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Maksim rolled his eyes at that. “I’m not the one that said he wasn’t going to marry her,” he shot back.
“I only said that because I knew that there was no way in hell that she’d ever marry me,” I retorted. “At least, not as long as I was holding her captive.”
“Did you explain that to her?”
“No, I didn’t,” I retorted. “She was too busy chaining herself to a cage to get away from me, remember?”
Maksim leaned back in his seat, the entire room laid out before us, our eyes always on the door. “Just go get her,” he repeated. “While she might not be my most favorite person, I still know what she means to you.”
“She’ll hate me if I go get her,” I pointed out.
“She already hates you,” he fired back. “What does it matter?”
“Right now, I don’t have to see that hate in her eyes every day,” I explained. “If I go get her, then that’s what I’ll be signing up for each morning. You’d know the difference if you’d ever been in love.”
Maksim looked horrified by the very idea, and it was enough to make me grin. “Please, do not wish such things on me.”
Before we could get more into our feelings like a couple of old biddies, my phone rang, and when I pulled it out of my pocket, I saw that it was Viktor. Before I had assigned him to Samara, he hadn’t had direct access to me, but that all changed when I had put him in charge of the most valuable thing in my life.
“Yes?” I said, answering the phone.
“I followed her to an abandoned building on Westchester, but that was over two hours ago, Pakhan,” he said, foregoing any salutations.
When I had allowed Samara to go back home, it hadn’t been the hardship that she might have believed it to be. By then, I’d already known about the relationship between Masha and Gosha, so I’d known that she’d be safe at home. I had also placed a GPS tracker on their car when I had paid for the repairs, deciding against selling it, and though I had originally done so to make sure that Masha was safe, it had worked to my advantage when I had sent Samara home. So, I had instructed Viktor to always track her, then follow her whenever the car was in motion. No matter what Viktor might be engaged in, he was to drop everything the second that the app on his phone activated with movement of the vehicle.
“What’s the problem?” I asked, straightening, knowing that Viktor wouldn’t be calling me if he wasn’t generally concerned.
“She was dressed very nicely, like she was job searching,” he went on. “When she arrived, she was met outside by a man in his mid to late thirties, and while he wasn’t dressed in a suit, he was dressed presentable enough. They shook hands, and then went inside the building, and while job interviews can take some time, not two hours. She’s a waitress by trade, so what in the hell would she be interviewing for an industrial position?”
“People will apply for jobs that they’re not qualified for if they’re desperate enough,” I pointed out. “I know for a fact that she is unhappy with the current living arrangement at her place, so she’s stubborn enough to work anywhere to free herself from that uncomfortable situation.”
“Perhaps,” he conceded. “However, as I started to feel uneasy about the situation, I decided to drive around the area to see what else I could make of the place, and there are no other cars in the area, Pakhan.”
My blood immediately ran cold.
“What do you wish me to do?”
“Get inside that fucking building,” I ordered. “I’m on my way.”
“It’s 1465 North Westchester, the industrial side of the street,” he replied before hanging up.
Maksim was already on his feet, publicly checking his gun as if we did not live in the US. “What’s going on?”
“I am not sure yet,” I answered honestly. “That was Viktor, and it is possible that Samara may be in trouble.”
“Ublyudok,” he hissed, telling me that he didn’t dislike Samara as much as his old grudge might suggest.
Dropping a couple of hundred-dollar bills on the table, we left the Lullaby, taking separate cars because it was always the wisest course of action in case one of the vehicles became inoperable. It wouldn’t do to become stranded, especially if Samara had been taken somewhere else.
I wasn’t sure how long I was on the road before my phone rang again, and since it automatically synced to my vehicle, I only had to push a button to answer. I also wasn’t worried about informing the others of what was going on because I knew that Maksim would handle that part of things.
“Yes?”
“She’s not here,” Viktor announced, confirming my worst fears. “Her purse was left behind as well as her car, but I searched the entire place, and there’s no sign of either of them.”
My hands tightened on the steering wheel, and it was all I could do not to lose my shit. “Anything else?”
“There was a black briefcase on a table next to her purse, but it was empty,” he went on. “So, I am imagining that it was a prop of some sort.”
