Page 79 of Bought to Bear Bratva Heir

"She arrived with a man in a suit. The school assumed he was one of Alec’s security detail? But they didn’t recognize him. They said the man was," he bit his lip, "nervous, but it was Daisy herself that made them wonder. She’d been crying."

"And they didn’t say anything?" I snapped. I hated that Daisy might have been forced to take our son from the safety of his school. What had happened to her to make her cry?

I pushed the thought away.

"They asked, but Daisy said the family emergency was making her sad and it was nothing."

I scoffed. "And they believed her?" I knew Daisy. She had no poker face. She couldn’t lie. I knew that about her.

"No, not really, but she threatened them with you."

I did a double-take at that. Everyone in my son's school knew who I was, but when I stepped through those doors, I wasn’t Ilya Popovitch. I was just Alec’s dad. I would never threaten the teachers or staff. Not ever, and Daisy would know that. Which meant she was leaving me a message. It was Daisy’s only way of telling me what was happening to her and Alec.

"Fuck." Balling my hands into fists, I slammed them down onto the desk. "She was trying to leave me a message."

"A message, boss?"

"Someone took her. Snatched her straight from the street outside the hospital and forced her to go and get Alec. It’s the only reasonable explanation."

I was so slow. So unbelievably fucking dense that I hadn’t even seen what was right before my eyes. Daisy hadn’t run from me; she had been taken from me.

For the second time. The first time, it had been my grandfather who had snatched her away from me, and I had spent six years grieving and hating a woman I thought had died leaving me and our son.

Now someone else had done the same, only this time they had taken my child as well, and I knew that neither one of them had gone willingly.

Someone out there in this city of millions had my woman and my child, and I had wasted hours and hours looking in the wrong places.

"Has there been any ransom calls or letters?" I asked, but I already knew the answer. If there had been, I would have been told or taken the call myself.

"No, boss."

"Bodies?" I fucking hated asking that, but I had to know.

"None."

If someone wanted money, they would have made the ransom call by now; if my enemies wanted to make a point, their bodies would have been left for me to be found.

That meant someone still had them.

And it was personal.

It was also all my fault. If I hadn’t spent all day thinking the worst, I could have prevented this. More than that, I could have been nicer to Daisy. I could have told her my feelings and listened to hers.

She had gotten into that car and probably had a gun pointed at her. And she would have thought I was the one that ordered it right up until the moment they had demanded she get Alec.

What had they threatened her with to make her do that? Or had they hurt her? The school hadn’t mentioned bruises, but that didn’t mean anything. There were ways of hurting someone without leaving a mark. I should know.

All of this was my fault, and if anything happened to them, I would never forgive myself.

For a second, I let my eyes close, and then taking a deep breath, I met my man’s eyes. "Someone has taken them."

He didn’t say a word. But I could tell by the look in his eyes that he agreed.

"Someone who knows too much about me and my thought patterns." I hated admitting that even to myself because it meant whoever had orchestrated this knew me. Probably one of my men or—

My brow furrowed.

"I can’t trust anyone."