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I could barely take a breath to let out a growl of rage as I sank to the ground. Ivan rushed over to ask me what was in the message that made me lose my shit, prying the phone out of my grip. His face went pale as he looked at the picture I had been sent.

He wordlessly handed it back, too stunned to even utter a curse. I glanced down at the picture again, letting the anger course over me and strengthen me for action.

My wife, eyes closed, hands and feet bound like she was a hunter’s trophy ready to be trussed up on the hood of a truck for transport. A trickle of blood ran down the side of her face, and her lip was swollen and split. From the rough bedspread under her, the nondescript fake wood headboard, and the bit of dingy wall behind her, it looked like she was in some dank little motel, but God knew where, since they could have been anywhere by now.

Another rumble started in my throat. The desire to do something overwhelmed me, but there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to get to her faster.

“We need to study it for clues,” Ivan said, voice hollow.

It was already burned in my brain, every last pixel tormenting me with fear and the helplessness that I couldn’t immediately help Olivia, and then tear the worthless coward who took the picture to shreds. I wouldn’t feel whole again until I heard her voice and saw for myself that she was okay. And I had her captor’s bloody spine in my hands.

“Josef,” I muttered, my brain starting to click back into the proper gear. The rage had to shift into the background for now. “He’ll be able to track her, won’t he?”

Ivan nodded, remaining silent, but clearly upset and confused. I sent the picture and the messages to my top computer specialist. Josef had found one of our enemies hiding out in Taiwan once, based solely on a blurry doorknob in the background of an infiltrated video meeting he had with his boss. He’d find Olivia. He had to.

“Let’s head back to the house,” Ivan finally said. “Set up a base for information.”

He didn’t want to stand around idly anymore than I did, but it was the best idea at the moment, and all we could do except for setting off on a wild goose chase and possibly ending up further from Olivia.

“You don’t think her father’s a part of this, do you?” Ivan asked. “What the hell is going on, Dima?”

I was already pulling out my phone to call the bastard as we sped back to the house. It rang to voicemail, and I hung up, calling again. That time, I left a message, the last one I’d have the courtesy to give him.

“If you don’t call me back within the hour,” I said, noting the exact time. “You’re a dead man, Benedikt. Wherever you are, my people will find you and execute you on the spot. No more weaseling your way out of talking to me. One hour.”

Within fifteen minutes, we were pulling up to the house, and no sooner had I walked through the front doors than the sniveling old drunk called back.

“Tell me everything you know,” I demanded.

“It wasn’t my fault,” he whined. “The odds were definitely in my favor, but the race must have been rigged.”

He kept babbling almost incoherently, but I managed to piece together that he’d lost another huge amount on a horse race. Not just any huge amount, but the money I had deposited into his bank account to pay back Rurik Kuzmin. All 250 grand was lost, and he gambled away in the attempt to put himself on top again.

“I deserved that win,” he said pathetically. “I can still find a way to make it back and show all of them.”

I was stunned at his audacity to actually believe he was owed some kind of revenge against all the people he’d been swindling his entire life. That by wanting their money back, they were committing a grave wrong against him.

“That’s not all of the story,” I snapped. “Spit it out, Benedikt, because your death warrant is still on the table until I find my wife.”

He was truly the worst sort of person in the world, unable to take accountability, going so far as selling his daughter to the highest bidder. Then I found out he not only sold her, but sold her out, because he’d told Rurik that Olivia was with me. Not just in hiding, but that we were married, that she was mine.

I told him to stay put where he was. He wasn’t safe until Olivia was, and then I’d see how I felt. Ending the call, I let out a stream of swear words that had Ivan hurrying back into the hall.

“What?” he asked. “Did her father know something?”

“He knows too damn much,” I said. “He told Rurik she’s with me.”

“Fuck,” Ivan said, instantly understanding that this was a very big deal.

The Kuzmins despised our family, our wealth and power always in their sights. They had been fighting us and trying to tip the balance in their favor ever since Rurik arrived on the scene in Los Angeles more than ten years earlier. He’d been young and foolish, and we squashed every one of his attempts to seize our territory, yet he always regrouped, angrier than before and with even less sense of just going somewhere else.

“You think Aleks will finally let us go nuclear?” Ivan asked, beginning to pace.

“That decision is out of his hands now,” I said.

Our older brother seemed to take some kind of perverse enjoyment in the ongoing war between the families, or maybe he had a soft spot for Rurik since he was young. The cat-and-mouse games were over, though. The man had already hurt my wife, so he was going to suffer. If he hurt her more, every last person who shared his name was done.

My hands curled into fists at my sides. “We need to find Olivia, and fast.” The longer the madman didn’t get what he wanted, the more delight he would take in inflicting pain. “Call Zoey again,” I said.

I watched as he tried to reach Olivia’s friend, realizing that Ivan was the only one I could trust right now. Benedikt might have been able to sell the information that she was with me, but he had no idea where we were. Any of the people I had out looking for her could have been in on it and be thrown off the trail.

“Straight to voicemail again,” Ivan said, looking like he might be sick. “You think she’s still involved?”

“I think she’s in danger just from being with Olivia when they grabbed her,” I answered. “If Kuzmin figures out you have the slightest thing for her, he’ll think he has a two-for-one deal, and it’ll be worse.”

My hotheaded brother whirled around and punched the wall, leaving a dent in the plaster. With a roar, he hauled back and did it again, as helpless as I was. I felt very much like doing the same thing. But all I could do was wait for more information.