Page 51 of The Bratva's Auctioned Bride

Lukyan nodded. “If the program is anything like ours, I should be able to.”

“But if she’s already away from the scene, that location will be useless. By the time anyone gets there, there’s a chance she might already be hauled somewhere else. Besides, those reports usually have some sort of delay,” Kir explained, his words coming in and out of my focus. “Lara could already be at a secondary location. We need a precise one to get ahead.”

Lukyan agreed before turning to me, his eyes set with determination. “You got her that new phone recently, correct?”

Blinking back at him, I nodded.

“Did you link her phone to your account?”

“Of course.”

He held his hand out. “Then hand me yours. We’ll cross reference her location with the crash site to see if the phone has moved.”

Feeling another rush of panic, aware that time was ticking, I handed my phone to him unlocked, feeling far too numb to do the work myself.

With ease, he navigated through my phone, clicking on her phone’s location and sending it to himself before doing the same with the crash report. He handed it back before he continued on his own.

Ari was already on the phone, his voice blending in with the background noise. But seeing him standing there with that authority, shouting demands through his phone, it seemed to shake me all over again.

The reality hit me, and I realized I had to do something. I couldn’t let it shake me. I had to focus.

Tuning back in, I immediately dialed Damien’s number, doing my best to keep myself level despite it all. The moment the call connected, I briefed him on the situation, demanding that everyone show up and wait on standby.

Without arguing, Damien agreed and said he’d pass the message along while he headed out.

With that sense of urgency lingering around us, I ended the call and found Lukyan turning his phone around to show me his screen.

“Does this place look familiar to you?”

Taking in the rough location on the phone map, I read the street name, and at once, it clicked. To accompany the panic and determination to find her, anger crept right in.

“That’s Gromov turf.”

At once, we looked at each other as that information dawned on us. There was no mistaking then that it wasn’t just an accident. It was another one of their hits.

The Gromovs had my wife, and so long as I could help it, they weren’t going to survive it.

Chapter 26 - Lara

The feeling of déjà vu cloaking me was so hard to ignore that my awareness came back even faster as my eyes peeled open, and I tried to look through the haze.

My head pounded, almost like it had a racing heartbeat of its own. It felt even worse with the grogginess in my system, dragging me down to the point of wishing I was lying down.

But as I focused on my surroundings, once the last bit of darkness ebbed away from the edges of my vision, I finally noticed I was sitting up. My hands were bound by cold metal, and as I went to move, I was met with immediate resistance. I glanced down behind me to find that not only were my wrists cuffed, but the chain was also weaved through the bars on the backrest.

Panic gripped my heart then, and while the situation was different from before, I still felt that same overwhelming dread from the first time I was captured and taken to the auction.

However, I wasn’t in a holding room this time. Instead, I was surrounded by concrete floors and steel walls. Behind me, I noticed iron steps that led to an upper level, and given the stacked crates and containers around me, there was no doubt I was in a warehouse somewhere. The fluorescent lights above my head buzzed faintly, making me realize just how quiet it was in there.

Across the big room, I saw two guards standing by the door, wordlessly holding their guns. In the distance, I could hear voices moving around, along with tires against gravel.

“Ah, you’re finally awake.”

An unfamiliar male voice infringed upon the near-silent space from behind, making me crane my neck, only for staticpain to race through me. It was a brief reminder of how I had passed out before as images from the collision entered my mind.

I could hardly remember what happened, aside from the feeling of the car being rammed into and my body getting thrown forward. Beyond that, everything was completely hazy.

Footsteps moved behind me until I could feel his presence next to me. Then, he turned to face me with a smug smile. His short blond hair was slicked back, and despite having no knowledge of him, I assumed he was older than Alex.

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