Fuck, the man moves fast. I barely have time to grab the door handle before Shkodra’s got his dick in one hand and my leg in the other. He’s trying to drag me beneath him as I yank myself toward the door, a twisted tug of war that I’m terrified I can’t win. Shkodra laughs in triumph and I fight harder, not caring that I’m giving him exactly what he wants. I only care about getting away. About getting free and back to Alik.
I feel the tip of Shkodra’s dick brush my stomach and I scream. I scream and kick him with everything I’ve got and Shkodra reels back just as oncoming headlights flash across the front of the car.
I scream, and so does the driver. So does the Albanian when the approaching vehicle makes contact, slamming into us at high speed.
We all scream as the metal around us crunches and crumbles, and then we’re spinning through the air. Over and over, bodies crashing into bodies before we come to a dead stop, the car split open, snow coating everything as someone says my name.
36
ALIK
Iknow she’s gone before I open my eyes. Sera’s side of the bed is empty, the sheets cool. Sitting up, I search the darkened room, my body still humming with the aftereffects of what we did in this bed.Fuck…Of what she did on her knees.
It’s only been a few hours since we lost ourselves in each other, but my dick is already half-hard and begging for another round. It doesn’t help that I can still feel the slide of her hair through my hands as I rutted between her lips and the hot, soft heat that enveloped me when she welcomed me into her mouth.
I could’ve died like that. Have definitely become obsessed with it. With her. As I abandon the bed and head to the living room in search of her, I let that certainty settle into my gut.
I belong to Sera.
Obsession, devotion. Commitment.
Love.
Whatever you want to call it, I am so past gone for this woman I can’t think about a present that doesn’t involve her. Can’t picture a future that doesn’t have her in it. She is thebetter part of me, the stronger half. The one who’s pulled me out of the darkness after my sister’s death and given me something to strive for. To live for.
For the first time in years, I feel like I’m fighting for a future instead of just battling the past. I have Sera to thank for that. Something I’d like to do in person, very thoroughly, as soon as I find her.
The suite’s living room is empty. The bathroom is dark, silent. There’s nothing but snow outside on the balconies. Unease snakes up my spine as I retrieve my jeans and phone from where we left them on the floor. A quick check of the camera feed confirms that Sera left the suite about forty-five minutes ago, fully dressed, carrying her coat.
“Where the fuck did you go,moya voitelnitsa?” I scroll back in the footage, unease turning into full-blown dread when I see Sera making a phone call before she left. Everything about what I’m watching puts me on high alert. Sera barely uses her phone and hasn’t initiated a call in all the time she’s had it. Even on the video feed I can tell she’s tense, bracing herself for something.
That something—whatever the hell it is—gets significantly more suspect when I see her slide her phone into the back of her jeans, followed by the gun.
What. The. Fuck?
I struggle back a million questions and worse-case-scenarios as I pound out a text to Anatoli, throw on my clothes, and rush out the door.
Anatoli meets me in my office and immediately says, “Sergey confirms he and some men saw Miss Sera on the ground floor about forty minutes ago. She was dressed to go outside. Had her coat, too. She told Sergey to take her down to Dimitri.”
“And di Salvo? Any updates on what happened to him after he took a swan dive off Sera’s balcony?”
“No, sir.” Anatoli looks as pissed as I feel. “We couldn’t find any signs of that lowlife, and whatever route he used to get off the property got covered by the snow.”
“Fuck.” Is it too much to ask for that asshole to be dead?
I scan the various video feeds from the house. Now that I know where to look it’s easy to track Sera and Sergey down to the basement, but once she hits the medical ward all the feeds go dark.
Dr. Ruiz won’t let me record her while she’s on premises. It was the deal we made when she started working for me. There could never be a record of her working for thebratva. And now there’s no record of where Sera went after she reached that part of the basement.
We have to find her. I’m just hoping against hope that she’s still in the mansion. “Wake up every man in this house,” I order Dimitri’s deputy. “Search every fucking corner for her. The grounds too. If anyone finds anything that even hints at where she is, you tell me immediately. No one gets any sleep until she’s found.”
Anatoli is on the move before I’m done talking, mobilizing our troops. As much as I want to hope she’s somewhere on the property, I can’t ignore the fact that the man who tattooed her for sale could still be alive. And if he is, he’s definitely still hunting her. And he’s not above luring her out of the house with a threatening phone call…
With Dimitri out of commission, I need another set of well-informed eyes and ears in the city. Someone as familiar with the Pagano business as I am. Di Salvo killed Rocco without approval from Cosenza and the Cerretis. Which means they’re hunting him, too.
As much as I hate to admit it, the Italians work fast. They might know where the bastard is hiding.
My call to Gio Marchetti rings on speaker as I open my tracking app and search for Sera’s phone. She had it with herwhen she left the suite. I can only hope that she still has it and it’s turned on.
