“Goddamn it, Ive, this is no time to second guess. They’re going to kill her. They’re already torturing her.”
Swiping my arm across my desk, I sent the whole contents but the phone flying to the floor.”Do you think I don’t fucking know that?” I asked.
“I made a vow to my wife. I promised her. I told her she was Volkov. I told her nothing bad would ever happen again. I was going to protect her.”
“You’re Volkov now, Charlotte. That means nothing will ever happen to you again.”
I’d told her those very words after she got the ink. But now she’d been taken. The love of my life.
Turning to Vlad, I told him to get the car ready.
“I’ll call my boys,” Rage said.
“No.”
I glared at him. “If you bring an army, he’ll kill her.”
“And you don’t think he’s going to bring men? This is a suicide mission, Ive. You can’t do that. Charlotte won’t let you and they will kill her and you.”
“My wife is not dying today.”
Grabbing my cell phone, I leave my office and head down to the main street where Vlad is waiting. I don’t allow Rage to drive with me. I’m going to arrive on my own. As Vlad pulled away from the curb, my cell phone lit up.
“You go to the meeting,” Ivan said.”You knew,” I said. “Youknew they were going to take her.”
“Charlotte is not going to die today.”
“Tell me what the fuck you know!”
Ivan hung up.
I wanted to throw the phone, destroy it, lash out all my pent-up aggression, but instead, I put my cell phone on the seat beside me.
Hubert had been killed with a single gunshot wound to the head. He and Rose hadn’t been able to react. The bastard who’d shot Hubert had then shot Rose. The vet had told me she would do everything in her power to keep Rose alive. I loved that dog. My wife loved that dog. Nothing could happen to either one.
Running a hand down my face, I felt the tension rising inside me. The anger, the rage, It started to consume me, filling me, and it was exactly what I needed.
Three years. Charlotte and I had three years, and they were not enough. She couldn’t die on me. No one was going to take her from me.
Our three years together had been the most amazing of all. Coming home had been a dream come true. No matter what time of day it was, other than early in the morning, my wife would come rushing toward me. If I was alone, she’d throw herself into my arms. If I wasn’t alone, she’d offer me the sweetest of smiles.
Rose was the same, always coming over, demanding hugs and even some kisses. I’d lost count of the numberof times she’d bathed my face with her tongue.
Charlotte hadn’t gotten pregnant yet. We’d gone to the doctor and both of us had been checked. Everything was fine, but it was going to take time. So I enjoyed every single moment of our time together.
I loved having her at my side when we were invited to dinner with Ivan or the other brigadiers.
She had stopped referring to herself as trash. I might havehad something to do with that as I kept asking her the question, and whenever she’d been tempted to say trash, I withdrew her orgasm from her. For several months we practiced this, and I got her used to not referring to herself as trash.
I never forgot her birthday. She made a point of celebrating both of our birthdays with equal enthusiasm. She also began decorating our home or our penthouse suite for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. We saw in New Year’s together, naked, watching the fireworks in the sky from our bedroom in the penthouse with the curtains open. Rose hated the fireworks, so she’d always come to the bottom of the bed or she’d find a way to scootch in between us, and we’d both comfort our dog.
Rose couldn’t die. Neither could Charlotte. She had given me so much. I loved her more than anything in the world.
After I got the initial callthey had taken her, I’d gotten my man to send the security camera footage to my email. There I had watched. Hubert didn’t stand a chance. Someone had been waiting for them. I’d seen them waiting behind the park bushes.
Someone had figured out my wife’s routine and waited for the right moment to pounce.
I was going to kill them all. The cartel thought they stood achance. They didn’t.
I’d called Ivan after I had seen the footage, and he’d not been shocked by it. He’d hung up after telling me to wait forfurther instructions.
I don’t know how he’d known, but he had. Did he know because one of his spies told him? Did he know because someone within the cartel had alerted him to what was about to happen? From my sources, Ivan had been with Victor in his territory.
I arrived at the spot, and I saw Charlotte instantly. The ground was dirt, barren. There were no houses for miles, and as Vlad brought the car to a stop, I climbed out, and I saw them. The cartel werea few feet behind her, guns raised, ready to pull the trigger. No one stood with my wife, and I knew they had hurt her. She was standing on only one foot. The other was shaped at an odd angle. She also nursed one of her wrists close to her chest, that was broken as well. Her face had blood over it and I saw more blood covering her body.
Getting out of the car, I stopped. Rage joined me minutes later. He’d been following me.
Staring at my wife, seeing her look at me, I could read her. She was so happy to see me, but she knew. The moment she took a step toward me, she knew she was going to die. They had done this on purpose. One of them had moved her to where she was now, and left her. She was going to grow tired fast. At least they hadn’t killed her.
I held a gun in my hand and I had it pointed at theman I knew to be their leader. He stood at the head, a smirk on his face. He also had a golden gun. His body was heavily inked, and I knew he was the one I needed to take out. What they didn’t understand was that all of them would die today.
Three years. I wasn’t only going to have three years. How did I get her out of this mess? Our life had been incredible.
I can’t even believe this shit had happened.
My wife was mine. I wassupposed to protect her. Love her. There was no way I would allow any of them to take her from me. Charlotte was mine. But I knew she needed to make that step. She needed to move. I don’t know how long she stood there, but she was growing tired. They were going to kill her.
Vlad, Rage, and I were the only ones here.