Which meant she could be anywhere. Someone could have taken her, or she could be lost somewhere. She could be hurt or in hiding.
I called back Yuri. “Listen up,” I told him. “Trace her phone for me.”
I waited for a couple of minutes before Yuri got back to me. Every second of that wait felt like an hour, where my mind conjured up scenarios too damn petrifying to even consider.
“We found something,” Yuri’s voice crackled over the speakerphone. “We tracked the phone to the corner of Maple and 23rd. Our men are going to scour now.”
“I’ll be there,” I said, moving out with my convoy.
Ten minutes later, Yuri met me at the location. In his hand, I saw an evidence bag containing her phone. “It was in the bushes here.”
I took the bag, eyeing the phone and the blue case with butterflies. It was Beatrice’s, without a doubt.
“What the hell is it doing here?” I whispered to myself. A strange instinct came over me, like my soul knew the answer even though, logically, there were many possibilities.
“It’s almost like she dropped it…like she was running.”
“Or someone took her and tossed her phone,” Yuri added.
“That makes no sense.” I shook my head. “Because whoever took her probably took Anton, too. And why chuck hers, but not Anton’s?”
I unlocked the phone with her password, which I knew by heart, just to see if I could figure something out. The battery was almost dead, but there was enough juice to check her last actions.
Her map history showed a search for an address I knew all too well.
“The safehouse,” I breathed at the damning piece of evidence. I remembered then that night I took her from the nightclub, we had gone straight to the safehouse. I’d told her what the place was, just before I made her sign those wedding papers.
What if she were being chased and managed to hide out at the safehouse?
“Call Andrey and find out if they have a trace on his phone,” I told Yuri as I shoved the phone back at him. “I’m going to check out the safehouse, just in case.”
***
I drove to the safehouse like a madman. It was only three minutes away, and I pushed every speed limit, but time felt like it had a personal vendetta against me, wanting to see how long it could stretch. As I drove up to it, I kept my eyes peeled outside, checking out every direction for threats.
The coast looked clear, and to my horror, the house looked dark and untouched. There wasn’t a single light on inside.
With trembling legs, I parked and stepped out of the car. If Beatrice wasn’t here, I was all out of ideas. The idea of not finding her here was too harrowing, because the alternatives felt endless.
I prayed as I walked up to the house and punched in the code. “Please, please, please be here,” I muttered under my breath, stepping inside.
The house was dark and cold, with not a sound to be heard. My heart sank at the emptiness, but some small sliver of hope made me call out her name, hoping she was simply in hiding.
“Beatrice?” I asked as I walked through the living room. “Sweetheart, are you here?”
There was no answer. I felt my heart sink as I thought I might have misunderstood the situation. What if she was tryingto reach the safehouse, but someone took her before she could? But I had come too far not to take a proper look.
I reached the kitchen and my heart skipped in my chest, with near joy when I saw a water bottle on the counter, half-empty with the lid still off.
“Beatrice?” I called again, softer this time.
I whirled toward the storage closet when I heard it creak, and my eyes nearly fell out of my head as Beatrice crawled out and rose to her feet.
“Bea!” I cried, reaching for her just as she sobbed and ran toward me like a bullet, falling into my arms. She was a trembling mess, shivering and petrified, and I vowed to bury whoever put her in this state.
“Shh,” I muttered, soothing a hand down her back. “I’ve got you.”
“I…I was so scared,” she sobbed into my shirt, her tears soaking through. I only held her tighter, kissing her on her head. “I was…I thought I’d go to my brothers to talk, but someone chased me and…”
