“She’ll be right here with us until we can figure out all she can do for us.” The brute grinned, showing off white teeth that seemed unnatural on such an ugly, evil soul.
What I can do for you?
I didn’t want to know what that meant.
I was a woman. They could rape me.
I was a doctor. They could recruit me as a slave to help their wounded.
I had been under the watch and custody of their enemy. They could exploit me and use me as leverage with Mikhail or kill me to use me as bait for him.
What have I done?
Agony and regret coalesced in my heart as I lay there and dreaded the abuse and torture—or death—that seemed inevitable now.
I wished I could do what Mikhail had mockingly joked once.
To find a rewind button and dial back time.
Because I prayed and wished with all my heart that I could change my fate.
I shouldn’t have run from him. I was only a fool to be proud and self-righteous, deluded that I could be in charge of my life and safety.
Mikhail was the only one who could keep me alive and protected, the only one who seemed to care whether I lived and prospered at all.
And now, I doubted I’d ever see him again.
Not in this lifetime.
I sniffled hard and tried not to cry.
I never had a chance to tell him I loved him.
29
MIKHAIL
“Did you check her phone?” Andre asked.
I stopped pacing at the warehouse where we’d met. Since we realized Claire had been taken, I hadn’t given up looking for her. Glaring at my son for such a stupid question, I wished I could scream.
Every second that Claire remained missing and unaccounted for was another stroke of hell upon me. I would go insane worrying about her. I would never forgive myself for letting her walk out of my life, but first, I had to find her and see with my own eyes that she was alive and well to walk away again.
Andre rolled his eyes, just as annoyed with me as I was with him. “I know we checked it before. When we first realized the Giovannis were fucking with us and their talk was a diversion with Anya being taken.”
“Do you mean has anyone checked her phone recently?” Sergei asked, walking a slow perimeter of the empty room.
“Yeah.” Andre nodded. “Has she been moved?”
“No.” Roman held up his phone, checking the map. “It hasn’t moved.”
“So we’re supposed to believe she’s still in the fucking ocean? In the water?” Andre snapped. He shook his head.
“That or she’s on a boat,” Sergei said.
“If she was on a fucking boat, the signal would still move a little,” Roman argued.
“Then maybe it’s just a fucking decoy or something,” Andre said, exasperated.
