Page 67 of Between Us

“Go upstairs and don't hang up.” Flicking his eyes from the road to his list of contacts, he called his sister. As soon as the line connected, he asked in a tight voice, “Is Alessandra with you?”

“Uh, no,” Tatyana said, sounding confused. “Why?”

“Just asking. Talk to you later.” Ending the call, he slammed his foot on the gas.

“Her parents' house, maybe?” Dimitri suggested as he fastened his seatbelt, having caught on to the problem. “It's worth a try.”

“And if she's not there? Rossetti is going to have a fucking fit.”

“But what if sheisthere?”

Roman shook his head, keeping his gaze on the traffic ahead as he sped home. “She wouldn't go without telling me. Something's not adding up.”

The ring of his phone startled him. Seeing it was his brother, he answered.

Alek sounded annoyed. “Ivan stood me up. He was supposed to meet with me at Sunshine to talk to Misha. The asshole never came.”

“Ivan,” Roman muttered, his eyes moving to Dimitri. “Where is Ivan?”

Dimitri shrugged. “Fuck if I know.”

Roman's chest tightened as a nasty thought hit him. That motherfucker wouldn't dare.Would he?

“Find him,” he barked to the man at his side, then reached over to switch the call back to Andrei. “Alek, get your ass to my place. Now.”

By the time he made it home, Andrei was sitting on the hood of his car, smoking. He threw the butt to the ground and jumped to his feet to greet Roman. A second later, Alek's sports Audi was pulling up behind Roman's car, tires screeching.

Alek slammed his door closed, and Roman was surprised to see he'd brought Stepan with him. “What's going on?”

“Alessandra is gone.” Roman walked up to the front door, needing to see for himself, and maybe hoping for a fucking miracle and for her to materialize out of thin air. The rest of the men followed.

“She ran away?” Stepan asked, sounding a little incredulous as he caught up to him.

“No, I think she's been taken,” he said in a tight voice, his eyes scanning the empty foyer. “Ivan is missing, too.He's not answering his phone.”

Stepan paused in the doorway and gave Roman a strange look. “You think...”

“He'd better not,” Roman said through gritted teeth, fighting against the panic rising up from the pit of his stomach. He needed to keep a cool head so he could fuckingthink.

“Call every man,” his friend suggested. “See if anyone else is missing.”

“Already did that,” Dimitri announced. “Nobody has seen Ivan or Boris today. Which is strange, because Ivan missed a meeting with Alek, and Boris was supposed to supervise a delivery today but he never showed up.”

Roman looked away, his eyes landing on Alessandra's pink bomber jacket hanging from the coat rack. “If they touched her...” His words trailed off as his thoughts turned so dark they consumed him from the inside out.

“What do we do,brat?” Alek asked quietly.

Silence followed.

Realizing all eyes were on him, Roman gave his head a slight shake, trying to clear his mind. He needed to think, but it was hard with his thoughts racing and his heart beating a hundred miles per hour. “Get me Damir. He has eyes everywhere and can track anyone in this goddamn city.”

???

“Found her,” Damir announced in gritty Russian as soon as Roman picked up the phone. The bear-resembling Siberian wasn’t a part of the brotherhood, but he could have easily been with how often their paths crossed. “An associate of mine saw one of your cars drive into Englewood an hour ago. It headed into the industrial area. I'll send you the location.”

Roman closed his eyes in relief as his fingers tightened around the phone. “Thank you, Damir. I owe you one.”

“Don’t mention it.”

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