Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Fuck.
“I tried to get in there, but they locked the door. What am I supposed to do? I don’t know what to do!” she said, her voice shrill and rising.
“Where the hell is Alexei? You have a bodyguard for a reason, and he—”
“I don’t know where he is. He’s the one who knew where Vanya was, and he drove me over here, but he made me wait in the car while he went up.”
That should have been fine. Dinara Krupin—Nara—wasn’t a high-profile fashionista influencer like my stepsister. She didn’t need two bodyguards. It had never been necessary before. Just the one should’ve been enough to keep her out of harm’s way.
“I don’t know what happened, but he never came back, so I finally parked the car and went in to look for him.”
“And someone directed you to the party once you were in the hotel.”
“Yeah. There were a couple of guys in the lobby.”
“Did they go up with you?”
“They did. They said they didn’t want me to get lost. Everyone’s been so helpful.”
Of course they were.
This was just getting worse and worse. Whoever was holding Vanya had lain in wait for the man’s little sister. The situation was becoming more sinister and premeditated by the second.
“Have you tried calling Alexei?”
“Yeah, but his phone keeps going to voice mail, and I’ve looked all over and asked everyone if they’ve seen him, but nobody has, and I can’t find him anywhere.”
Jesus.
Her breath hitched. “You don’t think that—”
“No, I’m sure it’s fine,” I said, trying to sound hopeful, soothing her, keeping my voice calm, level, even as I put her on speaker so I could text Nikolai—Niko—Ochagavya, one of the men who worked for me, to go get the Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class parked a street over and bring it around front. “But I have to ask, did you tell whoever grabbed Vanya who you are?”
“Yeah, I did, but they laughed at me.”
I felt her words in the pit of my stomach like ice. If the name of the Krupin family, which everyone knew was directly related to the Lenkovs, didn’t scare you at all, then you were either from out of town or looking for a fight.
“Do you think Alexei got hurt?” she asked again.
He was either dead or had led Nara like a lamb to the slaughter. “Absolutely not,” I lied, because either way, Alexei’s life was over.
“There are men by the doors, Maks, and they won’t help me find Vanya. I know they locked the doors behind me when I came in, and I’m getting a little freaked out.”
“I’m sure they have general orders not to move,” I assured her, wanting her to remain composed while I thought fast, needing a lifeline for my cousin. “So is there anyone you know at the party? Who invited you?” I asked, taking her off speaker and heading toward the door of the office.
She was silent a moment, and all I heard was the driving beat of the music.
“Dinara,” I almost yelled, using her full name to get her attention. “Who the hell’s party is it?”
“It’s Burian Petrov’s,” she confessed in a rush, her breath catching.
I didn’t even try and stifle my growl, beside myself with how stupid she had been to even walk through the door. The man was an animal, and everyone knew it. “Are you kidding me? Why the hell would you and Vanya be anywhere near Petrov?” I railed at her. “You know his family and ours—”
“He gives Vanya drugs, Maks! Why the hell do you think?”
Yes. Easy answer. Drugs. “I need you out of there right now. Just run to the—”
“Absolutely not. I refuse to leave Vanya here with—”
“I’m leaving now. I’ll get him,” I promised, hoping I could make good on my words. God knew what Burian Petrov was doing to Vanya. No doubt he’d been building up trust with my junkie cousin for months, and now, on Pasha’s big night, had sprung the trap to do something to humiliate the golden son of Grigory Lenkov by attacking his cousin. Vanya was an easy target and had been in the news many times before for being drunk and disorderly, his debauchery legendary in the Chicago tabloids. Fortunately, no one could prove the trade of sex for drugs, or that would have made the headlines as well.
I felt the bile rise in my throat thinking that whatever they were inflicting on Vanya, and would soon be doing to Nara as well, had nothing to do with either of them and everything to do with soiling Pasha’s name.
“Listen, you can’t stay there—” I choked out, nearly gagging at the thought of my tiny pixie of a cousin, who’d just turned twenty-one, being there alone with predators and no one to protect her. “Please, Nara. I’ll take care of it.”
Her whimper made my chest tighten. “He’s my brother, Maks. Just hurry.”