Page 43 of Savage Little Secret

“Do you think she’s already left town?” I ask him. She told me that she wanted to get away from her father, but leaving the city without even going by her apartment to get her things seems too risky.

“Without any of her shit? Without all that cash? I doubt it,” Sean replies as he crosses his arms over his chest. “You said that the Bratva wanted to kill her. What if one of them snatched her up?”

I don’t even want to think about that being a possibility because the ending won’t be pretty, but it’s something to consider. She’s at the top of a lot of people’s hit list right now.

“If the Bratva had her, I’d have a picture by now,” I tell him as I motion to my phone with my gun.

Sean nods after a moment. “Something feels off, yeah?”

“Do you even want to find her?” I question him.

Sean huffs. “Yes, I want to find her. She’s my daughter!”

I doubt his concern is for the right reasons.

“I’m going to look for her,” I tell him after gathering a deep breath in my lungs.

Sean nods. “You need to find her before anyone else does.”

“I know.”

“Do whatever it takes to bring her back, yeah?” he says.

“I will,” I promise as I step toward him. “And when I do, you’re going to let me marry her without putting up a fight,” I say as I hold out my palm to him.

Sean stares at my hand like he wants to break every single one of my fingers. However, he eventually lets out a frustrated sigh and shakes my hand.

“Bring her back alive,” Sean says, jaw tight. “And if she says she wants you only then I won’t stand in the way. But if you hurt her again, Ivanov… I’ll gut you.”

I draw my hand away and look over my shoulder at Brendan. “Thanks for the help.”

Brendan shrinks back into the loveseat as Sean’s hard stare moves to him. I’ll let Sean decide what to do with him.

Without another word, I walk out of the house and around the corner to where I parked my car in the driveway of another abandoned house. Determination sets in as I get in the driver’s seat.

I don’t know where I’m even going to start looking, but I’ll tear Vegas apart brick by brick if I have to.

I won’t stop until Cara’s in my arms again.

16

Cara

A shrill ringing fills my ears as I claw my way back to consciousness. I’m blind in total darkness.

My senses catch up in jagged pieces, and I realize it isn’t the room that’s dark. There’s something over my head.

I try to reach up to pull it off, but nothing happens. My hands are…they’re tied together behind my back with what feels like thin, coarse rope.

Cold panic floods my chest. Where the hell am I?

My breathing grows erratic as I sit up and turn my head every which way, my senses and my memory becoming skewed by my fear.

My body is suddenly lightly jostled, the motion seeming familiar to me. I latch onto it and try to think through the pounding ache in my head.

The floor hums beneath me. The whole world vibrates.

I’m in a moving vehicle, on a bench seat, hard metal under my thighs. A van.