Page 81 of Deceptive Vows
As moonlight filtered through the distant windows, painting silver stripes across the concrete floor, I closed my eyes and began to plan. Three days until the auction. Three days to engineer an escape.
And then, when these women were safe, I would find Marco Moretti andthe Gray Wolves who had taken Nazar from me. The men who had turned my wedding day into a funeral.
I twirled the platinum band on my finger, the metal catching what little light there was in our prison. A promise, both to the man I had lost and to myself.
I would survive. I would escape. And I would make them bleed.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
NAZAR
Pain was my first awareness,a brutal, unyielding drumbeat against my skull. My lungs burned with each shallow breath, and every breath dragged fire through my ribs. Then came the voices, distant at first, then sharpening into familiar tones.
“His blood pressure is rising. He might be waking up.”
“Nazar? Can you hear me?”
Pasha. The relief in his voice was palpable.
I forced my eyes open, immediately regretting it as harsh fluorescent light sent daggers through my skull. A groan escaped my lips as I tried toorient myself. White ceiling tiles. The consistent beep of monitors. The antiseptic smell of hospital disinfectant.
“Don’t try to move.” Pasha’s face swam into focus above me, lines of worry etched around his eyes. His hand pressed firmly against my shoulder as I instinctively tried to sit up. “You need to stay still.”
Images flashed, the crash, Thea being dragged away, blood on my hands.
“Thea.” Her name tore from my throat, raw and desperate as I struggled against Pasha’s restraining hand. “I need my phone. The tracker.”
Lucas's breath caught. "Tracker?"
I took a shaky breath. "Her wedding band. I added it last night. If they didn't strip it from her, it should lead us to her."
“Lie still, Nazar.” Pasha’s voice was gentle but firm. “You have a severe concussion, two broken ribs, and twenty-seven stitches in your head. You’ve been drifting in and out of consciousness for nearly six hours.”
“I don’t care.” I tried to push his hand away, ignoring the wave of dizzinessand nausea that followed. “They took her. The Wolves. We need to…”
Pasha placed my screen-cracked phone in my hand. A rush of gratitude filled me when it lit up. I pulled up the tracking app, my heart sinking as I saw the status:Signal Lost—Last Location 6 Hours Ago.
"Damn it." I dropped the phone onto the bed. "They found it. Or they're somewhere the signal can't penetrate."
I could still see her face—the veil, the silk, the moment before it was all ripped away. The Wolves had taken my wife. My vows meant nothing if I couldn’t bring her back.
"We're working on it," Lucas said, his voice tight with controlled fury.
My vision finally steadied enough to take in the full room. A private hospital suite—expensive and discreet. Pasha stood closest to my bed, relief and anger warring in his expression. Lucas stood at the foot, tension radiating from him.
“How?” My question encompassed everything—how I was still alive, how they had found me, how I had ended up here while Thea was still in the hands of the Wolves.
“Her brothers had a hunch.” Pasha noddedtoward Lucas. “They saved your life. Ari caught one at the church before he could set explosives."
“Lex and Dimitris and I followed you,” Lucas said. “When we saw the crash...” He trailed off, jaw tight.
“They were too far behind to prevent it,” Pasha continued. “But they got there before the Wolves could finish what they started.”
“The Wolves?” My voice was steadier now as the initial shock began to fade.
“Three dead,” Pasha confirmed with grim satisfaction. “The one they caught at the church is secured at their warehouse outside the city.”
A savage satisfaction coursed through me. At least there was a thread to pull.
