Ican't stop pacing. Yuri's office feels like it's closing in on me and every time I check my phone, there's still nothing. Rurik was supposed to call four hours ago when they arrived in Moscow. It's our standard protocol to let me know the package arrived safe.
But there's been nothing—not a call or a text, not anything.
"Sit down before you wear a hole in my floor." Yuri doesn't look up from his own phone where he's texting someone. "Pacing won't make him call faster."
"Something's wrong." I stop at the window and stare out at the grounds. "He would've called by now." Call it paranoia, but I know Rurik better than any of these men. I'm the one who vetted him and trained him in this family myself. We worked together for years before I moved back to St Petersburg, and for him to go AWOL like this isn't normal.
"Maybe his phone died." Yuri sets his phone down. "Or maybe they hit traffic. Give him a bit of time. For all you know, theystopped for dinner or to have a nap. It's a long drive from St Petersburg to Moscow, ten hours, you know."
I don’t care that he's making sense and all of his rationalizations are logical. Rurik knows what I expect and he'd never let his phone die on a mission this critical to me. I should've put a goddamn tracker on Tatiana to put my mind at ease, but Yuri pushed this so quickly, I didn't have a chance.
"Or maybe the Kozlovs got to them." I turn to face him. "You said yourself they're escalating. What if they figured it out and followed them?" It's eating me alive, the not knowing. Fear of the unknown is worse than the fear of reality right now. If I just knew where she was and that she's safe, I could rest and focus on the real problem of the alliance that has formed against this family. Yuri and Vadim are carrying that on their shoulders right now while I stew in my own juices as lost as a lamb in the forest.
"How would they find out?" Yuri stands and walks to his bar. "Only you, me, and Rurik knew. Unless you think one of us talked."
"No." I run my hands through my hair thinking of how foolish that sounds. My brother would never betray me like that, nor would Rurik. "But they've had a mole in my organization. What if they still do? What if someone saw her leave and tipped them off?"
"Then we'll handle it." Yuri pours two whiskeys and brings one to me. "But standing here panicking won't help anyone."
I take the glass but don't drink it because the last thing I need is to be drunk and distracted if Tatiana needs me. "Call your contacts. Someone must've seen something."
"Already did." Yuri rolls his eyes at me and glowers as he walks back to his desk and sits down. "I've got people checking the route between here and Moscow. If something happened, we'll know soon."
Soon isn't good enough. I need to know now. I need confirmation that Tatiana's safe and Rurik got her out of the city without incident. Because if he didn't and something went wrong, then it was me who sent her straight into danger. I'll never be able to live with myself.
I continue pacing for the next ten solid minutes, finally downing the drink so I can set the glass on the table. It's easier to crack my knuckles when I'm holding nothing. This is killing me, and to make matters worse, Yuri has ousted me from my own casino while he has a crew sweep for bugs and run tighter checks on my employees. It feels humiliating, though it's probably for the best. I can't concentrate on what I have to do, anyway.
Yuri's phone rings and he answers immediately. "Yeah." He listens for a moment and his expression hardens. "You're sure? When?" Another pause. "Send me the details." His face screws up into a scowl and his eyes darken as he ends the call and looks up at me. "There was a car fire reported about an hour south of the city. This afternoon around two."
My blood goes cold as I start calculating how far they'd have been outside of St Petersburg at that point. "Where, exactly?"
"Near an abandoned filling station." He's already pulling up something on his computer. "Local news has footage from the scene."
I cross the room to look over his shoulder at the screen that shows a news report with video of firefighters hosing downa burning vehicle. The car is blackened and destroyed, but I recognize the make and model immediately.
It's Rurik's car.
"No," scrapes out of my throat. "That's his car. That's fucking his car." I feel my fingers curling into fists and my neck and shoulders tightening down like piano strings. This can't be happening.
"We don't know what happened yet." Yuri's voice is calm, but I can hear the tension. "The report says no bodies were found at the scene, just the vehicle."
"Then where the fuck are they?" I grab the edge of his desk as I snarl out the words. I knew I should never have listened to him. My gut screamed at me to keep her here, and I let him talk me into this as the logical answer.
"I don't know." He pulls out his phone again. "But I'm going to find out."
I can't even think right now. The image of that burning car is burned into my brain and all I can think about is Tatiana and how scared she must be right now. Rurik would never have ditched his car like that without giving me the plan, and there's no way he's in on this. If I didn't trust that man with my own life, I’d never have sent her along with him.
"I have to go look for her." I head for the door without thinking because sitting here is going to drive me mad. I have to go search. "I have to find her."
"Stop." Yuri's voice cracks like a whip. "You're not going anywhere until we have a plan."
"Fuck the plan." I spin around. "The woman I care about is out there somewhere, possibly dead. I'm going to find her, not sit around here strategizing with you."
"Rushing out there blind is exactly what they want. If this was Malcom, he's waiting for you to do something stupid." Yuri glares at me and points to the chair across from him. "So sit down and let me gather information before you get yourself killed."
"I don't care if I get killed," I growl angrily. "I care about getting her back."
"Then fucking act like it." Yuri walks around his desk toward me, and I can see how mad he is by the tension in his neck and the way the vein in his forehead bulges and pulses with his heartbeat
