Chapter 35 Ivan
IVAN
Awoman wailed up near the altar. The sharp sound of mourning distracted me from listening to what the church’s security manager told the Dubinin soldier with us.
Luka looked up too. So did the manager, who paused mid-sentence.
“She just lost her husband of sixty-three years,” the polite man said.
“Long time,” Luka said, eyeing the woman who clung to an older man, perhaps her son.
Seeing the sadness of a woman losing her husband sobered me. One day, that could be Raisa, missing me. If I didn’t actively plan to step back from the line of duty, she could lose me sooner. Lev too.
Something poignant about hearing this acute loss reinforced the idea that was growing on me more and more now that I’d be proposing and marrying Raisa soon. Now that I’d be more of a family man, with my family, not the family, I’d need to make sure I didn’t take unnecessary risks.
Before we resumed talking about security measures for this wedding, another scream cut through the air.
This one was sharper. One of pure fear.
“Luka!”
It was Gabriella.
She sprinted down the side aisle, her face etched with fear. With horror. As she grew closer, I saw the anger in her expression too.
We were running to intercept her. We didn’t need to think. Dropping into action, I ran with Luka and the soldier, hurrying to protect her and flank her.
But Raisa wasn’t there. She’d been eyeing the stained-glass artwork with Gabriella while we talked. I’d just seen them. Both of them, waving their hands like the candles’ smoke bothered their noses. Right by the nuns—
I whirled around, my gun up and ready to be fired at the first visible threat. Luka shielded Gabriella with his arm around her body. The guard covered them both as more Dubinin men rushed up to us.
“Where is she?” I roared. “Where are they?”
Those nuns. I kept wondering why they seemed so tall from across the church. Raisa had to dodge and lean to make eye contact with me, as used to this pull between us that had us needing to know where the other was no matter what.
Raisa was gone.
The nuns were too.
“Where is she?”
More Dubinin men rushed through the church, seeking her out.
“Gabriella.” Luka framed her face and stared at her. He wasn’t comforting her, but ordering her to snap out of hysteria. “Where is Raisa?” As he spoke, he roved his gaze over her, taking inventory and checking that she was unharmed.
“They took her!” She heaved in a deep breath and swallowed. “They took her out back. Both of us. They grabbed us over there.” She pointed a finger near where I’d seen them last. “And those nuns. Those fucking nuns!”
A petrified woman running to escape the church gasped at her as she passed us.
“They weren’t nuns!” Gabriella lost the hysteria and now scowled with fury. “They were men disguised as nuns, and when they kept getting closer I thought it was because we were in their way for a prayer or whatever. But they were just there to take us.”
“Who?” I stared at her, begging her to know so I could rush after them. The guard with us spoke into his radio, ordering more men to go down the block behind the church. “Who was it? Where did they take her?”
“Men,” she said. “No names. Raisa fought them back and struggled to get free. She broke out of one holding her to punch the guy who’d grabbed me.
Then she told me to run and I did. She told me to get help, but before she could run, they grabbed her again and stuck her in an SUV out back.
Black Expedition. Blacked-out windows.” She cringed.
“I don’t know anything else. It looked like all the cars we use. ”
“Did you see the men?”
She shook her head, frantic to share what she could. “No. Those veil things were blocking so much of them.”
“Focus,” Luka urged. “What did they sound like? Did they speak with an accent?”
“Not Spanish. Like you guys. Russian.” She licked her lips and clutched Luka’s arm. “But I think my bracelet broke off. The one you gave me.” She stared at him with hope. “Doesn’t it have a tracker?”
He kissed her cheek. “Good girl.” To me, he said, “Get Emil on it now.”
I nodded, not wasting a second to call my cousin and get him here.
He led Gabriella out of the church, to keep her safe in the car, but I couldn’t leave yet.
Joining the men running to the back of the church, I tried not to panic as I scoured the alley.
The Dubinin soldiers out back shook their heads and confirmed they didn’t have anyone.
A couple cars were in pursuit, but until Emil could find the tracker on Gabriella’s bracelet—
“Ivan.”
I ran over to where a man pointed at the pavement. There lay Gabriella’s busted bracelet, the gems cracked and the wire bent.
“Fuck.” I ran my hand over my face. “So much for that fucking lead.”
