“Yes, I’m the husband! And you’re the cousin.”
“I am. Is she not with you?”
“No.” The urge to demand answers, to beg for them, clawed at my throat. I swallowed it down like razorblades. “What do you want?”
“I called to warn her … sounds like I’m too late.” Stefan let out an exhausted sigh.
“Warn her about what?”
I waited, but he didn’t answer. “Stefan, if you care about her at all, you’ll tell me everything you know. I can’t help her when I’m flying blind.”
I sat down on the edge of the bed, pinching the bridge of my nose to stave off the prickling tears.
Losing your shit won’t get her back, Henry.
“Calin found out she’d gotten married. He left the night before last; I’m assuming he was headed there to drag her home. I would have called earlier if I’d known, but I just got back from a … job.”
“Calin?” I asked, the name unfamiliar. “I thought your father’s name was Bogdan.”
“It is … she didn’t tell you about Calin?” Stefan huffed out a dark laugh. “Figures. She’s been keeping a lot of secrets, it seems.”
My insides felt suddenly hollow, the next question leaving my mouth as if it were the last bubbles of air leaving a drowning man’s lungs.
“Who is Calin?”
“Her fiancé.”
Ri was engaged. And she’d been prepared to live illegally in Australia to avoid returning to her fiancé, which was all the information I needed to make a judgement call about the man. Stefan filled me in on the transaction she’d had to make—her life, her loyalty, her freedom, to her uncle’s business partner, in return for her university degree.
No wonder she’d not wanted to return. Bought and sold like she was a piece of meat and not a human being with feelings, and thoughts, and autonomy.
A woman I would break laws to keep safe. My wife, who had been abducted from under my nose.
“Find my cousin, Henry,” Stefan said. “And if there’s anything I can do to help you get her out of this, call me back. I don’t want her coming back here … and if he manages it, you’re not going to see her again.” He ended the call.
There was no way I was letting them take her from me.
Fix the problem. Get her back.
But how? If Calin had her, where would he go? He must have been smuggled onto the island with the chopper of supplies that Josie had organised, but none had landed since the last time I’d seen Ri. She couldn’t have left the island. Not by air, anyway.
Josie’s betrayal burned, but it was nothing compared to the knife in the gut sensation of not knowing where my wife was. Not knowing if she was safe and unharmed.
I grabbed gum from my pocket, tossing two sticks into my mouth and chewing frantically. I needed an outlet for all this pent-up tension in my body. I needed to think straight. If I could just get some space in my brain that wasn’t taken up with terror, I could solve this problem.
Ihadto solve this problem.
My phone vibrated in my pocket. I fumbled for it as a text message flashed up on the screen.
Unknown Number: We have Irina. If you want to see her alive again, come and find us.
A shared location popped up on the screen, and I was scrambling off Ri’s bed, calling for River.
“D’you find her?” he asked, face taut with worry, I wondered what mine must look like.
“Yes and no.” I held out the phone so he could see the message and the dropped location pin.
“Jesus Christ,” River cursed softly. “Okay, let’s go.”
