Chapter Thirty-Seven
T he latter moments of my sleep-filled slumber included visions of my wife writhing in pleasure under me as I fucked her.
They were such vivid ones too that I felt the aching in my cock, and I knew I needed to be inside of her again.
Without even opening my eyes, I reached over for her, but found the spot on the bed cold, signaling that she hadn’t been there for a while.
“Puisín,” I said out loud. When she didn’t answer me, I said it even louder in case she was downstairs. “ Puisín! ”
Still, there was no response. Begrudgingly, I opened my eyes and looked around.
Nothing was amiss from what I could see, and there were no sounds to be heard from anywhere in the loft.
I got out of bed, then walked into the bathroom and closet, both of which were empty, before looking over the rail at the downstairs area.
Again, it was completely empty. A few days ago, I would’ve seen her curled up on the sofa, but not this morning.
My forehead wrinkled up as I wondered where she could be.
I’d made sure to tire her out so completely last night.
I should’ve been doing exactly what I had hoped to start a few minutes earlier.
She should’ve been in our bed and waking up to find me between her thighs.
My cock twitched in impatience, but I ignored it as something immediately felt off. I had always relied upon my intuition, and right now, it was telling me that she was in danger. Maybe it was my own paranoia, but I quickly threw on some clothes and shoes before heading downstairs.
Nothing looked amiss there either. She, along with her cell phone, were gone, but her car keys and purse were right there on the table.
Ekaterina wouldn’t have left without those things.
She had to be either on foot, or with one of our men.
Deciding to check that route first, I went upstairs to get my own cell phone, then quickly pulled up Nolan’s number.
“Hey, Boss. What’s up?” he said immediately upon answering.
“Is Ekaterina with you?”
“No. I’m actually just outside. Is she gone?”
I scrubbed a hand down my face. “She is. What about?—”
“He’s right here. Let me put him on the line.”
A few seconds later, another male voice sounded. “What’s the matter, Boss?”
“Ekaterina. Do you know where she’s gone?”
“I thought she was inside with you. Are you sure she’s not there?” Eli asked.
“If she was, then I wouldn’t be on the phone with you. Would I?”
He quickly cleared his throat. “Of course not. I haven’t seen her all morning. When did you see her last? Do you know how long she’s been gone? She?—”
“I don’t know.” I assumed she had been gone anywhere from two to four hours at the latest. Prior to that, she had been crying out my name as I’d brought her to multiple orgasms.
“Let’s not panic. She likely went to grab breakfast. I’ll go check out the local areas.”
Before I could tell him not to, Nolan was back on the line. “Don’t worry, Boss. We’ll find her.”
“Go ahead and come inside. Have Eli do the same when he gets back.”
Seconds later, I heard the loud knock, and I got up to let him in. Nolan stepped inside, then flashed an apologetic look at me. “You don’t think she tried to run, do you?”
I couldn’t fault him for thinking that, as it was common knowledge that the two of us clashed on a semi-normal basis. These were questions that needed to be asked, as asinine as they now were.
“Last night something happened between us.”
“Is she hurt?” he asked.
I also couldn’t blame him for suspecting the worst of me.
My hatred for her was well known between me and those I’d trusted the most. There were very few men in the entire Brannington Empire that I trusted more than Nolan and Eli.
The former had not only been my right-hand man for most of my life, but my best friend as well.
Anything he asked was done so to help me get to the bottom of her disappearance.
“No, the two of us talked and we came to an understanding.”
“Are you sure that you didn’t misread the understanding?”
I growled, then tamped it down as I reminded myself that he was simply trying to help. “We confessed our love to one another, and our marriage is now real.”
“Maybe she was more on board with it at the time, but has since changed her mind. She might’ve even gotten scared. You know fickle women can be.”
“No,” I said while shaking my head. “We’re in a good spot. Let’s wait for Eli to get back. She had to have just gone to get breakfast.” I looked at the time, then grimaced. “Or possibly brunch. Whatever!”
Another knock sounded, and Nolan went to answer it this time as I started to pace.
I automatically grabbed my cell phone to see if I could figure out her whereabouts.
Right now, I was using a tracking app that had been installed on the phone, but I knew I needed to use the one I’d had placed on it back in Ireland.
Eli came in and shook his head at my hopeful expression. “A few saw someone walking that possibly fit her description.”
“Where is she? Where did she go?”
“One said something about an alley, but New York City has one on every fucking block,” Eli said, and I could tell how upset he was about it all. He’d been tasked with keeping her safe the entire time we’d been together, and I knew the two had developed a bond.
“It shows her on the move, according to this,” I said, and both Nolan and Eli came over to look.
“That’s quite a distance from here, especially if she was on foot,” Nolan said. “Let me check out some of the nearby surveillance cameras in the city. She is obviously in a vehicle right now, and we know it’s not her own.”
