“What car?”
The guard shuffles his feet, doubt stamped into every inch of his face.
“My name’s Baxter Balabanov. Do you know who I am?”
His face relaxes. A strange antithesis to the more usual reaction. “Yes. The vehicle belonged to Andrej Darnell, but it left.”
“With who inside?” I just saw Andrej in the corridor, so not him.
The man’s nerves return. “I couldn’t—”
My patience snaps and I thrust him back against the wall, shouting, “Tell me.”
“Trouble?” asks a voice from the corner and I glance up already recognising Andrej’s snide tone.
“My fiancée’s missing.” I release my hold on the guard to raise the tiny tracking device and twist it around so he can see. “Somebody removed the only means I have to locate her.”
“Don’t worry.” Andrej nods to the guard who gratefully returns to his post. “I’m sure if she truly loves you, she’ll come back.” He raises his hands and clasps them over his heart, a loose grin on his face.
The panic I’ve been holding at bay floods me. Buzzing in my ears, my vision ultra-focused.
I want to hurt him. Pummel that smirk with my fist until the knuckle have popped out of place and I can’t recognise him as human. Smash his head against the building’s brick wall until it disintegrates into a paste of blood, brain, and bone.
And his eyes watch my every movement, categorising each miniscule change of expression. Seeing what I want… but can’t afford to do.
“I’d offer you my car, but it seems to have been appropriated by someone else.”
My eyes narrow as my hands clench into fists. He’s involved, is practically shouting it in my face, and I can’t even kill him with my bare hands without being certain. The walls of my occupation have never seemed so high as they do now.
“I have my own car,” I growl. “What I don’t have is my fiancée.”
“Women are extremely troublesome,” Andrej says agreeably. “Shall we head inside so you can find someone else?”
As he turns, I see the small stain of blood on his cuff. He sees me see it and his smile grows wider, sharklike. This man thinks he’s an apex predator and I so dearly wish I had evidence to present to Pavle tonight to knock him free of that perch.
“What the fuck have you done with her?” My anger swells so large I feel like I’m bursting apart at the seams from the inside out. I grab the front of his shirt in my fist, needing to give it a physical outlet, no matter how small. “If you’ve harmed her—”
“You’ll what?” Andrej eyes me with such disdain that my brain turns to a bubbling mess, in danger of overheating. “Take your hands off me or you’ll answer to Pavle.”
I snatch them away, forcing myself back a step. The rage intensifies as it’s denied even that inadequate gesture. “What the fuck is your problem with her? You told me to bring her along tonight. I did. I paraded her in front of everyone we know. Why are you—?”
I break off as the fury consumes me. Hands clenching so tight that even my short-clipped nails break through the skin of my palms.
“Careful.” Andrej maintains his self-satisfied stance in front of me, jutting his chin in a gesture of defiance. “I made a suggestion, that’s all. If you can’t keep a woman in hand, that’s nothing to do with me.”
I’m still holding my phone. I spin through the contact list, searching for Pavle, unable to stand this standoff any longer.
First my daughter, now Isabelle.
Fuck evidence. I’m under attack and if my boss won’t come to my aid then what good is he? What good are any of them?
“Why haven’t you killed Sergio?”
Andrej’s question comes out of left field, and I pause, staring at him long enough to see that same strange expression that he sported during our last encounter in his eye. “Because I already tortured someone in connection with this business and he wouldn’t give me names.”
“You want him to lead you to his contact.” Andrej closes his eyes, sighing as though the answer brings him peace. “You know, the next time something happens to someone close to you, remember that I was here. Your best resource. And instead of coming to me with your suspicions, you went to your playgroup of Gen Zs and lost the best chance you had to follow up leads.”
I stare at him. The words—-hisanger—so similar to what he’s already expressed to me. “Tell me, then. Tell me what good you could have done me in this situation.”
