Chapter 31 Andre
ANDRE
Throbbing pulses filled my head as I came to. I groaned, sluggishly lifting my hands to press them on my skull to stop the ache. Drumming bangs only intensified, bothering me from the confusing mask of sleep that fell from me as I woke.
“Fuck,” I muttered, dragging myself upright the morning after I’d drunk myself into oblivion.
“Andre.”
I winced, then opened my eyes to my cousin’s voice.
Sergei was here. At the door to my study. I hadn’t found the energy or willpower to go to my bedroom last night, knowing that being there would remind me too much of all the sweet submission Sofia had given me there.
But why…?
Huh?
I sat up and tried to reply to Sergei calling out for me.
Oh.
That banging noise was him knocking on the closed door.
My mouth was so dry, my tongue glued to the surface, that I had to cough then force a rough swallow. “Yeah?” I croaked.
He took that as permission to come in. Striding in quickly, he grimaced. “Fuck. Look at you…”
I groaned and sat up more, holding my head.
“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered, going to the bar to fill a glass with water and bring it to me. At least he’d said it sympathetically, not rudely with judgment.
I weakly nodded my thanks and sipped it.
“Where’s Sofia?”
Is this a joke?
I furrowed my brow at him, still hurt and angry and sad that I could snap. “You’ve heard,” I replied, daring him to play stupid.
“Yes. We’ve all been informed about her… confession yesterday. That’s why I’m here. To question her.”
“The fuck you will.” I scrambled to get up. Still, I was defensive of her. I wondered when that stain would fade.
He sighed and pushed my shoulder to make me sit again. “I will. While you were clearly numbing yourself in here all night, Roman and I spoke with Uncle Mikhail. He wanted to speak with her himself.”
I opened my eyes wide with alarm and winced at the pain of the action. Fuck, I was hungover.
“Roman offered, but he isn’t that great at interrogating anyone. I offered to speak with her.”
“Fuck that. I will—”
Again, he had to push my shoulder to get me to stay seated.
“You will not. You’re too close. Too emotional. Let me mediate, Cousin. If I can help as a neutral party, I will.”
I closed my eyes and sagged against the cushions. Nothing was neutral between me and her anymore. I was hurt. Yet I missed her. I was furious she duped me. But I desired her. I was skeptical of her at the same time I worried about her comfort and safety.
Maybe he had a point. “Fine.”
“But where is she?” he asked.
I frowned. “In her old room. Ask Renee.”
“I looked.” He shook his head. “She’s not there.”
This time, I stood and didn’t stagger to the side. “What the fuck do you mean?”
“She’s not in the room. It’s unlocked and the door is open.”
Before he finished fully speaking, I was running. Jogging at first and then sprinting. He followed me as I dashed out of the room to check for myself whether she was there.
Worst-case scenarios flitted through my mind, each one more horrible than the last.
My father. He’d taken the matters of a spy into his own hands and had her killed.
Oleg! He’d been so doubtful of keeping her here alive.
Someone had to have had her removed, against my wishes. And the fear of her being gone shattered my busted heart all over again.
Breathing hard, I skidded to a stop at her room. Just like Sergei said, she was absent. I grabbed the door frame to support myself as I stared into the vacant space.
She was gone.
Fury licked up my spine and I was barely aware of panting, breathing like an enraged, feral animal.
She’s gone.
She’s—
“Andre.”
I whirled around to face Oleg hurrying up to me.
“Where is she?” I bellowed. “Where is she?”
I was supposed to trust him. He’d served me, worked for the family, for years, yet he’d go behind my back and take her?
“He has her.”
I blinked quickly, trying to keep up.
He wasn’t smug or cocky about taking her out. He wasn’t looking at me like he was ready for my anger at his insubordination.
With a phone in hand, an ear bud in his ear, he was somber and serious. On task and worried.
“Who?”
“Giovanni.”
Fuck!
How?
Fucking how?
He beckoned for me to come. “In the security room, quick.”
Sergei went with me, looking as confused and bewildered as I felt.
“She wasn’t supposed to leave,” I said. “She’s supposed to be here, where Giovanni couldn’t get her.
” Obviously, she had to stay here. Not only because I was struggling with severing this tie to her and convincing myself that she wasn’t mine anymore, but because if she were out there where her uncle could get her, he’d kill her. He’d take her for her defiance.
“Then talk to your sister about that,” Oleg advised gruffly.
“Anya?” I rubbed my cheek, trying to snap out of this hangover and function at half my brain power.
“She came here and—” Oleg cursed. “Talk to Renee, too.”
“You talk to me,” I ordered as he led me and my cousin toward the security room. “Tell me what the fuck happened!”
“The cameras in the hall show Anya showing up with a couple of new recruits from your father’s building,” Oleg said.
“She showed up, unlocked the door, and told Sofia that she was here to take her to the hospice to sign papers for her cousin. Apparently, Anya was aware of Sofia trying to arrange for her cousin to be moved to a facility. The openings are competitive to get, and Anya wanted Sofia to not miss out on this appointment to sign the documents.”
I rubbed my face with both hands as we reached the security room.
“My fucking sister…” I growled. Out of breath this hungover and panicked, I paused just inside the room.
Monitors hung throughout the room. A larger panel of interconnected screens showed code from the security specialists typing commands.
Two men were stationed here where all the feeds for my building, and the others on the block, could be reviewed.
“Show him,” Oleg said. He fiddled with his phone. “Hate me later,” he warned, “but I slipped a wire on her in the middle of the night.”
I swiveled to glower at him. Involuntarily advancing at him, I raised my hand to punch him.
Sergei stopped me, holding me back.