“Fuck! What if he’s gotten to her?” I asked as my worst fears came to life. And if not Aram, it could be even worse. Fuck, what if it was... “I need to make a call.”
I quickly stepped away from the men and found my cousin’s phone number. It rang twice before he answered. “King, what’s up?”
“Where is Daideó?”
“He’s back in Dublin. Is there something wrong?”
“Ekaterina is missing.”
“Missing? What happened? And are you sure?”
I raked a hand over my head, then began to pace more. “Nothing’s missing outside of my wife and her cell phone. Everything else she has in here.”
“She probably just went for a jog or something.”
“No, someone saw her enter an alley, then a dark colored vehicle drive away.”
“That still doesn’t mean that she didn’t go will?—”
“Boss, you need to see this,” Nolan said, and both me and Eli hurried over to him.
Cillian was still on the line, and I could tell that he was waiting for me to tell him what it was. I looked down at the laptop and saw Ekaterina slow her steps as she approached a particular alleyway that had to be no more than a block away from here.
“Is that her?” Nolan asked me.
I could tell by her body that it was because I’d recognize it anywhere. I had studied and watched her so intently for months, and I’d not only memorized every inch of her, but I had touched it as well.
“That’s my puisín.”
Nolan moved to another camera, and one that gave a better glimpse into the alleyway. From what I could see, she went up to a man, and one she didn’t seem nervous around at all. As my man zoomed in on it, I cursed.
“It’s her father.”
“Aren’t they on the outs?” Cillian asked through the line.
“Wait a sec...” As I continued to watch, I saw her get pushed into the SUV before it pulled through and came out the other side. “Can you zoom in on the license plate?” I asked Nolan. As he did, the damn thing looked to be blacked out. “Fuck!”
“She’s stopped,” I heard Eli say as he looked down at his own cell phone. “She’s right here.”
“Newark,” I said, then added. “Get me those coordinates right away.”
Newark had one of the busiest international airports in the country, if not the world.
She was with her father, and if I had to guess, also Aram Grigoryan.
The very person I’d pledged to protect her from had now gotten his hands on her.
And that promise had been made at a time when I’d hated her.
Now that I loved her, I couldn’t contain the terror rising up in me even if I tried.
“Send me the coordinates, and I’ll help you,” Cillian said.
“That’s okay. You’re in Brooklyn, so?—"
“Actually, I’m closer to her than you. I’d just left PNE after looking at a recent shipment.”
PNE, or the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine terminal, was not far from where Ekaterina was. It was also a well-known port where the Branningtons would import and export mostly drugs in and out of the country.
“I’ll send you the address, but stay outside and wait for me to get there.”
“I could probably take one of my men with me and?—”
“No, I have to be the one to save her. You just need to watch out for her, and if they leave before I get there, please follow them.”
“Other than not having a son, this could actually be the answer to your situation.”
“There is no situation,” I said to him, although I knew what he was referring to. “It’s all been resolved, and I’ll kill anyone who dares to lay a hand on her. If a single fucking piece of hair of hers is touched, I’ll go scorched damn earth on everyone.”
“Whoa, whoa, King. I’ll make sure she stays put until you get here.”
“Thanks, Cill,” I said to him, then hung up.
“Bring the laptop and your phone with you. We need to go right now,” I said to my men.
Minutes later, we were out on the streets and headed south toward Newark.
In my mind, I could picture how this whole thing went down.
Her father must’ve reached out to her and wanted to meet.
Why she would do so without any of the men was a question I intended to make her answer later.
I also intended to make them account for their actions in ever letting her slip right past them.
I needed to trust my men, and she needed to be able to trust them, too.
A breakdown happened that I intended to get to the bottom of, but only once I had her in my arms again.
A half hour later, we pulled up near the coordinates given on the tracking app.
Cillian was already here, and when he saw me, he got out of his car, then walked over to us.
I got out of the car, as did my men. We all checked our weapons, and Cillian did the same, before we turned to the nearly dilapidated house.
“Are you sure she’s here?” my cousin asked me.
I pointed to the right of the house where a dark SUV with blacked-out plates was parked. “That is what she was forced into before the driver fled.”
“And you’re sure this is her father and not Daideó? I mean, no offense, but Boris Kotov is not the brightest tool in the woodshed. This is a bit more elaborate than anything I think he could’ve put together.”
“I have reason to believe the father was the bait, and it’s actually Aram Grigoryan that has her.”
“Fuck, well that does change things,” Cillian murmured.
“It changes nothing. All those bastards are going to die. And like Daideó used to say, there’s no reason to put off till tomorrow what you can do today.”
“Let’s get these motherfuckers,” Cillian said, and the four of us slowly started to approach the structure.