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“Snap out of it,” he urged quietly while their people were dispatched to the stairwell to check on the guard I hired to protect us.
This was my first time meeting my brother-in-law. He was about my height and a few years older, with a smattering of gray at his temples. His grip was firm and reassuring, and I shook off the stupor of fear, unclenching my fists for the first time since I was at the hotel. I got back to the hotel and nodded, taking a breath. The experts had arrived.
“You’ll get your chance to deal with whoever took Karine when we find them,” Mikhail said.
“If anyone took her,” Evelina said, looking over the room. Nothing was out of order. “Does it look like there was a struggle in here?”
Her medium-length dark hair was scraped back in a slick ponytail at the nape of her neck. When she shrugged out of her form-fitting jacket, she had two slim guns strapped to her sides in a holster that crisscrossed her back. Her eyes scanned the room that looked like we’d just checked in, and I could understand why she was skeptical that my wife might have been taken.
I remembered how easily Karine had brought me down on the night after our wedding. She was a capable and well-trained fighter. She’d also gotten the drop on me because I was unaware of her skills, and I had easily gotten the upper hand back because I was a foot taller than her and outweighed her by maybe a hundred pounds. Skills were one thing; brute strength was another.
“She used to be best friends with this guy,” I said.
If Demian had come here with a sob story, her tender heart might have relented so that she opened the door. Thinking about what might have happened next had me clenching my fists again.
Evelina looked at me with pity. “You didn’t tell her he was the one who put her in the hospital and destroyed her house?”
Things were looking more and more like Karine had walked out on her own. “She was the one who figured it out,” I admitted, pressing my knuckles into my eye sockets. A headache was brewing that I had no time for.
The two men who’d come with them returned to the room looking grim. “Security guard’s dead,” one said. “Poor bastard didn’t see it coming.”
“Take care of it,” Mikhail said, stone cold in face and voice. He looked at me with a slight shrug. “This wasn’t your fault, but we can’t have the police sniffing around. We’ll have to dump him somewhere.”
Clearly, I wouldn’t win this argument, so I didn’t try. If there was one thing the Bratva didn’t like, it was unnecessary police involvement, whether they were innocent or not. There was no time to feel bad for the unlucky soul who happened to be on duty when I called his firm. Evelina was still scrutinizing the distinct lack of a struggle in the room.
“She didn’t have her cell phone,” I said. “It was lost in the explosion. And she was wearing flip-flops for God’s sake, and clothes that were two sizes too big on her. No money, no cards. She wouldn’t have left on her own.
Evelina’s pitying look turned to worry. “Do you think she could have figured you out? I don’t think it would have mattered if she was in a bathrobe. She would have bounced if word got to her who you really are.” She must have noticed the pain I was experiencing because she reached to touch my shoulder. The calm in her voice was forced. “If that’s the case, Roman, we need to get you out of Miami. There’s sure to be a hit out on you by now.”
Mikhail got on his phone, ordering his plane to be ready to take off as soon as possible without even looking my way.
“I don’t think so,” I said slowly. Something in my gut told me that wasn’t the case at all, but I didn’t know how to confess to my sister and her badass Bratva husband that I had fallen in love with my fake wife. I had convinced myself she was also in love with me. “How do we explain the security guard? My gun’s—”
I’d completely forgotten the gun I left with Karine. Mikhail perked up at this new information. “She had a gun?”
I was trying to say it was still in the room, but it wasn’t on the pillow where I’d left it. Not on the counter, either. The three of us did a quick but thorough search. No gun anywhere.
“She found out, popped your guard, and called her daddy,” Mikhail said.
A low, desolate sound rose up my throat and out of my mouth as I shook my head. “I don’t think so,” I repeated, locking eyes with my sister.
Evelina’s expression changed. Just like a real sister, I might have known for her entire life, she seemed to understand where my pain was coming from.
“It won’t hurt to try to find her, just to make sure,” she said.
“Are you serious?” Mikhail asked.
She laid her hand on his wrist. “We can’t act rashly without all the information either way. If Karine’s been taken against her will, that means Roman’s cover probably isn’t blown. If he leaves the country while she’s missing, he’s outing himself, and we’ve lost a man on the inside.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “If we rescue her, I’m a hero.”
Evelina rolled her eyes. “Slow down there. We’re going to investigate this, try to get the hotel security cams and go from there.”
“You’re willing to risk your life on a hunch?” Mikhail asked.
It was only a hunch. A whim. A fervent hope. “Yes,” I said without hesitation. I was going to find Karine.
“Well, you need somewhere else to hide out,” he said, accepting the new direction we were taking things with ease. “It’s definitely not safe to take you to our house.”
