"Use your head instead of your emotions. We'll find her, but we have to be smart about it."
Going on a rampage won't actually help her at all, but it is likely to get me killed. The beast inside me wants to chase and hunt, but without even so much as a direction I should run in, I'm going to be doing nothing but chasing my tail. I don’t sit down, but I do remove my hand from the doorknob and turn back toward him fully, now starting to calm myself.
"Good." Yuri returns to his desk. "Now let me make some calls."
I pull out my phone and try Tatiana's number. After such a long day, I didn't want to do this to her. I know it's difficult with her leaving. She pleaded with me to allow her to stay, so I've kept myself non-contact for her benefit. I don't want to make it worse. But all bets are off now. I listen to it ring through several times before someone answers and I want to breathe a sigh of relief.
But the voice that answers isn't Tatiana.
"Dimitri Gravitch." The gravelly baritone of a voice I don't recognize hits my ears like a knife in the heart. "We've been waiting for you to call."
Every muscle in my body goes rigid. "Who is this?" I say in a dark tone.
"You don't recognize my voice?" He sounds amused. "I'm disappointed. We've been enemies for so long."
"Malcom." I spit his name out like venom. "Where is she?"
"The girl?" He laughs. "She's right here with me. Would you like to speak with her?"
"If you hurt her?—"
"You'll what?" Malcom cuts me off. "Come after me? Kill me? You've been trying to do that for months and here I am, still breathing."
Yuri is on his feet now mouthing words at me, but I can't focus on him. All I can hear is Malcom's voice and all I can think about is Tatiana in his hands as my vision goes red and I zone out.
"What do you want?" I force the words out calmly.
"What do I want?" Malcom laughs again. "I want you dead, Dimitri. I want your family destroyed. I want everything you've built burned to the ground. But I'll settle for watching you suffer first."
"Let her go." My hand tightens on the phone. "She has nothing to do with this."
"Oh, but she does," he rumbles. "She witnessed something she shouldn't have and then she went to the police. I'd say that’s a pretty good indication of what she has to do with this."
I'm gonna kill him. I'm going to find him and gut him like a wild animal and he'll watch his own innards fall out. "Touch her and I'll make your death so slow, you'll beg me to end you."
Malcome chuckles again and sounds delighted that I'm taking a stand. "You must care about this one so much. Let me ask you, Dimitri. Is it the pretty face you like more, or her body?" I hear whimpers that sound like her, and my heart feels like someone stabbed me. "We can fix both of those things."
Red floods my vision and I'm moving toward the door before Yuri grabs my arm. He shakes his head frantically and continues mouthing words I can't understand through my rage.
"Stay away from her," I shout, barely keeping control. "I'm warning you, Malcom."
"You're warning me? You're in no position to warn anyone. We have the leverage…"
"What do you want?" I already know the answer, but I need to hear him say it. They want me to give myself up for her, but there's no way they're ever letting her go. She's a witness to murder who can bring them down. Which means they'll kill us both.
"You." The word is simple. "Show yourself. Come to us. Trade your life for hers."
"When and where?" I ask, already trying to decide how to play this. I'll need men with me, a lot of them, and I'll need more weapons.
Kozlov spews off an address and a time for much later tonight, and I squeeze the phone so hard, the screen shatters, then launch it at the wall. It breaks apart into pieces, but I'm already on my way to the door.
"No, you don't!" Yuri stands in my way, shoving me backward with both arms until I deck him hard across the face, and he doesn't even flinch. His one hand grabs me by the tie, the other smacking me so hard, my head snaps to the side and I stumble a few steps away.
"What the hell was that for!"
"You're not leaving like this." His chest is heaving, eyes wide and wild. His jaw is already bruising from the impact of my hand on his face and he's still blocking my way.
In Moscow, I answered to no one. I was my own boss and I did my own thing.
