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“What’s it going to take to get you to eat something and rest, princess?” he finally asks.
“Finding my son. And bringing him back to me,” I mutter.
He sighs softly. “We’ll find, Nate, Katerina. It’s only a matter of when we do. It’s killing me every single moment he’s away from us. But I’m not going to sit here and watch you destroy yourself in the process. I can’t.”
I fix him with a hard stare. “Then don’t watch,” I snap.
“No. You don’t get to shut me out, baby. I know you’re in pain. I get that you think all your worst fears are being confirmed. But whatever it is you’re going through, we do so together.”
My face crumbles at that. My chest fucking aches. “Xander, he could be dead,” I whisper.
“He’s not dead,” he retorts, assuredly. “He’s alive. I can feel that our son is alive, I know you feel it too. Sokolov wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of kidnapping him just to kill him. He wants something. We just have to wait until he asks for it.”
“And what am I supposed to do until then?” I question.
“There’s a whole army out there looking for our son. I’m sure they’ll find him soon. What I need you to do right now is have a few bites of that salad at least, and then take a nap. You don’t have to sleep for too long. Just an hour or two to clear your head. If there’s any news, you know we’ll be told immediately.”
I hesitate, feeling my chest tighten.
“Okay fine. I’ll do it, but only if you lie down with me.”
He agrees and after eating, he leads me towards my bedroom. The two of us climb into it. Xander holds me from behind and I shut my eyes trying not to imagine what my baby must be going through at the moment. Like I expected, it’s impossible for me to fall asleep.
But I stay still because I can hear Xander’s soft breaths. He hasn’t had a wink of sleep since earlier this morning. It’s almost 11pm and he must have been exhausted. I don’t move a muscle for an hour. Until my phone suddenly lights up on the bedside table.
My heart starts to pound at the sight. I manage to wiggle out of Xadner’s grasp without waking him to read the text.
Come here alone if you want to save your son. Katerina, you know who this is. And you know what happens if you disobey me. I want you here, alone.
I hold my breath as I read the text over and over again. There’s a location attached to it. Directions to the place he’s keeping Nate. My gut reaction is to wake Xander and show him the text. But I can’t help but think about the fact that he’ll be in danger as well if he goes.
I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to him. He and Nate are my whole entire heart. I have to do everything in my power to keep them safe. So I manage to sneak out of the room and then the house, although it’s no easy task. When one of the capos catches sight of me in the garage, I ask him to keep quiet. Not to raise any alarms until I’m gone. He does, handing me a key to one of the cars. I drive out of the compound as fast as I can, imputing the location in the DPS.
I arrive there nearly an hour later. I’m not surprised to find an abandoned warehouse. It’s usually a criminal’s first choice when it comes to conducting unsavory activities. The large doors that lead into the warehouse are unguarded.
I walk in with my heart in my throat, wondering if I’ve made a mistake. Finally when I’ve stepped up to the middle of the cold and dusty room, there’s the sound of laughter at my side. My head snaps up and my gaze connects with Maxim Sokolov’s for the first time in ten years.
“Katerina, how nice to see you again,” he says grinning. “I’m not surprised you came. You always did have bigger balls than half the men I’ve met in my entire life. Welcome, moya lyubov,” he says calling me his love in Russian. “It’s been too long.”
The first thing I feel at the sight of his face is disgust. And not just because a side of it has been burnt badly beyond recognition. My stomach roils because I can’t believe I ever for one second ever thought he was charming enough to sleep with him. The Maxim I knew back then was good looking enough. With blonde hair and blue eyes. The man that stands in front of me is nothing like him. He’s older, probably in his early forties and he’s holding a cane, limping as he starts to walk towards me.
“What the hell happened to you?” I can’t help but ask.
He stops short. “Oh, you mean all this?” he questions, waving at his face. “Occupational hazard, my sweet kitty cat. I was in the hospital for several months after you left Moscow. I feared that I would never recover and I would never see you again but eventually I began to heal.”
“That’s too bad,” I mutter, reaching behind me and pulling out the gun tucked into my chest. “Where is my son?”
“You mean our son,” he intones, looking at me with a serious expression.
My heart thuds in my chest. “Are you kidding me? You can’t possibly still be delusional enough to think he’s yours.”
Sokolov cocks his head to the side, before chuckling.
“No, of course not. All I had to do was look at him to realize he’s not mine. Such a shame he’ll have to die for it.”
The carefree way he delivers that statement has my eyes widening.
“Maxim,” I swallow softly. “He’s only a child. He doesn’t deserve all this.”
