“Drive faster.”
Marcus accelerates. We’re three minutes out now.
My phone rings. Unknown number.
I answer. “What?”
“Mr. Volkov.” The voice is smooth, accented. Russian. “I believe you’re looking for your wife.”
Every muscle in my body goes rigid. “Who is this?”
“A friend. Someone who wants to help you understand that your family is vulnerable. That the people you love can be touched whenever we choose.”
Dmitri Kozlov.
“If you hurt her?—”
“I’m not going to hurt her. Not today. Today is just a demonstration. A reminder that you killed my brother and left nothing for us to bury. That debts like that don’t disappear.”
“I’m going to kill you.”
“Perhaps. However, first, you should know that my men are currently in that restaurant. Sitting three tables away from your pregnant wife. They’ve been watching her argue with Mason.”
“If they touch her?—”
“They won’t. Not today. Today is just a message. But soon, Mr. Volkov, very soon, we’re going to take everything you love. And you’ll understand exactly how my family felt when you burned my brother to ash.”
The line goes dead.
“Go!” I shout at Marcus. “Now!”
31
SAVANNAH
Mason won’t stop talking.
“Please, don’t leave yet. Please,” he begs.
“What more do you have to say? We can’t be together. I’m married and I have a baby on the way!” My voice rises, and I catch the people nearby glancing at us.
He slides his phone across the table to me. “But I need you to understand what these past few months have been like for me.”
I look down at the screen. It’s a photo of me, standing outside the penthouse building. The date stamp says two weeks ago.
My blood runs cold. “What is this?”
“Keep scrolling.”
I do, even though every instinct tells me not to, and there are more photos of me from days before Mason first confronted us.
“You’ve been following me.”
“I needed to see you.” His voice is calm, too calm. “Needed to know you were okay. That you were really happy with him and not just running away from what we had.”
“This is stalking, Mason. This is—” I push the phone back across the table like it’s contaminated. “This is insane.”
“I was careful. Never got too close. Just close enough to see your face.” He picks up the phone, scrolls to another photo. This one is of me and Ledger outside a restaurant. I’m laughing at something he said, my hand on my stomach. “You look happy here. Happier than you ever looked with me.”
