But by being here and finally opening my eyes and taking a chance on loving Sergei and his family, I wanted to have more faith that he would save her. He would find her and retrieve her so we could keep her more guarded the next time.
Mikhail continued to pace throughout the room as we all waited. He was on his phone, ordering men and getting reports from those on the street. Others were working on it too, on their phones to connect or to dash off and look elsewhere.
Sergei hadn’t returned once. Roman had gone with him, and Andre was downstairs working on this incident as well.
Thrust into the Orlovs’ version of damage control, I witnessed how they didn’t waste a single second to hunt her down.
But it still wasn’t enough.
Sergei still wasn’t back. Maisie was still missing, captured by the Popov men—that much was clear from what Mikhail told his closest soldiers. It sounded like the Popov Family was retaliating against the Orlovs because they thought they were responsible for getting one of the boss’s wives captured. It wasn’t something Mikhail had ordered, though. It was the work of the Cartel, another criminal organization, but the Popovs hadn’t cared to check their intel.
“They will fucking pay for this. A hundred times over, they will fucking pay.” Mikhail ranted and stayed busy, behind the scenes, sticking with us in this penthouse until we were driven back to the building.
I couldn’t imagine leaving Claire and Anya. Of having to go to Sergei’s apartment and wait there on my own for news. And I didn’t. We all gathered at Mikhail’s building to await news as the earliest hours of the morning carried on into the new year.
At last, Sergei called in to check with his uncle. Just hearing his voice on speakerphone urged me to speak with him.
“Please, Sergei. Please find her,” I begged.
“I will, Natalie. I won’t stop until I can bring her home to you.”
Simply hearing his promise calmed me a fraction. I wouldn’t rest easy until she was in my arms again, where I could see and feel with my own eyes whether she had been harmed at all.
“It’s good that George is with her,” Claire said as we listened to Mikhail and the other men in the room moments later. She glanced at me, showing the same worry in her eyes that I feared I’d never lose. “He’ll stay with her and protect her. It’s better that she’s not alone.”
I nodded, knowing she was right. I would owe that man my thanks for all of time for sticking with her and being able to protect her. These Orlov men were loyal until their last breath.
It was that concept that kept me from breaking down completely.
Sergei would never give up on looking for her and saving her.
He would never give up on his end of the promise to always keep me and my daughter safe and happy.
Because he loved us.
Sergei might have been the reason for the hardest parts of my life. Things like Fitz’s death and Maisie’s abduction would always haunt me. But I knew that Sergei was also the source of the deepest security and love, too.
The city’s most fearsome and deadliest enforcer wouldn’t stop at anything to bring her home.
Please, Sergei. Find her and bring her back to us.
I closed my eyes and willed him to come home to me with her safe and sound.
33
SERGEI
The car careened to the left, and I let my body sway with the motion. Holding on until the vehicle righted itself on the slick road, I twisted to see Roman in the backseat. As I craned and pivoted, a sharp ache spliced up my side.
Wincing and ignoring the pain that still hit me when I overdid it, I sought out my brother’s gaze.
“What did he say?”
He furrowed his brow at me, still listening to the reports he was getting from our uncle, from Andre, and countless other men on this dangerous rescue mission none of us had counted on tonight.
Most times, danger was planned. Expected. This wasn’t.
Roman was in the back with another soldier, both of them running interference to guide us to the next location to search for Maisie. The Popovs had plenty of places to hide, and with their precision of snatching Maisie at that building, it proved that they had put foresight into this. This wasn’t a whim. Thiswas a calculated strategy to abduct that sweet young girl right from under our noses.
