“Lesson number one. Isa would call me an asshole and tell me to give her fucking rings back, not admit she was afraid,” I said, shoving the rings into my pocket. “The longer you take to tell me where the fuck she is, the more pissed I’m going to get.” I turned to Joaquin. “Get your brothers. Lock down this fucking city.No onegets out until I find her.”
Odina pulled at her arm, defiance filling her eyes as she seemed to realize that the deception was over and done with. She didn’t speak or move to establish the truth of what I already knew, only glaring at me and waiting for whatever came next until Joaquin hurried out of the bedroom suite to do as I’d ordered.
I stared Odina down, inhaling deeply before I surged forward with a harsh, unforgiving grip. My hand pressed into the front of her throat, the flesh I’d thought Dima had parted with his blade tensing beneath my grip as I used it to back her toward the bathroom. “Rafael,” she rasped, her eyes pleading as if she could deceive me into believing her lies.
My thumb touched the freckle on her neck, digging into the mark that was so different from the ones I’d memorized on Isa’s face and body in the years I’d been watching her. “Why is there a fork on my wife’s phone screen?” I asked, taking another step forward as her eyes widened. Her throat vibrated against my grip as we stepped into the massive bathroom. I kept my grip on her as I waited, watching for the reaction I already knew I would get.
“I don’t know,” she gasped, clawing at the skin of my hands in her desperation to breathe.
“Because you are not my wife,” I said, lifting her until only her toes touched the tiled floor. I guided her backwards until her knees bent back over the edge of the bathtub, positioning her head above the drain and face up. She flailed as she fell in, kicking and thrashing while I held her with a steady grip. The hand towels were within reach, enabling me to stretch over and grab one without releasing my pinning grip on her.
I tossed the rag over her face, covering the part of her that was somehow so like Isa but not in any way that mattered. She spluttered as I turned the tap on, letting the flowing water soak the cloth and fill her lungs.
Waterboarding was a morehumanetorture than I usually preferred, but something told me it was Odina’s personal brand of Hell considering that all of this had started with her drowning in the Chicago River.
I switched the tap off, pulling the towel off her face as she gasped for breath. “Where is Isa?” I asked, my mouth tense and uncaring. Her mascara ran down her face, soaking her cheeks with black streaks that would have been pathetic if she hadn’t been a useless waste of life.
Of all the people in the world, I didn’t know that I’d ever hated someone as much as I hated my father.
Odina just might have filled that void in my life.
“Fuck you!” she shrieked. Tossing the towel back onto her face, I ran the water even heavier. Leaving it to soak in her lungs and make her feel as if her entire body would fill with water, I pushed the limits as far as I dared. For the moment, I needed her alive.
She could die once I was done with her.
Every time she tried to tear the towel from her face, I knocked her hands away and pinned her down. There would be no escaping the fate that awaited her. The death Dima would have given her would be a mercy compared to what I’d do.
“You’re too late,” Odina rasped when I tore off the towel again. A menacing and evil glare filled her face as it twisted with brutality. “Pavel already has her by now.”
“Are they going to the compound in Russia?” I asked, daring her to defy me by remaining silent.
“I wasn’t exactly privy to his plans,” she said, twisting her mouth into a snarl.
As much as I wanted to make my way to the airports and insure that the Cortes brothers had been successful in preventing his plane from leaving, I had to have faith that they’d moved swiftly. There was one last aspect of Odina’s treachery that I needed to know before I dealt with her. “Who helped you?” I asked. She balked at the question, as if whoever it had been could ever be more of a threat than I was.
Odina seemed determined not to accept the fact that she was as good as dead.
I smothered her with the rag, turning the faucet on once again and enjoying the way the water rattled the breath as it fought to escape her lungs. I sank into that hollow place where the only thing that mattered was answers, trying to ignore the growing dread pooling in my stomach and the rage that threatened to ruin everything.
“Who?!” I demanded when I let her up for air.
“Sigrid! That bitch couldn’t have been happier to get rid of Isa.Isaalways forgets her place, steps on everyone’s toes to get to where she thinks she deserves to be. That was never going to go over well with these women who’ve strived their entire lives to have even a hint of what you seem determined to give her.”
“She’s still here. Who else?” I asked, watching as she considered her words.
“Faye is the one who took her off the property.”
“The makeup girl?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the depth of Tessin's betrayal.
“Yes,” Odina said, glaring up at me. I watched her face for any sign that anyone else had been involved, but found nothing as she slumped into the tub. The bedroom door opened, and Gabriel stepped inside with his tablet in his hand and his face written in fury.
“Where the fuck is she?” I asked him. The city should have been closed down by now, and we’d scour the streets until we found a sign of Isa.
“The plane left the private airstrip an hour ago,” Gabriel said. “Cleared by Jakob Tessin.”
The blood roared in my veins, filling my head with a red rage I thought I would never see past. “Do we know she was on it?”
“Yes. I hacked the security footage. She was definitely on the plane,” Gabriel answered, turning a harsh, withering glare down to Odina. The man hated her almost as much as I did.
I couldn’t think of a better jailor for her until I decided what to do with her.
“Watch her for now and then send her back toEl Infiernowith Hugo and two men you trust implicitly. I want her bound and gagged and locked in the basement until Isa decides her fate.”
“Where are you going?” Gabriel asked as I stormed to the bedroom door.
I didn’t glance back as I gave my answer on my way out the door. They’d have the opportunity to prove their loyalty to the alliance sooner than we intended. “To kill them all.”