Page 43 of Love and War

“You’re still here.”

“You won’t find me anywhere else, Aziza.” It was the truth. I lost her once. I walked away. I couldn’t let her go this time, I wouldn’t.

Neither of us said anything until Mila shot down the stairs, frantically looking around.

“Hey guys, have you seen Tobias?”

Aziza startled, her ass digging into my dick once more causing me to hiss.

“I just woke up,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at me.

“He hasn’t come down that I’ve seen.”

“Fuck!” Dimitri yelled. I was on my feet. Something was off; something was wrong. Shooting a hand out, I caught Aziza’s elbow before she fell.

“The Cartel has him; they have my fucking son,” Dimitri growled out.

18

Aziza

Myfingersmovedacrossthe keyboard faster than I think they ever moved before. Salem was nowhere to be seen. Walker said she’d left and he hadn't heard from her in over twenty-four hours. That was normal, but when I tried calling her off our emergencies’ only line. That’s when I knew something was wrong because she always answered. Even if she was in the middle of something, she always answered.

“Has she found them?” Dimitri asked somewhere behind me. I wanted to scream at him that I wasn’t looking for Tobias for him. This was for Salem and for Mila. Tobias was nowhere to be seen either. I couldn’t find either of them. Backtracking into the Cartel’s database, I couldn’t understand why there wasn’t anything. Nothing useful anyway.

“No,” Killian answered. Since I woke up on his lap a day ago, he refused to leave me alone. I don’t know if he thought that maybe since I came to him in the first place, I was over everything. I wasn’t, not by a long shot.

“What the fuck? I thought she was a better computer nerd than you were,” Dimitri growled.

Rolling my eyes, I continued what I was doing, while I drained one of his offshore accounts. He’d get a notification soon, and by that point it’d be gone. And maybe if I was feeling generous later, I’d return it.

“Killian…” Just on cue, I smiled. “What is she doing?”

Killian hovered over me, searching the screen for what I was doing. I waited for him to see in the far corner what I was doing.

“Oh, fuck,” he finally mumbled under his breath.

“Oh, fuck? Oh, fuck what, Killian? What is she doing!”

“Aziza…”

I ignored Killian, turning in my chair and facing Dimitri.

“I’m draining one of your offshore accounts. I told you before, don’t threaten me. But we’re to renegotiate, threaten me, hurt my feelings, bother me, anger me, even fucking upset mysensitivefeelings. I’ll drain your accounts, and if, and that’s a bigif, maybe I’ll give it back.”

I don’t know if he was shocked or too pissed off to speak. Either way, I turned back towards the computer and continued trying to find Tobias and Salem.

***

“Moya Printsessa,” someone said above me. I blinked my eyes open; I hadn’t meant to fall asleep. “It’s okay, I can see you starting to panic.” Of course, Killian knew what I was beginning to feel. I was supposed to find Salem and Tobias, and here I was falling asleep.

“I shouldn’t have fallen asleep,” I muttered. Shaking the mouse, I waited for the computer screen to wake up.

“Aziza, I have to tell you something.”

“Just spit it out.”

“Tobias is home…” he said, searching my face. “And he’s okay, he’s good. But Salem, she’s gone again.” It took me longer than I liked to understand what he said.

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