Chapter 55 Aleksandr
ALEKSANDR
The door to Eva’s house hung open, the lights on. I grabbed the gun out of my glove compartment—a gift from Dmitri.
The house was silent. Still, I approached it cautiously then scoffed to myself. Like I was some experienced soldier. I was a fucking hockey coach. Or, at least, I had been.
The stairs to the porch creaked as I walked up them, but the house remained silent.
Too silent.
Inside was blood on the floor, glass everywhere, and no fucking Eva.
My chest seized, my gun useless. What good was a weapon when I was too late?
Blyat!
Quickly, I cleared the house, my initial suspicions correct—the house was long empty.
When I called Eva, she didn’t pick up.
Wheels squealed outside, and I pressed my back against the wall before peeking through the front door. Poser, a voice inside me mocked, but muscle memory was strong.
“Eva?” Cole asked, jogging up the steps. I stepped outside, and his eyes went wide. “What the fuck happened?”
“Your father is what the fuck happened,” I snarled at him. “They’re gone. They’re both fucking gone.”
Cole took in the broken furniture, the blood on the floor. “That doesn’t make any sense. He was just—” He pulled out his phone and dialed. “Slade, what the fuck is going on?”
Cole swiped on the speaker.
“Can’t talk right now,” the disembodied voice said.
“Did my father take her?”
The voice was silent. “Hang up and go home, Cole. Live to fight another day.”
Cole stilled. “If you touch a hair on her fucking head—”
“I have to go.”
“Where are you?”
The voice was silent for a long moment. “Taking the elevator to the twenty-sixth floor.”
And then, it cut off.
Cole’s expression had gone cold, calculating. “She’s at Carter Industries. That was my father’s enforcer. Fuck!”
“We’ll get her back, her and her father,” I promised, but Cole was already pacing the living room, his dress shoes crunching through glass, heedless of the mess.
He turned to face me, determined. “He wouldn’t have taken her. She was at the game. He must have grabbed her father, and then Eva came home and—” He swallowed. “She’s gone to save him. Stupid, selfless sparrow.”
Always handling her problems on her own because she didn’t trust us to help her now, to show up when it mattered. Because we hadn’t before.
I was going to murder her for this, right after I made sure she was safe, right after I made sure she knew how much I loved her, right after I fucking made this right.
Cole’s expression had shut down again. “Call Dmitri. I’ll buy us time while you arrange for the calvary.”
He stepped toward me and grasped my hand before pulling me to him, our chests together with our hands clasped between us. “Alek, no matter what happens tonight, promise me you’ll take care of her, that you’ll take care of them.”
His eyes were steady, but I could see the fear beneath, the determination.
“I swear it,” I rasped.
And then, he was gone.
I waited three full seconds, watching the door he’d left through, a hole in my chest from the knowledge he was going to face his father alone while I made phone calls and arranged backup.
Goddammit.
I called Dmitri.
“Cousin,” he answered. “I hope tonight met your expectations.”
“He has her,” I said in Russian.
“What do you mean he has her?”
“Carter kidnapped her father, and Eva’s gone after him on her own.”
“Stupid fucking children,” Dmitri swore. “All right, brother. What do you need?”
My phone buzzed—Tristan. I ignored it so I could continue my call with Dmitri.
“Everything. We need to get Eva and her father back. And Cole, who’s buying us time to get there.”
My voice was steady, even though my hands shook. Even now, I played a role—competent, ruthless, in control—though I was anything but. I didn’t have a plan. I had desperation and rage and the fury that Eva was once again in danger because I’d failed her.
“I’ll send you an address. Meet me there. We’ll get your girl back, I promise.”
So many promises today. I wasn’t sure any of us would be able to keep them.
Tristan arrived a minute after I’d hung up.
“What the fuck is going on?” he asked, still wearing sweat-soaked clothes and smelling like hockey. He must have come straight from the locker rom. “Nobody is answering my calls.”
I explained what had happened, keeping my voice steady and reassuring. It was a lie, but Tristan didn’t need to know that, not now.
“You’ll go back to the hockey house and wait for us,” I said.
“The fuck I will,” he said. “She’s in this mess because I thought it’d be fun to blackmail her with Cole instead of helping her. I’m not letting you and Cole face Jed Carter alone.”
“If this goes wrong, people are going to die. If the cops get involved, this is the end of your hockey career,” I said. “That’s not what she would want.”
“Yeah, she wanted to go off and do this on her own instead of asking for help,” Tristan snapped.
“So forgive me if I’m a little less concerned with what she wants than what we need to do next to save her.
” His voice cracked on the last word. He took a deep breath and scrubbed his hands over the durag covering his braids. “I’m going with you, end of story.”
“Have you ever even shot a gun?” I asked him.
Tristan’s lips curved up in a slow smile. “No time like the present.”