Page 116 of Captive Promise

I feel a surge of irritation rush under my skin. We don’t have fucking time for this. We don’t have the luxury of debating ethics and morality while Katerina is out there, alone and hurt and in the hands of a man who wants to hurt me.

“Listen to me very carefully, Maksim,” I say, my voice low and dangerous. “I did what I needed to do. Whether you want to believe me or not, I kept Seraphina from certain death⁠—”

“You did no such thing—” Nikolai says loudly but I interrupt him, leaning forward, hands braced on my desk like I can will them to understand through sheer force of intent.

“I’m not going to stand here and justify myself to you,” I say even louder to talk over Nikolai. “Not now, not with Katerina’s life on the line. So you can either get on board, or you can get the fuck out of my way.”

“Where’s Seraphina?” Nikolai asks.

“Seraphina is safe,” I say, annoyed that we’re focusing on the child when Katerina is more important. “She’s here with me and under guard. No one will touch her.”

“How can we trust that?” Maksim butts in. “You just said Katerina was taken by a Marco Russo. Tell me exactly what happened.”

“Russo took her,” I say, the words hard to get out. “She got Seraphina to safety, but instead of running inside the house she led them away.”

“That sounds like Kat,” Maksim mutters but Nikolai makes a harsh sound to cut off his brother.

“Continue, Barone,” Nikolai says in a clipped voice.

“They overpowered her,” I continue, feeling ill at the thought of someone hitting Katerina. “They knocked her out and dragged her into a car.”

I rake a hand through my hair, the memory of that black SUV tearing across the lawn searing behind my eyes. The scream of the tires, the plume of dust and gravel, the sickening lurch of helplessness as I watched it disappear…

“What have you done to try and find her?” Nikolai demands. “How long ago was she taken?”

“I’ve done every fucking thing I can to find her since she was taken four hours ago,” I shoot back, irritated that Nikolai seems to think I’ve just been sitting here twiddling my fucking thumbs. “I’ve turned over every stone, called in every favor, but Russo’s gone to ground. I don’t know where he’s taken her.”

The silence that follows is deafening, a yawning void that stretches out like a chasm between us.

“Four…hours?” Maksim asks faintly. “Our cousin has been missing for four fucking hours and now you call us?”

“Yes,” I say firmly. “Because I don’t know what else to do.”

I can almost hear the gears turning in their heads, the icy calculation as they process the information. Nikolai, his mind already whirring with strategies and contingencies, the cold, ruthless machinery of a man who’s spent a lifetime in this game. And Maksim, the barely leashed violence simmering beneath his skin, the coiled tension of a predator waiting to strike.

Maksim’s voice cuts through the silence. “If she is harmed,” he says, his voice nearly trembling with rage, “if they lay a single finger on her—you and Russo will end the same way, Barone.”

I close my eyes, the image of Katerina’s face swimming behind my lids. Her beautiful smile, the way she looks at me like I’m something more than the monster I know myself to be.

“Agreed,” I say because it’s true. If something has happened to my love, I won’t be able to survive. I will welcome death. “But I need your help, Maksim. I need your resources, Nikolai. Your connections. I can’t…I can’t do this alone.”

I take a deep breath, steeling myself for the words I never wanted to say. It’s an admission of weakness, of vulnerability, in front of the men who might rival me in ruthlessness and cunning. “Are you in? Will you help me bring her home?”

There’s another pause. I can hear the muffled sound of voices in the background, the rapid-fire exchange of words in Russian.

Nikolai's voice returns. “We’re in, Barone. Give us a few hours. We’ll find her.”

The line goes dead. For a long moment, I just stand there, the phone pressed to my ear, my eyes staring sightlessly out the window.

The grounds are quiet now, the chaos of the breach replaced by an eerie, unnatural stillness.

The sun is setting, painting the sky in shades of red like blood and fire, a mocking echo of the fury that burns in my veins.

We’ll find her. We have to find her.

Because if we don’t...if I lose her...

I don’t know how I’ll survive it. I don’t know how I’ll keep breathing, keep putting one foot in front of the other, in a world without her in it.