Page 58 of King’s Promise

The missing horse will tip Nikolay. I wonder what Katerynia knows. I’m sure they’ve been questioned, as Sergei isn’t at work today. Even if he made an excuse, it’s too much of a coincidence I’m missing and he’s nowhere to be seen. Throw in Nikolay’s horse and it’s a trifecta.

“What, do you think Nikolay will save you? Wake up Anya, he’s never going to love you. You can truly be free of this life once you sign everything over to me.” He paces back and forth as he keeps an eye on me. “I’m the Petrov son, and rightful heir. And the Bratva will know the truth once and for all,” he sneers, and I use him going off the rails to twist my wrists to see if I can free my hands.

Obviously they tossed my cell phone and are using burners. There is no end to the money I would pay to see Nikolay one more time. I know we were destined to be; I don’t know why it took me so long to piece it together. We were kids. I didn’t take him seriously thinking he was young, and I was a passing thought. I wonder if he remembers his promise to marry me. I will willingly wed him. I just need to break free one more time. I have to tell him I remember it all now, and I love him.

23

Nikolay

Two bobbies knock at the door and hand me Anya’s purse and cell phone found at the crash scene. Pavel listens to them, I’m too distraught to hear the details, none of it which matters. Anya is gone. We file a missing person’s report but know it will be useless, and we can’t say much. They know she’s missing, so we can’t deny it, but we’ll handle this on our own.

I hold her belongings and the small, broken box in her handbag tumbles out. The purse is one we picked out together.

I return to the kitchen, contemplating the box. It’s not the one I gave her, it’s too small. I open the crushed lid and inside are gold cufflinks engraved with our initials. Strange, I never saw a charge from the jeweler on her credit card statement. It’s a thoughtful gift she paid for herself, which means she cares for me. I stuff the cuff links in the front pocket of my jeans, hoping they will bring me good luck.

I long to tell her no woman has ever been good enough for me because my heart has belonged to her since we were kids. If we had never reunited, I would have ended up in a boring, loveless marriage and she would probably bury herself in school and work.

I have to find her. Even if she wasn’t connected to the Bratva, she would be my choice for a wife. Now, sorrow creeps into my chest like a cold, dense fog, knowing I may never get the opportunity to tell her I love her. I can’t admit defeat. There is still time and I’ll never give up.

“Dmitry, you need to find Cillian. I’m sure Sergei has her well-hidden. We’ll hit the three obvious locations Konstantin knows about. We need to lean on the Irish, and George. I’m sure he must have his ear to the pavement. What does he know that we don’t? And can we trust him?

“On it,” he exclaims and drains a can of Red Bull.

“What can I do?” Konstantin asks.

“Who has an in with the Irish? Can I meet with Cillian?”

“Doubtful under the circumstances; he’s probably holed up in a safe house. I’d advise against it. We need to be prepared for hits on our businesses. But I’ll see what I can do.”

“Have a team check out your locations for signs of Anya or men gearing up for war.” I turn to Roman. “Get the weapons ready, we’re going to hit the places Dmitry finds and we’re going to kick down doors until we find her.”

“Sergei should be making demands by now if he wants to prevent the loss of men dying by our bullets. How many men could he have turned?” I ask.

“I say we rough George up. Enough is enough, he had to suspect something. He’s been at this too long to not know what’s going on.” Pavel makes a valid point and I agree.

“Find George and bring him to our warehouse, have our men torture him. I’m fucking done with asking questions. I want him to sing like a bird.”

Pavel nods and goes outside to give orders to the trusted men waiting for instructions.

My phone rings.

“I know you are amassing an army, but I have Anya and you have nothing.”

“Sergei.” I say his name to alert people around me. Dmitri scurries over to his keyboard to track the call.

“You won’t find us, so don’t bother looking. The Bratva belongs to me. I have Anya, winner takes all.”

“Fuck you. You’ll regret the day our paths cross again.”

“Good luck. I know everything about you, but you know nothing about me.”

He has a point. It pisses me off, but I can’t let my emotions get the best of me. I listen for background noise on the call, anything to give me a clue as to where they are and when I’m about to give up Sergei pauses, and I hear the Tube.

“Be careful venturing out.” Sergei’s phone goes dead.

“I heard the Tube; we need to find that train. It will narrow down the search area.”

“There are too many, brother.” Dmitry scoffs. “I’m great at this but London is a huge city. Give me your phone, let’s see if he was stupid enough to use a cell tower. If so, I’ll track his car and the family’s vehicles. We might get lucky, and it will ping from the GPS tracker. Sergei doesn’t impress me as being bright. He’s flashy and goes off half-cocked to think he can get away with this.”

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