I button my suit jacket, tug my shirt straight.
“If this is what it takes to get Annika and my child back from him, I’m going to do it,” I reply.
“Don’t be stupid,” Edik snarls. “I’m sorry I accused your wife of betraying you, you have every right to be pissed off at me, but that doesn’t mean you get to ignore the facts. You heard Yulian’s voice. You heard the retribution he took from admitting that she wasn’t a part from this. Yulian isn’t working alone. If anything he’s being used as a pawn.”
I ignore the fact that Edik calls me stupid as my focus goes into hyperdrive.
“Stay here. Wait for my call,” I tell him, moving past his and Yana’s still-shocked faces.
“You think sacrificing yourself is going to make Annika happy?” Edik calls after me. “I’ve seen it. We’ve all seen it. She’s fallen in love with you. What do you think it’s going to do her if you get killed?”
It’s the only thing he could say that makes me pause, and I do.
Love.Annikalovesme. That was only half the truth though. The whole truth is that we’ve fallen in love with each other. I'm God-damned crazy about her and anything that could potentially make her sad or put her in danger increases my homicidal rage.
“We need a plan,Pakhan,”Edik goes on, coming to join me in the hallway, “A plan that gets youallout of the house.”
I grit my teeth, hating that I’m losing precious seconds.
“You have two minutes,” I snap, “Then I’m going. One way or another I’m getting my family back.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Annika
“Annika?”
My heart skips a beat as I hear my sister’s voice from the other side of the bedroom door. I sit up as best as I can with the restraints holding me so tight, and wait for the door to open. My hopes of finding a weapon in my bedside drawer were dashed and have put me back in another spell of misery and panic.
It was empty, and even if it hadn’t been, my restraints kept me from actually reaching any further than the lip of the drawer.
A masked man opens my door and my temporary relief at hearing my sister’s voice vanishes as I see her walk in with a tray. She looks even worse than she did at the gallery. She has dark circles under eyes, she’s thinner than ever before, and her chapped lips have a cut running down the left side.
“Valya,” I whisper as she comes toward me with the tray. “What happened to you.”
“Hush,” she answers her voice so soft I almost can’t hear her.
She sits the tray on the bed and leans into hug me tight. It’s odd, because she’s never been one to hug me before.
“There’s microphones and cameras in here,” she whispers faintly in my ear as she hugs me.
My eyes start to go wide, but I quickly fix my expression, knowing I can’t let my watchers know what I’ve been told.
I feel her slip something between my lower back and pillow, then she pulls away.
“They say I can remove your restraints to eat if you promise not to try to fight,” Valya tells me, louder this time. “It would be good for you to get some rest too. I’m sure it’s too uncomfortable to get any sleep like this.”
I nod my head, knowing I need to play along with whatever this is.
“I promise,” I readily reply.
Valya’s usual cold stare returns, and she reaches calmly for the restraint on my left hand.
“How long have I been in here?” I ask her.
“A little over a day,” she replies, freeing my wrist.
My arm tingles and burns as it falls limply to my side. I try to lift it into my lap, but I can’t yet. Valya moves to my right wrist and releases it, and it drops with the same dead weight as my left.
