45. Mila
MILA
I t’s been three weeks since Mila was stabbed and three weeks with no news on the whereabouts of Sebastian. I’ve been hunting nearly every day and night, scouring the internet and calling in favors with old “friends”, but there’s been no trace of him.
Between that, the presence of my mother-in-law up until last night, and missing my wife, I’m on edge all the time. There’s not a moment that goes by that I’m not either thinking about killing the man who hurt her, or searching for him.
“You really think Collin was telling the truth?” Levi asks out of nowhere when we get back to my office. We just went through Collin’s room and other than a few pictures of my sister that pissed us both off, we found nothing that would give us any leads.
“I think he had no choice.”
Levi’s gaze snaps to mine, confused.
“What does that mean?”
I lower my voice, listening for the sounds of Mila in the house. She was reading in the nook of our bedroom across the house when I last saw her.
“It means he’s running out of options. You don’t stay hidden for this long and whoever’s doing this . . . it’s personal.”
“Could be someone you put away.”
I shake my head. “There are too many similarities. It doesn’t add up.”
“And what are you going to tell Mila? When this is over?”
“The truth. She needs to know.”
“Pretty fucked-up truth.”
“Got any better ideas?”
He chuckles under his breath, straightening.
“She’s tough. Scrappy. She can handle it.”
“Better not let her hear you say that,” I muse.
Just last night, at dinner, he’d called her scrap and I thought she was going to smash her plate over his head.
I can’t say it wouldn’t have been funny. Just that our dining room table has seen enough blood for the next hundred years.
“It’s her mother I’m worried about,” he grimaces. “That woman may as well lead our army. She’s got the balls for it.”
I chuckle. That sounds like Monica Parker.
“She’s hard to get along with,” I concede. “But she means well, in the end.”
“You really think we can do this?” Levi asks, looking out over the map. “Pretty big warehouse for two men.”
“I want to help.”
Both Levi and I freeze, staring at the doorway where Mila stands, looking back and forth between the two of us.
“No.”
Her gaze narrows and she opens her mouth to argue, but I don’t have time for it. Crossing around the front of the desk, I reach for her, but she steps back.
“It’s not happening.”
“You’re going after him, aren’t you? My stalker.”
“Mila,” I take her by the shoulders. “I don’t have time for this.”
I step past her, checking my watch. I’ve got half an hour before I have a meeting in the bunker.
“You’ve been hiding out in that bunker for days, avoiding me.”
“I’m not avoiding you.”
“You don’t come home.”
Guilt washes through me, but I shove back at it.
I’m doing this for her. I’m doing this to protect her. Once he’s out of the picture, we’ll have our whole lives to argue over stupid shit. Right now, I just need her okay.
Unfortunately . . . my wife is not one to be dissuaded.
I step out the back door and stalk down the path towards the bunker while she trails after me, practically running to keep up.
“I want to help.”
“Mila, I said, no.”
“Why?”
Jesus fucking Christ.
“It’s not safe.”
“Neither is jaywalking. Do you plan to keep me locked up for the rest of my life?”
Thought’s crossed my mind . . .
“If I have to.”
“Then, I’ll leave.”
I stop so fast, she runs into my chest when I spin on her.
She glowers up at me, her lips twisting together.
“Want to run that by me again?” She doesn’t respond, so I take a step towards her, forcing her to back up towards our house. “Because I could have sworn you just threatened to leave me.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, she meets my gaze head-on.
“I’m not a puppet, Christian. You had your shot to figure it out alone, but I’m done hiding. I have sat in the house for months and I’m sick of it.”
“Sick of a goddamned roof over your head?” I counter, shoving my hand at the house behind her. “Sick of baking or painting your nails or lounging with the dog all damn day?” She jerks back like I’d slapped her. “Sorry, I didn’t realize it was so damned hard to lay low while I figure this shit out.”
A tear slips down her cheek and I look away. It’s not fucking fair that she can say whatever she wants, but the moment I see a single tear on her cheek, I’m ready to rip the world to shreds.
“Isn’t that why your father took your mother to that cabin?”
Fuck.
“I’m going home,” she says with finality when Levi steps out of the bunker, his gaze locking with mine over the top of her head. My eyes flick from him back to her. “I’ll leave it up to you whether you can find the time to join me tonight.”
Turning, she marches back up the path towards the house. Levi joins me when she pushes past him and both of us watch as she disappears inside.
Levi blows out a breath.
“Take it there’s trouble in paradise,” he muses, a hint of amusement in his gaze.
“Never,” I lie. “Everything’s perfectly fucking perfect.”
“Sounds like a conundrum.”
“You’d be correct.”
“Should you go after her?”
I shake my head. I know Mila better than anyone. More than even her mother. When she’s pissed off, she needs time to herself.
Turning away from the house, I resume my way towards the car.
“She’ll cool off,” I murmur when Levi follows me.
—I hope.
I’m sitting at my desk in my office when the call comes in.
Looking down at the unknown number on the screen, I can’t stop the sinister laugh that leaves my lips.
I’ve been waiting for this call.
“Hello . . . brother .”
“I’ll fucking kill you,” he growls immediately. I lift the phone from my face when he spews a string of explicatives my way, and lean back in my chair.
A smile pulls on my lips.
Game on.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to take a number.”
“Where the fuck is it?”
“Your dick? I’m afraid you weren’t born with one. The doctors said there was nothing that could be done.
“You think you can keep me from what’s rightfully mine?” he scoffs. “You would have nothing without me.”
“You are nothing.” I sit forward, watching my wife asleep in our bed on the screen, her hand outstretched to my side.
“You’re going to rot for what you’ve done. I’ll make sure to bring Mila to your trial. Would you like that?” he sneers. “How about if I put a pretty little collar around her neck and walked her naked through the lodge? Think the guests would like that?”
“I heard they have homes for people like you. A place where you can get the help you need with your delusions. But . . . of course . . . you would know all about that, wouldn’t you?”
“What do you want?” he grits, and I can hear him shaking through the phone. He’s pissed.
Good. I am, too.
I can’t help but smirk.
“Retribution.”
“You know I’m going to find your pretty little wife, right? No amount of guards or money can keep me away. I could walk through your front door right now if I wanted. I’ll make what happened to our mother look like child’s play when I’m done with her this time.”
“You would know all about what happened to our mother, wouldn’t you, Sebastian?”
“And I’ll enjoy doing the same thing to your whore when I find her. Tell me, does Mila still think about me?”
Violence slips through me in waves.
If he were here right now, I’d rip his throat out.
“You want to know the difference between you and me, Sebastian?”
“Aftershave?”
“While you’re sitting in your little rundown warehouse, contemplating how you can get everything I already have . . . I’m plotting your death while Mila’s asleep in my bed.
He’s silent on the other end of the line, and I can’t help but smile wickedly because I know the fucker’s getting redder and redder by the moment.
“That what you want to hear? The way I fuck her every night? The way she clings to me as if she can’t get enough?”
“When I find her, I’ll make you regret the day you stole from me,” he says, voice dark and malignant. “And my only hope is for you to live long enough to watch me pass her around to my men. Hard to find good whores nowadays.”
I chuckle darkly, scrubbing a hand over my jaw.
“What you fail to realize is that as long as I’m alive? You’ll never get the chance.”
Click
I look to Levi across the room.
“Did we get it?”
He smiles a toothy, wicked grin.
“Got him.”