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Valeria

T he woman on the news reported about the shooting, but I didn’t hear one word she said. Her mouth moved, yet nothing reached my ears. I was momentarily blind and deaf. The blood froze in my veins, and my heart stopped beating. The only thing my brain comprehended was death, but it wasn’t possible.

Zyon couldn’t be dead. He promised to be careful and return for dinner, and he always kept his promises. It had to be a mistake. He wouldn’t do that to me.

“Valeria!”

The feminine voice came to me from far away, but my senses and body were paralyzed.

“Valeria!”

A pair of gentle hands grasped my shoulders and shook me.

“Valeria, react, for God’s sake!”

My head turned to the side like I was a programmed robot. My eyes connected with my best friend, but my vision was blurred. She placed her hands on my cheeks, her face reflecting worries.

“Valeria, please,” she pleaded, her thumbs brushing my skin soothingly. “Stand up and sit on the chair. Zara can’t see you like this. ”

The mention of my daughter stirred me to life.

I blinked, realizing my eyes and face were wet, and I sat on the cold floor.

The voice from the TV boomed from the speakers, repeating the dreadful news all over again, but I managed to push it to the side.

Zara couldn’t find me crying on the floor.

It would mess up her fragile mental state.

“Find some guards,” I whispered, hardly standing on wobbly legs. “Ask them about Zyon.”

“What exactly do you want me to ask?” Alice whined, supporting me on my way to the dining table. “Is your boss dead?”

“Yes,” I snapped, plopping on the chair. “That’s exactly what I need to know right now.”

Alice sighed, opened the back door, and called for the bodyguards. Two men with pale faces and severe expressions walked into the kitchen.

“Do you know what happened?” I asked, trying to sound neutral, but my voice trembled, and my eyes were puffy. They surely noticed I wasn’t okay.

“No, ma’am,” they replied in unison.

“Malin or Dorian haven’t called?” I exhaled loudly, hoping for Zyon’s brothers to keep his men informed about the situation.

“No,” one of the guards said, his eyes flickering to the television.

“They broadcast it in the entire country.” I nodded toward the news. The moderator constantly talked about the shooting without saying more than we already knew. “Can it be true?”

“Yes,” the other one answered. “But we don’t know more than you. We have to patiently wait for commands regarding you and your daughter. Nothing changed. You stay here until someone from the Zhumagulov family says otherwise.”

“ Someone ,” I whispered, hiding my face in my palms.

Alice let the men out and turned off the stove. I sat like a statue in the chair, my mind circling the dreadful thought I didn’t want to accept .

Zyon couldn’t be dead. No. I refused to admit even the slightest chance that his life ended just when our life together should start. Destiny, fate, or God couldn’t be that cruel. We deserved our happily ever after.

“Will you stay with Zara?” I asked Alice, who quietly sat beside me.

“What are you going to do?” she countered, frowning at me.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, raising my eyes to watch the muted TV. “But I can’t just sit and wait.”

“Do you think you can find them?” she groaned in disbelief, firmly shaking her head. “Who knows where Malin and Dorian took him? Where do you want to go?”

“Leave that to me,” I muttered, unable to look away from the screen that showed the shooting.

The channel gained exclusive footage of the unknown person firing at Zyon. He was casually leaving the police station when the gunshot occurred. He didn’t expect it. No one stood before him. His bodyguards were around the car. He was completely exposed to the attack.

According to the news, the sniper hit him in the abdomen, chest, and shoulder.

Witnesses reported he was out when his brothers pushed him into the back seat of his car.

Some experts claimed Zyon had no chance of surviving this, while another one said there was a possibility if he wore a vest, but he still would need immediate medical attention.

However, he wasn’t admitted to any hospital. An hour after the attack, he or his brothers were nowhere to be found. The ground swallowed them, and my agitation and fear grew rapidly.

Dorian and Malin didn’t answer their phones. The lines were dead. The security team circled the house, the police cars appeared on the street before the front gate, and the media watched the driveway like vultures.

“I’m done,” I stated after another few minutes when Zara disappeared to her new room to go through the book collection with Bluff on her heels. She was oblivious to the turmoil outside. “Please, stay with her,” I pleaded, taking Alice’s hand. “I need to look for something. ”

“What?” She raised a brow at me, but I left before she could ask anything else.

I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t know where the brothers could be, but I had a hunch. It was just an unexplainable feeling that pushed me to go and try to find Zyon while the same sentence repeated in my head to keep me sane.

Zyon couldn’t be dead.

Without thinking twice, I listened to my instinct and opened the door to Zyon’s office.

Like the entire house, this room was also furnished and decorated in dark colors, but I didn’t have time to admire his impeccable taste.

I went directly to his massive desk, leafing through the piles of papers and documents.

I was looking for the address of the warehouse where we had met before.

I knew Zyon owned many buildings, houses, and lands.

He probably hid some of them under shell companies to cover his true wealth.

Still, our secret hideout was special, and considering how much effort he put into his stalker’s identity, I assumed the place was perfectly hidden from prying eyes.

If he was alive, which I absolutely believed he was, it was the first place to check.

However, the address wasn’t in his notebook, calendar, or files. I looked into everything I could get my hands on, but there was nothing.

Breathing past the helplessness squeezing the life out of me, I tried to remember the route, but every time I found myself there, I was unconscious. There was nothing to recall.

Tears pricked my eyes as I forced my brain to cooperate. I was drained yet willing to go to the end of my strength to find him. But where to look?

Glancing around the spotless office, an idea popped up out of nowhere: My car! It had a GPS and should remember the addresses, so perhaps the information I needed was there.

