Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
I obey. I still couldn’t disobey if I wanted to. I’m still spinning in my head about everything that he said. If Andros is missing… and I know he wanted me for himself… where has he gone to?
Where the hell has he gone?
Tomas opens the door. “What is it?”
“Ilya, sir. He’s been taken.”
Chapter 19
Tomas
I hate this. I fucking hate this. I take Caroline with me to the meeting, because I don’t trust even my most dedicated men to protect her now.
My men eye Caroline when she sits beside me. Though she’s changed, her hair is a little wild, her cheeks flushed. Women rarely attend our meetings. But in our line of work, you learn to trust your instincts, and my instincts are telling me that something’s foul here.
“Ilya’s missing,” I tell them. “What do we know?”
“Could it have anything to do with the arms trade with the Brazilian cartel, sir?” Yakov speaks up from the back. “They’ve been less than honest in our dealings with them, and it seems their fearless leader isn’t as fearless as we thought.”
I shake my head. “No. He ran like a pussy when he knew I found him out. I confronted him myself yesterday.”
That confrontation involved a beat-down, a loss of teeth, and a bloody confession he wrote out in his own hand, but I’m pretty confident we won’t be dealing with his bullshit again. “It wasn’t him. I suspect San Diego.” Caroline sits up straighter.
“On what grounds?” Yakov asks, not challenging me, but suddenly hyper alert. He knows my feelings for Caroline run deep, and it’s his job to be sure my allegiance to her doesn’t cloud my judgment. But he’s also learned to trust my instincts.
Still, how can I tell him I have no grounds? That literally the only evidence I have is that Andros has eluded the detail I had on him, and no one knows where he is?
But Lev speaks up from the back.
“Not five minutes ago, we found footage showing how Ilya was taken.”
My skin feels cold and prickly, while at the same time my stomach clenches with anger. I hate that someone put a hand on one of my men. They will answer to me for this.
I pull out my phone and dial the head of security.
Caroline’s eyes meet mine, wide but trusting, and it brings solace to me. I swallow hard. I love this woman. She’s feisty as fuck and we’ve only just begun, but her quiet acceptance and trust empower me.
“Sir?”
“We’re in lock down,” I tell him. “Shut and lock the gates and windows and call the guards.”
Caroline swallows hard and reaches for my hand when metal bars descend on the windows, and the snapping of locks fills the room. Outside the window from where we sit, the massive iron gates that lead to our estate slowly pull shut. Though everyone stirs, all await my command in silence.
“We have footage?” I ask Lev.
“Yes, sir, and we’re in the process of retrieving it now.”
“Show us.”
Lev hits a button on a remote, and three wide screen TVs spring to life. The footage is right outside our gate. It’s dark out, and the time stamp shows it was late last night. Ilya stands guard at the gate. A hooded man approaches, and Ilya pulls his gun. The anticipation and silence are deafening. It’s hard to get a profile on someone wearing a hood.
I’m on my feet, Yakov to my left, Lev in front of me, and Nicolai on my right.
“Christ,” Nicolai mutters. “Shit.”
The hooded man draws a weapon. Ilya attacks. He doesn’t last long, though, before his assailant has him cuffed and immobilized. Christ, I have to train that boy better. I will find him, kick his ass for not taking down his assailant, and teach him better self-defense. Four more men surround Ilya.
In the skirmish, the hooded man’s hood falls to the side.
I recognize him.
“I know that man,” I say. “Zoom in.”
Lev obeys.
“I know him, too,” Caroline whispers.
“He’s the one that tried to touch my wife in Atlanta,” I say.
Nicolai nods. “I was there. It is indeed the same man.”
“Where did they take Ilya?”
Lev shakes his head. “No idea. They left by the front gates, and our footages soon cuts off.”
“Why would they want him?” I ask.
“They want him to get to me,” Caroline says. “I told you Andros wouldn’t let me go. He’s coming for me. He will use Ilya to get to me.”
I pace the room. No one speaks.
She’s right. She’s fucking right.
My men are at risk, and so is Caroline.
I turn to Nicolai. I can’t leave this room, as I have an army awaiting my commands.
We go through footage but find literally nothing else that could lead us to Ilya’s abduction. I’m leery, though. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. This is only a warning. The prologue, if you will.