between his, and Ivan moved in with the submission hold, demonstrating the steps at the regular grappling pace. When he pushed Kir back toward the mat, it took only a second for the other man to tap his arm. Ivan let up immediately and sat back on his heels. “Do you see the difference?”
“Yes.”
“Show me,” Ivan ordered, staying down on the mat while Boychenko proved he had been paying attention. When the kid had shown a better understanding of the move, he started to show him how to use the choke coming from side mount. He was letting Kir demonstrate on him when Paco, his longtime boxing coach, jogged as fast as his old legs would allow him.
“Vanya!” He waved an iPhone in the air. “I think you need to answer your phone. It’s been ringing nonstop on your desk.”
Frowning, he moved away from Kir and took his phone from Paco. There were eleven missed calls from numbers he didn’t recognize, three from Nikolai and one from Besian. There was a text from the Albanian that said simply, “Call me now!”
He glanced at the time and realized with a sickening thud that Erin was late returning from her barre class. Even if she had gone for her usual after class coffee with Zoya, she should have been back by now, and she always messaged him if she was going to be late. Her lack of contact, the unknown numbers, Nikolai’s call, and Besian’s message made his heart flip-flop in his chest. He had sudden flashbacks to the night he found out she had been kidnapped and felt a cold panic overwhelm him.
The phone rang again, startling him out of his troubled memories. He answered it gruffly. “Hello?”
“Is this Mr. Markovic?”
He didn’t recognize the woman’s voice on the other end and started to run toward the office he shared with Erin. “Yes.”
“Mr. Markovic, this is Sergeant Levy with HPD. I’m calling to inform you that your wife was involved in a robbery and assault.”
His heart stuttered painfully in his chest. He gripped the phone tightly. “Was she hurt?”
“Yes, but not seriously,” the sergeant quickly assured him. “She and her friend were taken by ambulance to HCA Houston on Hermann.”
“HCA Houston on Hermann,” he repeated, grabbing his keys and wallet from his desk drawer. He tried to push the horrible images of Erin bleeding and broken from his mind and focus on what the sergeant was telling him.
“In regards to the car, the fire was put out by HFD. We’ll be towing it to the evidence lot for now. An officer is waiting to speak with your wife and her friend at the ER. He can give you the information you’ll need for how this situation will progress."
“Yes. That’s fine.” He slammed his feet into his sneakers and swiped his jacket from the chair where he had tossed it earlier.
“We’ll be following up when we get more information from witnesses at the scene...”
He wasn’t even paying attention as he rushed from the gym. He reacted like a robot, answering the sergeant when necessary as he dashed out to his SUV. He sped out of the newly resurfaced parking lot, another one of Erin’s much-needed changes to the warehouse, and onto the street, quickly signaling and moving into the turn lane so he could make his way to the hospital.
Guilt soured his stomach as he thought of all the missed calls. How long had they been trying to reach him? Had Erin been asking for him? His gut twisted when he thought of her alone and crying in the back of an ambulance.
What the fuck did not seriously mean? Broken bones? A gashed open head? A black eye? A shattered jaw? He had seen the aftermath of enough fights to know how very little power it took to crunch a human body. Erin had the body of a dancer, petite with curves he had memorized with his hands and mouth, and she was no match for any man in a fight. He had taught her how to defend herself so she could run away, not stand and fight. Had she remembered his lessons? Had she managed to get free?
And why was her car burning? He remembered how proud she was the morning she made her final payment on that car. She had bought it at the beginning of her sophomore year of college and had refused to let him pay it off when they married or upgrade her to something nicer. They had