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I continued to pore over the list of men who’d been present at the auction, who had tried to bid on my wife and lost. It had been several hours since Eldar finally sent it over, and I had been haranguing my intelligence team to give me updated information on each of them.

Namely, where they were and who they were with.

During that time, I hadn’t just been tearing my hair out and making life hell for everyone around me.

I weeded out the people involved, letting me believe Eldar was still in Milan at the same time.

One, who had come as a big shock to me, was feigning ignorance, swearing he didn’t know and was just repeating what he’d been told by people he thought he could trust. I wasn’t taking any chances, and until further notice, he was put in a safehouse along with the others who were definitely guilty of going behind my back and spreading my uncle’s lies.

I also alerted the men I still had in LA to get back together and stay ready.

They’d been driven into hiding due to remaining loyal to me, but were eager to get back into the game.

What they were getting ready for wasn’t clear yet, but I needed all my resources and to be able to move fast once I knew something.

The moment I found out who had Mila and where she was, I’d strike, and strike hard. By the time I was finished with the culprits, there would be no trace of them left.

As I was pacing the room where my crew was tapping at computers, listening in to phone calls, and poring over camera footage from around the city, someone finally had some information for me.

It wasn’t good.

“These men are no longer in Milan,” he said, handing me a printout.

I read over the names, a band tightening around my chest. Some of the worst of the lot were on the list. “Where are they now?” I asked. On the outside, I remained as cool as one of the marble statues Mila wanted to commission. Inside, I was an inferno of frustration, fear, and rage.

More so when the man shook his head. “I don’t have that information yet. We’re tracking them as fast as we can.”

“Stay on it,” I snapped needlessly.

This was a blow. I hated that we had no location on some of the worst scumbags on earth, all of them having recently expressed a desire to get Mila in their clutches.

It was worse when one of them was confirmed to have landed in Moscow an hour later.

That couldn’t be a coincidence, and it wasn’t good news.

Even worse than that, as soon as my team confirmed his plane had touched down, he was lost to them.

I swore ruthlessly, knowing all too well the tricks of staying under the radar. I was an expert at it, but I certainly wasn’t the only one with those skills.

“Was he alone?” I asked.

“We don’t know that yet, either,” my security expert said with a wince.

I didn’t shout or curse anymore, only strode away, taking out my phone. “Get your ass back here now,” I told Eldar as soon as he answered.

As pissed off as I was at him, I was willing to wait until Mila was safe to decide his punishment for everything.

The lies, the auction, whatever else his greedy hands were in.

For now, I needed him. Eldar knew the men I needed to find and had at least enough of a relationship with them to possibly get information about why they were suddenly in Russia.

“What do you want now?” Eldar asked sullenly.

“I need some answers from you,” I told him, clenching my fist with impatience at his childishness.

He just had to be in charge of every situation.

It was why he had fought so often with my father when he was alive.

“And I need you here.” There was no arguing with the tone of my voice.

Anyone with half a brain who knew me would recognize it.

Not my uncle. “You’ll see me soon enough,” he snapped.

Realizing it was the best answer I would get out of the crotchety old man, I ended the call, going back to pacing, now with the added bonus of being irritated.

Not irritated enough to forget that underneath it all, a horrible feeling was welling up.

I didn’t know where Mila was or if any of those men had her.

If I’d ever see her again or hold her in my arms. Would I ever be able to coax a smile onto her beautiful face again?

The thought that she might be suffering while I was unable to do anything to help her made me gasp for breath.

There was no denying I was truly afraid. Maybe for the first time in my whole miserable life, I was afraid.