Page 107 of Beautiful Beast

I don’t. I have no fucking clue. I’ve searched and searched for Dante’s place, but my search has repeatedly come up empty.

“So, if you kill me right now, you’ll never find her.”

“Then I guess we’re out of options.” We fire at the same time. A bullet lands in my arm, knocking me back and forcing the air out of my lengths. Dante growls as he stumbles, too, clutching his arm.

I fire at him again, but he dives behind a shipping container. I can’t win in a fight with a busted arm. I just need to find Anya and get out of this mess, so even though I want to stay and fight, I force my body to run away.

The old me would have shook his head in shame. The old me would have laughed until I took down every man or died trying.

But now … this new me only wants to make sure Anya is ok.

I keep running into the night until I’m far away from the docks. Keeping to the shadows, I avoid detection as I run to the nearest bar I own. It takes me a while, I know it, and there’s a good chance Anya might be dead by now.

I slam through the door, startling the bartender. “Phone,” I growl. “Now.”

He quickly hands it over, and I call James. “I’m hurt. Anya is still missing. Dante has her at his home. Start digging.”

“We’ve been digging for months now and still haven’t found his home location.”

“Then dig harder,” I grit out. After hanging up, I slip the phone into my pocket. “I’m keeping this.”

The bartender’s jaw drops, but he doesn’t object. Everyone who works at one of my establishments knows who I am. He won’t risk pissing me off.

“First-aid kit.”

After a beat, he reaches under the bar and hands me one. I head into the small bathroom and work on getting the bullet out of my arm. I groan as I dig around, but then I find it, and the relief is instant. I make quick work stitching myself up. After this is done, I’ll need to see my doctor about antibiotics, but that can wait.

Right now, I need to find Anya.

“Do you have a car?” I ask the bartender.

Slowly, he nods.

“Then give it to me. Now.”

With shaking fingers, he hands over his keys.

“Which car?”

“Uh, the white one out front.”

“Thanks.” I find the car easily enough and start driving through the city. Dante took Anya to his home. I just have to think where that could be.

Nadia told me Anya wanted to go to a café. I check the tracker on her car and find that it’s a café near my house. That must’ve been where Aiden and Finn found her. So, if she went there, it only would have taken her about thirty minutes. But Anya was gone for about an hour by the time she called me, which means she was either in the café for that long or she was taken somewhere in that time. Presumably, she called me when she was at Dante’s home, which means the drive there took less than an hour from the café. That helps narrow things down, but they could have gone in any direction.

I call James and tell him all of this. “Send multiple men in different directions from the café. Pay attention to any building. Anything that seems like it might be owned by Dante. Have them ask any doorman or any security guard in any lobby if they’ve seen her.”

“That’s going to take a while, boss.”

“I know. But it’s the only fucking play I have. So, just keep searching. I also have the license plate number of the car I was taken in. Run it.” I rattle off the numbers and James tells me he’ll look into it. I toss the phone to the side and press my hands into my eyes.

For the first time in my entire life, I feel hopeless.

And it’s all because I care about my wife.

ANYA

Aiden remains calm as he keeps his eyes on me.

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