Page 113 of Little Blue

I’m so in shock, my body isn’t even trembling anymore. My mind can’t connect this reality to life as I know it. To my existence on this planet.

This doesn’t happen.

But it does. Every. Day.

My eyes shift from Boris to Ivan. “You sell people?”

“Ironic, isn’t it. The reason for this war, the excuse he uses not to work with me, is the fate that will befall the woman he loves.”

I have no idea what he’s talking about.

My mouth closes, jaw setting hard. I think of strong arms holding me close, of kisses that sink so deep, I feel them in the pit of my soul. I think of love.

“Yes,” Ivan says quietly. My eyes flutter open to see that his face has changed to one of fascination. “You were right, Boris. She is a diamond in a sea of gemstones.”

Again, Boris doesn’t reply. But the hard set of his jaw, and the muscle that ticks there tells me he knows this isn’t okay. He knows it’s wrong. He knows better…

“Auction it is.” Ivan stands, and with nothing else, he walks from the room.

Silence descends over me and Boris. I can feel his eyes on me even as I stare in shock at the empty chair.

Finally, I whisper, “I trusted you.”

“I know.” With that, he turns and exits.

I hear the key in the door, and slump in my chair as a new set of desperate tears begin to flow.

Forty-Six

Ilya

Two days. It’s been two days without her.

I’m going out of my mind.

It took two days for the Minister of Defense to do his fucking job and get me what I needed, which was info on wherever it was that Ivan Fucking Popov was hiding. Information I knew the corrupt fucker would get me, because it’s for him that I provide the weapons he moves to other countries, crafting wars and turmoil that keeps his job a cushy one. Fucking government, always has been corrupt. Always will be.

Now that I finally have that information, it’s taking everything I have in me to remain the calm, level-headed man I’ve always been. It’s taking everything in me not to storm the warehouse, guns blazing.

And guns will blaze. Tonight, I’ll be opening the gates of Hell on the fuckers who thought they could steal what belongs to me.

It’s not often I find myself in tactical gear, ready to storm a compound where the head of a rival house attempts to hide low.

After realizing that Irelynn had been taken, we’d attempted to track the car. All my cars have trackers, but this one specifically had been disabled. The time stamp showed it had been disabled two hours before they’d left. That meant one of two things.

One of my men had known about the excursion and disabled the tracker, setting them up to be taken. In which case, Boris is most likely already dead.

Or Boris betrayed me. In that event, he will die. Painfully.

In either scenario, I’ve been unable to track the car.

With proof of life pictures, and the last being an encrypted video I’d opened only thirty minutes prior, I know Irelynn is still alive. Though she’s been beaten.

The thought that she’s been hurt settles a bone-deep rage inside me I’m not sure I’ll ever be free from.

“She’s alive. We will bring her back.” Misha shoves a blade into his belt.

“I’ve arranged the trade for tomorrow morning.” Ivan demanded a trade, his Ruby for my Little Blue. Another tell that Boris betrayed me, Ivan’s knowing of my pet name for her.

---