“The parking garage on Northeast Second.” She looks at the water. “I parked there because it was cheaper than the lot behind my building. Eric used to pick me up from that garage when we were together. He knows it’s mine. The man I spoke with for five minutes was an older guy who rents the space near mine. He was telling me he had to have cataract surgery and wouldn’t be driving for a few weeks.”
He’s not pulling her locations from public records. He’s using knowledge from their relationship to predict where she’d go, and that gives him an advantage no investigation could match.
“From this point forward, your safety is handled as family-level priority.” I look at the water because looking at her while I say it makes the words feel too much like a declaration I’m not ready to call by its proper name.
She turns toward me. “What does family-level mean in your world?”
“It means there is no limit to what I will do, and no one I won’t go through.” I turn to face her. “That includes Eric Hayes, Damir Karpov, and anyone else who tries to reach you.”
I expect the answer to frighten her. She’s pushed back against every implication of ownership since the night I brought her to the penthouse, and this is the most territorial thing I’ve ever said to her.
Her eyes shimmer as she puts down the book, takes my face in both hands, and kisses me because I just told her I’d destroy anyone for her. Instead of running, she’s pulling me closer.
I wrap my arms around her and hold her against me while the sun drops below the horizon. She rests her forehead against mine, and I close my eyes. For one quiet minute, the ocean and the woman in my arms are the only things that exist.
Then my phone buzzes in my pocket. I ignore it, but it buzzes again. I pull it out and read the screen over Aurora’s shoulder.
Viktor:Grigor flagged a new search. Hayes just ran Aurora’s name through the federal missing persons database. He’s upgrading her status.
I put away the phone and pull Aurora closer. She doesn’t ask what the message said. She trusts me to tell her when I’m ready.
I’m not ready. The war I promised to fight for her just escalated while she’s in my arms, but that reality can wait a little longer.
15
AURORA
“He treated me like a hostile witness.” Marisol’s voice is tight with fury. “Aurora, I was sitting in an interrogation room at Miami PD with my attorney beside me, and Detective Stalker was asking me where you are like I kidnapped you myself.”
I press the phone against my ear and sit down on the edge of the bed in the third property Adrian has moved me to in two weeks. This one is a two-bedroom condo in Islamorada with ocean access and a security system that Viktor installed. I’ve stopped unpacking completely. I leave everything in the suitcase because unpacking implies permanence, and nothing about my life has been permanent since the night Dominic died.
“What did he ask you specifically?”
“Everything. When I last spoke to you, do I know your current address, if Adrian Bugrov has contacted me, and if I believe you left Miami voluntarily.” She exhales sharply. “He asked if I was aware that withholding information in a missing personsinvestigation constitutes obstruction. Rebecca looked him dead in the eye and told him to cite the statute. He couldn’t, so he pivoted to asking about my personal relationship with you, how long we’ve been friends, and whether I’d noticed any behavioral changes in the weeks before Dominic’s disappearance.”
I groan. “He’s profiling me through you.”
“Yeah. He’s trying to build a psychological portrait that justifies his theory. Rebecca caught it immediately and objected to every question that wasn’t directly related to the Caruso case. Eric kept rephrasing the same questions in different ways, testing whether I’d give a different answer if he changed the angle.”
That sounds like Eric. He’s tenacious. “Did he push after that?”
She snorts. “Did he! He pushed for another forty minutes. He circled back to the same questions three different ways, used your mother’s name twice to see if I’d react, and implied that my refusal to cooperate suggested I was protecting someone dangerous.”
She pauses to take a breath and sounds a little calmer when speaking again. “Rebecca shut him down every time, but he’s good at what he does. He doesn’t yell or threaten. He just keeps applying pressure from angles you don’t expect, and if Rebecca hadn’t been there, I might have gotten rattled. Actually, no. I would have told him to go fuck himself, and that would have been worse.”
I laugh despite the situation. “Probably.”
“Definitely. Rebecca’s approach was better. She was precise and made Eric look like the one being unreasonable without once raising her voice.” She lowers her voice. “She’s filing a formal complaint with the precinct commander. She saysEric’s questioning crossed into harassment territory, and the recording from the interview room supports it.”
I blink in surprise. “Eric let her record?”
“Eric didn’t have a choice. Rebecca insisted on it as a condition of Marisol’s voluntary appearance, and his lieutenant approved it because refusing would have looked worse.” She clicks her tongue. “The woman is worth every penny Adrian is paying her.”
I smile despite everything. “I’ll tell him you said that.”
“Tell him I said to double her retainer and send her a nice fruit basket. She mentioned loving strawberries. Oh, and I want Eric’s badge on my wall by Christmas.”
I laugh again. “I’ll see what he can do about that.”