Before I could get any closer to losing my mind at the idea that Raisa had been taken, a car sped up and squealed to a stop. Emil exited, phone in hand and serious fury on his face.
“What the fuck?” he said.
“It’s got to be Konstantin.”
“Motherfucker needs to die and stay dead,” he growled.
I led him back inside, directing him to the security manager Luka and I had just been talking to. Within minutes, we were in the small office where Emil had a soldier uploading and reviewing the security footage of the back alley.
“Petrovs,” Emil said as we froze on a still screen. When Raisa punched the man holding Gabriella, his face was revealed.
It sickened me to watch Raisa struggle and fight. But I did my best to tamp down my feral rage. I couldn’t lose it now. I couldn’t lose her now.
Seeing how viciously she fought gave me hope, but it was fleeting.
I felt numb and on fire with the need to kill her father.
As Emil took charge and gave orders for men to follow surveillance cameras in the area and to hunt down the most likely hiding spots that Konstantin could be using, I knew I had to get to Lev first.
Raisa would want me to.
She’d expect me not to fall prey to any diversion or distraction. If Konstantin had followed us here and planned to kidnap her like this, I couldn’t rule out it being a ploy to get to Lev.
“We need to get to the school. Now.”
Emil nodded. “Lev.”
Still issuing orders as we hurried out of there, I called the tutoring place and ordered them to pull my son aside and watch over him until Emil and I got there.
They didn’t argue, and on the rest of the ride there, Emil and I issued more orders to track down any lead on where they could’ve taken Raisa.
Men reported in with no sightings, too, but I refused to lose hope.
It was still early yet.
Raisa was a fighter.
She’d found her way to me once before, and this time, I would move heaven and hell to get her back again.
Lev smiled when he saw me and Emil come into the office, but when he noticed our serious expressions and the presence of two more Dubinin men as backup, he frowned.
“What’s wrong, Daddy?”
I hated the fear in his little voice. Hugging him to me, I picked him up and carried him outside. “Your mother has gone missing.”
He stiffened a little, but as I brought him to the car, he hugged me tighter, clinging his arms around my neck.
I smoothed my hand over his small back as we slid into the backseat, but when I closed my eyes and clutched him tightly, I tried not to despair.
“We will find her,” I promised him. “Don’t worry.” Yet. I resisted the urge to growl at the murderous anger in my heart that Konstantin could continue to threaten our happiness. “We have lots of men looking for her. Lots of helpers.”
Still burrowing his face against me, he nodded.
“We need to be brave, okay?”
He looked up then and sniffled. “I will be brave.”
“Me too.”
I hugged him close again and didn’t release him until we got to the big mansion. Security was ramped up, but it didn’t scare Lev. As soon as I set him down, he held my hand, seeming to want to be close. I didn’t blame him.
Gabriella rushed toward us, smiling the best she could at Lev. “Lev? Misha and I are going to teach Andre how to make some cookies.”
Lev almost laughed. “He’s a baby. Babies can’t bake.”
“Why don’t we give it a try?” She winked. When Lev took her hand, she tilted her head to the side, indicating where I’d find Luka.
I hurried there, hopeful when Emil seemed more charged and ready to go than worried and pissed. “Got a lead?”
He nodded. “Petrovs were spotted near one of the oceanfront resorts.”
Luka took his gun off his desktop as he stood. Holstering it, he looked me in the eye. “Let’s go handle this.”
I didn’t reply, turning to leave the study with them. Raisa had to be alive. She had to be staying strong for me. For us. For Lev.
I hated to leave him, but Alexsei calmed that worry. He intercepted Luka, Emil, and me as we strode through the house. “We’ve got him. Gabriella’s distracting them so far, and I’ll keep watch here.”
“Thank you.”
I would never stop loving my family for being the support team they were.
“Godspeed,” he replied. “I have a hunch that if you don’t hurry, Raisa will kill Konstantin first.”
I shrugged as we hurried to leave. “She can be my guest.” It wasn’t a competition.
We’d be a team to eliminate threats to the love we should’ve fought harder to keep years ago. But even as a team, I worried about her being harmed. She was strong. She was a survivor, but it was I who’d vowed to never let anyone hurt her again.
“Let’s go,” I growled, picking up the pace with my cousin and uncle.
It was time to end Konstantin and remove his small faction of power. I’d had enough with these politics wedged between us.