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Hours after the crushing decision to leave Emerson so I could finish this once and for all and be assured of her safety, I was stretched to the breaking point.

“Give me some good news,” I snapped when my brother finally called with an update on Vlad.

“He’s going to pull through just fine,” Ivan said. “Might need a few weeks off, though.”

Our family’s on-call surgeon had worked his magic again, pulling yet another of my crew back from the clutches of death. I was grateful that my loyal guard was going to be okay after taking a bullet for Emerson, but not appeased one little bit when I heard from one of my guys a few minutes later.

I had a team tracking down Arkadi, but couldn’t get any intel on him at all. It was like he’d disappeared into thin air. It shouldn’t have been possible when the entire city was wired up with cameras at every storefront, every street corner, and every private residence. My experts could hack into all of them, so there should have been a sighting by now. My spies, who were staking out his known hideouts, should have spotted him.

Nothing. Not a damn thing. I was chasing a ghost, and it pissed me off. The man needed to show himself and fight honorably, not go into hiding exactly as Emerson had predicted he would.

God, she was so pissed off at me. Every bit of progress we’d made was erased now because of Arkadi’s stunt. Her feelings were hurt; she was convinced I was being unreasonable, and she was traumatized by having to fight for her life. Which she’d done an admirable job of, actually biting clean through that woman’s arm and then brazenly slapping the shit out of her as soon as she had the chance.

That was my girl, never giving up. She was shaken because she wasn’t used to being attacked like that, but she hadn’t faltered or given up. She was made to be a Bratva queen. My queen.

As much as I wanted to give her everything she wanted, the only thing she asked for was out of the question for the moment. Hopefully, I could find Arkadi sooner rather than later and get her back in the kitchen where she so desperately wanted to be. Then, we would get back on track.

It couldn’t be much longer, no matter how deep underground Arkadi had dug himself. Right now, Lev was doing his level best to extract information from Arkadi’s second in command. Lev had a knack for getting answers out of people in record time, and it gave me the first inkling of a smile to know that Arkadi’s underling wasn’t enjoying himself at all at the moment.

I hope Lev pulled out the pliers after what the piece of shit put Emerson through. My phone rang, pulling me out of my pleasant musings.

“What’s up?” I asked. “You find your old friend at last?”

“He was never my friend,” Dima answered shortly. “Though I admit it was stupid to ever consider him human. I do have a couple of old numbers you might try.”

I told him I was ready to call his childhood nanny if that’s what it took to shake him out of his hiding spot. A few seconds later, Dima sent me the list, and I began to call them, one by one.

On the third, I nearly dropped my phone when the asshole himself actually answered.

“Where the fuck are you?” I growled, cursing myself for being so impatient that I didn’t wait until I could get my tech crew to set up a trace while I called.

“That’s a pleasant way to wake someone up,” he said.

“Napping, were you?”

“It’s five in the morning in Moscow,” he answered, sounding annoyed. “So, get to the point, or let me get back to bed.”

He was in Moscow? Bullshit. “Tell me about the trick your second in command pulled in order to get your hands on my wife,” I snapped.

“Who? Ludvig’s been with me since I arrived here four days ago.”

“I don’t know who the hell Ludvig is. I’m talking about Boris Yelkov. You may not give a single shit, but my brother’s currently making some alterations to his face… and other parts if he doesn’t spill where you really are.”

“Boris?” Arkadi asked. He sounded thoroughly confused now, but I wasn’t buying it. “You’re right,” he continued. “I don’t give a single shit. Have your brother chop off a finger or two on my behalf because I cut him off months ago. That information is easy to prove, Nik. I’m a little embarrassed you’re so far behind.”

He then told me to talk to someone we both knew who lived in Moscow, or check public flight records or airport security footage, because he swore up and down he had nothing to hide.

Fuck, was he actually telling the truth, and his guy had gone rogue? Disgusted by his voice, I ended the call. There was no way I’d believe a word that came out of his mouth. However, within a half an hour, I had indisputable proof that he was indeed out of the country and had been for the better part of a week.

That should have meant that Emerson was safe, but it clearly didn’t. Not if Arkadi’s men were out here acting on their own, or Arkadi was straight up lying to cover his ass. For all I knew, Emerson might have been on a plane to Moscow by now if I hadn’t intervened.

This only meant one thing. She was going to hate me worse than she already did, but her days at the restaurant were over. There was no use in putting it off, so I headed home, not looking forward to giving her the news one little bit.