Fucking how?
He beckoned for me to come. “In the security room, quick.”
Sergei went with me, looking as confused and bewildered as I felt.
“She wasn’t supposed to leave,” I said. “She’s supposed to behere, where Giovanni couldn’t get her.” Obviously, she had to stay here. Not only because I was struggling with severing this tie to her and convincing myself that she wasn’t mine anymore, but because if she were out there where her uncle could get her, he’d kill her. He’d take her for her defiance.
“Then talk to your sister about that,” Oleg advised gruffly.
“Anya?” I rubbed my cheek, trying to snap out of this hangover and function at half my brain power.
“She came here and—” Oleg cursed. “Talk to Renee, too.”
“Youtalk to me,” I ordered as he led me and my cousin toward the security room. “Tell me what the fuck happened!”
“The cameras in the hall show Anya showing up with a couple of new recruits from your father’s building,” Oleg said. “She showed up, unlocked the door, and told Sofia that she was here to take her to the hospice to sign papers for her cousin. Apparently, Anya was aware of Sofia trying to arrange for her cousin to be moved to a facility. The openings are competitive to get, and Anya wanted Sofia to not miss out on this appointment to sign the documents.”
I rubbed my face with both hands as we reached the security room. “My fucking sister…” I growled. Out of breath this hungover and panicked, I paused just inside the room. Monitors hung throughout the room. A larger panel of interconnected screens showed code from the security specialists typing commands. Two men were stationed here where all the feeds for my building, and the others on the block, could be reviewed.
“Show him,” Oleg said. He fiddled with his phone. “Hate me later,” he warned, “but I slipped a wire on her in the middle of the night.”
I swiveled to glower at him. Involuntarily advancing at him, I raised my hand to punch him.
Sergei stopped me, holding me back.
“Youtouchedher while she was asleep?”
Oleg shook his head. “I slipped a small mic in her pocket. The ones that look like a button snap. Like I said, hate me later.” He narrowed his eyes. “This is how we can track her.”
He pressed play, and their voices came from the speakers.
One man tapped on the keyboard, and a replay of what Oleg described showed. Anya looking stubborn and insistent. Sofia shaking her head and looking scared. Renee showed up too, suspicious, but she’d let them take Sofia. Out. Of. My. House.
“What thefuckinghell?” I roared. My sister wasn’t going to hear the end of this for decades.
“You need to tell Roman to knock off this shit about asking for fucking forgiveness before permission,” Sergei muttered.
“I’ll never forgive her!”
The audio continued to play while Anya and Sofia spoke in the car. On another screen, the visual showed them leaving the house and getting in the car. Sofia still wasn’t breaking her loyalty—to me. She warned Anya that no one could swoop in and save Esmeralda for her. If I did, it would be war. And she was right.
The screen cut out, and the tech seated at the main computer station said he was trying to pull up the feeds through the city to track the footage at this hospice.
The audio was enough to clue me in. A car screeching to a stop. Anya screaming. Sofia shouting and yelling for the men to let her go. Her voice went muffled, likely indicating they’d gagged her. Then the sounds of a ride.
“Where. Is. She?” I growled.
Oleg was wrong. I didn’t hate him. I couldn’t. He’d put that mic on her because he doubted her. But that act was what would save her. “Where is she?” I screamed. “Track her.”
Every second that she was under her uncle’s control was too long for her to suffer.
“At his residence,” the second tech specialist said. He pulled up a map where the blinking dot indicated she was at Roberto Giovanni’s mansion just outside the city’s downtown area.
“Let’s go.”
There was nothing to decide. No question to answer. Not a shred of hesitation.
“Andre, wait.” Sergei rushed out of the room with me.
