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I set my jaw. She doesn’t say it aloud, but I know what she’s implying. She wants apermanentend to our Konstantin problem. He may have been in prison for the last three decades, but none of us have ever truly known peace. I could figure out a way to implicate him in a crime, have him locked up again, but my uncle has an unfathomable amount of power. I wouldn’t be surprised if he managed to find a way out from behind bars.
Konstantin is a malignant tumor, one that’s spread far and wide. It doesn’t matter how many times we go under the knife to try and cut him from our lives. He always comes back. Meaner and uglier and more vicious than before. There’s only one way I can put an end to our misery.
We have to kill him.
“I will handle it,” I say loud and clear.
Catherina stares me down. I stare back. She presses her lips into a thin line and nods, just so. “Very well. I call in a few favors. Hopefully I will be able to find him within the week/”
My phone rings. My mother clicks her tongue, annoyed. Thankfully, Dimitri is quick to smooth things over.
“The life of a CEO,” he jokes lightly. “Always putting out fires.”
I answer my phone, bringing it up to my ear. “Hello?”
“Mikhail!” Aurora sobs frantically. She shrieks so loud the whole room can hear her over the receiver. “Mikhail, something terrible’s happened!”
Concern lances through me, my blood turning to ice.
“What’s happened?” I ask hurriedly.
“It’s Charlotte! I think… I think she’s been taken!”
Chapter 21
Aurora
Mikhail normally drops me off right at my apartment door, but today I insisted he leave me at the curb. It made sense since he had to go to CyberFort, anyway. Now I’m regretting not asking him to come with me.
The apartment is a mess. Signs of a struggle are everywhere. The kitchen table is flipped. Lamps are broken. Books thrown with pages ripped. There’s a hole in the drywall—from a kick or a punch, I cannot tell—and muddy boot prints all over the carpet.
I see traces of blood, too. It’s not excessive, but it would suggest there was some sort of fight. There are droplets on the kitchen tile, splattered against the wall as if someone had been struck, a small handprint streaking across the counter.
“Charlotte?”
My heart races. Maybe shouting is a stupid idea. What if the intruder is still here? Nothing appears to be stolen, all our valuables—TV, Charlotte’s jewelry, my desktop computer—all remain exactly where we left them. The only thing missing is my roommate.
I haven’t gotten a message from Charlotte since our fight yesterday. I figured she was mad at me, giving me the cold shoulder. Now my mind won’t stop spinning. What if… What if someonetookher?
The first and only thing I can think to do is call Mikhail. Not the police—Mikhail. I know it’s stupid, but something tells me the cops can’t help. This has something to do with Mikhail’s family, I can feel it. The air smells heavily of cigar smoke, of musky cologne. My instincts tell me the only person who can help me is the man at the center of this mess.
He arrives with his brothers and an older woman not fifteen minutes later. I’m about to ask him how the hell he got here so fast, but I’m too much of a nervous wreck to get the words out. Mikhail rushes over to me, grasping me by the shoulders, checking me over from head to toe.
“Are you alright?” he asks. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” I insist, clinging to his jacket. “But Charlotte… I’ve tried calling her phone, but it goes straight to voicemail. Mikhail, I think—”
“Who is this?” the woman says, watching me with an intense curiosity.
Mikhail clears his throat. “This is Aurora Foster. One of my interns. Aurora, this is my mother, Catherina.”
I’m two seconds away from passing out on the spot. Good grief, could this get any more complicated?
“Your intern has you on speed dial, does she?” Catherina muses.
Dimitri, Pyotr, and Luka all give me a pointed look. I feel my cheeks flush with heat. The Antonov brothers aren’t stupid. They definitely know something’s going on between Mikhail and me. So much for discretion.
“That’s not important,” Mikhail snaps. “We need to move Aurora to a safe location.”
