Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
DIMITRI VOLKOV
“Talk to me, Butcher. What’s going on inside that stubborn head of yours?”
Autumn and I sat on a bench outside my father’s home, the cold, blistering wind making me rethink the idea of not having the conversation inside the house.
But I couldn’t take the risk. I knew Sergei had bugged our room.
He was paranoid enough to bug the rest of the house as well.
A part of me was a little worried he might have placed listening devices out here too.
It was definitely in the realm of possibility.
I had no choice, though. I couldn’t leave, or I risked catching a bullet to the heart. The only place to talk semi-freely was outside.
“Where do I even fucking start?” I blew out, bowing my head. My elbows were braced on my thighs, my hands clasped together tightly in frustration.
I told him. I fucking told him to be careful. Warned him that the woman stalking him was wildly unpredictable. It fucking figured. If any of my children were going to be stalked by a crazy person, it would be my youngest son. And of course, the fool would be nothing but excited by the notion.
I should have put a security detail on him.
Should have had someone watching his back, but even I couldn’t have foreseen what would happen.
As hard as I had tried, I wasn’t able to dig up a lick of information on his stalker.
She was lithe and sly, always able to avoid any tails I’d tried to stick on her.
Always covering her face with masks. No matter how hard I’d tried, I was never able to uncover her identity.
It fucking irked me.
Now that insane bastard had kidnapped my son. She’d orchestrated an elaborate and, quite frankly, ingenious plot to have him all for herself, taking Anya’s place.
It was goddamn fucking brilliant, even I had to admit.
Autumn laid a hand on my shoulder, her touch instantly comforting me. “We’ll find him,” she whispered softly.
“Will we?”
“Yes. We will.” Autumn’s voice held nothing but strength, and I grasped onto it like a lifeline, desperate for her words to be true.
“She’s been obsessed with him for so long, adamant on having him.
I don’t think she would do anything to hurt him, so we have time.
Time to do everything possible to find out where she’s keeping him. ”
I wished I could believe that. “When stalkers finally get the object of their obsession, it almost always falls short of their expectations. What they imagined it to be like. If Lukyan doesn’t live up to her vision of him, the version she’s created in her mind, she could punish him for it.”
Her lips twisted in thought. “I don’t believe that’s the case here.
I think it’s more than just some silly obsession for her.
Think about it. Look at everything she’s done.
The way she looks out for him. I think Looney Tunes really loves him.
Why else would she break in here? It’s a highly guarded mansion filled with the family of the man she’d just kidnapped.
The risk alone should have been enough to keep her away, and yet, she’d been right here, less than a foot away from us. ”
I frowned. “You think she came here for him?”
“What other reason could there possibly be? Maybe Lukyan asked her to check in on you. Make sure you were okay after what happened, and she did it just to make him happy.”
“I think you’re reaching.” But she did make a good point. What other reason could she possibly have for breaking into Sergei’s estate like that? I’d been questioning it since the moment it happened.
I was still pissed off that she’d managed to escape so easily. If I’d only been just that little bit faster, I would have her in my possession. Would have been able to torture her until she coughed up the location of where she was keeping my son.
“Maybe. Maybe not. There’s something else troubling you about the whole situation, though. I can see it in your eyes.”
Autumn was right, as I’d come to often realize about her. She was right all the bloody time. “I fear…” How could I even put it into words? Just thinking it made me sick to my stomach. “I fear that he might not want to come back.”
Autumn immediately started shaking her head. “No. No, I don’t believe that. He loves you. He loves his family.”
“We’ve treated him pretty shit lately.” Honestly?
I wouldn’t even really blame him. I’d come to realize my mistake, but I feared I’d realized it too late.
That the damage was done. “If he falls for this woman, which is highly likely considering how much their personalities match, he might choose to stay. He might not even give a fuck that she kidnapped him to start with. Lord knows he fucking wanted it.”
“Are you afraid she’ll kidnap me?”
“Yes.”
“If she did, I’m pretty sure I would like it.”
Those had been his words. His own fucking words. Granted, Lukyan might have been joking, but then again, he might not have been.
“Have you told the rest of the family yet?” Autumn asked.
I sighed. “No.” I knew I probably should. It had been two days. Aleksandr had already messaged, asking how the wedding went. If I didn’t respond soon, he would know something went wrong.