I almost broke my legs running to the garage so fast. My car was parked behind Zyon’s expensive sports cars and black SUV. I sat in the driver’s seat, firing the engine and impatiently tapping on the screen.

It was all there: Zara’s school, my previous apartment, the Vortex, and an unknown address that showed a place in an abandoned area in Brooklyn .

“This is it,” I whispered, my fingers trembling as I brought up the route on the GPS. It was only a half an hour's ride.

Without hesitation, I got out and opened the entrance. When I drove past the bodyguards, they stared at me like I had fallen from the moon. I hoped they wouldn’t give me any hassle, yet I couldn’t be more wrong. They refused to open the front gate for me.

“You can’t leave,” a tall man in his early thirties said when I rolled down the window. “We have to follow protocol, which forbids you from leaving the perimeter.”

“Did Zyon tell you who I am?” I snarled, thinking about how to get on the other side.

“Yes, Mrs. Kellerman,” the bodyguard confirmed, but his expression didn’t change.

“Forget that name,” I spat, my temper rising with every passing second I lost talking to him. I should’ve already been on my way. “I’m Zyon’s girlfriend. My command is the same as his.”

“I know, ma’am, but if he returns and finds out I let you leave the house unsupervised during the security crisis, I’m dead,” he said, resolutely shaking his head. “Sorry, but you must leave the vehicle and return inside.”

It warmed my heart that he believed Zyon would return, but his words weren’t something I wanted to hear. I had to leave, and he wouldn’t stop me. However, the metal gate could. I would only crash the car if I tried to break it like I was in some cheap action movie.

“Valeria, please.” The guard pulled me out of my thoughts. “Do us both a favor and return inside.”

I stared into his hazel eyes, but I wasn’t really looking at him. My mind was elsewhere. I woke up from my trance only when the sound of the gate opening resonated through the front yard.

The black SUV, full of guys in black suits, entered the land, giving me the opportunity I needed, and I didn’t hesitate.

I pushed the gas pedal hard, tiny stones and chunks of grass firing behind me when I speeded toward the gate.

I saw the guard running and yelling at me in the rearview mirror, yet he couldn’t stop me.

In ten seconds, I was on the driveway before the fence and almost knocked down two reporters who camped there .

A victorious grin settled on my lips when I flew through the highway. I considered escaping Zyon’s men an outstanding achievement. I just hoped it was worth it.

My heart clenched, the thought of Zyon’s death wiping the smile from my face. The fear returned with crushing force. If I was wrong and he wasn’t in the warehouse, I wouldn’t know where else to look. I had no idea about his other properties or emergency plans and procedures. He could be anywhere.

Or, he was dead, the tiny voice said in my mind.

“No,” I whispered, shaking my head to eliminate the frightening scenario and focus on the road. I felt like I was split apart, and those two parts fought with themselves while I tried to function properly. It was exhausting, but I couldn’t let the fear consume me.

Driving the car through the dirt path, I noticed a high fence and an abandoned factory and warehouse. According to the GPS, this was the place I visited before.

I stopped before the large, old double doors and got out. It was eerily quiet, and nothing suggested someone was around.

Inhaling deeply, I placed my sweaty palm on the knob and pushed the door open. Surprisingly, no sound was heard. I entered the empty, dusty space, instantly noticing the metal chair Zyon had chained me to when he first kidnapped me and the bed behind it.

I came to the right place. I found our warehouse, but he wasn’t there.

I stepped further inside, looking around and realizing the bulb was on. A frown settled on my face when I noticed many footprints and a thick trail of blood on the ground. My heart missed a beat in excitement and fear, but I had no idea where Zyon could be. This was the only room I knew.

Hurrying to the other side, I checked the door where Zyon had locked Bluff when we were here the last time. The storage was dark, but I clearly heard muffled voices and sounds coming from the other side. There had to be a passage.

I found it after checking every corner. The door was hidden behind the tall, thick curtain. I hastily pushed it to the side and walked into the room, utterly unprepared for the sight arising before me .

The first thing I registered was the muffled screams. Then, my eyes detected something much more disturbing.

Everywhere I looked were thrown pieces of clothing and bandages soaked with blood.

They covered the floor from the door to the table in the middle where Zyon lay.

Malin kept his hand over his mouth and pressed him down while Dorian fought with the bleeding.

It was a terrible sight. The blood dripped from the table into the dust. The air was soaked with a distinctive metallic scent. My stomach twisted with nausea, but I overcame it and came closer.

Dorian’s hands worked diligently, but Zyon screamed and kicked, clearly in excruciating pain. Dorian tried to fix him or repair the damage. I didn’t know for sure, but his efforts looked futile. He couldn’t work while Zyon moved.

“Can I help?” I asked in a raised voice, instantly getting their attention.

Dorian looked at me like I was an alien. Malin smirked, exchanging a brief look with his brother, and Zyon froze.

“Angel,” Zyon whispered as Malin slowly took his hand away and motioned for me to come closer.

“I’ll stay with you, okay?” I said, cupping Zyon’s pale face. He couldn’t tear his eyes from me. I knew he probably didn’t see the reality. He was in delirium from pain, but even if he thought I was a vision, it was enough to calm him a little.

“Don’t leave me,” he pleaded weakly, panting.

His torso was exposed, giving me the chance to see his injuries. He had a deep wound on his shoulder that bled profusely and another one on the right hip. But compared to the biggest one on the left side of his abdomen, those were just scratches.

“Never,” I whispered, glimpsing Malin, who grasped Zyon’s forearms tightly and pushed him down.

“Get ready, Valeria,” he uttered, holding my terrified look. “This won’t be pretty.”