Page 43 of Sinful Embers

Red Day, as Sabrina called it earlier, muttering the words under her breath before downing a shot of vodka like it was medicine. My gut twists at the thought, my grip tightening into a fist.

If she’s carrying my child—

No. I can’t go there. Not yet. Not until I have her back.

Oleksi strides through from the dining room, having just finished eating. He came in when Sabrina and I had already finished.

“I’m going to shower,” he announces, glancing at the clock on the mantel. "Then I'm heading out."

I frown. “Again?”

Oleksi shrugs. “Why not? London’s nightlife isn’t terrible. Syd and Clyde know all the best spots—places I never knew existed, and you know how many times I've been here.”

I watch him. We're all frustrated about not finding Leigh. Oleksi just wants to find Dmitri, as he has more than a few grievances with the man. Oleksi has a habit of drowning his frustrations between a pair of warm thighs after a good night out.

I nod. "Enjoy but just keep your head down and watch your back."

"Always do, brother." Oleksi glances toward Sabrina. "You could join us if you like. Clyde has the hots for you. You may get lucky."

"No, thank you. I like Clyde, but he's not my type, and I'd rather stick a hot poker in my eye than spend an evening with you," Sabrina tells him with a saccharine grin.

"Your loss." Oleksi turns to me. "You could come too. It might do you some good to get out."

"No. But thanks."

"Clyde and Syd should be down soon as well. They're also getting ready." With that, Oleksi leaves the room.

Sabrina watches him with mild disinterest. She doesn’t like him, and the feeling is mutual. The two of them together are like a dog and a cat that have learned to tolerate each other simply because they have no choice.

"Is it just me, or did he just overly explain his actions?" Sabrina says, annoyed. "Like he was rubbing it in our faces that he's going out while we’re stuck here in misery."

"I'm sure he didn't mean it that way." I stick up for my cousin. "He was probably just trying to reassure me."

Sabrina nods, and we fall into a heavy silence, which she is the first to break with a question that does a complete 180 from our last discussion. “Don’t you find it alarming that no one has seen Wanda Manning in four weeks?” Her brow creases. "Even her executive assistant said it was unlike her to just disappear for so long."

I exhale sharply. “I have a lot more to be alarmed about than that bitch. As far as I’m concerned, she was instrumental in kidnapping my wife.”

“But she’s been gone since a week before Leigh was taken,” Sabrina points out, tilting her head. “What if she wasn’t part of it? What if she’s just another pawn in Dmitri and Carlos’s game? Now they have her company and Leigh…”

I rub my jaw, considering her words.

Maybe she’s right. Maybe we’ve been looking at this the wrong way.

“Think about it,” she presses. “We’ve been chasing ghosts, tracking Carlos and Dmitri, and we have nothing. What if we’ve been looking in the wrong direction? What if Wanda Manning is the key to finding them?”

I glance at her. Smart.

Before I can answer, her phone buzzes.

"Why the hell is your reminder still going off?"

She pulls it out, glancing at the screen. “It's not my reminder. It’s Uncle Nik.”

She hits answer, and Nikolas’s face fills the screen. I lean closer, my pulse spiking.

“Tell me you’ve got something. We’re chasing our own tails here.”

"We think we should stop looking for Dmitri and Carlos and track Wanda instead," Sabrina chimes in.

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