Page 122 of Before Broken Vows

"Yeah, that seems to be a common issue here. Fuck. He better be here," I say.

"He is. Let's find the piece of shit," Dimitri says.

We move deeper into the house, room by room. My men spread out, clearing each space. Dimitri signals that he's moving upstairs. I follow.

Once we get up the grand staircase, a woman sees us and screams. She's trembling against the wall, half-naked, wearing only a silk robe that barely covers her. Her mascara runs down her face in black rivers. She's young—too young—and terrified.

"Please don't kill me," she sobs in Greek. "Please, I'm nobody."

"Get her the hell out of here," I tell one of my men.

As they pass, I stop her. "Where's Cosmo Kouris?"

She wipes tears from her eyes. "Coward left me when he heard the shooting."

I nod to my man. "Get her out. Make sure she stays safe."

We continue looking, clearing room after room. Every closet, every bathroom, behind every curtain and under every bed.

Nothing.

"Where the fuck is he?" Dimitri mutters, kicking over a chair in frustration. "She said he was here. He couldn't have left. One of our men would have found him."

I holster my gun and look around. "He's hiding." I turn to everyone. "Keep quiet. Let's see if we can hear him in the walls, like a scurrying cockroach."

Dimitri, a few men, and I walk into the library and look around. On the table is a stack of papers.

I pick them up and look over them. Cosmo's name is on them, but it's nothing I need.

Then we hear it.

A faint sound, like someone moving.

We freeze.

Where the hell is that coming from?

Dimitri and I exchange a look. He draws his gun and we both approach the bookshelf closest to the sound. I run my hand along the edge, feeling for anything unusual.

"There," Dimitri points to a small gap between two shelves. It's barely noticeable unless you're looking for it.

I press my ear against the wall and hear noise.

"Found you, you piece of shit," I whisper.

Dimitri examines the bookshelf, running his fingers along the spines of the books and shelves. "There's got to be a trigger mechanism or something, right?"

I join him, pulling books at random, tapping on the corners and shelves, looking for anything that might activate a release.

Nothing happens.

The noise behind the wall gets louder, more panicked.

"Fuck this," Dimitri says, stepping back. "Watch out," he says and aims his gun at the seam in the wall and fires twice.

The gunshots do the job. The bullets punch through the drywall, revealing a metal surface behind it. A panic room.

"Smart," I say and pull a knife from my boot and jam it into the seam, using it as leverage to pry at the edge. The drywall crumbles easily, revealing more of the metal door beneath.