Page 37 of White Rabbit
I placed a second call, this time to Ivan. “I need you to check on Brecklyn then stand guard over her until I tell you otherwise.”
“Yes,Pakhan,” he told me. “Headed there.”
With a tilt of my head, telling Aslan to follow me, I headed to the large oval table in the strategy room attached to my office. A map of the city and surrounding areas took up one entire wall, and as soon as I switched on the overhead lights, beacons on the diagram flickered to life. Blue showing my family members, including the tracker for Brecklyn that was in her phone. Red for the other men in my inner circle. Green for all those in the lower ranks. The red and blue trackers were always active—a safety measure. Laughably, the green, the sixths, had the most privacy.
And at the moment, all but one of the blue markers were converging on my office. In minutes, five of my brothers rushed into the room and took places around the table.
“What is it?” Jozef asked, while five sets of eyes were pinned on me.
Grimly, I explained what Aslan had told me. With hesitation, not waiting for an order to do so, Maks yanked out his laptop and started tapping away.
“Oh fuck,” he muttered, and I knew he’d hacked into her systems, just that quickly.
I rubbed a hand over my eyes. How could I have had a traitor under my nose all this time. I tolerated no treachery for anyone who operated under or adjacent to the Kloboucnik name. And yet, here wasmy stepsisterbetraying us.
“What?” I asked, wondering how my father would have dealt with this. He wasn’t a good man, in business or in life, but right about now, it seemed like he was a betterpakhanthan me.
“Looks like…embezzlement. And she’s been working with Enzo Bernardi—no fucking wonder they keep hitting our warehouses. But she’s been leading him for a merry ride too, feeding him as much misinformation as good intel. Probably trying to get as much from him as she can. And that sixth, Dzhon, who got killed five months ago, she arranged that as a hit on him—retribution for ghosting her. Stupid girl, I can track it all in her emails and digital journal—which by the way, she has a hard-on for you and she hated your wife. Jesus, she might as well have just written this on social media or something.”
“Not everyone can hack in like you,” Danik said, rolling his eyes. He glanced around the room, anyone who wants me to put better security and encryption on your devices, let me know.”
As if this wasn’t a serious situation, four hands went up.
I shook my head. Digital security was actually the last of my worries right now. I had a decision to make.
Nikita was my family and a woman. I couldn’t kill her. I wouldn’t. But I’d put her under detention until I determined her fate—which quite possibly would be marriage into the Romano family, bound to a man she hated. In Italy.
I was reaching for my phone to have Anatoli track down where Nikita went and bring her, when Ivan burst into the room.
“She’s gone,” he exclaimed. “I checked the cameras and saw she left the compound with Nikita.”
Chapter 21
Valariy
Two Days Later
Brecklyn was gone.
For two days, we’d searched for her. For two days, my bedsheets and my cock had been cold. For two days, I fought a constant battle not to commit murder on the woman who sat beside my in the SUV right now.
The only thing saving her was that Maks had hacked into traffic cam and security feeds throughout the city and tracked Brecklyn to the bus station. She’d gotten on a Greyhound to St. Louis, but she’d left the bus sometime before getting there. Neither Maks nor Danik had been able to determine where or if she’d gone someplace else after that. After checking, we knew she didn’t go to her parents’ though I had a man nearby, watching for her.
Fury rode me, and everyone, my men and my brothers, avoided me as if I’d contracted the plague. I might as well have with the way losing Brecklyn decimated me. I’d almost lost my mind when Nikita had arrived back to the mansion alone.
I’d pulled my gun on her, ready to put a bullet through her head. Only Kaz and Jozef pulling her away to lock her up had saved her life.
My emotions swung between disbelief, hurt, and rage over Brecklyn leaving me. Why? How could she? How dare she?
Why?
Why did she leave me?
I couldn’t believe it was because of what she’d seen.
But her life’s goal is to heal people. To save lives. Of course, seeing you take a life drove her away.
“Are you taking me to some field to kill me?” Nikita asked now, breaking the silence in the SUV.
