Page 123 of Shattered Diamonds

“Where’d you leave it?”

“The church.”

“Get in the car. I’ll grab it.”

“D, you want me to grab it?” Luca yells from the other side of the car.

“I’ll go. You go with Antonio and Gio. Stay with Boss.” He grabs the door handle and jerks it open then gestures for me to get in before he strides away with some heat in his steps towards the church.

Paisley jumps in first. I’m right behind her when I hear her say, “Hey, what are you doing here? Where’s—” The next thing I know, my arm is jerked so hard it feels like it’s been pulled from its socket. Then a strong smell filters as I try to breath in. A sweet taste hits my mouth. Dizziness hits me hard, and the last thing I remember is the jerk of the limo starting to move.

ChapterForty-Six

DEMETRI

“Where the fuck is my plane?”I dig the tip of my gun into his temple.

“Sir. I don’t know what you’re asking.”

“I have a gun pressed into your temple. I’m going to put a bullet in your fucking brain. Do you think it wise to play games with me? Do I look like a man you should play games with?” I pull back and bash the side of his head with the butt of my gun. Then I pump two rounds into his chest before jumping to my feet and charging at the guy Giovanni is holding. “Where the fuck is my wife?” I snarl. “Where did he take her?”

“He’ll kill me if I tell you.”

“I’m going to kill you.” I speak with a sinister tone, looking him dead in the eyes. “Who alerted me about my plane being taken?”

There is only one reason why I was alerted. He wants me to find them. It’s a game. I took what he wanted and now it’s payback.

“Where is the organizations pilot and flight attendant?”

“Dead, sir.” His chin trembles knowing his minutes are quickly becoming seconds before I put a bullet in his head.

“Where. Did. He. Take. My. Wife?”

“States.”

Bang.

ChapterForty-Seven

DEMETRI

I leftsix men with no pulse on the airport grounds of my wife’s homeland. I’ll put a bullet in ten more if I have to in order to get to her. I may have had men at my back, but this is all me. That son of a bitch took her from me, and I want her back.

When Antonio called me and told me they were flying in to pay their respects, I knew something was wrong. In his next breath, he told me that Talia, his manager, and Tegan’s best friend, had come to him in confidence. Tegan was in fact pregnant, but it wasn’t my child she was carrying. It was the man who shared blood with me. My brother, Nikolai. She didn’t know he was my brother when she started seeing him. We may have the same DNA and look a lot alike, but we are not the same. As ruthless as we both can be, I was raised by our mother, a decent human, whereas he was raised by our father, a psychopath.

I have had private security following Nikolai since the night Haven watched the tapes at the jewelry store. I had a gut feeling when I saw her studying the security footage. His voice pulled her across the room to the CCTV screen. She recognized him but couldn’t place where she knew him. I knew exactly who he was. I went back to the building the rave was held in. Then I had our tech guy, Freddy, pull all the footage he could find from inside the building and up to two miles out around the building. With facial recognition from a shitty image I had acquired of Nikolai, it took some time to go through all the footage, but I got him. It burned my insides when I saw him approach Haven. I watched her innocent eagerness hesitate for only a moment, the drugs and alcohol in her system compromised her judgement. When I saw Nikolai’s hands on her body, I lost my shit and smashed one of Freddy’s monitors. I was two seconds away from seeing them together that night. As I approached her from the front of the building, he was exiting through the back, his henchman right behind him. If I hadn’t shown up, she would have been taken right out from under Ciarán’s nose.

The gun clenched in my hand lays on my thigh. My fingers twitch with a need to squeeze the trigger and end my brother’s life. The sick bastard knew exactly how to get me worked up. Just after we landed and piled into the waiting SUV, a message chimed on my phone. It’s an image of my beautiful wife. She is strapped up, naked and bleeding, while bound to my St. Andrew’s cross in my dungeon.

In my home.

In our home.

That motherfucker brought my wife back to our home. A place she is supposed to be safe. A place she should never have to worry about her security. He wanted me to know he could infiltrate every facet.

My life.

My wife.

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