35. Konstantin
KONSTANTIN
It's going to break Rose's heart.
I left the estate in a twisted tangle, lost in my own emotions but determined to somehow make things better for Rose.
I was going to return with good news, news that would allow us both a moment to breathe so I could work through the pain of learning that everything up until now was based on a lie.
Instead, we drive up the winding road with heavy hearts and the news that Maxim is being transported to the morgue.
"How am I going to tell her?" My strained voice cuts across the silence in the car.
Ethan shifts his hands around the steering wheel and glances at me for a half-second, then he sighs ever so softly. "I don't know. But you should sit her down and comfort her before you tell her."
"She will blame me." The thought makes my stomach tighten. "She will think I did this as revenge."
"Maybe at first. But when you explain it to her, she might understand. You just have to take the brunt of her reaction for a little while." Ethan's head dips slightly and he sighs again. "Fuck."
"Are you alright?" Worry about Rose fades momentarily as I study Ethan, but he waves me off with a shake of his hand.
"Painkillers are wearing off. I'm fine."
"I should not have brought you."
"If you try to tell me one more time that I should be back in that hospital, we're going to fight." The corner of Ethan's mouth twitches up slightly. "I'm exactly where I want and need to—"
He cuts himself off and the car jolts as Ethan slams on the brakes. Both his hands tighten on the steering wheel so I follow his gaze out of the car to the front gate.
They should be closed at all times unless someone is passing through, but they hang open in front of me.
Glass scatters across the road, reflecting the light of our high beams directly back at us, while three guards scramble around the gate.
A fourth lies spread out on the ground with one leg angled awkwardly away from his body.
"What the hell happened?" I'm halfway out of the car before Ethan lunges toward me and grabs my wrist.
"Boss, wait!"
"Boss!" One of the roaming guards briefly raises his rifle at the sound of my voice but he lowers it when we make eye contact and he jogs over. "Are you alright?"
"Me?" I brush off Ethan's hold with a jerk of my wrist. "What happened here?"
"Someone stole a car and ran through the gate.
They hit Michael. He's unconscious but help is on the way.
" My guard puffs out his cheeks. "I was on rotation through the garden when I heard the commotion.
The last thing Michael said before he passed out was that the car was silver and I've got people up at the garage… boss?"
Halfway through his sentence, I threw myself back into the car with Ethan. "Drive!"
Ethan wastes no time and slams his foot on the accelerator, narrowly avoiding the cluster of guards at the gate and racing up the driveway.
My heart beats wildly in my chest and a tremor enters my hands while my estate looms before me, a dark shadow clawing up into the copper sky.
Someone left in a hurry.
In such a hurry that they didn't hesitate to run over a gate guard.
Rose.
It has to be her.
"Shit." Despite Ethan's skilled driving, it's still not fast enough and I'm ready to burst out of my skin by the time we reach the house with a squeal of brakes and a skitter of gravel.
I fly out of the car and charge into the estate by slamming my shoulder into the front door.
My shoes skid slightly on the polished floor.
"Rose!"
Silence greets me. Ethan arrives at my shoulder panting and pulls up his phone, but I don't have time to study the cameras.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I race toward our bedroom and fling open the door to find the place empty.
Abandoned.
Her clothes hang in the closet and her shoes are scattered across the floor, but she isn't here.
The medical wing is empty too with no sign of Beatie, the gym is quiet and by the time I make it back downstairs to Ethan, I can barely breathe.
"Where is she?!" I roar as if Ethan someone found her in the minutes it took me to tear through the estate.
"I can't find her anywhere," Ethan replies. His thumb swipes back and forth across his phone as he checks camera after camera until he freezes and his eyes widen. "Kitchen!"
Fuck.
If anything's happened to her, I'll never forgive myself.
I shouldn't have left things for as long as I did.
I should have focused on her, even if it hurt to do so.
We skid into the kitchen and my heart lifts with the hope that she's in here, but all I'm greeted with is an empty room with congealed soup spilled over one counter.
Ethan charges past me and around one of the counters.
"Calvin!"
He's on the floor in a glistening pool of blood, exceptionally pale and one arm outstretched toward his phone that's half an inch too far away from his outstretched fingers.
"Calvin?!" Pain shoots through my knees as I drop to the floor and thrust my fingers against his clammy neck.
Behind me, Ethan's already calling for help.
Warm blood soaks into my pants, sending a terrifying chill down my spine, but thankfully, a weak, thready pulse rises to reach my fingers.
"B-Boss?" His eyes flutter weakly, struggling to open and then fighting to focus on me.
"Calvin, it will be alright. We're here. Ethan is getting help. Just hold on."
"B-Boss…" He turns his head and shifts his arm so I move my hand to his shoulder to keep him down on the ground.
"Calvin, where is Rose?"
