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I glance at the time again. It’s ten minutes later, and Emery Sokolov and his sons haven’t shown up. I don’t want to leave Elena for too long. She’s safe, but I don’t want her to be uncomfortable.
The minutes drag by, and when it’s been forty-five minutes, I assume he’s a no-show. I scan the surrounding area before I get back into my car and take off. I don’t drive straight to the warehouse, just in case I have someone tailing me. I maneuver around the streets to ensure I lose anyone following me before I approach the warehouse.
I park and get out, and the first thing I notice is that the door leading into the warehouse is open.
I don’t wait. I immediately break into a sprint and rush to where I had chained Elena up. She was gone, with not even a sign of the cuffs. Someone broke her out of here. There was no way she would get those cuffs off without the key. She would have gotten out of them ages ago if she were a skilled lock picker.
She’s fucking gone.
That sinks into my stubborn brain, and I am frozen for a moment, probably for the first time in my life, unsure of what to do.
I take a few steps toward the chair where I’d left her, and the anger starts to boil inside me like a blind rage. I grab the chair and throw it across the room. I move to the next chair and throw that one as well, and the next, and the next, and the next. I flip two tables, and then I punch the nearby door repeatedly, ignoring all the pain shooting from my hand.
Blood splatters as my hand goes straight through the door, and I wince as I withdraw it from the door.
Fuck.
I walk out to my car. I need to get rid of this pent-up frustration. I can clean up my hand when I stop at the butcher's shop. I get in and decide to drive straight there. There’s a medical aid kit for cuts in the back, and Roger won’t ask any questions.
Traffic is light, but it still takes me forty-five minutes to get to the other side of Vegas to the butcher shop. It’s closed. There’s a large sign over the front.
Bought by the Kimbar Group. It is probably a shell company held by the Sokolovs, but it will be so buried in paperwork I won’t be able to prove it.
I sit in my car and watch the front of the shop. I feel something dripping on my pants and look down to see my hand is dripping blood. I’m not going to get any help here.
I look at the time. It’s lunchtime on a Sunday. After church, my family will be at my mother's house. I start my car again and drive to her estate.
When I park outside, I note all my brothers and their wives are there, which means their kids are there too.
I consider not getting out, but Kervyn steps out of the house and makes eye contact with me. I sigh and put the car in park before I get out and walk into the house.
“What happened to your hand? Where is the girl?” Kervyn doesn’t beat around the bush. “Danil!” he calls. “Luka.”
My two brothers come out of the living room and take a look at me.
“Look who’s returned,” Luka says cheerfully. “I thought you’d never come back.”
“I had business to attend to,” I say quietly.
“Business that has now been concluded?” Kervyn asks.
I look at him and shake my head. “She got away. Probably back with her family now.”
“Let me get this straight,” Kervyn says through gritted teeth. “You kidnap a well-known Mafia princess, keep her hostage, and then lose her when she was your only bargaining chip in this whole fiasco. Is that right?”
I hunch my shoulders at the scolding, then feel a sudden slap on the back of my head. We all turn around to see my mother standing there. “You fucked up,” she seethes. “Even I am hearing from neighbors and friends what you have done. Taking that girl was stupid, and doing it in daylight was even more so. Now you’ve caused unnecessary problems for the family.”
“Mama,” Kervyn begins to say, but she silences him with a look.
“What are your plans now? Before war breaks out between our families.” She stares at me as though I’ve got a magical plan, but honestly, I don’t. I don’t have any plan.
“I doubt Emery Sokolov will go to war now he has his daughter back,” Kervyn says quietly.
I shake my head. “He won’t. Elena will persuade him not to.”
“How can you be sure she’s on our side?” Mama asks, and everyone stares at me.
Kervyn sighs. “You’re a fucking idiot.”
