Page 171 of Deceptive Vows

I look around again. “Where is here?”

“One of my safe houses. I arranged for the doctors to continue treating you here, and they brought everything you’d need. I’m working with Aiden to find the location of where Ivan took Natalia. There’s a log on one of your jets for Mexico. We think he’s taken her there.”

That motherfucking bastard. “The cartel. I’ll bet he’ll do something about that now. Strike while the fucking iron is still hot.”

“Yeah, I think so. Both the Voirik and the Yurkov will be ready to move in and retrieve Natalia the second I know where they are.”

“Good. Thank you. Thank you for everything.” What the fuck would I have done if he hadn’t found me?

I would be dead by now. Now that I’m alive, I have one goal.

One mission in mind.

I have to get my wife back.

I have to get my girl back before they do fuck knows what to her. If I do, I’m not letting her go ever again.

I won’t.

I sit up, testing my strength. My brain is still foggy, but I’m functional and can feel my legs.

“Mikhail, I don’t think you can go anywhere.”

I shake my head at him, stopping him from saying any more. “Don’t you dare tell me that, Eric. You know if you were me, you wouldn’t take that advice. If you heard what Sophia said to me, you know I can’t not go. I have to.”

This right here is where I have to accept whatever fate has in the cards for me.

Life or death. Neither matters right now.

The door opens, and Aiden Romanov walks in. I haven’t seen him in a while, but he holds the same look of candor and authority he always did. He is my height and has my muscular build.

He nods at me when he notices I’m sitting up.

“We have a location,” he states. “Ivan is summoning Raul’s allies to sign allegiance to him.”

There’s only one way my brother can do that, and that’s with my girl. He’s going to do to her what I did.

I will kill him before I allow that to happen to her because she’s mine.

“I’m ready to go,” I tell him.

“We leave in one hour.”

50

Natalia

Sophia sips on her tea across the room and laughs at something funny on the TV.

She’s watching some old black-and-white show I don’t know the name of. I’m sure the name has appeared on the screen several times, but I haven’t been paying attention.

She’s sitting in one of those winged armchairs with her ankles crossed over the other and her back resting against the side.

I don’t know how she can be so calm, as if nothing has happened, as if she didn’t kill her family.

What kind of person does that?

An absolute psychotic bitch.