Page 77 of Under Control

Carrick was right. I should have done this a long time ago.

“Sign the fucking document.” Andriy pushed the barrel of his gun harder against her temple.

“No.” Danica straightened her back and she shot fire at him.

Petrov stood, hateful disbelief in his eyes. He uttered a familiar threat, one that used to terrify her. “Ne slushaysya menya, ty umresh’ odin.”

Fear rushed over her body, leaving her feeling like a small, helpless child once more.‘Disobey me and you will die alone.’Her gaze flitted over to Andriy’s scowling face, then back to her uncle. She had never doubted that Petrov would actually kill her.

Yet, everything Carrick had ever said to her and every way he’d made her feel rushed across her mind. That was the moment Danica knew that she had to fight back, because if she didn’t, she was already dead.

Petrov pushed the documents across the table at her and threw down a pen.

Through clenched teeth, she growled, “Go to hell.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Carrick

“Fuck,” Carrick growled as he marched through his kitchen, whipping open every cupboard.

Where is the fucking whiskey?

He couldn’t remember.

He stopped remembering.

All he felt was pure anger, pain—until he opened one door so hard that a picture fell from the inside of it. It was a corner cupboard that he rarely went into—one that had all that extra shit in a kitchen that he rarely used. And what fell out was a picture his aunt had taped there after he’d paid her to decorate the place. He’d only seen it a couple of times—and not for a while.

It’s me and Lauren.

Carrick reached out and grabbed it. He hadn’t seen Lauren’s face in a long, long time. There were no pictures of her around—and especially no pictures of them together. For too long, it had burned him deep inside to even think of her.

He turned to the view of the Pacific Ocean. It hadn’t been long ago since he had been diving with the SEALs—a couple of years. He remembered the long training days, weeks, months—and the longer deployments. The difficulty and toughness of it. He was away a lot. He was never home—all because he wanted to do his part for his country. Did he regret it? Carrick let out a long breath, knowing that he only really regretted not being home enough and missing all those moments with Lauren. He’d never expected that they had an expiration date. He’d always thought there was another day to do all the same stuff—until, there wasn’t, until he was alone, until Lauren was gone.

And here I am—alone again.

Dani’s gone.

Flexed and hardened, he grabbed his phone out of his pocket and called Delta. It was time to focus. Work. The hardened operator inside him was happy to take back control, beating out every last ounce of weakness inside him.

“Matteo,” Carrick said once Delta picked up.

“No one calls me that,” Delta scowled back. “What do you want?”

“Let’s finish this. You still in?”

Delta took a minute to reply, leaving Carrick hanging to wonder if his friend really was out—in a real, irreversible way.

But, finally, Delta said, “Yeah, fine.”

“Good. Mount up,” Carrick ordered into the phone, moving toward the closet near the bathroom where he kept his gun safe. “Where are you?”

“Around the corner. We going after her?” Delta responded, anger still high in his tone.

“We need to do something first.”

“Not Andriy again—”

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