Page 8 of Chained Fate
“Thank you, but I couldn’t possibly?—”
“You won’t be imposing,” she says, anticipating my objection.“I could use the company—but only if you want to stay, of course.I promise I won’t pry or push you into any decisions you’re not ready to make.”
She waits, staring at me expectantly, and I honestly don’t know what to say.Despite what she’s saying, it would be an imposition.A huge one.If I understand correctly, she only has one bed in this place, and we’d have to share it.And I wouldn’t even be able to pay her for it.Also, Alexei is bound to find me if I don’t stay on the move.Unless… he would be expecting me to stay on the move.
In fact, he’d probably expect me to get out of Geneva as fast as possible.
But no.I can’t.She has no idea what kind of man I’m running from.I don’t think I would be placingherin danger—Alexei would have no reason to come in here with guns blazing—but still, what if?—
A sudden worsening of my headache scrambles my thoughts.It’s like someone has decided to put my skull in a nutcracker andsqueezeuntil my eyeballs pop.
Gasping, I sink to the floor, so nauseated by the throbbing pain that I can barely breathe, black dots flickering with white behind my closed eyelids.
“Right,” Birgit says.“Come on now.Let’s get you into bed.”
I groan as she pulls me to my feet.“I… won’t be great company,” I manage to say, and she laughs quietly.
“Yeah, I’m getting that vibe.Let’s go anyway.”
Looping an arm around my waist, she guides me to the stairs.
Chapter4
Alexei
“What the fuck do you mean she hasn’t been spotted?”I bark at Chekhov, our head of security.
Judiciously, he backs away.This whole clusterfuck is his fault, and he knows it.He was supposed to have guards at the clinic by the time we arrived, but their plane departed Moscow late due to bad weather, and we beat them to the clinic by about an hour.I figured it was no big deal, as the Molotovs were unlikely to triangulate our location that quickly, and I didn’t want to delay Alina’s surgery by so much as a minute.Stupidly, I didn’t think she would run.Not after fucking me like that.
Not when her freakinglifeis on the line.
Motherfucker.I grit my teeth until my molars ache, then scrub my palms over my unshaven face in an effort to wipe away the fog of exhaustion.I’m taking this out on the wrong person.This clusterfuck is entirelymyfault.I shouldn’t have let her out of my sight—nor gotten off the plane without our usual security measures in place.But I was arrogant.Or maybe the shock of Alina’s diagnosis and the resulting lack of sleep hindered my ability to think straight.Either way, I decided Ruslan and I would be enough to keep Alina safe until our guards arrived, and I never imagined she’d be able to slip away right under my nose—especially given how sick she’s been.
Or how she reached for me in that dressing room.
I push the memory away and force myself to focus.I can rage at my gullibility later.For now, I have to locate her and bring her back before it’s too late.
“How could she not have been spotted?”I repeat, a tad calmer.“How much of the footage have our hackers reviewed?”
Chekhov grimaces.“All of it.The dress shop, which you already know about, is the one and only recording of her.Neither of the traffic cams at the cross streets caught her after she exited the shop.Nor did any security cameras from the nearby businesses—though, with this being an old historic area, there were quite a few shops that didn’t have any cameras whatsoever, including several of the ones immediately surrounding the dress shop.”
Fuck.Unless my wife has suddenly developed the skills of a professional spy, there’s only one explanation for her too-thorough disappearance: her brothers have already gotten involved, specifically Konstantin with his hackers.Though I don’t know why they’d bother erasing the footage from after the dress shop and not from before.Why not erase all of it instead of letting us track her for several blocks?Then again, maybe we got to that footage before they did.Either way, it’s obvious what happened.
Alina saw an opportunity to run, took it, and immediately contacted her brothers—who acted swiftly to cover her digital trail, allowing her to escape unobserved to their designated rendezvous point.
I take another deep breath and try to think through the haze of fury in my brain.It’s been a little over five hours since she climbed out of that window.That means she might still be somewhere in Geneva, waiting to be picked up by her brothers or whoever they’re sending.I doubt the Molotovs just happened to have a trustworthy-enough crew stationed nearby, so they’re probably coming from Moscow, same as my people.How much time does that give me to retrieve Alina before we have to fight a full-out battle?A few hours?More?Less?
Less, I decide.Much less.If the Molotovs tracked my plane and figured out its destination prior to us landing—which is more than likely given Konstantin’s hackers’ capabilities—they were already on the way here when we arrived.So I have a couple of hours at best.After that, things are going to get bloody.
“Make sure our people are stationed at every airport, public or private, within driving distance,” I tell Chekhov as his phone vibrates in his hand.“If we don’t find her before her brothers arrive, we’ll follow them to her.”
“Already on it,” he says absentmindedly, looking at the screen.Suddenly, his posture changes, and his head snaps up to meet my gaze.“Our hackers located the flight plan for the Molotov jet.It’s scheduled to land in four and a half hours at the same airport we used.Both Konstantin and Valery are on board.”
I stare at him, taken aback.“They filed a flight plan?”
That’s not like the Molotovs at all.Normally, they’re very good at concealing their movements—and they’d definitely want to do that this time to avoid leading me to my runaway bride.Unless… they’re sending a separate team to pick her up while we’re distracted by Konstantin and Valery.
Chekhov is clearly thinking along the same lines.“It’s most likely a decoy.”
