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The drive back was a quick blur. But I remember the elevator ride upstairs feeling longer and the doors finally opening to destruction that stripped every last shred of composure I’d built.

There was glass everywhere, shattered from what must have been the initial breach. I saw blood pooled dark across marble. Papers scattered across the floor. Camila’s research trampled underfoot by men who’d cared nothing for the work it represented. Her earring sat crushed near the couch.

She was gone.

I don’t know exactly what happened in the minutes that followed. I remember overturning the coffee table with enough force that it split against the wall. I remember Yuri’s hand on my shoulder and the fear in his eyes, fear of me rather than for me. Two of my soldiers had gone still by the doorway, watching me in a way that told me I’d finally become the kind of unpredictable danger I’d always prided myself on never being.

“Boss.” Yuri’s voice cut through whatever haze had swallowed me. “We need you functional. Right now. She needs you functional.”

His last sentence penetrated through me.

“Mobilize everything,” I said, my voice low and absolute, every word a verdict rather than an instruction. “Every casino locks down immediately. Every safehouse activates. I want every soldier we have searching for any trace of Graham’s movement within the hour.”

The apartment was transformed into a war room. Yuri had two of the surviving attackers restrained in the service hallway, both of them bleeding from wounds sustained during the initial exchange. I watched him approach the first with an expression that promised more pain before the conversation ended.

“Where did they take her?” Yuri questioned, his voice deceptively calm, crouching slightly to bring himself level with the restrained man’s face.

The man said nothing. Yuri’s hand moved fast enough that I barely saw it before the crack of impact echoed through the hallway.

“Where?”

Still nothing.

Yuri was patient as he said something low that I didn’t hear, clearly a promise about how long this could continue before the man finally gave him something useful. I watched the second attacker’s eyes track the exchange with obvious dread, already calculating how much longer his own silence could reasonably hold.

I let him do his thing. I had neither the patience nor the composure left to handle the interrogation myself. Besides, Yuri’s brutal efficiency would extract information faster than anything careful diplomacy might have managed.

Sebastian arrived in less than an hour; his laptop was already open as he moved through the chaos with unbothered precision. “I’ve pulled traffic camera footage from every route leading away from this building,” he said, not bothering with pleasantries. “Three vehicles left within the estimated timeframe. I’m cross-referencing plates against known Graham associates now.”

“How long?” I asked.

“Forty minutes, perhaps less, if the plates match anything in our existing intelligence.” He didn’t look up from the screen. “I’ve also frozen movement on every account we’ve previously connected to Graham’s network; in case he intends to relocate funds alongside relocating her.” He glanced up briefly. “We’ll find her, Nikolai. I promise you that.” It was the closest thing to open emotion I’d ever heard from him.

I nodded once.

*****

Agent Hayes arrived thirty minutes later. His expression was grim in a way that told me he already understood the full scope of what had happened.

“I came the moment I heard,” he said. “My office has been tracking chatter connected to Graham for the last several hours. We intercepted communications suggesting an operation was moving today. I didn’t realize the target until it was already too late to warn you.” He glanced at the wreckage around us.

“You’re too late regardless.” My voice came out colder than I’d intended, fury still simmering close enough to the surface that I couldn’t fully mask it. “I don’t need federal interference in finding my wife.”

“You need every resource available, Nikolai, and right now my office has satellite tracking, wiretap authority, and federal manpower your organization doesn’t have legal access to.” He held my gaze steadily, unflinching despite my expression. “Graham crossed a line past organized crime. Kidnapping a pregnant woman connected to domestic trafficking charges qualifies as exactly the kind of federal priority that gets resources mobilized within hours instead of days.”

“I don’t trust your government any more than my wife does,” I said, my hands still clenched at my sides.

“Then trust the outcome instead of the process. Work with me temporarily. Combine what your network knows with what federal surveillance can access, and we find her considerably faster than either of us manages alone. Once she’s safe, I’ll step back from every ongoing investigation into your organization. That’s not a bribe, Nikolai. That’s simple pragmatism. My office wants Graham more than it wants you, and I’m prepared to prove that in writing if it gets your cooperation today.”

I studied him, every instinct of mine screaming against the arrangement he was proposing. I had never once allowed federal agencies access to my resources, my intelligence, or my operational structure. Pride alone would have refused him outright under any other circumstance.

Camila’s face surfaced behind every argument pride tried to construct. My wife, taken from the one place I’d promised she would always be safe. Camila, carrying a child I’d already promised to protect with everything I possessed. Camila’s trusting expression the night I’d told her Graham would never touch her—a promise I’d already failed to keep once tonight.

Pride meant nothing in comparison to that.

“Fine,” I said. “Temporary cooperation. Your resources combined with mine, full transparency on both sides until she’s recovered safely. The moment this ends, your office steps back from everything else permanently, in writing, signed by whoever has the authority to make it binding.”

“Then we agree.” Hayes extended his hand, and I shook it.