Chapter 81 - The camera footage

Dimitri.

It has been a little over forty-eight since my wife left me and I am nowhere closer to finding her whereabouts. I am constantly raging and approaching madness because I can hardly sleep and it makes it hard to think clearly. The only thing on my mind is ending the people who caused all of this. The people who thought it a good idea to break into my home and touch what is mine.

Santiago Vasquez is the other person at the every other meeting. I still have not been able to get the identity of the third but soon enough, we'll have them.

I shut my phone after reading the message from one of my contacts in London. I won't say I have tried to go easy on anyone because I never do but now, the only thing on my mind is getting back my wife and punishing everyone whose existence threatens hers.

“There is video proof that she came down here two days before her disappearance and she was distraught after Hayden forced her out." I'm torn between sourness and anger when I mention his name. I truly hope for his sake that it isn't what I think. There should be no way that someone I consider my brother would stab me in the back. I'll get him soon and find out for myself.

“You look miserable. May I know what has you like this?" I can hear the mockery in his tone. The laughter behind every word and I keep asking myself why I keep him. He isn't worth a trophy. He isn't important. He might have been a part of it but he is just a pawn in the grand scheme. He is nothing more than a dispensable foot soldier. Although, he would be a good messenger. The one to get my message across the way I want to.

“I did speak with your wife. Tell her to get away from you as fast as she could. With the way you look, I'm guessing she took it."

“You spoke to her," I repeat, asserting what he said.

He laughs while I sit watching him “Who would have thought? Who would have known that a day like this would come? The day when the almighty Dimitri Ian would be in love. That he would fall so hard that her absence would be the thing to break him."

“Bring her over to me." Brian practically pulls her crying and thrashing but his strength is way more than hers. He brings her to her knees in front of me and I pull her hair backward so that she raises her jaw very high and stares me in the eyes. She is trying to look strong, masking the fear I can smell in her with defiant eyes. like she is ready for anything I bring.

“I got some information right now. Santiago Vasquez." The smile falls from his face as soon as he hears the name. “From the look on your face, I'm guessing you know how close I am to uncovering everything. To think that there is no way for you, the rotten rat, to teach them and warn them." It should be fun doing this but it isn't. I just want to get it done with. I use my fingers to pull her jaw closer to me. “You should know, darling, that I no longer have any use for you. And your father refused to help me."

The defiance in her eyes changes into fear as the mask drops. For the first time in two days, I feel a little bit alive. This is nothing like the satisfaction of having her back with me but it will do for now. “Dimitri, please! I have nothing to do with whatever he is planning. You know I would never support him going against you. I beg you." Her tears do not move me one bit. I gave him time to come clean.

“I already did a lot for you. Gave him time to tell me his truth but he kept stalling. Now that I have gotten what I needed from someone else, there is no need for him to take up space in my house." Carter pulls her up to her feet to face her father and she screams when she looks at him. She keeps pleading and begging and begging.

My wife must have felt that she was in so much danger before she decided to leave. I am not blameless. I have my faults too but they tried to contest everything that I stand for and tried on multiple occasions to kill her. She has known no peace since she married me so the best I can do is wipe out the threat and bring her back home.

The bullet goes through the side of her head, courtesy of Camille, and blood splats cover her father's face. He roars as she drops to the floor, blood flowing from her head staining my floor and going down the drain that Trent creatively designed. He keeps shouting, cussing me out like it has any effect on me.

“You crazy bastard. You should have taken me."

“Patience. I am about to grant you that very wish. Don't worry. You will be seeing her soon. I only need you to help me pass a message across. But first..." I pull out the knife in my pocket and hold his jaw tightly.

“What do you want me to say?" He cries out. His eyes going to and from his daughter.

“You seem to be getting it all wrong. You won't be doing any talking. You are going to remain silent like you have all along. They are gonna be watching and that is enough for me." I take out my knife just as his head is drawn back. I want to make this as painful as possible. His guttural scream fills the room as he finally catches on to what I intend to do.

I go to wash my hands off his blood “Make sure to clean him up just like I told you. Then drive him to his home and set the timer. Make sure to be discreet and quick." I order before I leave for my room.

