“You’d better pray I find her there,” I said, then rose from my chair.
I grabbed my jacket from the hanger and slipped into it while walking out of the office.
Ilya drove me to the address but what we found there only fueled my rage. The place was cleared out—completely empty. My fingers clenched into fists at my sides as I thought that she’d used my money to pay off her Father’s debt and now they’d both run away.
My chest rose and fell with uneven breaths, my blood boiling with rage. However, despite my fury, I couldn’t help noticing that something was off about this. There was no way in hell that she and her father were able to clear out this whole place in just a few hours.
Even if it was possible, Eva, being the smart woman that she was, would’ve known it was useless and time-wasting to pack all their stuff.
Why would she bother slowing down for something as insignificant as this? She had enough money to start all over again.
It didn’t make any sense that someone who was running would have the time to clear out her father’s apartment.
When I set my anger aside, things began to fall into place—the dusty floor, the cobwebs, the rats scurrying here and there. That’s when I realized no one had been here in a while. The movement didn’t happen today—the man had been gone for a long time.
I’d dealt with different debtors in my time, and I knew what men like that were capable of. It was possible that her father, seeing he could not pay what he owed, decided to run away. He abandoned her just to save his own skin.
If she truly dropped by to check on the old man, her heart must’ve shattered. This was a dead end because she must’ve left the second she realized he’d left her behind.
“Boss, you wanna see this!” Ilya called my attention from deeper inside the living room.
I walked over to where he was crouched before a splash of red liquid on the dusty floor.
“Blood,” he said, looking up at me. “Fresh. A few hours ago, give or take.”
My heart skipped a beat.
“And then there’s that…and that.” He pointed at a single tooth lying carelessly somewhere across the floor. Next was a shoe I recognized in an instant.
It was hers.
I rushed over there and picked it up, hoping to God that that tooth and the splash weren’t hers as well. My mind was a tangled mess, reeling with different scenarios of what might’ve happened here.
My eyes were bloodshot, my fists tightening so hard until my knuckles whitened and my hands trembled. I locked my jaw, my chest heaving rapidly as I thought about how I’d find the perpetrators of this act and make them all pay.
No one dared touch what was mine! No one!
The possibility of that tooth and splash of blood being Eva’s only accentuated my anger. I was so furious that my head hurt. At this point, I wasn’t sure where to begin because anyone could’ve been behind this.
She could’ve been trailed by one of my enemies. It was also possible that she was abducted by her father’s creditors. Or she was mugged because someone knew there was a shitload of cash in her backpack.
“Fuck!” I yelled out, my voice echoing off the empty room.
Driven by my own rage, I slammed my fist into the wooden wall, the impact drilling a fuckin’ hole in it.
“We’ll find her, Boss,” Ilya said, trying to sound optimistic.
“How?!” I bellowed. “She’s in danger, Ilya! My wife and unborn child are in grave danger, and every second we waste, only God knows what they’re going to do to her!” I snapped, spittle flying out of my mouth as I raged on and on.
Ilya took out his phone and began barking orders at my men.
While I paced the length of the room with her shoe in my hand, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I stopped in my tracks, pulled the device out, and checked the caller ID.
It was an unknown number.
I showed Ilya the screen, and we both locked eyes for a fleeting moment.
“Have our men track this call,” I ordered.