"R-Rose?" His bleary eyes drift around the kitchen, then they settle back on me and he swallows thickly. "Rose… sh—… s'pposed t' call you…"
Call me? Every ounce of my restraint locks down on the urge to shake the answers from Calvin but the desperation is building.
If Calvin is in this state then I dare not think about what's happened to Rose.
"Did she do this?" Ethan asks over my shoulder.
"Mmm… no," Calvin croaks weakly. "Beat…ie."
"Beatie did this?" His words hit like a punch in the chest and I cup Calvin's clammy face. "Did she take Rose? Where did she go? Calvin, where did they go?"
"H-Her mom," Calvin croaks and he quickly dissolves into rapid, weak coughing. "She… w-went t'save her mom."
"Do you know where?"
Calvin's eyes flutter as we're joined by rushed, approaching footsteps.
Help is here, but I don't have time to wait for Calvin to be stabilized.
Maxim is dead and there's no guarantee Rose’s mother hasn't met the same fate.
"Boss—" Calvin's throat concaves deeply as he fights to remain focused on me. "Rose…pregnant. She did—… didn't w-want you t'feel… tricked."
A blanket of silence suddenly falls over me and I barely register the hands grabbing my arms and hauling me away from Calvin's body.
Trusted paramedics take my place while I stumble back against a counter painted in soup.
Rose is… pregnant?
Why wouldn't she tell me that?
After everything we've talked about and everything we've been through, why wouldn't she tell me?
Is she planning to commit to the threats those bastard brothers made against me and give them that baby?
No. Rose wouldn't do that.
If that was her plan, Calvin wouldn't know the truth.
The next few seconds pass painfully slowly as everyone around me moves like they're battling through sludge. I blink, and the few seconds I spend in darkness give me alarming clarity as to what I should do.
It doesn't matter if everything with Rose was a lie.
It doesn't matter that it was all part of some twisted plan to screw me over and bring harm to the people I care about.
What matters is that I love her and she's carrying my baby. Anything else is just noise.
"Boss?" Ethan's face floods my vision when I finally reopen my eyes. His brow pinches with worry as he stares at me.
"Her ring," I choke out in a voice that almost doesn't sound like my own. "Her wedding ring has GPS in it. Track it."
Ten minutes later, Calvin is on his way to the hospital, and I'm in fresh, blood-free clothes while Ethan races us toward the beeping little dot on his GPS.
The tracker in Rose's wedding ring wasn't meant to be used for anything other than syncing her up with the security in the house.
"Do you think Beatie is in on the whole thing?" Ethan asks as he weaves through traffic like water spilling across rocks. Behind us, three cars follow at a slight distance. No other man in my organization can drive quite like Ethan can.
"I do not know what to think," I admit, rapidly drumming my fingers against the door.
"Everything I thought I knew is wrong. Even when telling me the truth, Rose lied to my face about being pregnant.
But I…" Stress tightens around my chest like a hot band.
"I do not want to believe that this is part of any kind of plan.
I know little but I know Rose cares for Calvin.
I do not think she would hurt him, or allow him to be hurt, unless she had no other choice. "
"So how do you want to play this?"
Any other situation, I would already have a plan in my mind and every man with me would be fully briefed by the time we arrived. Not this time.
I can't think past this knot of fear in my chest that Beatie will harm Rose the same way she harmed Calvin and I won't get there in time to save her.
"She is pregnant," I murmur while staring down at my tapping fingers.
"I cannot… I cannot believe she would endanger the baby either.
But am I blinded?" I lift my gaze to the passing buildings and lights that all merge into a blur.
"How long I have ached to hear those words.
Time and time again, I told myself it did not matter.
I told myself I accepted that I could not have children and it was simply not a blessing in my future.
Now I feel like something has been turned on inside of me and I cannot think. "
"I don't blame you," Ethan replies with a grunt as he rapidly changes gear.
"Telling yourself you're okay with something when there is no other option doesn't always quieten the desire for it.
So when it's presented to you, it's not necessarily a bad thing that it brings you hope. This could be a good thing."
"Does it matter?" I glance across at Ethan. "What I feel is nothing if Rose is…" Unable to say the word, I focus back outside while Ethan's grip tightens on the steering wheel. He doesn't have an answer for me either.
When Rose's GPS finally stops moving, several miles away from the estate, it takes us ten minutes to get there.
Ethan floors it and races through the city as fast as he can, but those ten minutes are the slowest ten of my life.
By the time our convoy reaches the edge of the city, my heart's ready to burst right out of my chest and I'm unable to sit still.
It grows harder as the stolen silver car comes into view, parked haphazardly against the sidewalk with one headlight completely smashed from running over my guard.
Ethan slams on the brakes and brings our car to a spinning, screeching halt parallel to Rose's car.
I kick the door open, throwing myself out into the cold, late-evening air.
As my feet hit the tarmac, several gunshots ring through the air from inside the building.