43. Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Two
Luca
As we drive up the mountain, I’ve never felt so anxious. If Elise is up here, after everything I did to Alexander as a threat, there is a good chance that I could have sped up the end of her life.
“Can’t you go any faster?” I hiss at Nicolai.
“Not unless you want to go off the side of the cliff,” he says firmly.
The drive alone takes an hour, and the roads are still being cleared. The only reason we’ve been able to go ahead of everyone is that we commandeered a snow plow, cramming Romelo, Nicolai, and me into one as we race to the top.
I know I’m being unreasonable in rushing him, which is why I made him drive in the first place. I can’t protect Elise if I’m dead.
“Shit,” Nicoali murmurs as we come upon a wreck. It’s an expensive SUV that crashed into a tree; the body of the car is mangled. There is snow piled up inside of it, signaling that it has been here for a while.
“Stop,” I say.
Nicolai slows the snow plow, and I jump out of the car to inspect the wreckage. The windows are all shattered from the impact. But there’s no sign of anyone inside the car. And if there were, the snow has already covered any footsteps left behind.
“How far are reinforcements?” I ask Romelo as he circles the car.
“Forty-five minutes to an hour,” he says, shifting his attention to the passenger side. He narrows his gaze slightly.
“There’s something other than blood in here,” he calls to me.
I narrow my gaze, moving around to the passenger side. The snow has soaked up whatever is in the passenger seat, giving it a strange shape. Whoever wrecked did this before the snow settled in.
“Have them test the blood and whatever this is. We can’t waste time speculating,” I say, turning away from the wreck. The jangle of keys fills the air, and I turn to see Romelo pulling them from the wreckage. He eyes them closely before looking at me.
“There’s a garage opener,” he says.
My stomach twists in terror as I try to hide my true feelings. If this is Elise’s doing, there’s no way she survived.
After what feels like forever, we finally reach Alexander’s home. Anger settles in my bones to think that the last time I was here, Elise may have also been there. I should have been more thorough. I thought he wouldn’t be the fool to take her since he knows who I am. But my arrogance has caused her to slip through my fingers once again. From the moment my father was murdered, there was blood in the water. And the sharks have circled.
Nicolai shuts off the engine, and we’re all out of the car with our weapons ready as I make my way to the front door. I press the doorbell, stepping back as I wait for the frail old woman who runs his house to answer the door.
The door slowly creaks open, and the same old maid who let me in last time answers, but she barely opens the door as she peeks her head out.
“Mr. Volski isn’t taking visitors today—ah!” I hold my gun against her temple, stepping forward.
“Move,” I growl out.
I easily brush past her, and Nicolai snatches her, holding her tight as he places his gun against her head. “Scream and I pull the trigger,” he says.
I turn to face her, attempting to remain calm as I look at the woman who willingly helped hide my wife from me.
“Where is he?” I ask.
Her eyes are wide as she opens her mouth, barely able to form a sentence. It never ceases to amaze me how these people can go against someone like me, knowing the consequences, and act shocked when I actually show up at their door.
“I-in his-s-study,” she whispers.
I shift my attention to Nicolai, who hits her hard enough on the back of her neck to knock her out. I don’t care at this point if it kills her. It’d be better than what I have planned for her if I find Elise.
I move through Alexander’s home, following the same path I took only hours ago when I initially arrived. The door to his study is already cracked, and I kick it open easily to reveal a much different-looking Alexander than the one I spoke with last.
He looks like shit. His flesh is swollen from infection and attempts at closing the wounds given to him, especially one on the side of his throat. And even though he’s been stitched up, blood soaks his shirt as he looks at me with tired eyes and clammy skin. I doubt he can even speak. His breathing is heavy and wheezing as he glares at me, and I can’t help but laugh.
“Look around,” I call to Romelo while keeping my eyes on Alexander.
“So am I to assume your maid did this to you?” I ask, chuckling.
Part of me is happy to see the fight Elise may have put up. Another part that is barely holding on to my sanity is acknowledging that Alexander is still alive. And Elise may have paid the price for doing this to him.
“Luca,” Nicolai calls to me, and when I look at him, he’s watching Alexander’s computer screen, his skin pale as he looks back at me.
“You might want to see this,” I note that his voice is trembling as he speaks.
I quickly round the desk, and it takes me seconds to register what I’m seeing. Elise is being beaten with a belt that has jeweled embellishments. And each strike takes a chunk of her flesh with it. I narrow my gaze, sifting through the footage.
Alexander has many videos, all of which he is torturing her—beating her within an inch of her life. Some, he has her bound while he chokes her until she passes out. She was here. She was here when I came, and I missed her.
I shift my attention to Alexander.
“Where is she?” I ask.
He musters all of his strength, flinching in pain as he attempts to speak.
“That’s the question of the century,” he says. His voice is cracked and hoarse, barely more than a whisper.
I feel Nicolai’s hand on my shoulder as he attempts to calm me down.
“Luca…think about Elise,” he says.
I slap his hand away, moving past the desk to Alexander. I put my gun away, pulling a knife out of its holster as I come to stand over him, and his eyes follow the motion.
“I won’t ask again,” I say.
Alexander smiles wickedly. “I knew you would come back for her sooner or later. I just planned to have her mangled corpse waiting for you when you did. You should have heard her screaming for you as she watched you leave her all alone…,” he says.
I lunge at him, but Romelo has me this time, his grip tight as he holds me back.
“This is what he wants. He wants you to kill him quickly, and then you’ll have no lead on Elise. Calm down, Luca.” It’s Romelo’s voice of reason that calms me out of my haze.
“I’m fine!” I shout, pulling away.
They sit me in the chair, and Romelo walks closer to Alexander, ripping his shirt up to expose the nasty scarring beneath. “How’d you get those stitches?” he asks.
Romelo studies them closely, not waiting for a response.
“They look fresh. Very thick tissue damage also. Like someone did that frantically. Not calculated, but in a panic. And definitely not strong enough to get a clean slice,” he says.
I study the stitching. He’s right.
“We found these in that car down the road.” Romelo pulls out a set of keys, dangling them in the air. “Along with some blood in the seat.”
He points to a button. “This works your garage, and I assume these are your keys. But that wreck didn’t cause this damage, did it?” he asks.
“Is Elise here or not?” he finishes.
Alexander still doesn’t budge. He glares at Romelo with all the hatred he can muster.
“You know where she is? Dead. I left her in the storm after I found her barely conscious in my car. I’m sure the wolves must have gotten to her body by now,” he chuckles.
I see red as I lunge across the room. This time, Romelo can’t catch me as my hands wrap around Alexander’s throat. His eyes are wide as he claws at my grip, but he is weak from his injuries. His pulse becomes weaker beneath my fingertips along with his struggles, but before I can end him completely, my body is jerked backwards, and I watch in disappointment as Alexander hunches forward, coughing violently, holding his reopened wounds.
“I will never forget the sound of her screams as she begged me to spare her. Her cries as I ripped her apart slowly and painfully!” he tries to shout with his cracked voice.
I can’t bring myself to move as Romelo holds me. He is lying. I won’t believe it. I refuse to.
“You should have seen the fear in her eyes. It will keep me smiling in my dreams for a long time,” he laughs.
Suddenly, Nicolai’s fist collides with Alexander’s face, knocking him instantly unconscious. Silence fills the air as no one dares to be the one to speak first. Not even me, as I try to come to terms with what he said. She can’t be dead. It’s impossible. He’s lying to get a rise out of me.
Romelo slowly relaxes his grip, and I step forward, feeling numb.
“Get the maid. And see if you can recover all recently deleted footage. We’re going to find her,” I say.