She scrolled through her phone and her eyes widened. “I apologize. I thought Axel told me to meet him here.”
I crossed my arms. “He’s dealing with a work emergency.”
Her eyes widened. “Yes. Exactly. That’s why he called me.”
I swear something cracked in my chest. Only an hour ago, Axel had pretended that he wanted to hang out with me, but had been called to a work emergency. She was clearly dressed for a date, not a work emergency.
The truth was staring me in the face, even if I wasn’t ready to face it.
Something washed over me, that reminded me of that moment when I had found out that my parents had died. The idea that Axel was cheating on me, felt like cold, disbelieving shock.
Which was immediately followed by white hot rage. I couldn’t keep the emotion out of my voice. “I don’t believe you.”
Her eyes widened at my expression. “I think you’ve misunderstood something.”
The anger inside me was an awful mix of jealousy and pain. “Don’t tell me how to think!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
AXEL
Maksimand I stood shoulder to shoulder, taking in the scene in silence. Flames still shot up from the flat roof of our outer warehouse. Around us, firemen shouted orders to each other as they dragged their hoses and positioned the ladders on their trucks. There was the sound of creaking metal and then a loud bang as something collapsed from within. The acrid smoke caught in the back of my throat, tasting metallic and bitter. Even where we stood, I could feel the heat of the fire amid the rain that pelted my face.
“Do we know how this started?”
“Guards got a smoke alarm shortly after seeing a vehicle drive quickly down the back road.”
I nodded. “Can we identify that vehicle?”
“Already did.” He paused. “We traced it back to the Volkov family.”
I wasn’t even surprised anymore. I had already sent a text to Giselle, asking her to meet me in an hour. Things were escalating quickly. We needed to start planning where we could makearrests and start to shut this all down. I could see this situation between these two families was a ticking time bomb. “What did we have stored in this warehouse?”
“This is one of our front warehouses. Mostly just empty boxes and pallets.”
“Is there any ammunition or explosives I need to warn the fire department about?”
He shook his head. “The crap that is burning we can easily replace and, besides the smoke, there is nothing harmful in there.”
“We’re going to need video of this for insurance purposes. Can you help me film the fire?”
“I’ll grab some footage from the other side, including the emergency response vehicles.”
“Got it.”
Using my phone, I started filming as much of the destruction and fire as I could, but my efforts were disrupted by a call from Anton, who never called unless it was an emergency.
I didn’t waste time on pleasantries. “What’s happening?”
“I recommend you come home.”
“Why?”
He sounded pained. “First, check the video I sent you.”
“Hang on,” I told him.
I played the clip he had messaged me. It was ten seconds of Mila yelling through tears at Giselle, who stood there looking completely flummoxed.
