Page 21 of His Order

I answer. “Talk.”

His voice cuts through the line, tight and fast. “The apartment’s been hit.”

Everything in me stills. Anya.

“What do you mean, hit?”

“Ransacked. The door kicked in. Place torn apart.” A pause. “Anya’s gone.”

The words slam into me like a steel bat to the ribs. That’s not possible. I just left her. She was working. She was fine.

“Anyone dead?”

“No bodies. Just blood. I don’t think she went willingly. Her computer is gone as well.” His voice is a little uneasy and makes me pause. Mikhail is always so cool and collected. To have him so on edge is unlike him. “Dmitri is back.”

My throat catches the oxygen in my trachea.

“When?”

“From what I can tell? Almost three hours ago. He flew in like a thief in the night. No one knew of his arrival.” Mikhailcurses under his breath in Russian. “Suka, blyad. I think he knows, boss.”

Shit. That is never good.

“Dmitri,” I breathe, the word tasting like ash on my tongue. “I will get her location. You search the apartment for any clues of what the fuck happened and why she was able to be taken.”

I had thought that moving her there would keep her out of harm's way. But I had played right into his hands, and now he has the one thing capable of crippling me.

A cold shiver slides down my spine. The kind that only comes when something you thought was yours is suddenly out of reach.

“Be on standby.” I end the call without another word and pull out my second phone.

I unlock the app buried beneath two layers of false folders—nothing but code until the last swipe reveals the real purpose. I plugged it into her computer a few days back.

Tracking beacon: AN-01

“Pavel?” It’s Victor who speaks first. “Are you okay?”

I ignore him and focus on getting her exact location. For once, I am thankful for my sheer obsession with this woman. It could be the very thing that saves her tonight.

Her signal pings.

Not offline. Not destroyed. Relocated.

And the location. I stare at the blinking dot. The penthouse. But not just any penthouse—my penthouse.

Roman watches me from across the table. “Problem? What’s going on? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

I close the app, already walking. “Anya’s been taken, and we need to go and get her.”

“Where are you going?” Roman is already falling into step with me. Victor is following closely behind. “Do you have her exact location?”

“The penthouse—he took her there.” I can feel the gun in my holster burning a hole in my pocket. “Dmitri is back, and it looks like he may be onto my plan. Shit is about to get very, very real.”

I stop and stand at the exit with a pensive look. “I know that neither of them signed up to do this. I called you to war, and you both answered me, but this is where things get real now.”

“We are walking into a bloodbath, and I will not think any less of you if you want to pull away now. I will not fault you.”

They stand there, their eyes locked onto mine, filled with a mix of determination and uncertainty. They are my brothers in arms, and we have bled for each other once before, but I cannot ask them to do it again simply for…her.

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