Chapter 29 Viking
CHAPTER 29
VIKING
She’d shot him. Actually shot him. He’d heard of pregnant women going crazy with hormones, but this?
Fire spread across his thigh where the bullet had grazed him. He was bleeding like a stuck pig. Grinding his teeth, he stumbled toward the couch and took out his phone.
He almost called Baran, but then remembered he was still in the basement with Vito Gavese. The bastard had given them two locations where Pedro could supposedly be found, but so far both the warehouse and the motel had turned up empty. He’d sent Yuri out looking for Pedro, telling him he didn’t need any protection tonight. After all, he had been planning on talking to his wife. Get everything out in the open, start with a clean slate and everything.
He forgot all his good intentions the second she told him he was going to be a dad again. If it were possible for a heart to explode from happiness, that would have happened. He’d wanted nothing more than to have a family with Elena.
He never stopped loving her, even when he hated her, which had been tearing him apart. Elena was the fucking sun and moon, she was the ammo to his gun, the blade to his knife. She was what made him want to get up every day and do better. And he’d fucked that all up because he couldn’t deny the truth when she asked him that damn question. He might not have said the words, but he hadn’t needed to. He’d never lied to her before so he didn’t deny that at some point, yes, he’d contemplated hurting her by taking away her baby. He wasn’t proud that in his darkest moment that thought had crossed his mind. It was wrong on so many levels, but at the time it had seemed like justice. His pound of flesh that would make her bleed. Before he got the chance to tell her he was never going to go through with it, she’d pulled a gun on him. In hindsight, he shouldn’t have underestimated her. He should’ve expected she’d turn into Momma Bear. The signs of her loyalty were all there; he’d just been too blind to see them.
Maybe he deserved to bleed all over the couch and carpet for that alone. Gritting his teeth, he got off the couch and stumbled into the bathroom for clean towels. He wrapped them around his thigh to stop the bleeding. When his bad side hit the corner of the sink, it turned black before his eyes. He didn’t know how long it took before he could muster himself up and hop to his wet bar. He needed a drink, badly.
After the initial bleeding had slowed down, turning the white towels red, he texted their on-call doctor. They paid a lot of money to a lot of people to make house visits during emergencies.
Viking had almost dozed off when someone slapped his face. Doc hadn’t come alone; he’d brought Kristoff with him.
“Good. You’re still alive.” Kristoff towered over him, looking curious.
He pushed up only to get pushed back down by the doc who worked on his wound. The old man didn’t say anything as he prodded into his flesh.
“It’s just a graze.”
Kristoff nodded. “Caused by?”
There was no hiding what happened. Kristoff would laugh his ass off after telling him ‘I told you so,’ but it was better tobe laughed at by the boss than by a soldier who would spread the word of his downfall. At least Kristoff wasn’t a tattletale.
“Elena shot me.”
“Your wife shot you?”
He winced as the doctor tightened gauze around his upper leg. “It’s a misunderstanding.”
“I’m sure it is.”
Before he could protest, the doc pushed a needle in his arm. The sting was nothing compared to the loss he felt inside. He needed to right his wrong.
“I need to find her.” He looked around for his phone when a wave of dizziness hit him.
Kristoff looked at his Rolex. “I know where she is. At least, where she was fifty minutes ago.”
“What?”
“She stopped by to see Katya.”
“And you didn’t think to stop her?”
Kristoff cut him a look. “She was upset, talking about you stealing her baby and how she needed to disappear. There was no stopping her unless I put a bullet in her. I don’t shoot pregnant women.”
Damn Kristoff. “So, now you decide to go all honorable on me?”
“Also, I owed her for helping Katya. So, I gave her an hour.”
Freaking fantastic. “An hour to do what? Find a bazooka for the next time she lays eyes on me?”
His friend seemed to ponder that for a moment. “If she can get her hands on one, you should be proud. A woman as inventive and resourceful at that? That’s an asset. You could do worse.”
Viking cursed. “I need to find her.”
“You will. I gave her an hour head start. Didn’t say you would.”
Finally tracking his phone down, Viking called Damon.
“Yeah.” Damon’s grouchy voice sounded sleepy. That happened when you stayed up all night to torture someone.
“I need you to trace Elena’s phone. Now.”
The seconds in which it took Damon to fire up his laptop seemed like hours. Her fleeing couldn’t have been timed worse. Pedro was still out there. She was all alone with no one to protect her back.
When the silence on the other side of the phone stretched, Viking knew something was up.
“She’s gone.” Damon sounded surprised.
“What do you mean gone?”
“I mean, she’s turned off her phone. I found one credit card in her name, but she hasn’t used it today. So I have no way of tracking her unless she gets caught on a camera.”
He killed the call, then started to think. He needed to have a clear head for this. And he needed to be quick about it, because whatever sedative the doc had shot into his veins was already starting to loosen his muscles and droop his eyelids.
Where would he go if he was Elena? Katya didn’t have the means to help Elena out and have it go unnoticed. Kristoff kept a tight leash on her, especially since the night she returned home with a busted lip.
No, Katya couldn’t help her, but she could send her to someone else. Someone who could help Elena go off the grid so deep that even he wouldn’t be able to find her. There was one person crazy enough to dare help her.
He dialed Tess Detta. Anticipation ran through his veins as he feared she wouldn’t pick up. In his mind, he was already planning on bringing her in. He didn’t give a shit it would cause a war between them and the Dettas. No one got between him and his wife. No one.
She picked up on the third ring. “What?”
“Where’s Elena? I know Katya sent her to you.”
“You will never find her, you baby-snatching jerk!”
At least she didn’t deny it. Taking a deep breath, he kept the rage out of his voice. “Look, this is all a misunderstanding.”
“It sure is! You can’t just knock a woman up and then steal her baby. She’s not a cow, you know.”
The woman was crazy. After another round of insults about what he could go do to himself, his patience was running thin. It was time to remind her of her deal with Kristoff. Elena was a Vory wife. Coming between him and his wife meant Tess had meddled in Bratva business. That came at a price.
“If you’ve had a hand in Elena’s disappearing—”
“My hands are as clean as a baby’s butt.”
The glee in her voice grated on his nerves. “If you’re lying—”
“I don’t meddle in Bratva business per my arrangement with my husband. He gets cranky if I do. But…” She paused for dramatic effect. “It doesn’t mean I can’t outsource it.” Then she hung up on him.
Dread filled his veins. There was only one person Tess would entrust with helping her friend out. An elusive person who was on both the FBI’s Most Wanted List as on the twins’ radar. Her sister, Onyx.
Fuck.