Page 147 of Merciless Queen

“Serafina. We have a huge motherfucking issue. She’s missing.”

Missing.The fact shreds me as my one nightmare comes true. My sister shouldn’t bemissing. She has people on her. She goes to one of four places. She’s hidden and protected. Missing isn’t at all the way to describe what sheshouldbe.

“What the fuck do you mean missing? She has bodyguards for this exact reason.”

“I don’t know. She gave them the slip when she was walking downtown. Z, something’s?—”

“Gave them the slip?” My voice rises to a near-yell. “She shouldn’t even know they’re there!” This is why I didn’t want them. Why no one is good enough for this task.

“Z,” his voice jumps a few levels, “something’s wrong, man. I feel it. And, uh, you might need stay there.”

There. Here. “You think she’s coming to Russia?”

“Check your texts. I’m sending you something.”

Following his instructions, I tap on the message as it comes through, finding a picture of a piece of paper—a note.

Going to Russia to see my sister. Don’t look for me.

“Dannazione!”

Fuck. If only I gave her Vanessa’s number, maybe she wouldn’t be randomly taking off for another country.

“Here’s the weird part,” Nero continues, his bad news ongoing. “Gabriella called me a short while ago when she found that but?—”

“So she left the note and slipped away from her guards. She planned it.”

“Stop interrupting me! No, listen, this is the weird part. Your mother was home when Sera last was. It was only after she went, your mother left to get groceries. When she came home, she found the note. I talked to the guys. She never went back home to leave it.”

Weight drops in my stomach as I slowly piece it together, my throat impossibly tight as I try to summarize what’s happening. What Iallowedto happen.

“She’s kidnapped.”

Restlessness shoots me to my feet, my hands dragging through my strands and catching on the tips. If someone’s takenher, she could be anywhere. Is this the work of Vitale? I’ll fucking destroy him.

“I have units scouring the entire country. Elio’s with your mom, keeping her calm.”

Good. That’s good.Words I want to say out loud. Madre can’t be breaking down through this.

“Report back as soon as they find anything.”

“I will. Do you think this was Volkov? That the note was half correct?”

“Vanessa wouldn’t do this,” I state with certainty. Serafina’s become the neutral ground for us. The person who can stop the fighting, whose safety is greater than war. “I’m thinking Vitale.”

“But would he risk?—”

His question is cut off as a shower of bullets suddenly pellet the side of my plane. Instinctually, I drop to my hands and knees as glass sprays down around me, decorating the floor with deadly rocks between me and the exit. My phone slips from my hand, landing somewhere out of view.

The gunshots stop and the air is prickling with a lethal silence. Slowly, I inch off my knees but remain in a crouch as I slip a spare gun from a storage box. Just because the shooting has stopped, whoever’s behind it is still outside and I don’t know how many of them there are, which means playing this slow and steady.

The question ofwhoquickly rolls through my mind. Not the Bratva. Not after Vanessa spent an entire day trying to push me out of her country.

My feet crinkle over the shattered glass as steps ascend the plane’s staircase. I position my gun in front of me, intending to shoot the second a person appears.

They do but correctly assume I’m armed, as the large form runs toward me. I push to my feet figuring this fight is moreprevalent than possibly being shot by a sniper from outside, and pull the trigger.

It narrowly grazes his shoulder earning a grunt, but he slams me to the ground before I can manage another one. My fist goes his face, my legs bending to land a kick anywhere I can reach.

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