Coming into this room every day reminds me of what I have lost. Estelle and Brian keep insisting that I should take a break from my home and come over but I refuse. I deserve to be here. To wallow in my loss. Everything in it is clean. Made. But I refuse for the cleaners to touch the sheets. I want to keep her scent lingering in the room. I have her clothes and other things here and they are the only things to keep me hanging on to my sanity. And the fact that sometime very soon, I will be bringing her back.

“Any info on who brought in the ring?" Brian asks before I sit across from him in my study.

“No. The camera footage seems to have been cut off at that time the person walked in." I keep studying the ring in my hand.

“Are you sure? That might not be real..."

“It is the real thing. It has its original owner's initials inscribed on it. I have seen it multiple times. My mother used to tell me how it would someday be mine. When I grew up. My father had it buried with her."

“Whoever it is must have either dug it up or...what if it was lost and never buried with her?"

I have my suspicions about it. I cannot conclude before I investigate. It was never lost. It's one of two things. It's either a different one was made to play mind games with me, or the dead never went to rest.

“Have you spoken with Carter since the last time you both beat each other up?"

I haven't. “No. I am not going to help him nurse his wounds like he's a wounded kitten. If he lost her then he was probably doing something wrong himself."

“You both are so similar in being stubborn. We have to find a way to work together if we're going to get them back and wipe out the threat.

“I don't care about what he does with himself." What I am focused on is finding my wife and that's that.

“And what was that thing he said about her being his wife?"

“So that's all you both have been sitting around doing? Gossiping about me?" Carter asks as he struts in and takes a seat in front of me like he owns the place.

“I don't have the time or energy for your bullshit today."

“I don't have time for yours. Brian sent me the camera footage of when the house was invaded and told me about the ring. And filled me in on the message you sent Hernandez to deliver. I checked and the message has been delivered. Vasquez is on the move. Funny how he has been under our noses all along and just left the country to return to London where he has lived for the past fifteen years." He flings an envelope to me “Contains everything you need to know about him. Till I get more."

“I thought you had no interest in helping me."

“I am simply helping myself. You seem to be forgetting the fact that we are business partners making us accomplices and targets. I am only making preparations for when she comes back. I need a drink." He motions at Brian who passed him the Brandy.

“And how sure are you that she would come back?" Brian asks “She chose to leave with her friend in the first place." He probably knows that his last statement twisted the stake in my heart which is why he turned to look at me.

“She doesn't have a choice." A silent communication of understanding passes through us. I can hear the desperation in his voice. Feel it seeping from him. It is almost a perfect reflection of what I am feeling.

“Does this mean that everything is back to normal? You guys are cool?"

“It means we're okay working together." His response is good for both of us.

“I had Warren Evans investigated. Turns out there is one but not the same person who has been showing up at my doorstep. This one is an imposter." It makes me a million times agitated that the man she thought to trust has no identity. The one she chose to leave with instead of staying with me. It makes me both mad and scared that she is out there with a lunatic who is probably siding with our enemies to take her out. To punish me.

“Do you think he might be working with the others?"

“I do not care so much who he works with. What I care about is that I gave him a pass, because of her, and that act of mercy has come back to bite me in the fucking ass. He touched what belonged to me and I won't condone it." All I need to do is locate him. The bastard is sneakier than a snake.

Trent walks in with a laptop in his hands. I still have not gotten over the fact that he is with Alana but it's good that he understands what is at stake here and that he's present. “I found something."

He turns the laptop to me “See that?" He points to a car number plate “It belongs to Hayden. It shows him going in the same direction that the other car went. We lose him at the same place we lost them."

“We can very well say that Hayden might know her whereabouts. We just need to find him and he has been absent."

“If he has a hand in this, I won't spare him." And that is final. They know not to argue it even if they want to.

“I heard something the other day and I wasn't sure I heard it correctly. You said ‘wife' when Dimitri spoke about her." He turns to Carter.

“I did."

“How and when?"

“At the altar. In a chapel. In Vegas."

“Did she have a say in it or did you devise some devious plan to get her into it? Cos I know you very well and I know she wouldn't easily agree to marry you."

“How are you sure? You don't know her well enough."

“I know what Estelle tells me."

“All I'm gonna tell you is that no one can resist me and now, she's married to me."