Page 75 of Bratva King's Secret Twins

I feel something dark and violent crackopen inside me, a red haze blurring the edges of my vision. “And you believed her?” The words drip with venom. “You let her out of your sight?”

The guard’s face pales, his hand trembling as he clutches his gun. “I—I thought?—”

“I don’t pay you to fucking think,” I snarl, cutting him off. My heart pounds against my ribs, each beat filled with the icy dread. “I pay you to know where she is at all times. Now I’ll ask again. Where is Gwen?”

“Nik, let him go.” Nadia’s voice eases under the hot burn of anger, crawling under my skin. My eyes stay on his fear filled pupils as I release my grip on his throat and he gradually drops to the ground out of my eyeline.

I close my eyes for a split second, forcing the rage down, forcing myself to think. Gwen’s gone, and every second that passes is a second closer to losing her for good. No, I won’t let that happen. I can’t.

“Alek, sweep the building, all exits. Now!” I bark the order, and without hesitation, Aleksandr bolts into action.

“Move it,” Aleksandr commands, shoving two guards towards the emergency exit with such force that they stumble.

My eyes lock onto the guard who let her slip away, and I can feel my blood boiling with rage. “You’re coming with me.” My voice comes out in a dangerous low growl. “And if we don’t find her, you’ll wish you were never born.”

The guard’s face pales as he stammers out a response, but I don’t give him any more attention as I storm toward the elevator, every nerve in my body on edge. The thought of Gwen in the hands of someone else—of someone using her against me—makes my blood run cold.

Nadia is hot on my heels, and she places her hand on the sliding doors, her eyes narrowing in on me. “Nik, if you catch him. You can’t…you can’t-”

“And what do you think I should do, Nadia?” I lean forward, looming over her with sharp eyes, eclipsing her in my shadow. “You want me to let daddy dearest go? Let Gwen die? Give him a free pass to Russia?”

“No,” she grinds out, avoiding my gaze, nostrils flare as she darts her gaze from side to side. “Nikolai, he's our father.”

“No,” I snarl, knocking her hands off of the sides of the elevator. “That isyourfather, and when I catch him, there will be less of him left than our mother.”

I back up, keeping my hardened gaze on her as the elevator doors close in her face, but before they can slam shut, her pain-filled scream cuts through the air, “Nik!”

There is a part of me that wants to run to her and beg for forgiveness, promising I won’t kill her father, but right now, with Gwen so far out of my reach, no piece of me bleeds for her, because Gwen has already bled me out.

“Last timeshe was seen was in the lobby,” Aleksandr says, spinning his laptop to face me as we walk down the seventeenth floor hallway, because when my guards said they swept the building, I didn’t fucking believe they’d do it properly. They went from the top down and went from the bottom up.

“Where in the lobby?” I move the bed of a twenty year-old couple who are currently being occupied by my head guardRoshin who regrettably was on his scheduled sleep break during Gwen’s disappearance. A fucking mistake that I would never make again.

“She was on the arm of the couch in the corner, then the video skips.”

I grab Alek’s wrist and he turns back the video to Gwen talking on the phone one second and then the lobby being empty the next second.

“We also found her phone,” Alek adds, his voice rough. A guard behind him holds it up like it’s some sort of consolation prize, but all I can focus on is the blank screen, the reflection of my own fury staring back at me.

“She was right there,” I mutter, more to myself than to anyone else, my eyes locked on the screen. “Right fucking there.”

I force myself to look away, my thoughts clouded as I am trying to figure out where I can ground myself, see clear enough not to get her home safely.

I tear my eyes away from the screen and grab her phone, dialing the last number she called which unsurprisingly was Kelsey. It rings once, twice, and then goes straight to voicemail. I curse under my breath and try again, the repetitive drone of the unanswered call like a hammer to my skull.

Voicemail. Again.

I try once more, a cold sweat breaking out on my forehead. Nothing. Just that same damn voicemail. I’m gripping the phone so hard I’m surprised it doesn’t shatter.

As we approach the lobby, my eyes scan the space with the precision of a predator. I’m looking for anything—any sign,any clue that those idiots might have missed. And then I see it, placed gently on the middle of the seat where Gwen once sat on the arm of the chair, chatting to Kelsey on her phone—a satin lilac box, almost identical to the last one with pieces of my mother, except for the ivory silk ribbon tied around it.

My breath catches in my throat, and I step forward, my breathing coming out sharp and heavy, beating in my ears. The box burns in my gaze. It’s taunting, and it’s for me. I know it before I even touch it.

“Nik, don’t-” Alek barks.

I push through, and pull the ribbon loose with trembling fingers, the rage in my chest tightening into something cold and lethal. The box opens with a soft, almost innocent click, revealing its contents.

A chunk of Gwen’s curly black hair.

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