Page 161 of Made for Sinners

“She’s being taken to our family’s compound,” he continued. “Outside the city. Aleksander wants leverage.”

“She’s not leverage,” I said, my voice low and deadly. “She’s my wife.”

“I know,” Nikolai said. “That’s why I’m calling.”

“Then stop it,” I snapped. “Call it off.”

“I can’t,” he said. “Aleksander has… recruited half of Moscow’s underworld. Mercenaries. Ex-military. He’s preparing for something bigger. If you show up, you’ll die.”

I went still.

The silence on the line was deafening.

I picked up the nearest glass and hurled it across the room. It shattered against the wall, shards raining down like ice.

“Then set up a meeting,” I said through gritted teeth. “Neutral ground. Just you and me.”

Nikolai hesitated. “I’ll try.”

“Don’t try,” I said, my voice low and lethal. “Do it. Because if I don’t have her back by tomorrow night, I’m coming for all of you. Aleksander. His men. His money. His legacy. I will salt the earth he walks on.”

There was a pause. A long one. Then Nikolai exhaled, like he’d been holding his breath.

“I’ll call you back in an hour.”

“You have thirty minutes.”

I ended the call before he could argue.

The room was silent again. The kind of silence that comes before a storm. The kind that tastes like blood and smoke.

I turned to my brothers. “Gear up.”

Rafe nodded, already moving. “We’ll need eyes on the compound.”

“I want a team ready to breach,” I said. “Luca, take point on logistics. Leo, get the safe house prepped. If we get her out, she’s not going back to the estate. Not until this is over.”

Luca cracked his knuckles. “You got it.”

“Dante,” Leo said, stepping closer. “What if she’s already?—”

“Don’t,” I snapped, cutting him off. “Don’t finish that sentence.”

He nodded once. “Understood.”

I turned back to the monitors, watching the red blinking dot that marked the last known location of the SUV. My jaw clenched so tight it felt like it might snap.

I had failed her.

I had promised her safety. Promised her peace.

And now she was in the hands of men who didn’t understand what it meant to touch something that belonged to me.

They would learn.

I would teach them.

With bullets. With blood.

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