My heart sinks.
Six in the morning. Hours ago. She gets into her car and drives off the property, turning left towards the city.
She’s been out there since six this morning. Anything could have happened. She might be in trouble. She might be hurt. Someone might have taken her.Fuck. I have to find her.
With rising panic, I call my team of private guards and tell them to hunt her down. They can track the vehicle. They can track her phone. I don’t give a shit what they need to do. They have to locate her.Now.
Forgetting about the coffee, I run upstairs to get dressed.
A few hours later, my men have hacked into security footage around the city. Random cameras on random street corners. We could only track her so far, but what they’ve shown me is enough to confirm something I’d rather not believe.
Katerina left home this morning and drove through the city towards her family’s territory. We lost track of her after she drove past the industrial sectors that divided our territories. But there’s no mistaking her destination.
“Do you want us to keep searching, sir?” my head of security asks.
“No, it’s pointless. I know where she’s going,” I snap, agitated and disappointed.
Why did she leave me?
Why didn’t she tell me or write me a note?
What is her plan? What was her plan all along? Was any of this real?
I can’t stop pacing or the racing speed of my heart. Betrayal is a difficult thing to deal with. It eats at you, making you question everything.
What am I supposed to do now?
Chapter 14 - Katerina
At half past six, I park the car outside my brother’s home, my family home. I want to sneak in before anyone else sees me and go straight to Artur. He’s the only one I want to talk to. If I end up having to face all of them at once, it will be a nightmare. No one will listen to anything I have to say.
I slip past the guards, around a back entrance I found just after we moved here. Inside the house, it’s still relatively quiet. It’s still early. Standing at the back door near the kitchen, I can hear people moving around upstairs, getting ready for the day.
I’ll go straight to Artur’s room. That way I can speak to him alone.
With one deep breath to try and calm the churning anxiety rolling through my body, I step through the back door into the kitchen and head to the hallway that leads upstairs.
Except my brothers are all there.
Artur, Abram, and Fabi are standing with their arms folded across their broad chests and dark scowls etched into their foreheads as they glare at me in anger. My eyes scan over each of them, my heart racing and my throat growing dry.
I open my mouth to speak, but close it again almost immediately. I didn’t want to speak to all of them, especially not like this.
“Welcome home, Katerina,” Abram snarls, almost hissing at me. He takes a step closer to me, and I stumble backwards, reaching behind me to rest my hand on the small plant shelf against the wall.
“Artur, can we speak in private?” I ask, my voice shuddering slightly as I try to ignore the intense stare of all threeof them and focus only on him. His eyes are dark, narrowed slits. He’s past angry. He looks furious.
“Why in private? It seems like you’ve been verypubliclyshaming your family all over town,” Artur snaps. “Why would you want to be secretive now?”
My eyes dart to Abram.He told them?
He smirks. “Of course, I told them. I’m not betraying my family as you did, Katerina,” Abram snaps. “We don’t keep secrets as dangerous as that from each other.”
I bite my lip, my eyes again falling on Artur, pleading with him to give me the benefit of the doubt. But I can see this is a conversation I’ve already lost.
“You’ve been hanging out with the Andreevs, and then you come crawling back home now? Why? They kick you out? You realize your mistake in trusting them?” Artur spits.
“No, it’s not like that. Yulian isn’t who you think he is,” I say defensively.
