Page 165 of Ivory Ashes

I shake him, but he doesn’t stir. Doesn’t even seem to register that I’m here.

Then I see Stella beneath him. Her body is twisted at unnatural angles and her skin is mottled, pale, cold to the touch.

The only good news is that I don’t see any other bodies in the garage. Viviana and Dante aren’t here.

I grab my phone and dial Raoul as I feel for Anatoly’s pulse. It’s faint against my fingers, but it’s there.

Raoul answers on the first ring, music playing in the background. He was headed to the lounge to check on the security situation there when I left him. “Hello?”

“Send the doctor to the mansion. Now,” I hiss. “Anatoly is down.”

“What the fuck happened?” Raoul balks, pure shock laced in every word.

“I have no clue. Viviana isn’t here. Stella is down, too.”

Stella is dead, but I can save that reveal for later on. There’s nothing anyone can do for her now, anyway.

“Fuck. I should have come back with you. I should have?—”

“Call the doctor and have an ambulance ready,” I bark. “That’s what you can do now.”

Raoul blows out a shaky breath, but I hear him tapping away on the other end of the line. He’s no doubt sending a message to the Bratva doctor. Anatoly needs more than what Dr. Sidorov can offer out of his little black bag of tricks, but at least Dr. Sidorov can get him to an emergency room without raising suspicions. The last thing anyone needs right now is a team of first responders crawling all over the mansion. Especially when I still have no idea who shot Anatoly to begin with.

The mansion is dark and quiet when I get inside. I search each room, moving slowly, anticipating a gun in my face at every turn. But there’s nothing.

“Dr. Sidorov is on his way,” Raoul tells me over the ongoing call. “I’m going to meet them at the hospital.”

I don’t answer. If anyone is nearby, I don’t want to lose the element of surprise.

But there isn’t anyone nearby.

I make it upstairs and Viviana’s door is unlocked. The only person who had the key is Anatoly, so he must have gotten that far into the plan, at least, before he was shot. The room beyond is empty, clothes scattered haphazardly across the floor.

Dante’s door is closed and I hesitate outside of it for a few extra seconds. I cling to the bliss that is not knowing what I’m going to find on the other side. For a few more seconds, I can pretend he’s perfectly safe and asleep in his bed.

Then I push the door open and discover the ugly truth.

His bed is empty.

Dante was supposed to stay. No matter what happened with Anatoly and Viviana, Dante was supposed to be here.

If he’s gone, I can only imagine what happened.

“I need every available set of eyes on the lookout for Viviana and Dante,” I snarl into the phone. “I don’t want them getting far.”

“Dante is gone, too?” Raoul asks.

I grit my teeth and jog through the house back to Anatoly. “Viviana must have taken him. She must have?—”

I get back to the garage to find Anatoly still lying on the floor, unconscious and bleeding.

Could she have done this?

I backed her into a corner. I made her feel like she didn’t have another choice. She already killed one of my brothers; why not the other?

“Viviana must have shot Anatoly and escaped with Dante,” I tell him. “I want her found and brought back to me. Now. She isn’t getting away with this again.”

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