His mistrusthurts.More than any physical pain hecould possibly deliver, the fact that my own husband is threatening to kill me over an untruth that’s all in his head kills any romantic feelings I might have recklessly developed overnight.
I shove him away. His cum leaks down the insides of my thighs. I pull on the dress he had delivered this morning anyway. I stick my feet into Lilia’s canvas sneakers without bothering to lace them up in my haste to get away.
“Where are you going?” Nik demands. He’s got his hands on his pants, tucking himself away. I slap the credit card against his chest and let it slide into his breast pocket.
“Away from you,” I say. “It’s one thing for you to push me around in bed. I like that. But I will not be called a liar and threatened with death by the father of my potential child. That is not a man I can live with, Nikolai Orlov. Threatening my life is beyond the pale. I am taking my ten million dollars and going back to Los Angeles, where I will raise our baby—if we have one—alone.”
The look on his face is priceless as I storm out. Seeing the astonished clerk, I poke a thumb at the ruined dressing room and say, “Charge everything to my husband.”
I sling my purse over one arm, collect my shopping bags, and stride out. Without the guards.
11
NIKOLAI
I let my temper get the better of me.
By the time I’ve finished cleaning up the mess of my own making, and gotten myself permanently banished from the shopping mall premises in the process, Sierra is gone.
“What in the hell did you say to her?” Lilia asks during the car ride back to the Orlov compound. Red Rock looms in the distance. Cacti and scrub brush dot the roadside.
“I asked if she was a spy.”
“Wasn’t the time to figure that outbeforeyou married her?”
“Don’t be a brat.”
“I’m not. I’m the only logical person in this family. Frankly, none of you men should be allowed to lead Orlov Enterprises. All of you are far too testerical to be trusted.”
“Testerical isn’t a word, and I am really not in the mood for my little sister’s snark.” My wife—mypossiblypregnantwife—is missing. Someone is trying to kill off members of my family, and I can’t protect her if I can’t find her. Sierra doesn’t know the kind of danger she’s in. She is too trusting, too sweet…and I fucked up.
My mother was testing me. I failed. I didn’t stand up for my wife. I see it now, the trap she set for her sons. This scheme of hers to get us all married as quickly as possible will expose our deepest flaws along the way. Goddamn, she’s brilliant.
Irina Orlov is undeniably a genius.
“Where would Sierra have gone?” I change the subject before Lilia can bang on about what a stupid brute I am. I already sent the cleaning service car back to its owner. She left my credit card behind, but she took the things she’d purchased. She doesn’t have login credentials for her new bank account yet, which suggests to me that she’s not going far, only taking some time and space to cool off.
“Does she have family here?” Lilia asks. I shake my head, staring morosely out the window. I have to find my wife. Worry gnaws at my bones.
“A sister in Los Angeles. That’s all I know of.”
“Then let’s try contacting the sister,” my own sister says, logically enough.
“They’re estranged.”
“Hm.” Lilia taps her lower lip, thinking. “Have you asked the twins to check airlines?”
“Yeah. They’re working on it.”
“Then there’s nothing to do except wait. Either she’ll check into a hotel here, or she’ll take a plane home. Or…rent a car? Did you tell them to check?—”
“They’re on it, Lil,” I grit out. “Any possible way to leave the city, short of hitchhiking, they’ll find her.”
“Is her phone being traced?”
I grit my teeth. I have her number, but tracing it from that alone will take time. I’m not the tech guru of the family. That’s Rion’s wheelhouse. He can hack into any system. But now he’s disappeared, too.
Twelve hours later, well past midnight, there still isn’t any sign of Sierra. Anywhere. Not in a hotel. Not on a plane. No record of a car rental. She’s simply vanished into thin air—and that frightens me more than I want to admit.