Another silence, this one longer than the last.
Alexei and Efrem exchanged a long glance that I couldn’t interpret. The others simply stared at me, their gazes burning holes through me.
Then, surprisingly, Efrem chuckled. “I believe you, Adrik. I may be the only one who does, but something tells me you love her, don’t you?”
I flicked a glance at Alexei and then Pavel, before looking at Sacha, and finally, Lev and Dominik. “Yeah,” I whispered, waiting for the ax to fall. “I’ve always loved her.”From the moment I first saw her.
Alexei sent me a startled look that quickly turned contemplative. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking in that moment, if his thoughts were that of a protective father or something else entirely.
“Jesus H. Christ,” Pavel muttered, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Your job was toprotecther, notsleepwith her! We ought to kill you for this.”
I forced myself to meet his gaze. “Yeah. You probably should. But you can’t. I may be the only one who can reason with him.”
Pavel harrumphed. “How so?”
It was time to tell them of my suspicions.
Drawing in a deep breath, I slowly exhaled.
I let my gaze take in each of them, bravely holding everyone’s stare.
“Because I think I know who her kidnapper is. And if it’s who I think it is, then it’smehe’s after.Mehe wants to punish. And it’s onlymewho can get her back.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Annika
My captor took me to a small rental cabin hidden in the trees a few miles away. How long had he been staying here? How long had he been spying on us?
He parked in the single-car garage, then yanked open the back door. Leaning in, he hauled me out, tossing me over his shoulder like a sack of dirty laundry, and marched up the back steps and into the house.
Dropping me carelessly onto a wooden chair at the kitchen table, he smirked as I struggled to remain upright and not fall out of the chair.
I glared at him.
Asshole.
He reached down and yanked the tape off my mouth.
Ouch.
Sucking in air, I carefully wet my dry lips.
“Are you ready for the big reveal?” He reached up and peeled off his mask, tossing it aside. “Surprise!”
I let my gaze sweep over him. There was something…familiar about him. And as I stared at him, it finally hit me.
Ohmygod! He looks a lot like Adrik.The same dark hair and eyes, the same large, muscular build, except he was about five or six years younger than Adrik, approximately twenty-three or twenty-four years old. His jaw was scruffy with dark stubble. I wouldn’t call him handsome, but he wasn’t ugly, either. Somewhere in between. There was something sinister in his eyes that sent a small chill down my spine.
Whowashe?
The only possibility—Adrik’s little brother—was out of the question. He was dead.
My heart stuttered.
Unless…he really wasn’t.
“Damien?” I guessed.