Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Gina tapped Kyle on the shoulder. “Have you decided what you’ll say in your best-man speech?”
“I have.” He glanced at his watch. It was nine p.m., and he was itching to haul ass to Victoria’s apartment and apologize.
Maybe even grovel at her feet. Dinner was long over, and discussions about Jack and Gina’s wedding reception were still ongoing.
“I’m going to talk about the romantic circumstances under which you and my brother met. ”
Jack snorted. Deke barked out a laugh so loud their mother flinched. Jack still hadn’t told her all the details surrounding how he and Gina had really met—sneaking into a mobster’s apartment. Gina to rip the guy off; Jack to plant a listening device.
“What am I missing here?” His mother narrowed her eyes as she drilled them with a look that never failed to make them cower when they were kids and had done something bad. “Boys?”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Gina whispered, her eyes going as wide as small plums.
Kyle smiled. Since his heart-to-heart with Gina, his mood had brightened considerably. Now, if he could only find a polite way to excuse himself and get on the road. “I’m told it was love at first sight.”
“That it was.” Jack winked at his fiancé, instantly pacifying her and eliciting a grin.
More snorting from Deke and glares from their mother. She knew they were all keeping something from her.
Kyle’s phone vibrated, and he yanked it from his belt. FBI NY. The main switchboard. Getting a call from that number was unusual but not unheard of. “Gates,” he answered.
“Agent Gates,” the operator said, “I have a call from Tracee White. She said you know her and that she works with Victoria Kelly. She said it was urgent that she speak with you.”
He stood and headed into the kitchen for privacy, ignoring the concerned looks from his family. “Put her through.” There wasn’t a single good reason why Victoria’s friend would be calling the FBI, let alone at nine o’clock at night.
A few seconds of silence, then, “Go ahead, Ms. White. I have Agent Gates on the line.”
“Kyle? Are you there?” Her voice sounded breathy.
“Tracee, I’m here. What’s wrong?” In the background, he heard the telltale click of the switchboard operator signing off.
“Oh, thank God,” she all but screamed. “Something’s wrong with Victoria.
I went to her apartment to bring her some soup.
She didn’t buzz me in when I rang her bell.
Someone finally let me in, but she’s gone.
Her door was closed but not locked. I’m telling you, something’s wrong.
There are flowers all over the floor, and when I called her cell phone, it was in the bathroom.
She wouldn’t leave it behind. She wouldn’t! ”
Kyle pinched the bridge of his nose, searching for his next move in a sea of dread. Normally, he’d be clear-headed, barking out orders and knowing precisely what had to be done. But this was Victoria. Victoria! Get your shit together.
Her life depended on it.
Her life depended on him.
“Does this have something to do with her ex?” Tracee asked.
“Yes.” No sense minimizing the danger or withholding now. He knew with every fiber of his being, it was true. His worst fear had just become realized.
Yuri has Victoria.
“Stay there, but don’t touch anything,” he said in a calm voice completely in contradiction to the storm brewing in his head and his heart.
“I’m on my way. There are two agents outside the building, and I’m calling the police.
They’ll get there before I do, so let them know about the agents stationed outside. ”
“The police are already here,” Tracee said.
“In the building?”
“No. There’s a fire next door. Two police cars are already here, and fire trucks are pulling up.”
Police and fire?
Suspicion roared through him like a freight train running off the rails.
There wasn’t a chance that was merely a coincidence.
Whatever was going on next door had to be a distraction.
To kidnap Victoria. With agents guarding the building, it would have been the only possible way Yuri could take her away without being seen. Speaking of those agents…
“Wait there for me. I’ll be there in thirty minutes.” Probably less, given how he planned on pounding the pedal like an Indy 500 driver.
He ended the call, heading for the door as he cued up the agent on guard outside the front of Victoria’s building.
“Wherever you’re headed,” Deke said, “we’re going with you.”
Beside him, Jack stood.
He gave his brothers a quick nod, grateful not only for their steadfast support with no questions but for how they knew him well enough to understand the shit had hit the fan and was about to splatter on the wall. “Let’s roll.”
Kyle hit the last turn so fast his SUV took it on two wheels. He’d told Tracee he’d be there in thirty. He’d made it in eighteen. His brothers were seconds behind him.
