Page 7 of Doubts & Fears

“I wanted to see if anything survived. I’m sorry—” he offered.

“I know. Everything is gone,” I sobbed.

His phone rang, and he answered it while still holding me. “Alek,” he said, passing it to me.

My heart sank. The very last thing I wanted to do today was talk to him or face his wrath. I pushed Ivan’s hand away, hoping he’d get the hint that I didn’t want to talk to his brother.

“Best to get it over with. He’ll be less of an angry bear if you talk to him now.”

“I’m not afraid of bears,” I muttered.

“You should be,” he said, once more pushing the phone toward my hand.

He would not relent. My fingers trembled as I took the phone. All the anger and hurt inside for Alek resurfaced. Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself to get this over with already.

“Yes,” I said, barely keeping the sarcasm from my voice.

“What the hell? I swear I don’t know what I’m going to do with you. Do you know how irresponsible it was of you to leave? How the hell did you make it past the guard gate? I swear you’re in so much trouble when you get home.”

“My home is in Skagit now.”

“Put Ivan back on. I’ll deal with you later.”

Wonderful, just what I was hoping to avoid. Looked like sweet Alek was gone. “The Reaper has need of you,” I said sarcastically and walked outside.

Marcus leaned against the trunk of the car, his arms folded, one ankle crossed over the other. With a nod, he opened the car door. I sighed as I climbed in. Ivan’s quiet nature allowed me time to collect my thoughts.

I planned my next moves, my brain racing ahead. Getting up to Skagit was my first priority. An old memory surfaced of Owen and me, tugging at my heart.

“Jellybean, if ever you feel you’ve been found or are in any kind of danger, you promise me you’ll come to this exact spot.”

“But you’re going to be with me always, Owen. You promised. After New Haven, you swore you’d never leave me.”

I cried, thinking about that day.

“Kinsley, I need you to focus. This is so important. The coordinates are on the back of our photo at Tumalo Falls. Now I need you to promise me, right now.”

He only ever had a stern voice when it came to my safety and when he was teaching me survival skills. I nodded.

“Everything you need to start over is in this container. It has been meticulously put together. Once you are old enough, the information in the letter, combined with what’s inside this box, will make sense. You trust me, right?”

“Always and forever. It’s you and me against the world.”

I made a promise that day, and I vowed to do everything I could to get back there.

Chapter 3

Nikolai

Q & A Session

Alek was struggling to keep himself composed. When he checked on her an hour ago and found her missing, he’d hit the roof. Now he was on speakerphone with Marcel, and he looked like a migraine was coming on. He rubbed his head and winced, his voice growing more irritated by the second.

“I’ll try, Marcel, honestly. But the truth is, she needs her ass spanked, and not for pleasure.”

“Alek, that isn’t going to help,” Marcel said calmly.

“Yeah, well, the little shit was wearing a fucking T-shirt. No panties. She took an Uber naked, for fuck’s sake.”

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