“Gas station right before the highway.” Dima’s voice was tight.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. He lived in a private, cut off neighborhood but once you crossed the bridge to the mainland, there were too many damn directions Kir could have taken Dominique. And if he got on the highway… That fear compounded, making him imagine every horrific scenario possible for why Dominique had been taken, what could happen to her.
“We’re going to find her.” Lyosha’s voice made his head jerk around and Viktor realized he was blindly driving in the direction of the gas station but not really seeing anything.
He’d never known what true fear could be until now. Even the times he’d been facing certain death he’d never been afraid like this. Because this was different. This was fear for the woman he loved. He wasn’t afraid of his own death but the thought of her dying—no. It wasn’t happening.
He’d get her back no matter what it took.
Chapter 17
Dominique opened her eyes, blinking against the brightness of the sun… No, not the sun. A spotlight. What the hell?
As the memory of everything came back, her stomach revolted. She’d been kidnapped and forced at gunpoint to drive to some building downtown. That was all she remembered before Kir clocked her in the side of the head. Then…blackness.
She tried to twist around but the movement sent pain splintering through her head. She bit back a groan, unsure if she was alone or not. If she wasn’t she didn’t want to draw attention to herself.
A new fear blasted through her as she looked down at herself. She was in a chair, her hands cuffed to the armrests and… She tried to lift her legs but her ankles were secured too. At least her clothes were still on.
Kir hadn’t said much about why he was bringing her to someone but it was obviously not for a good reason.
Think, she ordered herself. The spotlight in her face was so damn bright that beads of sweat were trickling down her forehead. Blinking, she tried to see past the spotlight and could just make out some random shapes. No, not random… A couple chairs and…huge open windows. Just like in her office. It was hard to tell but she thought she could see a high-rise through the window. She couldn’t be sure though.
She yanked against the cuffs and her chair scooted across the floor a couple inches. The scraping sound echoed slightly.
“Well, well, you’re finally awake.” Snapping footsteps across the concrete floor made her go still. “Smile for the camera, sweetheart.”
*
Viktor slammed his fist against Kir’s face again, the darkest part of him savoring the man’s cry of agony as his nose broke—again. He reared back to hit him but Abram wrapped his arm around Viktor’s neck and yanked him back, tackling him to the ground.
His brother had his arms and legs wrapped around him tight. “You kill him, you kill your chance to find her,” Abram growled, struggling to hold Viktor in place. “Don’t be stupid. Don’t fail her.”
The words rolled through him, bringing him back through the haze of his rage. Though it took effort, he stopped fighting his brother, expelling a ragged breath as he looked at Kir’s prone body. He wasn’t restrained, but he didn’t attempt to get up. Not with Lyosha ten feet away on his laptop working furiously and two of Viktor’s guys standing guard—men who’d been friends with Kir.
The fucking traitor. He’d betrayed them all.
“You really thought you could betray us and get away with it?” His voice was steady.
Abram loosened his grip and they both shoved to their feet.
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” Kir rasped out, his voice uneven. He’d ditched his cell phone but he hadn’t ditched his laptop. Which was how they’d been able to track him.
One of his eyes was swollen shut, his nose broken in multiple places, and blood covered the front of his shirt as he stared up from the floor of the kitchen—in a condo that Lyosha had easily tracked him to. One of Kir’s ankles was broken too, his foot twisted at an odd angle.
It wasn’t enough. Viktor wanted to break every bone in his body with his bare hands when he thought of Dominique somewhere terrified for her life, being hurt… He locked the thought down before he broke Kir’s neck. His brother was right. He needed to stay calm and find out where Dominique was.
He crouched down next to Kir’s head. The man stared at him through his one good eye. “What was it supposed to be like?”
“I was just…giving him info about you. That’s…it.” He wheezed out the last couple words, his face scrunching in pain.
“Who?” Viktor just needed a name. The name of the man who’d orchestrated the kidnapping of the woman he loved. The man who’d turned one of his employees against him.