Artyom looked how I felt. His face collapsed at the sight of the injury, shame leaking through his expression.
"It's okay," Danika whispered. She wouldn't meet my eyes. "It was an accident."
Roman looked like he might tear my throat out. If he hadn't been holding Artyom, I would've let him.
"There is no excuse," I said. "There is never an excuse."
Suddenly the sound of a ringtone shot through the hallway.
“Let me get that, Roman,” Artyom snapped, loosening the byki’s grip and fishing the phone out of his pocket. His bloody knuckles shook as he answered. “Elena, do not move. We’re coming to get you.”
“A tracking chip.”
Her voice.
My love, my heart, my Elena. The woman who had destroyed me with a single sentence and left an array of broken pieces her in wake.
Danika started forward like she might dive into the phone and pull Elena out.
“Are you the only one who can access it?”
Artyom paused. “In theory.”
Elena was silent for a second, then, “In theory isn’t good enough.”
“Elena–”
The dial tone rang. She had hung up.
Artyom tried to ring her again but there was no answer.
My family looked to me, questions in their eyes. What was our next move going to be? What was my next move going to be?
The sound of her voice echoed in my ears. So clear and strange, yet as familiar to me as my own. She had always had such a factual way of speaking, like every word that came out of her mouth was correct and there were no other answers than the ones she provided.
I rubbed my aching jaw, blood coming away on my fingers. Not all of it was mine.
“Ready the men,” I said calmly. “We have a woman to hunt.”
Before we left, I sought out Danika. I found her with Roksana, the older woman checking on the forming bruise. Her fair fingers held Danika's chin gently but the expression on her face was not nearly as soft.
Her grey eyes looked like gunmetal as they snapped to me.
"Roksana, Danika," I greeted.
"I do not wish to see you this very moment, Kostya." It was the harshest thing Roksana had ever said to me.
I inclined my head. "I am not here to see you, Roksana, but rather Danika."
Danika finally moved her gaze to me, her view awkward because of Roksana still holding her chin.
"It's okay, boss," she said. "It wasn't on purpose."
I rested a hand on her head like I used to do when she was younger. Roksana watched but said nothing.
"There is no excuse. In exchange and to even the score, you can hit me." I revealed my cheek to her, already bruised from Artyom's attacks. "If you hurt me, we will be even."
Both of the women's eyes widened.
"I'm not going to do that." Danika's voice grew higher in pitch. "I'd end up hurting myself more than you."
"You're not that clumsy," I soothed.
She frowned. "That's not what I meant."
Some part of me yearned to return back to the man I was for my family.
I would do anything for them.
Almost anything.
I wouldn't try and control my madness, couldn't bring back the man who had taken them in and cared for them. The man who had made jokes at breakfast and not caused nausea at his violent acts.
I removed my hand from her hair. "I know, Danika. I know."
***
We found the phone before we found Elena.
It was shallow in the dirt, hidden beneath the underbrush. Rain had killed it, but it was a good indication that Elena had been here, had walked these makeshift paths.
The men spread out around the area, searching inside of logs and beneath large bushes. But not even a footprint could be made out.
I tilted my head up, eyeing the branches that watched over us. Most of them looked strong enough to form a pathway in the treetops.
Then a sliver of color caught my eye.
While my men hunted on the ground, I shrugged off my blazer, rolled up my sleeves and swung myself up into the tree. A few of them shared looks but none of them said anything.
I found what I was looking for. A blue piece of fabric was tucked into the crevices of the branch, like it had been torn. I held the fabric between my fingers, wondering what it had once been a wholly part of.
Was Elena aware she now had a hole in her clothing? Could she feel the weather more keenly now?
I leaped back down from the tree and passed the fabric to Olezka.
“Only Elena would use the trees,” he stated. “Titus’s men wouldn’t be able to get up there.”
“My thoughts exactly,” I said.
My torpedo eyed the evidence, seeing more than I could with his trained eyes.
Rain began to sprinkle once more, the droplets hitting the leaves around us and joining the symphony of the forest. Moments of beauty had been lost to me for three years, but now I could almost see my love walking through this forest, hear her talking over the birds’ chirps and sound of the rain.
“Boss!” One of my men yelled. “Uh…we’ve found something.”
I strode over to where a cluster of my men had formed. They had pushed back branches and dirt, revealing a dead body. It had only been here for a short while, the flesh only showing minor signs of decomposition.
But it was clear who had taken this man out.
Two holes were where his eyes should’ve been, bloody and dark. They were turned up at the sky but they saw nothing.
“She’s been here,” Roman said.
“Obviously,” Dmitri muttered. “Who else kills via the eyeballs?”
“This man posed a threat to her,” I noted. “Bring his body with us. I want to know everything about his life–including why he found himself in Elena’s way.”
Noises of agreement blended together. My men wrapped the body up before carrying it out towards where the cars were parked. Most of the journey had been on foot, the forest too thick to get a vehicle through.
Artyom looked to me, face swelling. I knew mine didn’t look any better. “We’re not the only ones hunting her,” he said.
“I know that,” I remarked. “But who else would dare? As far as the world is concerned, Elena left of her own accord. Her family could care less.” I shrugged my blazer back on. “Unless you’re implying it’s someone of our family.”
“Not anymore,” Roman sniped. “That bitch is an ex-family member.”
Dmitri pressed his lips together but said nothing.
“What would Titus want with Elena?” Artyom asked.
“When we find her, we can ask her.” I scanned the branches once more. “Elena didn’t use the ground. She’s too smart. Send some men up into the treetops.”
The search continued for many more hours, but no one dared complain. No one was leaving, no one was sleeping, until we had found her.
Even as the rain grew heavier and the sky grew darker, we continued to search. Men clumsily climbed through the treetops. They ended up finding an empty pack of candies and a half-eaten jerky stick.
She was close.
Where are you, Elena? I thought. This is your territory, the world you are familiar with. You might evade us now, but Tarkhanov’s always catch our prey.