Page 76 of Marked By the Mob

“She said we knew about it.” Rurik’s tone is flat, dangerous. “They believed her.”

I want to punch something. I want to drag those guards in here and make them explain why they didn’t verify her story before opening the fucking gate. But that won’t help us find Emma.

Eduard moves to the desk and opens the laptop, his fingers flying across the keyboard. “She was researching Hayes before we left. Financial records, meeting schedules, and internal memos.”

“Did she find something?” I ask, moving closer.

“Nothing that would make her leave without telling us.” Eduard’s jaw tightens as he scrolls through the browser history. “The last thing she accessed was a calendar entry showing Hayes meeting with the DOJ the day before her sting operation.”

Rurik crosses the room in three long strides, his expression unreadable. “She wouldn’t go back to the FBI. Not without proof of who betrayed her.”

“Then where?” I demand, my frustration boiling over. “Did she get grabbed? Did another family make a move while we were at the meeting?”

The thought chills my blood. If one of the other pakhans decided to take Emma while we were occupied, if they’re holding her somewhere, using her against us...

I force the thoughts away before they spiral. We need to focus. We need facts, not panic. Besides, our guards would have noticed something and they already said they watched her walk out of the gate, without anyone near her, to meet someone.

Eduard pulls out his phone and starts making calls, reaching out to contacts who might have seen something. Rurik sends messages to our intelligence network, asking for any reports of unusual activity near the estate or in the city. I pace the room, my mind racing through scenarios.

Did she run? The thought surfaces before I can stop it. She had the opportunity. No guards following her, no one watching her every move. She could have walked straight to FBI headquarters and turned herself in, declared herself alive, and brought the full weight of federal law enforcement down on us.

But that doesn’t fit. Emma wouldn’t abandon her investigation into the mole. She wouldn’t leave Krystal behind. And despite everything, despite the fact that we bought her at a fucking auction, I don’t think she’d leave us either.

Not without a damn good reason.

The door opens and one of the household staff appears. She looks nervous, her hands twisting together as she addresses Rurik.

“Sir, I heard Emma is missing. I think I might know something.”

Rurik’s attention snaps to her immediately. “Speak.”

“A message was delivered to her this afternoon. Through the service entrance. I brought it to her room myself.”

My pulse quickens. “What kind of message?”

“A note on a folded piece of paper. I didn’t read it, but she seemed…urgent after she opened it.”

Eduard moves closer, his gray eyes sharp. “Who delivered it?”

“I don’t know. It was left at the service gate with instructions to give it to Emma.”

Rurik’s jaw tightens. “Do you remember what time?”

“Around two o’clock, sir.”

Thirty minutes before Emma left. The timeline fits.

“Thank you,” Rurik says, dismissing her with a gesture. The moment she leaves, he turns to us. “Krystal.”

The name hangs in the air between us, heavy with implication. Of course it was Krystal. Who else would Emma drop everything for? Who else could convince her to leave the estate without telling us?

“Fuck,” I mutter, running a hand through my hair. “She went to meet her.”

Eduard’s expression darkens. “Alone. Without backup, and without even telling us where she was going.”

The anger builds in my chest, hot and sharp. Emma knows better than this. She’s FBI, trained to assess threats and plan operations. She knows Volkov is dangerous, that Krystal might be compromised, and that walking into an unsecured meeting is asking for trouble.

And she did it anyway.