Page 73 of Isle of Beauty

When I arrive, Alessio and Bea are gone but Igor sits next to Julian’s bed, head downcast and whispering. I can only see half of his face but anguish is written all over it. I don’t want to interrupt whatever moment this is, even though he’s still unconscious. Their love is transparent and pure. I wait until he feels my presence and turns to me.

“Where’s Lana? I thought she’d be back by now.”

He passes a hand over his face then rush to stand up with eyes wide and alert. “Fuck, I don’t know. She said she was going to have a shower and come back. How long has it been?”

“It’s okay, I’ll call her.”

I dial her in. Even if she’s in the car, I need to hear her voice and know that she’s fine and on her way. Being away from her after I almost lost her and my brother, even for just a couple of hours, makes me feel untethered and I don’t like that she’s so late. It’s unlike her.

She doesn’t pick up even though I know she agreed to wear her waterproof watch inside the shower. I’m a possessive bastard who insisted. I needed to know where she was at all times and be able to reach her. I also placed a tracker on it but she doesn’t need to know that.

I open the app on my phone and see the dot at her apartment. I frown. She went there hours ago. I refresh the app and check it again but the dot doesn’t move. Ice fills my veins while a cold shiver makes its way up my spine.

“Something happened. Call Giulia, tell her to meet me at Lana’s place.”

I run to my car and drive to her place in under ten minutes.

When I arrive at Lana’s flat, I see that the guards have changed. I wouldn’t say that I know everyone in the organisation but the people responsible for Lana’s security, Igor’s team, they’re always the same group of six. These men are not any of them.

I don’t pay much attention to them. With the attacks on the warehouse and Julian, Igor’s men have been spread thin and I’m sure they were needed elsewhere. Most of the time, Lana is at her father’s house anyway.

I go to use the key she gave me but the door is already ajar. The hairs on my arms rise up and I push the door in a hurry.

“Lana!” I yell her name, fear clogging up my throat.

NO.

I try to swallow around the dryness in my mouth but it’s like swallowing sand. Nausea roils in my gut and my heart goes on overdrive.

I rush to the bedroom, then to the bathroom. There on the counter, I see her watch. Why do you have to be so fucking stubborn?

Just like that, I’m thrown back into the memory of that sunny day in London, except now I know what it’s like to love her, hold her and call her mine. I bellow my pain to the ceiling and crash the furniture to the floor. I’m a rabid beast in pain, ready to destroy anything for a chance to find her. The exertion on my body isn’t enough to drain the misery. I’m heaving, trying to get air in my lungs but my oxygen has been taken from me.

“Pierce?” Giulia’s voice clears the clouds spread into my mind but barely.

“They took her!”

“Fuck.” She dials in a number and Igor’s voice comes out of the speaker.

“Lana’s been taken.” A string of Russian curses fill the room as Igor yells on the other side. “We don’t have time for a tantrum, Igor. We have no suspect for Julian’s accident. I’m guessing nothing came of our security cameras?” she asks me.

“Nothing but the airport ones have been directly connected to my phone since this morning. If she’s been taken, they’re going there. We need to intercept them.”

I open the feed on my phone but it takes forever to sift through with only one screen.

“We need to get down to the security room.”

We make our way down but it’s closed. Giulia breaks the door open with a gun hidden on a holster on her thigh and I’m right behind her.

“Maybe a knock would have sufficed.”

“Why would I want to do that when I can make an entrance?”

I point my own gun to the man manning the room “You. Out. Or I’ll make you.”

We hook my phone to the seven screens on display in the room and both start to look at the feed form the airport, as early as 00:00 just before Lana left for her flat. Can’t be too safe. Igor is seeing it all in real time on his own device through our shared connection.

“There. Time stamp 4:04,” I say and stop on the image of my beautiful wife, unconscious in the arms of two men. Another stands a little to the side. I let the feed go on and they put her in a small cargo plane before closing the doors. The plane makes its exit and I watch with horror as the light of my life leaves the territory. At timestamp 4:30, I see myself entering the airport. I missed her by a fucking thread.

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