I nod, wanting to tell her I’m not a complete idiot, but I doubt she’ll trust my judgment there. “Thank you for helping me, by the way. If there’s anything I can do for you when I get out of here, please let me know.”
“I don’t want anything from you, girl. I just didn't want you to throw your life away. Watch him kill you one way or another until you’re gone for good.”
It’s almost the nicest thing she’s ever said to me, but I don’t call her out on it since she won’t take it kindly. I simply nod.
She throws her scarf back around her neck and marches toward the door. “Remember what I said, be careful. I’ll check in with you again tomorrow and see where you are and if there is anything I can do to help, but I might have to stay away for a couple of days, so no one suspects anything.”
I open the door for her. “Thanks again.”
She leaves without another word, and I lock all the locks behind her. I’m tired but still scared. For some reason, I climb back into the closet with the blanket and huddle up on the floor. It’s about the same comfort level as the bed. The bag is still sitting on the bed, and I don’t have the heart to look inside again. She’d given me a gun as if I could possibly use it. Hell, I couldn’t even use it when I should have to protect Rose and me.
I rub my belly again and whisper softly to the baby inside. It’ll be a long time until he hears me, but for now, it comforts me in a strange way. I’m doing this for him, and it’s something I can’t afford to forget.
The neighbors start screaming at each other, and I can hear them through the wall. The yelling shifts to a physical altercation, and suddenly, I’m back in that house under my dad and Sal’s fists. No, I won’t go back to that. Sal is dead, and I never have to go back to that.
In a full circle, my gut clenches again as guilt pounds into me. Adrian took care of me. He saved me, and this is how I repay him…by running off when he’s facing down our enemies?
I surge out of the closet, grab the corner of the bag, and drag it to me. Then I reach inside and wrap my fist around the pistol grip of the gun. It takes a second to remember how to check the chamber, the safety, and the bullets, but it comes back quickly. As does the nausea of holding the cold metal tight in my hands. It bites into my palm, but I settle into my nest again, setting it on the floor, my fingers still gripping it.
If he’s coming after me, I need to be ready to protect myself. Kai is likely the threat I’ll face, and I’m prepared to force him not to turn me in based on his oath. I don’t know if it will stand, him being so loyal to Adrian and all…but I have to try.
I look down at the gun. My only other option is to shoot him, and I really don’t want to kill Adrian’s best friend on top of running away. This isn’t meant to be a punishment for him. I’m just trying to keep our baby safe, myself safe, and keep Adrian from damning his soul completely.
If he comes after me and somehow kills us, he’ll never forgive himself. If I go back and he kills us, he’ll also never forgive himself.
So my only choice is not to get caught.
4
ADRIAN
If one more person asks me if Valentina walked out on her own, I’m going to start shooting them in the face. Let them line up to put my Magnum in their mouth, and maybe they will stop asking me stupid fucking questions.
I pace the foyer of the penthouse, not wanting to leave for fear she’ll need me when I get her back. My men are scouring every inch of the city, and I have Kai’s spies working overtime to feel out the society and the council for any whiff of her. So far, they’ve turned up nothing.
She’s the goddamn daughter of one of the ranking members, the wife of another, and no one has spotted her? Whether it’s willful ignorance to get under my skin or someone is hiding her very well, I can’t wait to rip the balls off the bastard who thought he could take from me.
If Sal’s greasy ass were still alive, I’d be so far in his business he wouldn’t be able to think straight. As it stands, I have my guys digging even further in this family to see if they can turn over any answers. I wouldn’t put it past them to take her in retaliation for Sal’s death. Not that they have a body to prove anything.
I keep pacing and watch the elevator. Every time it moves, I feel like my heart is going to pop out of my mouth. I’m riding on caffeine and sheer adrenaline at this point since I can’t sleep without her beside me in our bed. I can’t rest knowing she is out there and could be hurt, or scared, or dying.
When my nerves are frayed, and I can’t take the silence anymore, I call together my five. At least the ones who can go into the field right now. Kai, Ivan, Michail, and Alexei. While I’d usually excuse Alexei to stay by his injured twin’s side, I can’t spare him until I know my angel is on her way back to me.
I pace the command room in circles around them, like a shark circling for the kill. “It’s been twenty-four hours. Why don’t we have answers? What about the tracker?”
Kai, as usual, speaks first. Even now, amid this crisis, his suit is pressed and his dark hair is perfect. Hell, even his tanned skin is glowing in the command room’s lights. “We have round-the-clock patrols trying to hunt her down. Our contacts at the police are involved, searching for her too. Everyone is doing everything they can. And the tracker was disabled somehow.”
What he’s not saying rings loudly in the room. Echoing so loudly I expect someone to repeat the words they are all thinking out loud. “Bring up the footage again,” I order, not giving them a chance to voice what I know they’re thinking.
Michail is closest to the controls and cues up the footage we’ve all watched at least a dozen times by now. In the images, she’s the same as ever. As I look at her on the screen, my chest collapses in on itself. My fingers ache with the need to touch her, claim her, bring her back into my arms and never release her again.
As if anticipating my next order, Michail loads all the footage we have of her leaving on a loop. It’s the same no matter how many times I watch it. She walks out, bag in hand, so confident that when I first saw it, I expected she might return. I’d punish her, but then we’d move on. But now, it’s been too long to expect her to come back—not of her own volition. And if she knew the punishments I’ve been thinking about, she’d never return.
Of course, that is if she left on her own. The footage seems to lead to that conclusion, but I can’t rectify the woman who laid in my arms just last night with the woman who walked away from me, from us, so easily. Either someone got to her, which is impossible since access to my penthouse is strictly contained, or she really left.
The thought circles my brain over and over like the looped footage. She left me. She left me. She left me.
“No!” I shout.
Every eye shifts toward me, away from the screen. No one has the balls to call me on how far down the rabbit hole I’m going with her gone. The memory of her is the only thing holding me to my sanity right now, and the thought of punishing whoever took her is my only reason for living.
I’m tired of the way they’re all looking at me, so I head out of the command room toward our bedroom, hoping to find a clue. She took some of her belongings with her…some clothes and some jewelry, I think. I’ve bought her so much over the past few months I can’t be sure.