Page 55 of Bratva's Vow
Archie’s gaze flicked to the monitor, and I caught the sharp pull at the corner of his mouth. Wren was still visible. Still curled up like he was shrinking away from the world.
Archie didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to.
I saw it in his face.
I told you so.
He still disapproved of Wren.
I held Archie’s stare for a long beat, tension stretching taut between us. Then I exhaled slowly and leaned back in my chair, nodding once.
“I know,” I muttered. “Don’t say it.”
Archie didn’t. He was smart enough to leave the silence alone. Instead, he straightened his cuffs.
“Everyone’s waiting in the conference room.”
I ran a hand through my hair, already feeling the headache blooming behind my eyes.
“Is there any word?” I asked quietly.
Archie’s face hardened. “Not yet. The chief’s still a ghost. Our sources at the precinct say he’s gone dark. No credit cards, no phone. The bastard planned this well.”
I ground my molars together so hard they ached.
Coward.
A coward who had no problem signing off on my murder like it was some backroom deal. After all I’d done for him.
He’d sent a man to kill me in public, to make a statement. That failed.
And now he was hiding.
Of course. That was what men like him did.
I rose from my chair slowly, straightening my sleeves with mechanical movements. Everything inside me felt rigid, wound up so tightly I didn’t know how I was still standing upright.
I grabbed my phone and walked to the door, but my eyes drifted, almost against my will, back to the monitor.
Back to Wren.
Still in bed. Still looking small and fragile and so far away from the boy who hung up on me because I swore at him. Or bought me a medical bracelet with his information on it for my birthday. I twisted the bracelet on my wrist.
You broke him.
That voice inside me wasn’t kind. It wasn’t forgiving. It sounded like Jess, who’d been pissed when she found out about Wren’s father. Both Nik and Darius hadn’t been able to hold her back while she screamed at me that she would have never agreed to keep my secret if she’d known the full truth.
I swallowed thickly and forced my feet to move, slamming the office door shut behind me harder than necessary.
When I entered the conference room, the buzzing conversations stopped.
Sergei stood against the far wall, arms crossed, his face tight with concern. While Nik no longer worked directly for me, he was Wren’s bodyguard, so I’d asked him to be present at all our briefings until we had Stone. We needed all hands on deck. He and Darius flanked him Sergei, looking equally grim. Archie took his place at my right side like clockwork. It didn’t feel right. That was Wren’s place.
The weight of that burned more than I cared to admit.
I didn’t sit. I planted my hands flat on the table and stared at the men assembled before me.
“No one has eyes on him yet?” I asked, my voice sharp as broken glass.
