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A grunt of amusement. “Funny that you think you can let her go.”
“I have no choice.”
A woman in this world is a liability. A weakness my enemies will exploit, just like Oleg exploited my mother. The best thing I can do for Georgia is to let her go and figure out another way to find Kira.
“There is always a choice.” He leans back in his chair, directing his gaze upward. “Georgia isn’t Mama, her eyes are wide open. History doesn’t always repeat itself,brat.”
I hold my hand up, having had enough of this conversation. But Leo’s words are enough to create tiny splinters in my resolve to push her away. Is there a world where I get to keep Georgia, where she wants to be with me? Could she ever be happy in this life, or will the dark underworld I inhabit eventually destroy her from the inside?
“I’ll let the others know I am calling it off,” I tell Leo roughly. “Tomorrow we will send Georgia and her father into hiding. I’m working on another idea to find Kira, one that doesn’t include using an innocent.”
Leo gulps the last of his drink and brings the glass down on a side-table. “That innocent, as you say, developed quite the impressive set of skills under our roof. She may not be so innocent anymore. She may even be disappointed that we’re taking her out of play.”
An ache in my chest blooms so intense it steals the breath from my lungs. Georgia will argue with me. She won’t be happy that I’m giving up on her and giving up Kira, for now.
“Maybe. But my decision is final.” I wasn’t able to protect my mother, but I will protect Georgia. She’s mine even if we can’t be together.
I got her into this goddamn mess, and now I need to get her out of it.
Chapter32
ANDREI
“Andrei, wake up.” I open my eyes to find Natalia in front of me, wringing her hands. There’s urgency in her voice. “It’s Georgia… she’s missing.”
I jolt straight up from the armchair as if an electric shock was applied to my feet.
“What are you talking about?” I say, trying to clear the sleep from my brain.
Natalia looks like she’s about to jump out of her skin. “She’s not in her room, not in the kitchen, not on the grounds. I can’t find her anywhere. It doesn’t make sense—”
Potent fear sends me into overdrive. I head to the library desk, where I retrieve my 9mm from the top drawer. “Alert Yulian. Every man on this property needs to be searching for her. And gather my brothers.”
Natalia moves at my command, and I head straight to Georgia’s room. I need to see for myself that she’s actually gone.
The room is exactly how I left it last night. Her bed is messy, the sheets tangled up, our clothes on the ground except my white dress shirt which Georgia wore to bed.
I am checking her room for signs of forced entry when my brothers and Mikhail rush in. The air in the room shifts violently, the calm before a tornado. No one looks me in the eye.
“How did this happen?” I grit out, waves of panic roll over me and I fight to rein in my temper. Mikhail hangs his head. He knows he’s a dead man if Georgia disappeared on his watch.
“There’s reason to believe that she escaped,” Mikhail mumbles. “That she wasn't abducted.”
“Explain,” I bite out.
Mikhail clears his throat and straightens his tie. It seems to take all of his courage to look me in the eye. “There is no sign of forced entry or exit. None of the guards saw anything out of the ordinary. We captured nothing alarming on the cameras. The dogs didn’t pick up an unfamiliar scent. The only unusual thing is that a member of the domestic staff, a new hire named Piper Bennett, left shortly after arriving for her shift at five thirty this morning. According to Natalia, she felt unwell and asked to go home early rather than work her shift. The strange thing is no one saw her leave the estate. And when I checked the cameras to see when she left, there was some sort of blip. About five minutes when none of the cameras were recording.”
Dread snakes through my gut. While there’s nothing inherently suspicious about the story, something feels off, especially the cameras being down for a short but critical time.
“Track down Piper and question her. Make sure everyone even remotely affiliated with our brotherhood is out looking for Georgia.”
A sickly feeling crawls up my spine. I try not to think of worst case-scenarios—I am trained to act more like a robot than a human, just get the job done at all costs—but something about this feels terribly personal.
“Leo,” I say, turning to address my brother. His face is unmoving, as if etched from stone. “Call in every favor owed to us. We need intel on Oleg and his men. If they’re making any moves, I want to know about it. Now go.”
Everyone scatters at my word, everyone except Daniil, who hangs back, his expression bleak. “We have to consider that she wasn’t abducted, that she left of her own free-will.”
“Are you fucking serious?”I snarl at him. He’s not wrong. The thought had occurred to me. I just hadn’t wanted to face it as a real possibility.
