Chapter 114 114

Chapter 114 114

After a painful afternoon of making phone calls and arrangements when I’d rather be making funeral plans for my baby brother, things are finally in motion.

Seamus’ promise of Irish assistance holds steady, and his men are at my disposal and willing to take commands from me. Half of the Bratva men who bailed at the news of my betrayal this morning have returned as well. I assure them there are no hard feelings. Mostly because I can’t afford to be picky right now. I need every bit of help I can scrounge up if we are going to save Molly.

Though, things aren’t quite as desperate as I thought this morning. While a good number of men did bail on me and the Bratva, more than I realized stayed behind. Their loyalty to me and the Bratva remains, and they trust me to end Fedor, regardless of the Bratva rules I broke.

Still, even with the Irish and remaining Russian men looking together, no one is able to find any trace of Molly or the location of Fedor’s current hideout.

“We’ll find her,” Petr says, squeezing my shoulder. “I’m sure of it.”

I want to believe him, but more and more, I’m starting to allow myself to consider what will happen if we don’t find her. What will life look like if Molly is gone?

I’ll take care of Theo no matter what. He is my son, regardless of genetics. But is that what is best for him? I want to be the one who comforts him when he cries and tells him stories about his mom, but maybe Molly was right all along. Maybe he deserves a better man than me.

Niamh and Seamus never had children, but they would be a good, loving home for him. Maybe they would take him.

The thought of him calling someone else ‘dad’ makes me feel sick, but I’ll do whatever is best for Theo. Always. I owe Molly at least that much.

My phone rings, interrupting my thoughts, and I lunge across the table for it.

The number is unknown, and that is more exciting to me than anything else.

Maybe Molly escaped. Maybe she got away from Fedor and is calling me from a random phone somewhere. Maybe I can get in my car and go pick her up and wrap her in my arms.

My heart is hurling itself against my chest by the time I answer.

So, when I hear the female voice on the other end of the line, the disappointment is physically painful.

“Hannah?”

“Don’t hang up,” she says quickly, her voice desperate.

“Don’t tell me what to do, you bitch,” I spit at her, standing up and pacing across the small room.

Petr is frowning at me, but I’m too livid to explain. My hands are shaking, and I want to throw my

phone across the room. “You turned your back on your best friend. You deserve whatever hell comes your way.”

“He has my mom,” Hannah says, her voice breaking. “He was blackmailing me, and I didn’t know what to do. I’m sorry. I’m so … so sorry.”

I hear her crying on the other end of the line, but I have no sympathy for her. She could have chosen not to participate and gone to the police. Or, better yet, she could have come to me. She could have told me what was going on and allowed me to help her, but she didn’t. She got Molly kidnapped and maybe killed.

“I should have told you,” she says through tears. “I should have told both of you, but I was so scared. I thought if I just did what Fedor wanted that he would give me back my mother, but now I know it was all a lie.”

“No shit. I could have told you that. Molly could have, too. We know him better than you, and we could have helped.”

“I know, and I’m sorry, but I want to help.”

“Why should I listen to you?” I ask. “Better yet, why should I trust you?”

“Because Molly saved me.” Her voice is soft, and I hear her sniffle through the phone.

“What do you mean?”

Hannah tells me about the moments leading up to Molly’s kidnapping. She tearfully explains that Fedor was going to shoot her and take Molly, but Molly grabbed the gun and told Hannah to run. Even after being lied to and betrayed by her friend for weeks, Molly saved Hannah’s life.

“She is a good person,” Hannah says. “Probably the best person I know, and I feel like a piece of shit for betraying her. So, I’d like to help.”

I want to hang up the phone and forget Hannah exists. Actually, I’d like to hang up the phone, track her down, and make her regret every lie she told—but I know that won’t do much to help Molly now.

However, Molly’s example shines like a lighthouse in the distance, guiding me home. She saved Hannah as her last act of freedom, and I have to believe it means something. I have to trust her instincts even when my own instincts are screaming at me to disconnect the call.

I drop my face into my hand and shake my head. “How can you help?”

Hannah sighs with relief. “I have an idea.”

23

MOLLY

Idon’t know how long it has been since the phone call with Viktor. It feels like hours since I heard his voice through the speaker, wondering where I was and if I was okay. I could hear the fear in his voice. I could sense how much he loved me. But still, when Fedor revealed that Viktor had hired—or rather, nearly hired—men to break into my house and scare me, it made me doubt everything.

As soon as Fedor hung up, two of his men dragged me back to my cell, and I’ve been here ever since, trying to understand my own feelings.

I told myself before that feelings didn’t matter in here. They wouldn’t help me escape. But now, my feelings feel as inescapable as my cell. No matter how hard I try to push them away, they rise back to the surface, demanding to be felt and understood.

Betrayal.

That is the first and strongest emotion.

Viktor was willing to terrify me and invade my privacy and traumatize Theo to get me to marry him.

Whatever Viktor may think his motivation was, it wasn’t love. Love does not hurt like that. Love is not vindictive or scheming.

But he chose not to send the men in. He didn’t hire anyone to come and scare us—Fedor did. The fact that Fedor got the idea by listening in on Viktor’s conversation adds an entirely new and confusing layer to the situation.

I go around in circles, trying to be angry and disgusted with Viktor, but as hard as I try, I still want him here with me. Even while I’m internally screaming at him for being such a bastard, I long to feel his strong arms around me, telling me everything will be okay.

Plus, crazily enough, if I had taken the protection Viktor had offered me and allowed the guards to follow me last night, I probably wouldn’t be trapped in this cell right now. But I bypassed those security measures and took my safety into my own hands, and now look where I am.