Chapter 46
Ilya
Two days. It’s been two days without her.
I’m going out of my mind.
It took two days for the Minister of Defense to do his fucking job and get me what I needed, which was info on wherever it was that Ivan Fucking Popov was hiding. Information I knew the corrupt fucker would get me, because it’s for him that I provide the weapons he moves to other countries, crafting wars and turmoil that keeps his job a cushy one. Fucking government, always has been corrupt. Always will be.
Now that I finally have that information, it’s taking everything I have in me to remain the calm, level-headed man I’ve always been. It’s taking everything in me not to storm the warehouse, guns blazing.
And guns will blaze. Tonight, I’ll be opening the gates of Hell on the fuckers who thought they could steal what belongs to me.
It’s not often I find myself in tactical gear, ready to storm a compound where the head of a rival house attempts to hide low.
After realizing that Irelynn had been taken, we’d attempted to track the car. All my cars have trackers, but this one specifically had been disabled. The time stamp showed it had been disabled two hours before they’d left. That meant one of two things.
One of my men had known about the excursion and disabled the tracker, setting them up to be taken. In which case, Boris is most likely already dead.
Or Boris betrayed me. In that event, he will die. Painfully.
In either scenario, I’ve been unable to track the car.
With proof of life pictures, and the last being an encrypted video I’d opened only thirty minutes prior, I know Irelynn is still alive. Though she’s been beaten.
The thought that she’s been hurt settles a bone-deep rage inside me I’m not sure I’ll ever be free from.
“She’s alive. We will bring her back.” Misha shoves a blade into his belt.
“I’ve arranged the trade for tomorrow morning.” Ivan demanded a trade, his Ruby for my Little Blue. Another tell that Boris betrayed me, Ivan’s knowing of my pet name for her.
I’m to meet Popov with Ruby, alone, tomorrow, in a location of his choosing.
If I’m accompanied by my army, she will die.
If I don’t have Ruby, she will die.
If I don’t come, she will be made a whore.
My jaw tightens. The way I’m going to kill Ivan for those words alone.
The way I’m going to torture Boris for his involvement in her capture. For his betrayal.
“Tonight will be a good surprise, then.” Misha doesn’t grin. But there is a maniacal glint in his eyes that would make any man quiver.
“A surprise,” I repeat. I look again at the photo of Irelynn, the dark blue bloom across her beautiful face. The wide set of eyes so filled with terror, I feel sick. That’s not how she looked at me when I first took her. “Tonight, will be a bloodbath.”
Misha stands back to assess me. “What about Ruby?”
“Ruby’s fate is in Kirill’s hands now. If she knows mercy, it will be from him. If she joins her father in death, again, it will be his choice.”
“Kirill won’t kill a woman,” Misha scoffs.
“I said it would be his choice. Not that it would be done at his hands.” Placing Ruby with Kirill had been a mistake. My brother is too publicly known to have his hands dirtied with a kidnapping. If I hadn’t had Irelynn, I would have brought the girl here to spend some time in my dungeon.
What a fucking mess.
“You would kill the girl?”
I meet Misha’s eyes. “She knows too much. If Kirill can’t tame her, if he doesn’t want to tame her, then she will join the father she loves so dearly.”
Misha nods. He knows I don’t kill the innocent easily. But there is nothing innocent about the blood that rages inside her veins. She’s the daughter of a true monster. A man who breaks apart families and sells bodies, flesh, and souls.
Does she know who her sire is?
“We will do what must be done.” He slides another blade into his belt, affixed just below the tactical vest that will take any bullet that might aim for his chest. “Right now, saving Irelynn and killing Popov is what is important.”
I pull the black toque down over my head. “Are the men ready?”