Chapter 21 - Arko
I got home late from work that night and had barely walked into the foyer when Andrey called.
“What’s up?” I said, holding the phone between my ear and neck to put down my briefcase and grab the water my butler got me.
“When did you see Anton last?” he asked without even a hello, the panic laced in every word. “Did he say anything to you about getting in trouble?”
“I saw him a couple of days ago at work. Why? Did something happen?” I was already on alert. I put down the water and grabbed my phone to keep it in place, my eyes now scanning my own surroundings.
“We believe he’s been taken,” Andrey hissed. “His guards were found drugged outside his office, and no one in the family has heard from him.”
“Fuck.” I felt my nails digging into my skin. “Who the hell could be behind this?”
“We have no clue,” Andrey said. “But we’ve got the panic room set up, and they’re scouring through CCTV footage right now. Can you get your guys to help?”
“I’m coming too,” I said. There was no way I’d let Anton be tortured by whoever had him. My family, my brother, they were my life. “Just let me lock down the house and make sure Beatrice is safe. Then I’ll be on my way.”
“Do that,” Andrey said. “And hurry.”
Right after the call ended, I called my head of security and asked him to follow as I went to find Bea.
We climbed up the stairs, and I explained the situation to him and told him to gather our men to help find Anton.
He waited outside, patiently for more instructions, when I strode into Bea’s bedroom.
But she wasn’t there.
“Where is Beatrice?” I exited the room and whirled on him. He looked utterly lost and pulled out his walkie-talkie as I strode through the house, checking space after space. But she was nowhere inside.
“Is she out in the gardens?” I turned to my head of security. His face was pale and ashen as he shook his head and put down the radio.
“Sir…I’m afraid there’s a problem.”
“Tell me what it is,” I roared, knowing in my heart that the news wasn’t good.
“Mrs. Pavlov isn’t here,” he managed to choke out. From how he looked, I could tell he knew he’d fucked up, but my heart wasn’t catching up with the news.
“Did she step out with her guards?”
“Her guards have been home all day, sir. No one knows where she is.”
Fuck. Beatrice was missing too.
The world tunneled into chaos as I pushed him aside and ran down the stairs, issuing orders as I went. “Get the convoy ready. Tell security to check the CCTVs. Call Andrey and tell him what’s happened!”
I ran out of the door and rushed into my car. Behind me, the convoy was already getting prepared. With Anton and Beatrice both missing, my brain scrambled to reach one fucking conclusion.
The god damn Lebedevs had come true on their threat. They pounced on the first chance they got to take back Beatrice, and with that, their revenge by taking my brother. It was too much of a coincidence for my wife and brother both to go missing on the same day, around the same time.
They had no enemies in common, and the only common party with a vested interest in both was the Lebedevs. As I drove, speeding through the streets, I called Andrey and told him what had happened.
“You’re going to the Lebedevs now?” Andrey asked.
“I know Beatrice will be there,” I said, taking a turn toward their street.
“Don’t act wild, Arko,” Andrey bellowed. “You can’t go in there alone!”
“They have my wife!” I roared back in anger. “I bet they’ve got Anton too. Are you telling me not to get my wife?”
“Just…stay calm. We’re going to collect evidence while you go. If there’s any hint of trouble, leave a man outside and tell him to call us if you’re not out within the hour.”
“Done,” I said, ending the call. Caspian Lebedev’s house was armed to the teeth, with guards lining the whole street. But for some reason, none of them stopped me or the convoy as we drove down the compound.
It felt like we were expected. With every passing second, I knew they had my family.
I barely switched off the engine, rage coiling through me as I rushed out of the car, not bothering even to slam the door shut behind me. I ran up the stairs and pushed open the doors, the bell be damned.
“Caspian!” I screamed into the empty foyer. “Where the hell is Beatrice?”
Caspian stepped out of the living room, his hand reaching for his gun. “What the hell is the meaning of this?” he asked. Behind him, his brothers piled out.
“You’ve been having a good family meeting, huh?” My face twisted with rage as I viewed them. “Enjoying yourselves after your victory?”
“Calm down, Pavlov,” Giovanni growled.
I ignored him. My own men piled in behind me, and if the Lebedevs tried to cause trouble, we were armed enough. I rushed past the Lebedevs to reach the stairs.
“Beatrice?” I bellowed. Nothing.
I turned to face them. “Tell me what you want.”
To my surprise, each of her brothers was now pale and shocked.
“Why the hell are you screaming for Beatrice?” Dante asked while Achille and Luca exchanged worried glances.
“Because you took her!” I screamed, refusing to play into their little tricks.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Caspian turned red in the face. “Tell us where our sister is before this turns ugly.”
“It’s already ugly,” I snarled. “You threatened my family, and now Beatrice and Anton are missing. Where are they?”
“You’re not fucking around, are you?” Dante pushed through his brothers, his face draining of color. “Since when has she been missing?”
Something in his voice made me hesitate. The fear on his face looked far too genuine to fake, and in that moment, my panic turned feral.
All this time, I believed that if they had her, she wouldn’t really be unsafe. But now, I truly had no idea where she was.
“Fuck.” I felt my knees weaken as I sat down on the stairs and dropped my head between my thighs.
My breathing was now in panicked bursts.
I forced myself to face her brothers, to tell them I had failed to protect her.
“I came home from work, and she wasn’t home.
Called and told me Anton is missing, too.
He was taken outside his office. I thought… I thought you were behind it.”
Caspian shook his head just as Dante began to rally their guards, who were now eyeing mine off with blood in their eyes. “Find out what you can!” he said.
Giovanni turned to me. “Now’s not the time to stop thinking straight,” he said, kneeling down. “Gather your men and find out what you can. We have to find both of them.”
