I called Dmitri.
“Cousin,” he answered. “I hope tonight met your expectations.”
“He has her,” I said in Russian.
“What do you mean he has her?”
“Carter kidnapped her father, and Eva’s gone after him on her own.”
“Stupid fucking children,” Dmitri swore. “All right, brother. What do you need?”
My phone buzzed—Tristan. I ignored it so I could continue my call with Dmitri.
“Everything. We need to get Eva and her father back. And Cole, who’s buying us time to get there.”
My voice was steady, even though my hands shook. Even now, I played a role—competent, ruthless, in control—though I was anything but. I didn’t have a plan. I haddesperation and rage and the fury that Eva was once again in danger because I’d failed her.
“I’ll send you an address. Meet me there. We’ll get your girl back, I promise.”
So many promises today. I wasn’t sure any of us would be able to keep them.
Tristan arrived a minute after I’d hung up.
“What the fuck is going on?” he asked, still wearing sweat-soaked clothes and smelling like hockey. He must have come straight from the locker rom. “Nobody is answering my calls.”
I explained what had happened, keeping my voice steady and reassuring. It was a lie, but Tristan didn’t need to know that, not now.
“You’ll go back to the hockey house and wait for us,” I said.
“The fuck I will,” he said. “She’s in this mess because I thought it’d be fun to blackmail her with Cole instead of helping her. I’m not letting you and Cole face Jed Carter alone.”
“If this goes wrong, people are going to die. If the cops get involved, this is the end of your hockey career,” I said. “That’s not what she would want.”
“Yeah, she wanted to go off and do this on her own instead of asking for help,” Tristan snapped. “So forgive me if I’m a little less concerned with what she wants than what we need to do next to save her.” His voice cracked on the last word. He took a deep breath and scrubbed his hands over the durag covering his braids. “I’m going with you, end of story.”
“Have you ever even shot a gun?” I asked him.
Tristan’s lips curved up in a slow smile. “No time like the present.”
56
EVA
Consciousness returned in fragments.Rough carpet abraded my cheek, the expensive wool fibers scratching against my skin, and above it all, the mechanical stutter of my heart valve clicked a broken rhythm against my ribs—so fucking wrong, like a watch wound too tight and starting to break.
City lights pierced the floor-to-ceiling windows, casting long shadows across Carter’s office. Twenty-six floors up, and the world below seemed distant and unreal, like I was already dead.
I would be.
Soon.
Would they even miss me?
Carter’s voice filtered through the haze, cultured and cruel. “Looking for your little side piece?”
“Let her go,” Cole growled.
Carter laughed and nudged me with his toe. I moaned and tried to sit up but failed. My vision was blurry, the lights of his office too fucking bright.