The phone is yanked away from me.
Vladimir lifts it again. “You see?” he says calmly. “Your queen worries about you.”
“Name the place,” Nico says.
“Warehouse seventeen. South docks.”
Silence hangs for a second.
“You come alone,” Vladimir continues. “If I see anyone else, she loses something. If you bring your army, I send her back to you in boxes.” He smiles. “And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men…You know how the rest goes.”
My whole body goes cold.
Nico will come for me. For us. He will try to save his family.
And he will die because of it.
“Don’t!” I shout toward the phone before I can think it through. “Nico, don’t come?—”
“Enough,” Vladimir says, cutting me off.
Then Nico speaks. “I’ll be there.”
My heart drops into my stomach.
Vladimir smiles faintly and ends the call.
“Prepare the stage,” he orders his men. “We have a king to bring down.”
He leaves after yelling out the instructions
Across the warehouse, Noah is still crying. I feel like crying too, but I hold myself back, because my son needs me to be brave. For him.
And for his father.
I close my eyes.
Because Nico is coming.
And Vladimir Pavlov just got exactly what he wanted.
20
NICO
The teacher’s words are still echoing when I realize Izzy isn’t beside me anymore.
I look around the crowd automatically, expecting to see her a few feet away, pale but standing. Instead I see teachers, parents, two policemen asking questions—and no Izzy.
My stomach tightens.
“Izzy?” I call.
No answer.
I scan the school entrance again. The sidewalk. The parking lot.
Nothing.
