Page 99 of Darkest Desire

Tears spill from her eyes. “Of course I care. You’re my sister. I’ll always fight for you.”

“I see that now. I’m sorry if I was always trouble to you.”

“It’s ok. And I’m sorry if I wasn’t the best big sister to you. I was so busy with dance practice and pleasing our dad that I never made time for you.”

“It’s ok,” I repeat her words. “I forgive you.” I can feel the blackness creeping in on my vision.

“Sasha,” she snaps. “Stay with me.”

But I can’t. I find myself slipping, slipping, slipping… until I’m gone.

Nico

I go back to Liam’s nightclub to see if he’s there. To see if my wife is there.

But when I storm inside, I’m confronted with silence. And two dead bodies on the ground. Neither of them Sasha or Natalya.

Liam steps out of his office with a gun in his hand. “Come to kill me, Nico?”

“For stealing my wife? Yes.”

“She’s not here. She left.”

I scoff. “Sheleft? What, did she just up and leave because you decided to have a kind heart?”

“No. Because she killed three of my guards. She also got shot in the leg. I’m not sure how much time she has left. I let them both go. I figured if your wife dies, then that will be enough to drive you to insanity as punishment for killing Cillian. I didn’t need to do anything more.”

“Sasha is hurt?” I rasp.

“She is. Or was. Depends on if she’s dead or not. But she’s not here. Of course, I’m not going to let you search the place. If you try to come in here, I’ll just kill you. So consider what you want to do, Nico.”

What I want is to kill Liam.

But what I want more is to find Sasha.

If Liam is speaking the truth, then she’s out there, not in here. But what if Liam is lying to me? I have no way to check his nightclub without him killing me. I have to take my chances with her being out there and not in the nightclub.

“You got lucky today,” I growl. “But I’ll come back for you. One day.”

“I can’t wait.”

I hurry back outside and stop when I see droplets on the ground. It hasn’t rained for days. Kneeling down, I see that the droplets are blood. Sasha. If she really did get shot, then she’d be bleeding out. But where did she go?

It’s then that I realize how close Denis is to this place. Did he steal her back from me as a form of punishment?

I’ll need backup.

I need Mikhail.

With a grimace, I dial his number and explain everything to him. He agrees to meet me at Denis’s house.

While I wait, I knock on Denis’s door.

He doesn’t open it but he does talk to me through it. “What do you want, Nico?”

“Was my wife here? Did you take her?”

“No. I told her to leave.”