Page 47 of Sold to My Ex's Brother
“I hear you,” he whimpers back, another rush of pain probably shooting through his body as he is dragged to his feet once more.
We make for the vehicles outside, and, within fives minutes, we’re on the road. Anatoly rides with me, and one of the guards keeps his gun pointed at him from the back seat as he directs me through the city.
It’s early in the morning, the day just beginning, sunlight clearing away the shadows of night as we pass through the city blocks. The air is silent, apart from Anatoly’s brief interjections to give me directions. Whenever he tries to reason with me, I let out a grunt to silence him.
Time ticks on, and the city streets wind onward for what feels like an eternity.
“How much longer is this going to be?” I ask Anatoly, as I draw to a halt at a crosslight, waiting for another car to pass.
“Not long,” Anatoly assures me.
I shoot him a look out of the corner of my eye. I’m not going to let him keep me from Maya. If he thinks he is going to get away with fucking around…
And then, right in front of me, several large office buildings rise up at the far end of the street. Anatoly jabs his finger in the air, looking relieved, as though he is as surprised as I’m that we have actually made it.
“There!” he exclaims. “There, that’s it!”
I pull the car to a halt outside the building, the small convoy behind me doing the same. I gesture for my men to surround the buildings, and stride up to the metal fence, kicking it down and climbing over it.
“Which building?” I bark at Anatoly, who is stumbling to catch up with me.
“That one,” he tells me, pointing to the one in the center.
“You’re sure?” I demand, reaching for my gun. He nods, and it looks like the first thing he has been entirely sure of since he dragged us out here in the first place.
“Positive—”
That’s all I need to hear. I pull my gun, aim it at his head, and pull the trigger. He hits the ground with a heavy thud. I tuck my gun back into its holster.
No one that fucks with Maya gets to live.
I gesture for Ilya and Gregori to join me, and I pause out the front door of the largest building.
“Ready?” I mutter, tensing my shoulder as I prepare to barge through. They both nod, and I take the lead, slamming my shoulder into the door once, twice, three times, before it finally gives in and comes off its hinges with a groan.
I rush inside over the collapsing door, swinging my gun around, ready to take out anyone who might still be here.
But there is nothing. Not that the building has been abandoned for that long, by the looks of it, as an ashtray full of cigarettes sits on one of the tables, practically still smouldering.
“Shit,” I mutter, and I turn to Gregori and Ilya.
“Take the opposite corridors,” I yell to them, pointing to two of the three doors that lead off this space. “I’ll take this one...”
We split off from each other, and I move with caution through the rest of the quiet building. There is nobody here. Nobody.
For a moment, I think that Anatoly brought us to the wrong place, maybe trying to throw us off the scent on Artem’s orders—but then, as I round the corner to an office that sits with the door open, something catches my attention.
A fresh lock on the office door. I lift it to get a better look. There’s no way someone who worked here would have needed a lock this heavy-duty, and besides, it looks like this one was installed in the last day or so, no dust on it, still gleaming bright, fresh from the store.
I glance inside the office, take a step forward to look around, and I’m hit with it, the same scent that lingered in Maya’s room. And I know then, I know for certain that this must be the place that he brought her to.
Fuck! How long has it been since he took her?I should have known that the timeline he gave me would be bullshit. I’m here after four hours, and she’s nowhere to be seen.
Probably already on the way to the buyer that he has arranged for her.
I storm along the corridor, intercepting Gregori and Ilya as I go.
“Pull CCTV for all the streets around here,” I tell them. “I need to find out every vehicle that came and went from this place in the last ten hours. Meantime, get the men on the road, I want them following every feasible route someone could have taken out of this place.”
