Page 5 of Innocent Bratva Hostage

I nodded.

“How do we know he didn’t give them the information before he died?” Egor asked. He’d finally stopped tapping against the glass. It looked like I’d piqued his interest.

“Peter would never give up that information even to save his own life.” I smiled, taking a sip of my whiskey and reveling in the way it burned down my throat. “That’s where trust comes in.”

“We still need to find whoever is after the Tyfun-1 before they do more damage,” Rafayel suggested, his face contorting with rage.

I shook my head, my lips curling with a smirk. “That won’t be necessary. All we have to do is find the Tyfun-1. Whoever is behind Peter’s death will come to us himself. He can’t hide in the shadows for long.”

Miron finally stopped pacing and leaned against the wall. “How do we find it?”

Egor’s eyes and mine shot to the phone in the middle of the table at the same time. I could tell he was thinking the same thing as I was.

“This phone has some of the answers we need,” Egor said, picking the device up and rotating it between his fingers. The screen was cracked and still had remnants of Peter’s blood on it.

“Let’s see what’s on it,” Rafayel said, straightening up.

Egor held the power button until the phone came on. The lock screen was a picture of a girl in her early twenties wearing a graduation gown and smiling at the camera.

She had an uncanny resemblance to Peter, but unlike him, her smile was filled with an innocence that made me shake my head. Such innocence had no business in a world like ours; she would only wither away and die.

Egor scrolled through the phone for a moment, and then he turned the cracked screen toward us. “This was the last call he made the night before he was murdered.”

I narrowed my eyes to see the number saved asMy Cherrywith a heart on fire and a kissy-face emoji on it.

Irritation crawled up my skin at the sight of it. Emotions like love were a vulnerability; it couldn’t be said enough times for anyone with ears to actually listen.

“That must be his daughter,” Miron noted. “What business would she have with the Tyfun-1?”

Egor pulled the phone closer to himself, scrolled through it, and turned the screen toward us again.

This time around, there was a message displayed on the screen, and the recipient was the sameMy Cherrywith the heart on fire and kissy-face emojis.

I read the message out loud.“The typhoon’s eye holds the calm—Tyfun-1.”

Rafayel scoffed. “The fuck does that mean?”

“No idea,” Egor said. “But she clearly knows something.” He slid the phone toward me. “Find her. Find the shipment.”

I picked up the phone, rolling it between my fingers.

I didn’t know what Peter’s daughter was like, but if she indeed knew about the drugs, then it made sense she would be on the run right now. That was what anyone with common sense would do: run.

Miron huffed a laugh. “Look at that doe-eyed girl. Does she seem like the type to know stuff about hard drugs?”

“From what I heard, Peter stayed away from his family after divorcing his ex-wife. If he called her last night and sent a text, then he must’ve told her something.” I stopped spinning the phone and thought for a moment. “What time was Peter murdered?”

“His body was found near the bay at eight a.m. today,” Miron answered. “Considering rigor mortis had not begun to set in yet, chances are he was murdered between six and seven a.m.”

“Right.” I tapped the screen, waited for it to turn on, and scrolled back to the message. “The message was sent at eight-thirty a.m.” I flicked through the screen. “He scheduled the message.”

Rafayel grabbed the phone from me. His eyes widened enough to show his surprise. “That means he probably suspected this would happen. He knew someone was watching or following him.”

I nodded and turned to Miron. “Do you have any idea where he might’ve been coming from?”

“His daughter’s.”

I scoffed. “Looks like we have all the answers we need. Now all we have to do is find Peter’s little girl, and we’ll find out what she knows.”

---