called, snapping me out of my cycling thoughts.
"Yeah?"
"We have some information on Chernev," he told me, sounding pleased. And he would be. As hard as I had been pushing myself, I had been pushing my team. To track him down. To eliminate the threat he presented.
I couldn't give Melody much.
But I could give her safety.
"Alright. Give me ten to shower, and I'll be right in."
I figured we would find him in Bulgaria. Maybe, if he was chickenshit, hiding out in Turkey.
I even lingered through my shower, letting my mind wander to Melody, to the feel of her, the sounds of her, the need for her, her hunger for me.
When I finally walked into my study half an hour later, I wasn't prepared for the file my men had compiled for me.
"You're sure of this?" I clipped, flipping the pages in the file.
"Yes," Laird assured me, nodding.
"When did he get on the plane?" I asked, my heartbeat hammering, my stomach twisting, wondering why the fuck this hadn't been something I'd considered earlier.
"Seven p.m. last evening," Laird told me, giving me the harsh truth with no chaser.
"Fuck," I hissed, tossing the file, reaching for my phone. "Baird. Does someone have Quinton Baird's number?"
They scrambled for a moment before producing a number, rattling it off while my clumsy fingers tapped my keypad, bringing the phone up to my ear as I paced across my office, feeling a cold sweat break out across the back of my neck.
"Quinton Baird and Associates," a clipped male voice answered. I'd hoped for the office manager. Jules. Melody had made her seem diplomatic and level-headed. The men she worked with? Not so much. And all of them likely holding a grudge against me.
"This is Christopher Adamos," I started, hearing the desperate edge to my voice.
"Yeah?" he cut me off, sounding a hell of a lot more interested suddenly. "Well, in that case, you can go ahead and go fuck yourself."
"Melody is in dang-" I started before realizing he had ended the call.
"Fuck," I snapped, trying again. It rang once, got answered, and hung up again. By the third call, I found my number blocked. "God damn it," I hissed, rushing out of the study, going into my room, grabbing a suitcase, tossing things from my closet in it.
"Mr. Adamos?" Laird asked, following me.
"Get me a flight out of Santorini tonight. I need to land in New Jersey, if at all possible. And I need a car when I get there."
"Right," he agreed, already reaching for his phone. "And Alexander?"
"Bring him back to Zagori. But don't let him out of your sight. I don't think it is safe for all of us to be in the same place right now. I don't have a lot of political pull in the States. If I get caught, I will be doing time. I need to know Alexander is here and safe. If nothing else, Cora can take him on."
"Anything else?" he asked, jotting down a note in his phone.
"Keep trying to get through to Baird while I am traveling," I demanded, rushing out of the door, running down the steps.
If I were thinking rationally, I would have realized that my best option would be to stay put, try to get through to the office, or any single member of her team. Not to get on a plane and waste sixteen hours in the air.
But I wasn't thinking rationally.
All I could think of was that Chernev had boarded a flight to the U.S. a day ahead of me. And that there was only one thing in the States he wanted.
Melody.
I couldn't let him get her.
I had to do something.
I couldn't twiddle my fucking thumbs in my home while God-knew what was happening to her half the world away.
I had to get there.
I had to do something.
I had to protect my woman.
SIXTEEN
Miller
"Explain the logic of protecting your dick but not your head or chest," I said, as Bellamy walked into the safe house above the office holding one of the bulletproof vests from the first floor over his crotch.
"I'm too valuable for you to kill me, but I wouldn't put a castration above you," he said, giving me one of those smiles that made it easy to forget he drugged and kidnapped you.
"You know, a good insurance policy against getting your cock chopped off by an angry woman would be not being such a fucking dick," I suggested as he tossed the vest to the side, moving into the space.
I was on the