Page 65 of Captivated By the Bratva

I’d fallen head over heels for her too quickly. From the moment I first saw her, I wanted her, and now, that haste was biting me in the ass.

I should’ve known better than to be convinced. I should’ve stayed guarded and suspicious.

She’d been acting off, and now, I struggled with the idea that I’d been believing in something that must not actually be there.

I came back to the bedroom, glowering at the bed where I’d last seen her.

Just minutes ago, she’d lain right there! Reclining to rest on her elbows and smiling up at me like a siren. She’d placed her foot on the blanket?—

I froze, my chest heaving as I looked at the bed again. Letting my memory play back in my mind, I saw the image of her clearly.

Her slender foot, inked with flowers, placed on the flat blanket.

The comforter wasn’t smoothly fitted over the bed now. It was ruffled up, messy, and off center.

I narrowed my eyes, thinking quickly and slowing down to pick through the things that were nagging me.

The bed messed up. The slick slipperiness on the door handle.

Did someone break in here?

I scanned the bed again, considering how a body might have moved on the surface to make it so messed up and ruffled.

Almost like someone had struggled on it.

Fought.

I pushed back my first, awful thoughts of what Nadia’s absence could mean. She’d run from me before. It wasn’t ridiculous to assume she could’ve again.

Yet, it looked like someone—if not Nadia—had struggled on this bed.

Someone with an oily or greasy hand had touched that doorknob.

“Where the fuck are you, Nadia?” I whispered as I grabbed my phone.

It was already ringing, and I answered.

“This is Henry,” the newest security supervisor answered. “We just met in my office, but it seems that as we spoke, the cameras at one of the building’s rear entrances were compromised.”

“Fuck!” I ran out of the penthouse.

“I have the team booting it up again.”

“Send them out. Fix the camera later. I need all your men to search the surroundings for Ms. Petrov.”

He didn’t argue. Like the competent man he was, he immediately acted on my command. It didn’t stop me from rushing outside to scan the surroundings for her. Henry met me at the site, and together, we formed a plan for locating Nadia. He had men scouring the building. More were searching the neighborhood.

I hated, again, that I had no way of tracking her, and I swore that was the first thing I’d do when I saw her again. She’d be getting a tracker as soon as possible. Either one implanted or something she’d wear. I couldn’t handle this stress of losing her again.

For hours, I searched. With the limited Valkov men here and on my own, I kept up a constant hunt for her. I called the hospitals. I had Yusef get someone working remotely to hack into the surveillance feed around the building. It was all hands on deck, and still, Nadia was nowhere to be found.

“Have you seen this woman?” I asked a homeless man camped out near the building. I’d resorted to asking all the people on thestreet. The homeless, the people working in the storefronts. The construction guys working on a curb sewer.

I paid them all upfront, hoping the easy enticement of cash would loosen their tongues. Even with the handover of cash, none of them had news. None of them tried to give me false tips, either.

It was as though Nadia had disappeared into thin air.

“Huh?” he asked, squinting up at me.

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