AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But the relief is fleeting, and in an instant, it turns to icy terror as Mr. Cherny speaks into his phone. His voice shifts, and his new tone as he speaks in the now somewhat familiar sound of Russian comes out as nothing short of an arrogant drawl.
My arms tighten protectively around my little girl as I turn to face the man I just now realized I don’t really know at all.
36
MAKSIM
The phone rings, and I jump, nearly knocking over the stack of paperwork cluttering my desk. The number flashing across the screen belongs to one of Alexei’s men, and my heart clenches. They’re supposed to be keeping an eye on Heidi, making sure she stays safe.
“Da?” I answer, trying to keep my voice steady, but my anxiety gnaws at me.
“Pakhan, it’s Yuri,” comes the hurried explanation in Russian. “We lost her.”
“What do you mean you lost her?” I snap, continuing our conversation in our mother tongue. My fingers white-knuckle the phone. My mind races with images of Heidi in danger, and I can’t help but curse under my breath.
“Boss, she drives like a damn madwoman,” Yuri continues, frustration lacing his words. “And even though we kept a good distance, it seemed like she picked up on the fact that we were tailing her. She took a quite few wild turns into a random neighborhood, and we lost her. We’ve been combing the area ever since, but she’s gone.”
My heart feels like it’s about to jump out of my chest with worry.What could Heidi have possibly been thinking? Is she really so obstinately independent that she chose to refuse the small level of protection I could offer at a distance? How did she even know they were there?I’ve seen my brother’s men in action. They’re not at all easy to spot.
Anxiety eating at my insides, I hang up and try calling her. The phone rings for what feels like an eternity before finally sending me to voicemail. Panic wells up inside me, and I dial her number again, then a third time. Each unanswered call feels like a dagger to my heart.
Is she intentionally ignoring me because of the way we left things yesterday? Or is she really in trouble this time?Once again, I’m plagued with doubts about her safety, and I hate it.
Try as I might to avoid this very situation, I’ve walked myself right into another relationship with a woman whom I don’t know that I can live without. And now, Aleksandr Volkov might just have her by the throat.
The thought makes me want to vomit.
Unable to contain my anxiety any longer, I burst out of my office and head straight for Alexei’s. As I push open the door, my youngest brother looks up from his paperwork, surprise etched on his features.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, sitting up in his leather swivel chair. He looks exhausted after our long night of hunting down leads on how we might expose Aleksandr. But as soon as I step into his office, he’s alert once more.
“Heidi’s missing. Your guys lost her.”
Alexei’s brow furrows, and a moment later, Dimitri enters the room, his tall frame blocking the doorway. He looks just as ragged as I feel from the all-nighter I enforced, but there’s no missing the concern in his eyes, telling me he heard something of our exchange.
“What’s going on?” he asks, and I quickly fill him in.
“We need to find her,” I say, my voice hoarse with anxiety. “She’s not answering my calls, and something doesn’t feel right.”
“You don’t think it has anything to do with the way you left things yesterday?” Alexei suggests. He knows better than Dimitri the heated exchange I shared with Heidi before storming out of her office—and how I put a tail on her against her wishes.
“No,” I growl, frustrated because he might be closer to the truth than I want to admit.
My brothers exchange a look, that look that tells me they can see right through my short temper to the truth of the matter. As much as I want to deny it, I’m not only head over heels for this girl, but I’m going to go stark, raving mad if something happens to her.
Immediately, my brothers are on board with getting her back safely.
Stepping the rest of the way into the room, Dimitri places a firm hand on my shoulder. “We’ll find her, Maks. We’ll do everything we can.”
Huddling in Alexei’s office, we form a plan. His men are already out, searching the neighborhood, but we need a lead. Something to go by. The only thing is that the direction Heidi had been driving wasn’t in any way headed toward her office. And I have no clue where else she might go.
She was probably headed to a client’s property. But that could be any of the random houses. And how would we know?
Just as we commit to calling in more of our contacts, my phone rings. My heart leaps into my throat, and I grab it, praying it’s Heidi getting back to me. The caller ID displays her name, and an intense, heady relief washes through me. I’m going to lose it over this girl.
“Heidi?” I answer, my voice gruff after such intense anxiety.
But the voice on the other end isn’t Heidi’s. It’s cold, menacing, and oily as the man answers me in Russian. Dread consumes me as I recognize Aleksandr Volkov’s reedy voice. “Maks, my boy, you seem worried,” he says casually, making my blood run cold.
