Page 150 of Blood & Snow
I press the phone to my ear, every muscle in my body coiled tight.
"Nadya?"
A low chuckle fills the line, but it's not the light tinkling of a woman's tone.
It's low and rough, and most certainly male.
"Not quite," the voice says.
I recognize it immediately.
Arkady Sokolov.
The man I've been hunting for weeks.
The man whose organization I've torn apart piece by piece.
The man I swore I would kill before midnight on New Year's Eve.
"Where is she?"
My voice is flat and rigidly ice cold.
Rage and terror wash through my veins like fire and ice in the same breath.
I'm instantly coiled to strike.
"Safe," Arkady replies.
"For now."
I grip the phone so hard the plastic creaks.
"If you hurt her?—"
"You will what?" Arkady interrupts.
His tone is mocking, amused.
"Kill me? You've already killed my men. You've burned my businesses. You've taken everything from me—even my own son. What more can you do?"
I say nothing.
My mind races, calculating, analyzing.
He has her.
He knows who she is.
He knows what she means to me.
And that can only mean he intends to harm her if he hasn’t already.
"I thought you were smarter than this, Morin," Arkady continues.
"A man in your position, keeping a woman close. It makes you weak. It makes you predictable."
"Where is she?" I repeat.
