Page 118 of Destined for the Devil
My vision blurred just from the little tremble in her voice when she pronounced my name.
Um, I'm not sure where I am, but the person who took me…ugh…wants you to figure it out. They said that you…fucked up. That you didn't do your due diligence. And if you want me back, you're going to have to use your spy skills.
This was rehearsed; I picked up on that right away. Isla was trying to remember what she had to say next.Forced.My Angel was forced to say all these words.
I'm not hurt. They’ve been very…merciful…to me.She paused and looked straight into the camera. Merciful—she emphasized that wordfor some reason.
They said they don't want me. They don't want to hurt me. They want you to figure it out. They’re waiting. They’ll wait for as long as needed…and they will keep me until you put the pieces of the puzzle together.
The video cut there, and I looked up at Claudio, who had his eyebrows raised and listened along with me. "Shit, Roman. This ain't us. This ain't anyone here, man." He spoke as if defending and denying it all.
At the bottom of the video there were two letters:GP
My mind was overheating; I was sure it was about to melt out of me. I hadn’t slept, hadn’t eaten; the desperation was wringing everything out of me, but I just receiveda huge fucking win.
The text came fromherphone. That meant that it had to be turned on, and now…now I would fuckingfind her.I was going to pinpoint her exact location and blow the motherfucker who took her right off this planet.
This was a mistake on his part. Either he was sloppy, or he didn’t know a live phone pings a tower with location data down to a few hundred meters. Whatever it was, the advantage was now mine.
Scenarios infiltrated my mind. I would bring a fuckingarmy.I woulddestroyhim. I’d use mine and Kirill’s men to fucking annihilate him, rip him apart in front of my eyes, dismember him, squish him into a wet and bloody mess. I would crush his fucking bones. I would turn him into ash.Dust.There would benothingleft of him. Not even a whisper.
I refocused back on the video, my chest aching. My Angel didn’t look hurt. That was very important. Even if she was forced to say the words, she looked well rested, alert, and not drugged. That was important, I repeated to myself.That was important.
"You should send a video back." Claudio cut in, ripping me out of my spiral.
"What's GP?" My sight caught on the two letters again, my inner statedancing between dread and elation.
But what if he knew that he was revealing her location when he turned on the phone?What if that was the plan—to invoke this kind of reaction? To bait me? And was it a he? Or athem?And what were they planning to do to her…if I bulldozed my way in?
Claudio stretched out his hand, the disapproval written all over his aging face. “Pass it, let me see.” I plopped my phone into his meaty palm while he placed his glasses on the bridge of his nose. “You're going to have to get rid of this guy's body, by the way.”
I looked down at the dead man, wishing it was me and nothing in my life had ever happened. Claudio pressed play, and I heard her voice again, holding back tears for the hundredth time these past three days.
“G…P…” Claudio mused. "Fuck, it could be anything. General practitioner? Good practice? Guinea pig? Games played? General partnership? Double penetration? Oh no, that's DP." He chuckled, smug with himself, but I almost fucking ripped his head off. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, bad joke!" He shook his head in defense and passed me the phone again. “Jesus.”
"What if GP is a place? A street? A country? A city? What starts with a G and a P?” I wondered out loud, sifting through every country, city, and location I knew that started with the letter G.
“Maybe it’s initials.” Claudio offered carefully.
Yes…his proposition seemed way more plausible. “They said you didn’t do your due diligence. Maybe it’s someone you missed? Someone around her or you…who was dangerous?" Fuck, Claudio was making perfect sense.
Claudio walked me to my car, but before he shut my door, he leaned in and spoke calmly. “If I find your girl, I want those contracts. Go home and sleep. Clear your fucking head before you make a mistake and lose her. I'll ask around about GP and call Vincenzo again."
But I didn’t drive home. I raced across the city to see the one fucking man who could help me find the location.
Sergei.
Lena answered the door and immediately tried to slam it shut, but I didn’t even blink—just shoved her out of the way and barged in. She protested, waving her arms in front of me and yapping like a rabid dog.
I stormed upstairs and busted through every door until I found him peacefully sleeping in a guest bedroom, bandaged and resting like he wasn’t the biggest piece of shit on the entire planet.
Neither he nor I could say anything; we just stared at each other. He was beaten up, bruised, and cut, butalive. And I fought with the last of my pride not to shoot him in his stupid, fucking face.
Lena followed me into his room, her voice shrill and fast, accusing me of whatever wrongdoings she thought I was involved in, but Sergei sternly cut her off. “Get out.” She stared at him for a second but then turned on her heels and walked out, not daring to argue.
I stood at the foot of his bed, nausea returning with full force. His confession echoed in my ears, making my head spin.He.He fucking betrayed me in a way that was unforgivable. He stood beside me when we lowered her coffin into the ground andcriedwith me. And he fucking killed her. He took mysister.
All because he was a ruthless animal, selfish, self-serving, violent, and aggressive. He destroyed a beautiful, innocent life because he couldn’t fucking take no for an answer. Because he wanted what he couldn’t have.
