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“Gabe’s Dead,” he said, warily searching our surroundings for the culprits. Whoever the fuck they were would have attempted to kill us if any of them remained in the house.
“Go get the cam feed loaded,” I ordered, sending him to my office.
I had three more people to find. Nikki and the other guards I hired. At the bottom of the stairs, I passed the corpse of Marko with blood pooled beneath him. How had anyone gotten into my home with the security of the premises?
Two more people to find. I rushed three stairs at a time up then to my room. Blackness greeted me through the half-open door. For some reason, I knew she wasn’t there. This had been a mission to get to me in every way possible. I turned on the light to find Serge’s body halfway in the room. Shot facing the door with his gun in his hand.
He had been led to this scene, then felt the need to defend himself and Nikki. A quick search of his body located his phone, and the last call was Nikki’s at a similar time to when I received the last message from my Sweet One. But if Nikki had been in danger, why would he come and then faced the door? It didn’t add up. I wouldn’t know until I found her phone, which I quickly spotted on the floor beside the nightstand.
Now I had something useful. “What do you know?” I pondered out loud as I sat on the edge of the bed. It was a smartphone I gave her, and no lock combination could have kept me out.
So many calls and messages came up over the past twenty-four hours. The woman hadn’t slept, nor had her phone been affected by whatever happened to the others. That wasn’t a coincidence.
Had I been so fucking blind that I didn’t see she was capable of scheming? Serge may have been killed, but it wasn’t by her hand. I rushed to my office, nodding to Cade who had the large TV on, but there was no security feed on it.
“Someone hacked the system at the same time as the phones were accessed.” Despite his efforts, his composure was slipping.
“I have something.” I waved Nikki’s phone in the air before leaning down to plug it into my laptop to connect the data. One number I noticed was from Sweet’s homeland. While I sat thinking on the why and how, Cade went to work on the fine details.
“Why the fuck were two of my best men sick at such a convenient time?” I asked.
Cade’s teeth gritted before he spoke. “Because I would be away.”
I didn’t bother with a glass when I went for the bottle of whiskey. Whoever came and stole my Sweet and Katya away knew my schedule.
“Nikki found someone who would capture your girl and make it look like she left on her own.” Cade’s statement sounded ridiculous, but he’d already been looking into the details and piecing things together. This had been a message, and I would fucking answer with a fury unknown to the bastards.
“When I find that evil bitch…” It was all I could say. I would find her, and she would regret these betrayals.
“I imagine she regretted it the moment she realized they weren’t working for her,” Cade said.
She did this while we were mourning. When I hit my lowest from grief. Why the fuck hadn’t she been grieving? How could she scheme for a single moment if that baby meant anything to her?
He meant nothing to her. That was the only explanation. This was the perfect opportunity for my vindictive wife to have her win. “She killed the baby to get rid of Sweet.” Whether by an assumption I would send Sweet away as I grieved, or by taking a darker path after that plan failed, Nikki had done this.
Not only had she killed the last piece of my brother, but she endangered my baby. And she would regret having the capacity to breathe once I found her. But first, Katya, My Sweet One, and my unborn babe would be safe.
Cade didn’t respond. He’d been close to my brother and Katya. Hearing this had him as stone-faced as I was. Everything became more infuriating by the second.
“We need access to the current locations of those phone numbers,” I said. Whoever kidnapped my family were either dumb or expecting us, either of which I could handle.
I’d only thought I needed to be the type of man to earn Sweet’s trust as we raised up this child, but we lived in a world where that would never be a possibility. Now I would see the world standing between us burn, and she would be safe. And she would love me all the more for the lengths I would go to protect my family.
Chapter Forty-Four
Sasha
After a few minutes on the road, I was dragged upright onto a bench seat with warm metal to my back and the covering over my head removed. We were in a lit van with a man seated across from me, his back also to the side of the vehicle.
"Sasha Dwornik." The voice of the bastard who spoke my full name was throaty.
I remained silent, which received me a hard slap from the man who, even seated, seemed to tower. Using Katya's strong will to fight wouldn't win against these people in a game of survival. She was on the floor, arms bound behind her back with rope, ankles and mouth duct taped. I wouldn’t end up that way. To take after her actions when she’d been in my garage would be a losing battle I knew better than replicate.
Nikki sat upright with ankles and wrists bound. Duct tape covered her mouth as well. She appeared more like a disheveled bunny in a den of wolves. I would probably be wisest to go that route, but I knew submission would have worked at home, so that was what I would do for the time being.
With a hand to my cheek, I looked down at the floor. "Yes." Armon may have called me a coward for my obedience, but he didn't understand why such a choice would be made, and I would make it again and keep our captors preoccupied until we had an opportunity for escape.
"Treat my wound." He removed a bulletproof, black vest. Once he took off his shirt, I saw the red marks where bullets never penetrated, as well as where his upper arm had been tightly wrapped beneath his sleeve. Though unwise, at least Katya did a small amount of damage.