I noticed how he considered Anton. “Agreed,” I nodded, feeling some confidence return to my body. “Truce? For now?”
Giovanni gave me a nod and a half-smile, then turned to the others as I got to my feet. “This isn’t a coincidence,” Giovanni said. “They couldn’t have been taken, unless by the same people.”
“I have to call my brothers,” I said, making a move to the door. “God knows who has them, and every hour they aren’t with us, things can turn uglier.”
“Do what you must,” Caspian nodded at me. “We touch base in thirty minutes. If you learn anything in the meantime, let us know.”
As I barreled out of the door, the last thing I heard was voices shouting orders to rally every force in the Lebedev army.
***
The minute I got in the car, I called Andrey.
“The Lebedevs don’t have them,” I explained what transpired.
“Fuck,” Andrey said. “We have footage now of the van that took Anton. Let us get to the bottom of it. Maybe it’ll lead us to them.”
“Do that,” I said. I then called my head of security, Yuri, back at the compound and asked what they had learned.
“Boss,” he said. “We have no proof that Mrs. Pavlov was taken, but the cameras capture her sneaking away. She climbed over the east gate of the compound herself.”
This piece of news turned my blood to run cold. I pulled over at the curb. “Send me over the footage.”
I watched with bated breath to confirm what he had said. Shit, I thought to myself. We have no proof she was taken. She did, in fact, leave of her own will.
Which meant she could be anywhere. Someone could have taken her, or she could be lost somewhere. She could be hurt or in hiding.
I called back Yuri. “Listen up,” I told him. “Trace her phone for me.”
I waited for a couple of minutes before Yuri got back to me. Every second of that wait felt like an hour, where my mind conjured up scenarios too damn petrifying to even consider.
“We found something,” Yuri’s voice crackled over the speakerphone. “We tracked the phone to the corner of Maple and 23rd. Our men are going to scour now.”
“I’ll be there,” I said, moving out with my convoy.
Ten minutes later, Yuri met me at the location. In his hand, I saw an evidence bag containing her phone. “It was in the bushes here.”
I took the bag, eyeing the phone and the blue case with butterflies. It was Beatrice’s, without a doubt.
“What the hell is it doing here?” I whispered to myself. A strange instinct came over me, like my soul knew the answer even though, logically, there were many possibilities.
“It’s almost like she dropped it…like she was running.”
“Or someone took her and tossed her phone,” Yuri added.
“That makes no sense.” I shook my head. “Because whoever took her probably took Anton, too. And why chuck hers, but not Anton’s?”
I unlocked the phone with her password, which I knew by heart, just to see if I could figure something out. The battery was almost dead, but there was enough juice to check her last actions.
Her map history showed a search for an address I knew all too well.
“The safehouse,” I breathed at the damning piece of evidence. I remembered then that night I took her from the nightclub, we had gone straight to the safehouse. I’d told her what the place was, just before I made her sign those wedding papers.
What if she were being chased and managed to hide out at the safehouse?
“Call Andrey and find out if they have a trace on his phone,” I told Yuri as I shoved the phone back at him. “I’m going to check out the safehouse, just in case.”
***
I drove to the safehouse like a madman. It was only three minutes away, and I pushed every speed limit, but time felt like it had a personal vendetta against me, wanting to see how long it could stretch. As I drove up to it, I kept my eyes peeled outside, checking out every direction for threats.
The coast looked clear, and to my horror, the house looked dark and untouched. There wasn’t a single light on inside.
With trembling legs, I parked and stepped out of the car. If Beatrice wasn’t here, I was all out of ideas. The idea of not finding her here was too harrowing, because the alternatives felt endless.
I prayed as I walked up to the house and punched in the code. “Please, please, please be here,” I muttered under my breath, stepping inside.
The house was dark and cold, with not a sound to be heard. My heart sank at the emptiness, but some small sliver of hope made me call out her name, hoping she was simply in hiding.
“Beatrice?” I asked as I walked through the living room. “Sweetheart, are you here?”
There was no answer. I felt my heart sink as I thought I might have misunderstood the situation. What if she was trying to reach the safehouse, but someone took her before she could? But I had come too far not to take a proper look.
I reached the kitchen and my heart skipped in my chest, with near joy when I saw a water bottle on the counter, half-empty with the lid still off.
“Beatrice?” I called again, softer this time.
I whirled toward the storage closet when I heard it creak, and my eyes nearly fell out of my head as Beatrice crawled out and rose to her feet.
“Bea!” I cried, reaching for her just as she sobbed and ran toward me like a bullet, falling into my arms. She was a trembling mess, shivering and petrified, and I vowed to bury whoever put her in this state.
“Shh,” I muttered, soothing a hand down her back. “I’ve got you.”
“I…I was so scared,” she sobbed into my shirt, her tears soaking through. I only held her tighter, kissing her on her head. “I was…I thought I’d go to my brothers to talk, but someone chased me and…”
“Are you hurt?” I cut her off and tried to pull away to take a better look, but she held on tighter, like she didn’t want to let go. I felt her shake her head.
“Tell me what happened,” I said as she melted even more into me, her body weighing against my chest.
“Someone chased me, and I ran until I found a cab. But a car was trying to catch up, and I saw the forest leading to the safehouse. I figured I’d outrun them, so when they were stuck in a red light out back, I ran out and through,” she whimpered in my chest, then looked up at me with red-rimmed eyes. “How’d you find me?”
“You dropped your phone,” I explained everything that happened that night. She gasped in shock when I told her about Anton, but in that moment, while I worried for my brother, I also felt utterly relieved at seeing her safe. “Do you know who was chasing you?”
“No.” She shook her head and gave me a small, brave smile. “But I knew you’d find me.”