here. She wanted to be away from me bad enough to plot with an enemy behind my back; the person who nearly got me killed and caused the deaths of my loyal soldiers. I feel sick thinking she might have been in on that plan. Were her tears and declarations that night all part of an act meant to lull me into a false sense of security? Has she been seducing me into letting my guard down so she could make her getaway?
It’s too likely not to be true, and knowing that only makes me feel like a first-class idiot for falling for it. Falling for her.
“Diego!” Jovan snaps, jolting me out of my own toxic thoughts. “What the fuck are we gonna do? They couldn’t have gotten far. Timestamp on the security video shows they’ve barely been gone an hour.”
Jovan has his doubts about Elena, too. I can hear it in his voice, see it in his eyes when our gazes meet and he wrinkles his forehead in concern.
I smother the flames roaring in my belly so I can think clearly. That’s been my problem this whole time—thinking with my dick and my heart instead of my head. My instincts have been dulled and I’ve gotten soft.
“Find them. Viktor should have a safehouse somewhere outside the city. He knows I’m looking for him, so his best bet is to get to an isolated area where we can’t sneak up on him. I want them alive … both of them.”
With a quick nod, Jovan leaves the room. Jaime lingers in the doorway, a slender tablet hanging from one hand. He approaches with careful steps—like he’s sneaking up on a hungry lion—and offers it to me.
“I think you need to take another look at the footage,” he says.
I narrow my eyes at him when he doesn’t elaborate, hands still clenched at my sides. Jaime shrugs and tosses the tablet onto the bed before backing away.
“You’ll regret it if you don’t.”
Once I’m alone, I can’t hold in my fury anymore. With a guttural roar, I swipe the contents of Elena’s nightstand onto the floor—her romance novels, her glass, refillable water bottle, her booklight, a framed photo of her with her sister and nephew at our wedding, her design book and pencils. It isn’t nearly as satisfying as I’d hoped.
My fist crashes into the wall, leaving an apple-sized hole, then another and another. The walls rattle until the framed art crashes to the floor, the glass shattering and littering the rug. A half-empty bottle of Scotch slams into the window, which hasn’t been boarded over for a month. Because I trusted Elena and believed she wanted to stay with me.
Huffing and snorting like a demon, I stare through the hole in the window, the last rays of sunlight making trickles of liquor glow with amber and gold prisms. The color reminds me of her eyes.
“Fuck!” I bellow, going back to pacing with restless energy that makes me vibrate from head to toe. My shoulder throbs and sends shooting pains down my arm.
I consider taking a handful of painkillers and losing myself to numbness. The pain in my chest is far worse than my arm, and it makes me want to carve my own heart out with a knife. My mother’s words come back to me now, taunting and cruel.
“No woman is worth compromising your empire. Not your girlfriend, not your sister or any daughters you might have. Not even me. A boss with a weak heart doesn’t deserve to wear the crown. He’s a pussy and a wimp and deserves everything he gets for letting himself be led around by the dick.”
The bitch would laugh at me if she were here and remind me that she told me so.
Sinking onto the bed, I let my head fall into my hands and try to chase Mother’s voice out of my thoughts. Nothing that woman ever did was for my own good; it was always for her benefit. Her lessons weren’t meant to make me strong, but to keep me from replacing her with another woman. She was determined to rule the underworld through me, and couldn’t have a pesky daughter-in-law or grandchildren getting in her way.
I glance at the tablet resting near my hip, the screen gone dark. Jaime’s warning smothers the unwanted memories of my mother. What else is there for me to see on the security footage that I didn’t already witness? I saw Elena walk through those doors and get into