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“Marika is gone.” I cut him off, uninterested in whatever he was going to say. “Adrik escaped and took her.”
“You incompetent son of a—”
“Shut the fuck up,” I snarl, my impatience building with every word. “Neither of us wants to work with the other. We both want each other dead. But we’re bound by a truce brokered with your sister, and Iknowyou still care about her. She’s missing, and I know who has her. So I’m coming to you, and youwillensure my safety while we figure this out.” I press my lips tightly together, glaring at the road ahead. “I don’t have to remind you that if Marika is gone, there is nothing binding me to our deal, Vasilev. And I willgladlytake my anger out on you.”
“I’ll make sure the gate is open to you,” Nikolai says tautly. And then he hangs up.
I speed all the way to his estate. Traffic laws aren’t something that matters to me—there’s no point in bothering with them. I own a solid portion of the cops in this city, and those I don’t still won’t fuck with me right now, because they belong to Nikolai. I’m a good driver on the best of days—a common hobby when I was younger was taking sports cars out on a track for a spin—I weave in and out of traffic, my pulse pounding at the base of my throat.
I should have killed him. I should have put a bullet in him before I left the office.I’d wanted to spare Marika the sight—but more than that, I’d wanted the chance to exact a slow punishment on him. I’d once again let my rage, my desire for vengeance, win out over the smarter choice. I’d let my anger lead instead of reason, and I’m paying for it over and over.
Marika will pay for it, too, if I don’t get to her quickly. And that I can’t stand.
I speed onto the estate, hardly slowing down to ensure that the gateisopen before I turn into the courtyard, spraying gravel. The car has barely come to a stop before I kill the ignition and jump out, striding up the stairs to the front door.
I don’t bother knocking. Nikolai seems to have let his security know as well that I’d be here, because no one tries to stop me at least as I stride through the mansion towards his study, bursting through that door too.
Nikolai is sitting behind his desk, as expected. What I didn’t expect was to see his wife there—tall, beautiful, and blonde, wearing leggings and a lemon-yellow top that drapes over the swell of her stomach.
The sight of it makes me ache, thinking of Marika like that, pregnant with our child, beginning to look soft and round. It was what I’d hoped for, longed for—and now, even if it is still a possibility, which seems slim, it won’t be the way I imagined it.
There will be no love, no close family, no laughter and joy filling the manor house in Ireland. It will be the kind of family that I was raised to expect, Marika cold and me distant, and our children caught between the two of us.
The thought hurts more than I could have ever expected it would.
Lilliana turns, her face taut, hardening even more when she sees me. I expect her to leave, but she stays there, spine stiff as she watches me sit down in front of Nikolai’s desk.
“You know where she is?” Nikolai asks abruptly, and I frown.
“Not yet. Adrik is gone. My assumption is that he took her—Finn is checking it out—”
“And you’re here?” His mouth tightens. “You’resureit was Adrik? You didn’t have him under guard?”
“Idid,” I reply sharply, my own jaw clenching. “And after what I put him through, I wouldn’t have thought he would have had the capability of taking those men out and getting away, or getting to Marika. But I was wrong. And I’m here because I assume you want to assist me in getting her back. Unless—” I narrow my eyes at him. “Unless my first thought was right, and you were the one who took her after all. Is she here? Is that why you’re so quick to question whether or not I know what I’m talking about?”
“I’m questioning it because you’re an arrogant sack of—”
“Enough! Both of you!” Lilliana’s high, chiming voice carries through the room, carrying more force than I would have expected—enough that both Nikolai and I momentarily stop and look at her, out of shock more than anything else. She narrows her blue eyes, glaring at us both. “Theo, my sister-in-law is not here. And based on what I know of her and Adrik’s relationship, he likely didn’t take your marriage well. If things have deteriorated as much as my husband has told me, I believe you when you say you’re sure he’s the one who took her.”
She takes a deep, slow breath, her gaze still pinned icily on both her husband and me. “So both of you need to stop fucking fighting, act like men, and get Marika back.”
Nikolai’s lips press together tightly as he looks at his wife. “You knew about Adrik?” he asks finally. “And you didn’t tell me?”
Lilliana gives him an even look, not flinching back in the slightest. “Marika was kind to me before you were,” she says calmly. “I owed her a similar kindness. So yes, I kept her secret.”
There’s something that passes between them as they look at each other, the kind of unspoken conversation that can only happen between husband and wife, between two people who know each other so intimately. I can see a hint of what’s in Nikolai’s face, some hint of a knowledge of past wrongs, of sins he’s atoning for. It makes my chest ache anew—both because I’d hoped for that kind of intimacy with Marika, and because I feel sure now that there’s no hope of it in the future, no hope of righting my wrongs with her.
“Your wife is right,” I say as calmly as I can manage, looking at Nikolai. “I’ve handled this poorly thus far—we both have, in different ways. The only thing I can do to try to atone for any of it is to do what I can to protect her now—”
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I reach for it. “It’s Finn,” I tell Nikolai as I answer it. “He may have some news.”
“Theo.” Finn’s voice is urgent, before I can even say a word. “We managed to track his vehicle. We don’t have an exact location of where he’s at, but we have an area. I’m getting some men together to leave now. If you get back over here—”
“I’ll be on my way in a few minutes. Possibly with more backup.” I end the call, looking narrowly at Nikolai. “Well? You were quick to send your security with me to Ireland to keep an eye on her. Are you going to send backup with me to get her safely home?”
Nikolai is already standing up. “I’ll do you one better,” he says evenly, glancing at his wife. “I’m coming along too.”
Finn already has men assembled when we get back to my property, Nikolai’s car, and the ones with his men pulling in behind me. Everyone spills out into the courtyard, Finn moving forward before I even need to give him directions to tell Nikolai’s men where to go, consolidating our force into the fewest necessary cars. “He went into the south part of the city,” Finn tells me as he barks orders. Nikolai, to his credit, doesn’t try to interrupt, even though Finn is directing his men too. “We don’t know an exact pinpoint, but we’ll find him. You’re coming, I assume?”
