Page 87 of Tarnished Queen

“I did,” he says, his voice taking on a weird, strangled quality. “But they… they weren’t here to see you.”

“Then what the fuck did they want?”

There’s a pregnant pause as I wait for Kostya to spit it out. Finally, he sighs. “They took Belle.”

My heart pounds hard against my ribs. It feels like every beat shakes my whole skeleton from head to toe. “What do you mean, ‘They took Belle’?” I growl finally.

Yuri and Makar are watching me, but I barely register them. My entire being is focused on this call. Everything else is white noise.

“They came to arrest her. I saw them drive her and Elise away just a couple minutes ago.”

I flash a wave at Yuri and Makar and start running towards my car. Could this be an undercover operation? Mafia members in police uniforms? It sounds a little espionage thriller-y, even for me, but it’s possible. Maybe this fire and murder were yet another distraction.

“And why didn’t you stop them? Your job is to protect Belle. It’s the entire goddamn reason I hired you.”

“I tried to delay them so I could call you first,” he says. “But they had an arrest warrant. Then you weren’t answering when I did call. This is the first time my message went through.”

I stopped answering calls during the initial flurry of notifications about the fire at Zinc. Everyone from the general manager to the investors to the security team were calling me, and I was already on my way. I ignored them. Then I didn’t have service in the parking garage.

“When did they take her?”

“Just a couple minutes after you left.”

I check the time and curse under my breath. “That was almost an hour ago.”

“There was nothing I could do,” he says pitifully.

“You could have fucking killed them.”

Kostya doesn’t respond, and I don’t have time for his excuses anyway. I hang up and jump into the driver’s seat.

I’m going to get my woman.

* * *

The female officer working behind the glass is in tears by the time Officer Sweeney comes through the locked door to my left to see what’s happening.

“Sir, I don’t have the authority to release anyone,” she whines to me for the dozenth time since I stormed in here spewing hellfire and brimstone.

But I’m not listening to her anymore. The second that Sweeney steps into the lobby, I lunge for the door. He just barely manages to close it and initiate the automatic lock before I can yank it open.

“Move,” I growl as I consider ripping it off the hinges.

“Nikolai, just listen.”

“No, you listen,” I snap back. “Bring my fiancée out or I’ll kill everyone in this room.”

The receptionist whimpers again, but Sweeney just sighs and waves me towards the corner of the room. “You probably shouldn’t be overheard threatening a police officer in a precinct, okay? Besides, I’m on your side here.”

“Like hell you are. If you were on my side, my fiancée wouldn’t be in a cell right now. Belle would be at home waiting for me.”

Naked. In my bed.I want to kill Sweeney all over again for stealing the promise of that reunion away from me.

“Some hotshot new judge issued the warrant, and they sent a new cop to carry it out,” he explains with a weary sigh. “Also, Belle doesn’t have your last name. We didn’t know who she was.”

“That will change in two days. We’re getting married. Which will be hard to do if she’s in a jail cell.”

He holds up his hands in surrender. “She’s being released right now. It’s all being taken care of.”

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