. A quick glance through the shattered windows of the Range Rover tells me she’s no longer inside.
“Sean, what the fuck happened?”
