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“Christ,” I muttered. “But you don’t know for sure?”
“No, just a deduction, being that you’re both Russian.”
“She hates it there, though.” He remained silent, almost as if he was giving me time to draw the obvious conclusion. “She’d think that would be the last place I’d start searching. How long until you have something concrete?”
“Give me about an hour,” he said.
“It’ll take me half that to get to the airport,” I told him. “I need answers by the time I arrive.”
“Yep.” He ended the call and I raced for my car, only bothering to grab my passport and wallet. There was no time to waste.
By the time I got to the airfield where Ivan’s private jet was being prepared for takeoff, since I’d already called ahead to bully them into getting it ready for me, the pilot came out to meet me. “You sure Ivan’s good with this?” he asked. “I can’t get a hold of him.”
I had been counting on the warehouse fire keeping Ivan from answering any unnecessary phone calls and used a mix of lies and threats to get the guy heading toward the plane.
“I can’t file a flight plan if I don’t know where we’re going,” he whined.
I clenched my fists and called the investigator back. “Time’s up,” I said.
“Was just about to call you,” he crowed. “Her passport was scanned onto a flight from Moscow which would have landed a few hours ago.”
I ended the call, making a mental note to give him a bonus. I was a little more than twelve hours behind her and I had the best of the best over there to help me locate her while I was on my way. I gave the pilot the final destination, and he assured me we’d be in the air as soon as he could manage it.
I paced the tarmac, then forced myself to relax so I could think straight. I called my cousin Evelina and left her a message, telling her it was urgent and she needed to drop everything and call me back, no matter the time difference. She was our late mother’s brother’s kid and worked as a private investigator in Moscow when she wasn’t working for my Uncle Davide, who ran our family business back in the old country. Davide Garin had adored his younger sister, my mother, who we lost much too young. Right after my father and mother married, Father offered Davide a job and he took to mafia life like a fish to water. He worked hard to keep both our family names strong over there, while keeping himself and my cousins in relative luxury. Between Evelina and her twin brother Leo, there was no way I wouldn’t find Kira.Ifshe stayed in Moscow. My only hope was that she’d run out of money from getting that far, but the thought of her being broke in that dangerous city made my blood run cold.
“Damn it, Kira,” I muttered, pacing some more.
My phone rang. It was Evelina, and God bless her for being prompt. “I need to be quick, I’m about to get on a plane heading your way,” I said.
“Nice to hear from you after so long,” she replied drily.
“Listen, we can catch up when I get there.”
“Fine, tell me what’s up.”
I told her I was going to send her some pictures along with Kira’s information. “I need you to have her location when I arrive.”
“Magic word?” she said, the same teasing tone in her voice as the last time I saw her. How many years ago was that? She’d been about sixteen then and had begged and pleaded to be able to stay in Miami when she visited with her brother and my uncle, but she’d been such a handful, Ivan had put his foot down and refused.
“Please, Evelina. This is important.”
She must have heard my desperation because she turned serious, her family loyalty strong and always overriding the desire for mischief. “I’m on it. I’ll get Leo to run the pics you send through his facial recognition software and I’ll get cracking into the city cameras.”
It was good to have a pair of geniuses in the family. Ones who didn’t mind bending the rules and breaking laws now and then. The pilot stuck his head out of the jet doorway and waved to me that we were ready to go.
“You’re the best,” I told her.
“I know,” she agreed, ending the call.
As I was taking the jet stairs two at a time, a call came in from Ivan. I ignored it and turned my phone off. If he knew I was basically stealing his newest toy in the middle of a family emergency, there was nothing he could do about it now. I had my own family emergency to deal with, and I’d face his wrath when Kira was safe and sound and in my arms.
Once the wheels were up and we were in the air, I settled in and closed my eyes. I wasn’t going to hear the end of this, but I had no other choice. Kira was mine. Of course I was going to go after her.
I somehow managed to sleep for most of the flight and was as alert as I could be when we landed. The moment I turned my phone back on, a flood of messages came in from Ivan, but I didn’t bother to read or listen to any of them. I called Evelina, telling her I hoped she had good news for me.
“What’s going on, Yuri?” she asked, voice laced with worry. “You know who this woman is related to?”
I knew far too well. “Don’t worry about that, have you found her or not?”
