She didn’t run.
I knew it in the depth of my soul.
Convincing myself of that had to mean one other thing.
She was taken.
Someone had broken in here to snatch her. Right from the bed we’d shared.
Again, I checked the apartment. This time, I obsessed over looking for clues of a break-in. For marks on the doors and windows. Any evidence that someone else had been here, or that she’d struggled to resist a capture. She would have. Sadie would not have left willingly, but that sickened me even more.
What if she was drugged? Sedated? Knocked out?
Keeping these fears at bay, I breathed harder and faster as adrenaline filled me.
Even though I saw no signs of blood or anything to suggest violence, I had to suspect that something bad had gone down to allow anyone to physically remove Sadie from this apartment.
How the fuck did this happen?
No security measures or cameras had been installed here since the property was newly acquired. No guards were patrolling as backup. Sadie and I came here to hide, but someone was aware of how to find us. How to capture her right from under my nose.
“Fuck.”
I didn’t stall. I couldn’t dwell here and overthink it all on my own. Already, I was locked into an emotional response, not looking at this situation with a strategic or logical perspective.
I ran back to my room and grabbed my phone and shoes. Shoving my feet in them, I called my cousin.
“Alex. I need your help.”
It was preemptive of me to tell him to help me find Sadie before getting my father’s approval that Sadie could be an ally and accepted as someone belonging under our protection.
But I couldn’t wait. I couldn’t follow the plan and protocol to bring her to my father first. How the fuck could I when she was gone?
I told him the barest basics, knowing that my cousin who supervised security would hear the sincere grave tone I spoke with. Alexsei wasn’t stupid. He’d move and react first, then ask questions later. Ivan, too, didn’t pepper me with too many questions. I called him second, frantically asking him to come too and help me hunt the area for Sadie.
Telling them that I needed help to find a woman was enough to get them to move.
And they came.
“This is the agent?” Ivan asked after they showed up.
I nodded, unsurprised that my father would’ve already told them about Sadie to some degree.
We split up, canvassing the area.
None of us found her, and it was with a daunting dread that I worried she was taken too far.
“You’ve got no idea when she left?” Alexsei asked when we regrouped. Both looked at me with worry, but also skepticism.
I scowled. “She didn’t fucking leave. She was taken.”
“Hey, hey.” Ivan held his hands up. “Calm down.”
“I will not fucking calm down!” I roared. I was ready to tear every inch of this earth apart to find her again. I couldn’t live like this, twisted and burning inside with the rage that I’d let her down and failed to keep her safe.
“Then don’t panic,” Ivan barked. “Not yet.”
“You can’t blame us for assuming she could’ve taken off,” Alexsei said. “An agent asked to break her loyalty to her agency and come to talk to Luka? She’d be nervous and prone to running scared.”
