Behind us, the second boat sputtered awake. Lorenzo had found the spare keys.
Gunfire spat across the water, bullets zipping, pinging off the loch like pebbles. One slammed into the bow near the wheel. I jerked the boat hard, my teeth rattling. Natasha screamed and clutched my arm.
The other boat roared behind us, coughing, sputtering, but still alive. Lorenzo’s silhouette stood at the bow, gun raised, his voice carrying over the waves.
He herded us.
The only path open was northeast—away from safety, away from my clan.
This wasn’t a chase.
It was a hunt.
44
VASSILI
I’d beenin this position before. Zariah on the phone, a million miles away, the cartel issuing threats while they held my wife captive. Why hadn’t the MacKenzies called to threaten me? Make demands? I could handle them. Silence brought every fiber of my being to my knees.
Today, the cellphone in my hand shook. Nostrils flared, I breathed out. In … Out … And answered my daughter’s first call.
Moyeydocheriscreams hit my ear like a thunderclap, searing into my mind. Innocent. Overwhelmed by bullets.
“Da, Natasha?” I screamed into the phone. “Gde ty? Gde ty?Where are you?”
Yuri stared at me, the confusion, questions, and pain in his gaze mirroring mine.
My hand trembled, and I clutched the phone tighter. Told myself to focus. She was screaming. She was alive.Khoroshiy. What else did I distinguish from the call?
“What is it?” Simeon growled through clenched teeth, climbing from the dining table so fast the chair spun away and hit more furniture.
“Nyet, nyet…nyet…” Yuri moaned, arms folded, rocking in his loafers.
A second later, her screams and the sound of an engine and waves—it all went dead.
“Water …” I replied, stalking like a panther over the large storage area of eclectic high-end pieces.
I roughed a hand across my face. Found a chair. Or rather, the wingback chair found me instead of my ass falling flat on the cement floor. “They’re somewhere with water. Lachlan took my daughter. Somewhere with water. Shooting guns. She must’ve tried to escape …”
In a daze, I glimpsed the number again.Da. Her 323-area code. She’d had the number since the fifth grade. Hunched over in the seat, my hands scraped through my hair.
Simeon rubbed my shoulder. “They’re dead,brat.All of them.”
“Nyet. Just him. And the one—” Fumbling with my phone, hands jerky, I shifted through until I found the correct social media account. The kid with millions of followers already had scores of photos and videos with women. Lots of women. Why would he drug my baby? Why would … Lachlan let?—
Didn’t matter. “First, this one.” I pointed to Rory’s smiling face. “Then theDoyer.”
“The entire family, Va?—”
At the glare I shot him, Simeon broke off with a cussword, biting his fist. He kicked an ottoman. The crates on top of it toppled over. Someone needed to clean this crap. I needed order, yet Simeon’s actions exposed the same rage within me. I couldn’t do that. Break. I’d need to wait.
A soldier stepped forward, silent and attentive.
“Speak,” I ordered.
“We have confirmation of the family’s location. Scotland. Dùn MhicCoinnich. But sir…” His Adam’s apple pitched higher than the ceiling.
“What?” Simeon barked.
