I guess if I’m still a prisoner, I’m no longer alone. “Any word on Katarina?”
Dimitri shakes his head. “Her driver had called in sick. We don’t know who drove her?—”
I gasp. “What if he worked for otets?” Ryker’s arms stiffen around me.
Dimitri winces. “That’s my fear too. I do know that the car was spotted by a traffic camera just outside the airport.”
I don’t realize I’m digging my nails into Ryker’s neck, until my fingers relax. “That’s good. It means she likely got on a plane rather than…” I trail off, not able to say out loud that I’m worried that Sver has already killed her.
“It’s good.” Dimitri gives me a single jerk of his chin. “I’ve got security footage coming from the airport itself. We’ll track the car. And then we’ll track her. We’re not giving up.”
I relax a little to know that my brother is looking for Katarina. It’s further evidence that she wasn’t just here to marry. That Dimitri really cares about her, about both of us.
“Who has access to the security footage?” Ryker asks, his hands like stone around my waist.
“Jake Kincaid.”
That makes me relax further. I’ve trusted Jake from the first and I have to hope he can help. “Can I visit with Anna before I head back upstairs?”
“Of course,” Dimitri gives me a small smile. “You’re welcome anytime.”
I slip from Ryker’s embrace, but he catches my hand. “I’ll come with you, if it’s all right.”
The smile I give him could surely light the Vegas strip. “I’d love that.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Ryker
I’mthe worst piece of shit on the planet.
I’ve told myself a million times not to catch an attack of conscience, but the worry in both Dimitri’s and Sasha’s voice is ripping me to shreds.
Okay, maybe it’s not Dimitri’s…
Fucking Sasha. From seeing that guard with his hands on her to hearing her tell Dimitri to save his daughter over her life, to her fear over Katarina, I’m starting to understand something I didn’t before.
She’s got a shit father. Maybe worse than mine. Probably worse than mine. And her sister up and left her to whatever fate I deemed appropriate.
I bitch about my brothers, but they’ve made me an equal financial partner. And yet I went behind their backs, while Sasha…
She is willing to put all of it, her very life, on the line for them. She’d give them every part of herself when she’s gotten almost nothing in return.
Her heart is so fucking big, her love so deep, she glows with it. It doesn’t matter what has happened, or what might happen. She’s making a choice to place herself between her family and danger.
What fucking choices have I made?
I don’t need to answer myself. Instead, I follow Sasha into Anna’s room where a large dollhouse sits in the corner.
Sasha moves toward it and then sits cross-legged next to her niece.
Anna hands her a doll that has shiny dark hair just like Sasha. “For you.”
“Thank you, milaya,” Sasha answers, kissing the little girl’s chubby cheek again. Anna kisses her back.
I have that same feeling I had the first time I saw them together. I’m not a guy who even dates.
But when I look at them, what I see is…a future. Scares the shit out of me.
