Page 168 of Sinful Lord

Slowly, my ears fill with white noise again. Rian’s fury fades into the background, as does everything else. I concentrate.

“Where are you?” I whisper, my eyes darting around the bedroom, frantically searching for clues. I don’t find anything—that is, until my gaze wanders back to the doorway.

The world comes rushing back as I lunge for Yasha’s corpse.

“What is it?” Gabriel asks.

He still knows me well enough to understand when I’m having a breakthrough.

But I don’t respond. Not until I find the keychain tucked beneath Yasha’s cold dead body.

“How many soldiers do you have in Berlin?” I ask Maksim, barely even bothering to look up at him.

“Enough,” he growls. “… And more are on the way.”

“Good. Send a few dozen to Krol’s underground hideout. He’s not there. But I’d be more comfortable knowing that for sure.”

“If he’s not there, then where the fuck is he?”

“Yeah, where are we going, Tytus?” Gabriel joins in.

Behind us, I can hear Rian and Roz. Their conversation is loud, yet there’s an unexpected control to each and every word. Roz continues to act as the lion tamer while I search my memories.

“I know these keys,” I murmur, sliding each one aside as I check them off. When I get to the last one, I know exactly where we’re going. “There’s one missing.”

“A missing key? Does that mean—” Gabriel starts.

“What the fuck are you on about?” Maksim interrupts. “What’s happening here? Why is this woman lying dead outside the door you locked my niece behind? You better start fucking explaining, or else—”

“I know where Krol took her,” I claim. Rifling my way back through the keychain, I find a slightly smaller key snuck into the middle of them all. “And I know exactly how to get in without him knowing it.”

Pushing myself back to my feet, I sneer through my throbbing headache. But there’s no ignoring the icy grip clawing at my heart.

Krol has Melina.

Fucking hell.

We need to get moving. Now.

“Where are you going?” Gabriel shouts, racing after me as I start to sprint away from the scene.

“Hey!” Maksim joins. “Fucking slow down.”

I’ve barely reached the stairs when a strong hand digs into my shoulder. Without warning, I’m thrown around and shoved against the nearest wall. The whole house seems to shake against the force.

Rian Kilpatrick stares me down. He’s practically on fire.

“What. The fuck. Is happening?” he demands to know.

The fury in his gaze is clear, but so is something else. Something I recognize all too well, because I feel the exact same thing.

Fear.

He’s worried sick about Melina.

“This lake house doesn’t belong to me,” I tell him, talking as quickly as possible. Rian deserves an explanation, but we can’t just sit around all day. “It belongs to Yasha von Bingen—well, it did. She was an old flame of mine. We had an… arrangement. And I foolishly didn’t think she’d have the guts to break that arrangement. Obviously, I was wrong. Krol got to her. She must have known a way in here that I wasn’t fucking privy to. Krol obviously used Yasha to get to Melina, then he killed her when she stopped being useful. He took your sister. He wants to do horrible things to her. But we’re going to stop him. Understand?”

The fear only grows behind Rian’s eyes. By the time I’m done speaking, his anger has been almost entirely replaced by desperation.