Page 96 of Debt to the Mafia King

“Stephen was protecting her. That’s why he got shot. That was my job. I should have been there to protect her. If I had watched her more carefully, then this wouldn’t have happened.”

The guilt was ripping into me, eating me up from the inside out, and it made me want to scream and tear it out of me. She had made me love her, and now she was gone.

I was going to lose the two most important things in my life because a weaker man was jealous.

“You were standing twenty feet from her, Viktor. You were right there, and she didn’t call out for you. You have to think why that was.” He threw up a hand to silence me. “I’m not saying she went willingly because we both know she didn’t, but something must have happened, and it happened fast. You wouldn’t have been able to do anything, and if it was you who was shot, who would save her? It’s time to bury those feelings of failure and strap on a pair. The elevator doors beeped and opened straightinto the living room.

“Need you to be logical,” Ivan finished lamely as my father was wheeled into the room.

Jumping up, I stormed toward him. “You are not welcome here. Get the fuck out.”

The old man studied me just the way he always did, like I was something scraped off the bottom of his shoes. His lips thinned.

“I am here to help.”

“Like fuck you are, it was probably you.” I advanced on him. And the fear I saw in his eyes was everything.

“Did I ask her to help? Yes, I did, Viktor. I have never thought you were strong enough to lead the men properly. But she said no, and it really doesn’t matter what I think now, does it?”

“Doesn’t it?”

“Of course not. You are married, and your wife is pregnant.”

I schooled my face into indifference. “And who told you that?”

“She was taken from a baby shop, Viktor, and you have been seen with her. Leah is pregnant, isn’t she?”

I had two choices. Neither one of them was good, but I didn’t see the point of lying to the old man anymore.

He wasn’t a threat to us anymore.

“Yes.”

He nodded his head once. “Then I will help her and my grandchild, but you have to know that this has to be kept under wraps, don’t you?”

Yeah, I knew that.

“Then let’s make a deal, I will tell you where she was taken and you will—”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

Oh, I knew all about what he wanted. It was all he had ever wanted. But what choice did I have?

“I agree. Just tell me where the fuck he has taken her, old man, and you can have your empire back. You can have it all.”

The warehouse was nothing. There was nothing that made it standout from the dozens around it, but the moment I stepped out of the car with Ivan and eight men streaming behind, I knew she was here. It was like I could sense her.

“How many?” I hissed as I surveyed the door. One small door, that’s all that was between me and my wife.

“Eight. The guards are taken care of, but we have to prepare ourselves for traps.”

Ignoring Ivan, I strode forward, my weapon pointed down and arms loose at my sides. I knew there might be traps, and this was probably an ambush, but I didn’t care. Leah was in there, so that’s where I needed to be.

At the end of the day, her safety and the safety of my unborn child were all that mattered. Whether I lived or died didn’t even come into it. Swinging open the door, I was met with a narrow, dark hallway, nothing but breeze blocks and a cement floor. There were no lights except for the faint glow of one at the end of the hallway.

I stepped through, Ivan close on my heels. He had his gun pointed right over my shoulder. I might not be thinking straight, but at least he was.

“She’s in here,” Piotre said in a weird sing-song voice. I bristled with the need to strangle that voice right out of him.