At the police barricade, he badged the cops, then punched it and screeched to a stop in front of Victoria’s building right behind a—
Whitney Florists van.
Another delivery from the same florist that had sent Yuri’s bouquet on Victoria’s birthday? And at nine o’clock at night? Doubtful. The pile of coincidence was stacking up fast.
Three fire trucks were on scene next door. Streams of water poured from two hoses into the small bodega as flames shot from the door.
He bolted from the SUV and met his brothers as they pulled in behind him. Red-and-blue flashing lights bounced between buildings. Smoke filled the air. During the drive over, he’d made multiple calls and gotten a clear picture of what had happened.
The agent on guard out front had been lured by a screaming woman pleading for help about the fire.
Ignoring the plea hadn’t been possible. When he’d notified his partner parked on the other side of the building, the other agent hadn’t answered.
He’d been tased through the open window.
Now both agents were outside Victoria’s apartment, guarding it until the forensic team Kyle activated could arrive.
As a unit, he and his brothers raced up the stairs to the second floor. Tracee stood outside Victoria’s apartment door, wringing her hands. The agents who’d been on guard duty could barely look him in the eye.
“Sorry, Kyle,” one of them said.
“I know you are,” was all he could think to say.
In the face of danger and people in trouble, they’d reacted the only way they could.
By trying to help. As much as he wanted to vent his anger and frustration, it wouldn’t accomplish anything constructive.
“Wait outside and tell forensics where we are.”
After they’d left, Kyle had been about to head inside the apartment when Traceee stopped him.
“Victoria told me everything,” she said, her tone grave. “About her past, about Yuri. And about you.”
He didn’t have time to guess at what she was implying. Had Victoria really told her everything? It didn’t matter. The only thing that did, was finding her.
“Do you really think she’s been kidnapped?” Tracee asked.
In his gut, he knew the answer was yes. “Stay here.” He pushed open the door, his mind screaming with alarm at what he might find—proof that Tracee was right.
Between workouts and genetics, his heart rate had always been exceptionally low. Right now, his heart thundered like a thousand fireworks going off inside his chest.
The flowers Tracee had described lay strewn on the floor beside the coffee table. That wasn’t what bothered him the most. It was the stench of cigar smoke that made him curl his hand into a tight fist. Cuban Maduros—Yuri’s cigar of choice. He’d know that earthy, woodsy smell anywhere.
The pounding in his chest grew louder as reality slammed home. Not that he’d really doubted it, but now he was beyond certain.
Yuri really did have Victoria.
Heinous images nearly sent him to his knees. He had to regain control for her sake and treat this like a routine kidnapping. Only it wasn’t. It was Victoria, and nothing was routine about that. He had to push his fear away before it consumed him.
Digging deep, he pulled on his years of military special forces and FBI training. “Search the kitchen and the living room,” he said to his brothers. “I’ll take the bedroom.”
The lights in Victoria’s bedroom were on. Her sweet scent was everywhere, and he had to grind his teeth to keep his mind steady and focused. He took in the rumpled sheets on the bed they’d once made love in—
And the suitcase.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office had been clear that she wasn’t to leave the Tri-State area until a charging decision had been made.
That wasn’t what bothered him most about the packed suitcase.
What red-flagged more than anything was the photo of Victoria’s mother.
Wherever Victoria had been going, she hadn’t planned on coming back.
“Dammit.” Kyle pressed his lips together. After all her adamant refusals not to run again…
Not that it was the priority to understand her rationale, but something wasn’t right about any of this.
After searching the room without touching anything, he turned stiffly and went into the small bathroom.
Oddly, the toilet brush lay in a corner of the tile floor.
The haunting scent that was driving him out of his mind was stronger here, possibly from the pink shampoo bottle on the shower ledge, or the small ceramic jar of body lotion on the vanity.
He could almost imagine her standing there in front of him. But she wasn’t.
He scanned the rest of the vanity, taking in her cell phone and a crumpled white box.
A pregnancy test kit.
He stared at the box for a full minute, comprehension washing over him.
Why would a woman who said she couldn’t have children need a pregnancy test? Had she lied to him?