“You touched her while she was asleep?”
Oleg shook his head. “I slipped a small mic in her pocket. The ones that look like a button snap. Like I said, hate me later.” He narrowed his eyes. “This is how we can track her.”
He pressed play, and their voices came from the speakers.
One man tapped on the keyboard, and a replay of what Oleg described showed. Anya looking stubborn and insistent. Sofia shaking her head and looking scared. Renee showed up too, suspicious, but she’d let them take Sofia. Out. Of. My. House.
“What the fucking hell?” I roared. My sister wasn’t going to hear the end of this for decades.
“You need to tell Roman to knock off this shit about asking for fucking forgiveness before permission,” Sergei muttered.
“I’ll never forgive her!”
The audio continued to play while Anya and Sofia spoke in the car.
On another screen, the visual showed them leaving the house and getting in the car.
Sofia still wasn’t breaking her loyalty—to me.
She warned Anya that no one could swoop in and save Esmeralda for her.
If I did, it would be war. And she was right.
The screen cut out, and the tech seated at the main computer station said he was trying to pull up the feeds through the city to track the footage at this hospice.
The audio was enough to clue me in. A car screeching to a stop. Anya screaming. Sofia shouting and yelling for the men to let her go. Her voice went muffled, likely indicating they’d gagged her. Then the sounds of a ride.
“Where. Is. She?” I growled.
Oleg was wrong. I didn’t hate him. I couldn’t. He’d put that mic on her because he doubted her. But that act was what would save her. “Where is she?” I screamed. “Track her.”
Every second that she was under her uncle’s control was too long for her to suffer.
“At his residence,” the second tech specialist said. He pulled up a map where the blinking dot indicated she was at Roberto Giovanni’s mansion just outside the city’s downtown area.
“Let’s go.”
There was nothing to decide. No question to answer. Not a shred of hesitation.
“Andre, wait.” Sergei rushed out of the room with me.
I shook my head. “I can’t wait. She can’t wait.” With my phone in hand, ready to call up whatever crews I could, I realized this was the day I’d call war.
“Wait.”
This time, I stopped. At the sound of my father, my boss and Pakhan, giving me an order, I went still.
Fuck.
I turned back to him, furrowing my brow and regretting every drop of alcohol I’d consumed. “Where’s Anya? Is she back? Is she—”
He held up his hand. The sober seriousness of his granite expression calmed me. If she had been hurt, if my sister was lost to us like Sofia was lost to me, then he wouldn’t be this chill, this calculating and in charge. He’d be furious, unable to console.
“She’s back. Claire is with her. George is talking her down from the panic.”
“Giovanni’s got her. He took Sofia.” I licked my lips and dismissed the need to drink something before I’d lose my voice.
“As he should.”
I ground my teeth.
“As he believes he should. She is his niece.”
“She is mine.” I squeezed my eyes shut. “She is mine to protect.”
Oleg inserted himself between us, holding his phone up and indicating for us to shut up and listen. “He’s been having her beaten,” he narrated.
I growled, fisting my hair and bending over.
Sergei put his hand on my back as I straightened.
More sounds of pain cut through the feed. My father clenched his jaw, listening with us.
Roberto Giovanni lashed out at her. Furious and losing his temper, he degraded her, called her filthy, horrible things, and demanded answers of why she’d ever try to defy him and choose his enemy.
Listening to the asshole talk to my woman like that was one of the hardest things I could do, but surrounded by my family, I endured it for as long as I could stand it.
“You will never leave. You will never see the light of day outside these walls, you slut. You will stay here, in this fucking cell, until you have that bastard. And on that day…”
Sofia cried out, and I tensed.
“On that day, I will kill you,” he growled like the monster he was. “I will take this bastard and use it against those fuckers. And I will kill you to erase the shame of your turning traitor.”
The sound of a slap followed.
“I didn’t intend for you to be useful like this, you stupid whore. I never expected you’d spread your legs and beget a bastard like this! But heed my warning now. You will give me this bastard and lose your life.”
The slam of a door came seconds later. And the soft, weak sobs from Sofia filled the feed. Each shaky inhale sliced my heart. Every tearful hiccup crushed my soul.
“She’s pregnant?” my father demanded.
I nodded. “She told me yesterday. At the end. She told me that she just took a test.”
My father wiped a hand over his mouth. Then he cursed as he set his hands on his hips and shook his head. “That’s my grandchild he’s talking about.”
“That’s my woman he’s plotting to kill,” I shouted, desperate to get her back.
“For fuck’s sake, Andre. For fuck’s sake,” he growled.
“I have to get her back,” I said, hating how many precious seconds were wasted here while he pinned me with his furious glare.
“And cause war? And incite Giovanni to fucking come at us like never before?” He exhaled a hard breath.
“What the hell are you proposing? Showing up at his door and knocking to ask for her hand? For his blessing? He won’t let us set a single foot on his property.
He won’t listen to a single thing we say—”
“You think I’m going there to ask to have her? To beg him to release her to me?” I stabbed my finger at my chest. “I’ll be goddamned if I let that sick fucker hurt her or my child.”
With the level authority he never relinquished, even with me, he stared me down. “Are you implying that you’d like to go to war for her? For them?”
“I’m not implying anything,” I growled. “I’m telling you that I’m getting her back. I will burn this world down, I will welcome any fucking fight he wants to start. She is mine.”
And it was my biggest mistake to ever think about letting her go at all.
She’d lied.
She’d come to betray me and deceive us.
But she hadn’t left empty-handed. She’d been taken from me while she had my child. My heart.
My love.
I would do whatever it took to reclaim her and earn the right to her love again.