Page 77 of Til Death Do Us Part (Kornilov Bratva Duet 2)

Viktor

Iwake up to screaming.

Shrieking, rather.

Truly, no one can scream like an upset child. Crying kids seem to reach an entirely new level of sound previously unknown to the human race.

I sit up in bed, searching for the source of the noise.

Then, I see Theo standing next to Molly’s side of the bed, his face red and covered in tears.

“What’s up, bud?” I reach out for him, and he crawls on the bed and falls against my chest.

“Where’s Momma?” I make out his words between sobs and hiccups.

“I’m not sure.” I press a kiss to his forehead and then scoop him up as I get out of bed. I’m only in my boxers, but putting him down to find pants would likely result in more screaming, so I don’t bother. “She is probably in the shower. Let’s go see.”

Except, Molly isn’t in the shower.

She isn’t in any of the rooms upstairs, and when I carry Theo downstairs, I see the nanny sitting in the living room.

Her eyes widen when she sees me in my underwear, and then she glues her eyes on my face. “Sorry. Theo was crying all morning, and I couldn’t get ahold of Molly, so I just came over. The guards said she wasn’t here, but I thought seeing you might calm him down.”

My heart stutters at her words, and I hold out a hand to stop her. “What do you mean Molly isn’t here?”

The woman frowns and points towards the front door. “That’s what the guards said. She left last night.”

The guards on duty now are not the same guards who were watching the house when Molly left. It takes lots of questioning and several phone calls to get the entire story: Molly left the house in the middle of the night, claiming I told her it was okay, and she never came back.

“Why the fuck wasn’t I called?” I growl, forgetting Theo is in my arms. I take a deep breath and try to understand what this means.

Did Molly leave us again? She did it before, but only when she thought she was bringing danger to Theo. The incident at the photo shoot yesterday could have scared her, but I doubt she would leave again. Not without Theo.

The guards were afraid to question Molly when she left, and while part of me is proud of her for being able to scare two grown men, a much larger part of me is furious with her for choosing now to step into her role as Bratva queen.

I send men out to patrol the neighborhood for any sign of her, but she isn’t around, and just as I’m growing desperate and about to call Seamus for help, my phone rings.

I set Theo down on the couch, pull out my phone, and nearly collapse with relief when I see Molly’s name on the screen.

“Where the hell are you?” I ask. I want to sound furious, but the desperation is so thick in my voice. “Why did you leave?”

There is a low laugh on the other end of the phone, and every hair on my body rises.

“Fedor.”

“Surprised?” my younger brother asks. “I wish I could see your face.”

Theo is looking up at me, eyes wide and brown and just like his mother’s, and I can’t take this call in front of him. I nod for the nanny to keep an eye on him, and then move into the office at the end of the hallway.

“Where is she?” I growl.

Fedor laughs again, clearly giddy over his success. “You thought she was so safe locked away in that apartment. Were you in bed next to her? Did I steal her right out from under your nose?”

An involuntary growl rises in my throat.

“You hired so many men to watch over her, but you never considered that I was already inside the house.”

I spin towards the door, listening for the sounds of Theo and the nanny playing on the other side of it. Theo still has his pouty voice, but I can hear him telling the nanny what he wants for breakfast.

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