Page 197 of Ripped Veil (Ripped Bratva)

He hesitates—very unlike him. “I’ve been trying to reach you, sir. So the situation is, that the, uh—”

I don’t like where this is headed. “Spit it out, Gunther. I have shit I need to do.”

“The girl—er, Miss Elyssa—she walked out of here a few hours ago,” he says, trying to speak past his nerves. “She said she wanted to go see her parents.”

I tense, aware that Matvei is straining his ears to hear Gunther’s side of the conversation.

“‘Walked out of here…’” I echo in disbelief. “And you just…let her go?”

“She made some good points, sir. Told me she wasn’t a prisoner and that she was leaving her kid behind and everything. Made sense, ya know? So I said okay. But I didn’t let her go off alone neither if that makes a difference. Vlad went with her.”

That makes me feel better but only slightly. “Vlad’s with her now?”

“Yeah. They’re not back yet.”

I grind my teeth together. “Alright, Gunther. Alert me the second she’s back within range of the mansion.”

I hang up and search for Vlad’s number.

“What’s going on?” Matvei asks. “Is it the girl again?”

I ignore him and hit call on Vlad’s number. He answers immediately.

“Where are you?”

“With Miss Elyssa, boss,” he replies. “In the desert.”

“The desert?” I repeat. “Be a little more specific.”

“It’s hard to say for sure, Don. Pretty much the middle of fucking nowhere. She directed me here. We went southwest. About two hours from the mansion. We got here a few minutes ago.”

“And where is she?”

“Inside.”

“Inside what?”

“Inside the walls,” he explains. “Some kind of compound, like one of those crazy cults that live out here. I saw some sign that said,‘This way to the Sanctuary,’so I guess that’s what it’s called. She said she needed to speak to her parents.”

“She gets one hour,” I say firmly. “If she’s not out by then, go get her and drag her out.”

“Got it, boss.”

I hang up and drop the phone onto the dashboard. “The Sanctuary,” I mutter under my breath. “What the fuck is that?”

Matvei whips out his phone and starts searching. It doesn’t take him long.

“There’s not much. Best I can find is a small article written a couple of years ago. Apparently, they’re supposed to be this fundamentalist group that live off the land. Not friendly to outsiders, it seems.”

“That’s it?”

He nods grimly. “Whoever these bastards are, they don’t leave much of a footprint. Guess you’ll have to ask Elyssa yourself to find out why she went there in the first place. And this time, I wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

* * *

It takes another twenty minutes before we get to the private cemetery.

It’s a lush, verdant meadow set in the middle of the desert. Trees dot the acreage and stir in the hot breeze. The irrigation needed to keep it growing like this must cost a fucking fortune. Actually, I know it does—because I’m the one who pays the bills.

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