Page 51 of The Bratva's Innocent Pregnant Bride
“I get it,” I said. “If Paisley is guilty, I’ll be the one to make her pay. It has to be me.”
He was quiet for a moment, finally saying, “What do you need?”
I breathed a sigh of relief, telling him I needed security cameras from outside the resort where she’d ditched the car. “I was told she took a taxi, so a direction would be useful. Track her credit cards or bank activity. And get me every last number you have that’s connected to that nanny agency. Can you do that, and quickly?”
He huffed. “Of course. But are you so certain of this woman that you’re willing to cut a deal with me? I feel quite confident that she’ll be found within a couple days and Aleks’s men will take care of her.”
I was confident of that too, which was why I needed to find her first. Aleks’s people had a very bad habit of shooting first and asking questions later. But I bristled at the slimy bastard trying to cut a deal with me in exchange for his help. Was that how family acted? I was right not to trust him.
“What the fuck?” I asked. “What the hell do you want?” When this was over, I fully planned on informing Masha of this, in hopes she might finally see the light about her husband.
“I want you to stop treating Masha like a traitor for marrying me,” he said.
I went silent, wincing at his quietly spoken request. “I haven’t been doing that,” I sputtered.
Anatoli snorted. “Really? You haven’t been avoiding her like the plague, canceling dinners and meetings you know she’ll be at, ducking out of rooms when she enters?” Every word was like another unexpected punch, and I really didn’t need it right now. Maybe I had been a little standoffish, but only because I didn’t trust Anatoli. “I don’t like seeing my wife upset, Daniil,” he said.
And I didn’t like seeing my favorite cousin’s hurt looks whenever I did the things that Anatoli accused me of. She was like a little sister to me. Mat, Rurik, and I had doted on her since she was born, including her in almost everything we did. She was as tough as nails, scrambling back up after every time she got knocked down. And if she couldn’t defeat whatever was bothering her, one of us stepped in.
Now I was the asshole who needed a good kick in the head. And the man I despised for taking her away from us was the one trying to bring us back together.
“That’s all you want?” I asked suspiciously, to hide how crappy I felt about myself.
“That’s it. You can keep treating me like shit all you want, just stop it with Masha.”
He already knew how badly I needed his help, because I would have called anyone else if I had the option. He knew CJ would laugh in my face, not only because she adored every one of those kids, but because her dog’s fur had been singed in the explosion. He could ask for anything he wanted, and the fact he was only asking that I stop acting like an ass to Masha finally won me over.
“Done,” I said. “It should have been done long before this,” I conceded.
He promised to send me what he already had right away and start finding the taxi she took from the resort and track it. My butt was barely in one of the plush armchairs around the fireplace in the lobby when several phone numbers came through.
The first was the office number for the nanny agency, which I didn’t bother with since it was after hours. I hung up as soon as I heard a lilting, cheerful voice go into a spiel about howtrusted they were. Sure. The next was an emergency number, which led to an answering service. I just about scared the young woman who answered half to death, but wrung a promise from her that I’d be receiving a call within a half an hour.
A half an hour felt like an eternity, especially if Paisley was in trouble. The third number rang to a personal voicemail of someone called Marlowe. I left a menacing message.
“If you have anything to do with Top Nannies or know Paisley Moore, you need to call me back right away.”
That did the trick and within five minutes my phone was ringing.
“How did you get this number?” a scared, sleepy voice asked. “What’s happening with Paisley?”
“Do you work with the agency?” I asked, not usually keen on threatening women, but keeping my voice as dire as possible to keep from wasting valuable time.
“I’m the founder. Please, tell me if Paisley’s all right.”
She sounded truly desperate and I eased up a bit. “Why is she working as a nanny for the Fokin family in Aspen if she’s not an employee of your company?”
The sound of gulping filled my ear before she answered, tears in her voice now. “It was an emergency. She’s the most trustworthy person I know, and she worked for me many times before I started this agency. Any background check you run on her will come out squeaky clean. I’d be shocked if she’s ever even had a parking ticket.”
I could believe all that, but was it because I wanted to? Marlowe pleaded with me to tell her if Paisley was all right again, outright sobbing now.
“Tell me about Axon,” I said, confusing her enough that she choked back her tears.
“Uh, it’s the accounting firm Paisley works for. I don’t really know anything about it except that she doesn’t much like the management there.”
That was a start, but when I asked if Paisley had ever mentioned any specific people she didn’t like, the nearly hysterical Marlowe couldn’t recall any. She admitted to knowing Paisley since they were kids, and reiterated that Paisley was fully qualified to work as a nanny despite forgoing the usual background checks.
Did I believe her? Or assume she was part of this, whatever this was? Her tears could easily be fake. Fucking hell, this was another dead end. I was no closer to finding Paisley and if this woman on the phone was legit, I had upset her needlessly.
