Page 41 of Hers to Control

I find nothing except a few kitchen utensils that were flung to the ground.

A fight.

My heart pounds in my chest as I quickly open her backpack and check inside. She packed all her stuff, plus food and water. She definitely planned on getting away, but it looks like she wasn’t fast enough.

From the corner of my eye, I see something lying halfway under the couch.

Mia’s phone. The one I’d been tracking.

I curse.

Right outside the door, there are more marks of a struggle etched into the dirt, and I find fresh tire marks in the driveway that don’t match my own tires. They’re deep and distinct, evidence of a hasty departure.

Now I know what had my hackles up on the way in. I’d already seen the signs, just hadn’t made sense of them yet.

Anger surges within me, hot and fierce, and my jaw clenches. Mia didn’t leave on her own. She was taken.

I pull my phone from my pocket to call Gianna.

I will find Mia. Whatever it takes.

Fifteen seconds later, Gianna answers, sounding as if I woke her. “What’s going on?”

“Mia is gone. They took her.”

“Fuck.” There is some rustling in the background as Gianna gets out of bed. “Did they leave a message?”

“No.”

I take my knife and throw it into a nearby tree. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

When I go to retrieve it, an idea strikes me. “You could reach out to Tsepov Senior.”

The silence that follows on the other end of the line already tells me Gianna’s answer.

“Eric, you know I can’t do that. That’s a fucking dumb idea.” She sounds frustrated and I get that. Mia is her friend and Gianna is used to taking what she wants. This time, she can’t.

God fucking damn it.

I don’t give a shit. I’m gonna push. “You could make a deal. Something about Mia’s father. Our people could take care of him for the Russians.”

It’s a shitty plan. Weak. I don’t even know if the guy still lives after having pissed the Russians off as much as he did. But, if one of our guys takes care of him, the Russians won’t need to deal with the fallout. No added sentences for any of them. I haveno reservations about Mia’s father getting what he deserves. He’s obviously a useless piece of shit if he puts Mia at risk the way he has. Maybe Gianna will go for it.

She doesn’t.

“I can’t do that and you know it.” Gianna sounds pissed. “Look, drive back here and we’ll come up with a plan.”

“Sure,” I growl, hitting the red button on my phone. Then I throw my knife again.

Chapter Fifteen

Mia

I’m bound to the chair, my wrists secured tightly behind my back with a rough rope that digs into my skin. I must have fallen asleep at some point from the exhaustion, but now, my consciousness returns and I’m back to the mess that is my life. The chair creaks beneath me as I struggle against my restraints, but they hold fast, cutting into my flesh with each futile attempt to break free.

The room is dimly lit, the only source of light filtering in through a small, barred window near the ceiling. The air is stale and musty, tinged with the scent of excrement.

Footsteps echo in the hallway outside, growing louder with each passing second. My heart hammers in my chest as the doorswings open, revealing a burly Russian man with a sneer on his face. I’m sure it’s one of the guys who picked me up at the cabin, and I try not to be relieved that it isn’t the one whose eye I injured. That guy would do anything to hurt me back.

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