“Zamalchi, suka.”
His palm covers my mouth again, and I keep thrashing even as he drags me closer to the edge. My only thought is that Aleksei has to know I’m gone. He has to be tracking me. The same deviceI hated him for hours ago might be the only thing that saves me now.
The pier is only a few feet away, and panic floods every inch of me. They’re going to kill me and throw me in the water.
Terror floods my veins, and all I can think about is my husband. The gentle way he touches me. The way his voice softens when he tells me he loves me. The way he promised to do better. The way I believe he can.
If this is how it ends, please let him know I tried to forgive him. That I wanted to stay.
I bite down again—harder this time, tasting blood—and kick the man in front of me. He growls, then slams his fist into my stomach so hard I can’t breathe.
“You try again,” he snarls, “and I tell boss you fall in water and drown.”
Pain radiates through me, but I don’t stop fighting. Not even when my vision blurs. Every second they yank me near the edge, fear builds like a scream stuck in my throat.
I’m not ready to die. Not without seeing him again.
Aleksei…
His name echoes in my head.
Please find me. Before it’s too late.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
ALEKSEI
“Fiona!”
Her name tears from somewhere deep in my sleep. I bolt upright, heartbeats punching against my ribs like they know something I don’t.
I swear I heard her. My hand reaches across the bed before my eyes even adjust to the dark, searching for the warmth of her body.
But all I find is emptiness, and it hits me like a bullet.
“Fiona? Where are you?”
I’m out of bed in seconds, phone in hand as I move through the penthouse, scanning every corner. Anywhere she could be sitting, thinking, hiding. I check the bathroom, the kitchen, and nothing. She’s not here.
A weight drops onto my chest.
I open the GPS app, grateful for it now. The dot hovers near the pier.
Blyat! She’s out there. Alone. What the hell was she thinking?
I throw on my clothes and fly out of the door only to find my useless guard sleeping when he should have been awake to follow her. My hand drops to my gun without hesitation, the barrel leveled at his skull.
“Padonok.”Scumbag.
The silenced shot cracks through the hall and he collapses instantly, blood spreading across the expensive carpet like spilled ink.
I don’t spare him another glance. He’s lucky all he lost was his life. If I wasn’t so consumed with getting back to her, I would take more.
I rush toward the elevator, pressing the button over and over. Each second is like a century, the blinking light above mocking me with its lazy ascent.
When the doors finally open, I run inside, chest tight. As I watch the floors blink, cursing for it to hurry, every bad thought flips through my mind.
My wife being shot. Killed. Taken.