“You know you need to.”
“I’m worried about how they’ll take it.”
Autumn crossed her legs, her mind ticking as she tried to carefully pick her words. “They won’t take it well. They’ll want to drop everything and come out here to help find him.”
“And that would be disastrous.”
“It would be.” Autumn nodded because she knew exactly what I did; they would tear that country apart to find him. “So you’ll need to explain that to them. Make them see it. I’d start with Aleksandr. Get him onboard, and Nikolai and Illayana will follow.”
My gaze flicked to the security guards Sergei had assigned to follow our every move. They never let us out of their sight. Even when we retired to our room for the night, they stayed in the hallway, monitoring and documenting everything we did to report back to my father. “Let’s go for a walk.”
Autumn glanced at the guards, a knowing twinkle in her eyes. She nodded. I stood first, offering her my hand. She uncrossed her legs, slipping her hand into mine, and I helped her to her feet.
My arms wound around her, and I held her for a moment, just enjoying her closeness, the way her mere presence calmed the raging storm inside me.
She looked up at me and smiled. My heart stopped.
It was radiant. Bright and warm, like the sun.
I didn’t think I would ever stop marveling at her beauty, and the fact that, despite all odds, she’d fallen in love with an asshole like me.
“What?” she asked, still smiling.
“Nothing.” I kissed her softly, every fiber in my body bursting with happiness. She laughed against my lips, her smile so wide it reached her eyes. Warmth filled my chest.
“Come on.” She slipped her hand in mine and led me down the verandah toward the back of the house. As predicted, our guard detail of four followed.
Once we’d reached the back deck, I took the lead, heading down the porch steps.
There was an olympic-sized pool to the left, an outdoor area with a cabana, chairs, and tables to the right, and a square tile footpath that ran all the way down to the tennis and basketball courts at the very back of the yard.
Other guards patrolled the grounds, the security having been amped up since Lukyan’s stalker had infiltrated the house.
“I still can’t get over this place,” Autumn commented as we followed the path. “With all these amenities and shit, it’s like a private resort. Must have been a dream living here.”
“Not really.” I had a lot of memories from my childhood, none of them happy. “He never let us use any of it. There were more important things to worry about than leisure activities.”
“Really?” Her voice dripped with disbelief. “You know, sometimes, I forget what a royal asshole your father is. And then you say one thing about him, and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s right, he’s a cunt’. I mean, why have all this shit if you’re never going to use it?”
I chuckled softly, continuing down the path. “It’s all for show. Everything Sergei has is for show. Including his children and grandchildren.”
She grumbled something under her breath that sounded like a bunch of harsh curse words. A gust of cold, icy wind hit us. She shivered, her teeth clattering.
I cursed and pulled the lapels of Autumn’s coat tighter before rubbing my hands up and down her arms in an attempt to keep her warm. “We should have had this conversation inside. You’re freezing.”
“No, I’m f-fine. It’s better we talk about this out here, where there’s a better chance of your dickhead father not overhearing us.” She pulled her phone out of her coat pocket and offered it to me.
I hesitated.
“Come on. The longer you leave it, the worse it’ll be.” Autumn pushed it into my chest. “Take it. Call him. It might not be as bad as you think.”
I gave her a deadpan look.
“Fair point. It’ll probably be worse than you think. You still gotta do it.”
“Fine.” I snatched the phone out of her hands. “But I want it noted that it’s under duress.”
Her lips, slightly tinted blue, thanks to the cold, kicked up into an amused smirk. “Noted. Now, hurry up so we can get the fuck out of the cold.”
I dialed Aleksandr’s number. It rang three times before he answered.
“Autumn. Is everything okay?”
“It’s me.”
“Father,” he acknowledged. “I’ve been trying to call you.”
“Yes, I know.”
“Oh, good. So you’ve been intentionally dodging my calls, then. Care to tell me why?”
Not particularly, I thought to myself, but I knew I had to. Autumn was right. The longer I left it, the worse it would be. Plus, I couldn’t risk them all finding out some other way. They needed to hear it from me.
“Lukyan’s been kidnapped. By his stalker.”
Silence. Goddamn fucking crickets.
I waited, letting him process the information. Autumn gave me two thumbs up in support.
“When?” he all but growled out.