Page 56 of Merciless Promise
Seconds later, I heard the loud knock, and I got up to let him in. Nolan stepped inside, then flashed an apologetic look at me. “You don’t think she tried to run, do you?”
I couldn’t fault him for thinking that, as it was common knowledge that the two of us clashed on a semi-normal basis. These were questions that needed to be asked, as asinine as they now were.
“Last night something happened between us.”
“Is she hurt?” he asked.
I also couldn’t blame him for suspecting the worst of me. My hatred for her was well known between me and those I’d trusted the most. There were very few men in the entire Brannington Empire that I trusted more than Nolan and Eli. The former had not only been my right-hand man for most of my life, but my best friend as well. Anything he asked was done so to help me get to the bottom of her disappearance.
“No, the two of us talked and we came to an understanding.”
“Are you sure that you didn’t misread the understanding?”
I growled, then tamped it down as I reminded myself that he was simply trying to help. “We confessed our love to one another, and our marriage is now real.”
“Maybe she was more on board with it at the time, but has since changed her mind. She might’ve even gotten scared. You know fickle women can be.”
“No,” I said while shaking my head. “We’re in a good spot. Let’s wait for Eli to get back. She had to have just gone to getbreakfast.” I looked at the time, then grimaced. “Or possibly brunch. Whatever!”
Another knock sounded, and Nolan went to answer it this time as I started to pace. I automatically grabbed my cell phone to see if I could figure out her whereabouts. Right now, I was using a tracking app that had been installed on the phone, but I knew I needed to use the one I’d had placed on it back in Ireland.
Eli came in and shook his head at my hopeful expression. “A few saw someone walking that possibly fit her description.”
“Where is she? Where did she go?”
“One said something about an alley, but New York City has one on every fucking block,” Eli said, and I could tell how upset he was about it all. He’d been tasked with keeping her safe the entire time we’d been together, and I knew the two had developed a bond.
“It shows her on the move, according to this,” I said, and both Nolan and Eli came over to look.
“That’s quite a distance from here, especially if she was on foot,” Nolan said. “Let me check out some of the nearby surveillance cameras in the city. She is obviously in a vehicle right now, and we know it’s not her own.”
“Fuck! What if he’s gotten to her?” I asked as my worst fears came to life. And if not Aram, it could be even worse. Fuck, what if it was... “I need to make a call.”
I quickly stepped away from the men and found my cousin’s phone number. It rang twice before he answered. “King, what’s up?”
“Where is Daideó?”
“He’s back in Dublin. Is there something wrong?”
“Ekaterina is missing.”
“Missing? What happened? And are you sure?”
I raked a hand over my head, then began to pace more. “Nothing’s missing outside of my wife and her cell phone. Everything else she has in here.”
“She probably just went for a jog or something.”
“No, someone saw her enter an alley, then a dark colored vehicle drive away.”
“That still doesn’t mean that she didn’t go will?—”
“Boss, you need to see this,” Nolan said, and both me and Eli hurried over to him.
Cillian was still on the line, and I could tell that he was waiting for me to tell him what it was. I looked down at the laptop and saw Ekaterina slow her steps as she approached a particular alleyway that had to be no more than a block away from here.
“Is that her?” Nolan asked me.
I could tell by her body that it was because I’d recognize it anywhere. I had studied and watched her so intently for months, and I’d not only memorized every inch of her, but I had touched it as well.
