Cruel Paradise - A Mafia Romance Chapter 174

My stomach keeps on churning. I call Shura but the call goes straight to voicemail. Gedeon’s line rings and rings but he doesn’t pick up. Zakhar’s does the same.

Something is definitely not right.

I rush out of the penthouse and phone Kirill on my way down. I’m not sure if it’s the elevator or Kirill’s phone but the call drops almost instantly.

More churning. It’s painful now. I feel as though I’m going to burst a blood vessel. I explode back into the lobby, causing Ken to step back in alarm when I blaze past. The takeout food I brought for Emma and the kids is still sitting on his counter.

“Keep the food,” I snarl at him as I leave.

I’m almost at my car when my phone starts to ring. I’m hoping it’s one of the bodyguards but instead, it’s Kirill.

“Sorry, man, I was in the cellar dealing with Vadim. You know there’s no reception down there. He’s—”

“I don’t give two fucks about Vadim right now. Emma and the kids are missing.”

“What?”

“The security detail I put on them is not picking up, either.”

I hear him breathing and tapping on his phone. “Wait. Hold up… I think I got a message from Emma earlier. I didn’t really look at it because I wanted to return your call first.”

“What does it say?” I demand impatiently.

“Uh… ah, here it is. Fuck.” He sucks in a sharp inhale. “She sent me her live location… over an hour ago. I didn’t get it until just now when I left the cellar. According to this, she’s still at the school.” His voice dips a little and I know he’s worried, too. “Or at least, her phone is.”

“I’m heading over there now.”

I’m driving over to Chilton like a madman when my phone starts to ring again. I transfer it to the car’s speaker phone and hit accept.

“Boss.”

“Zakhar, what the fuck? Why didn’t you answer my calls?”

“There’s been an incident, sir.”

“Where are Emma and the kids?”

“I… they… um…”

“Spit it out, Zakhar.”

He clears his throat. “We lost them, boss. The school has cordoned off the area.”

What does he mean, they ‘lost’ them? And why does the school need to ‘cordon off’ anything? Isn’t that just for crime scenes and dead bodies?

Fuck.

“I’m almost there.”

Then I hang up and step on the accelerator. There’s a throng of people at the school gates when I approach. Most of them are wearing uniforms and protective vests.

Cops.

I breeze past the police manning the perimeter when I see my men clustered next to the school building. “What the fuck happened?” I growl as I storm up. “Where are Emma and the kids?”

Gedeon, Zakhar, and Shura exchange cautious glances. “It appears that they’ve been taken,” Shura admits. He gestures over to the side where I can see a gaping hole in the chainlink fence that marks the outer perimeter of the school grounds.

“Why are the cops involved?”

“Because a teacher stumbled across the body. She called them in.”

“‘Body’?” That’s when it hits me: there are three men in front of me instead of four. “Lazar?”

Gedeon nods. “He was shadowing Caroline when she decided to climb trees during recess. But someone accosted them—”

“Someone was watching them the whole time,” I growl through gritted teeth. “When do we estimate they took Caroline?”

“A few hours before they took Emma and the other two kids, but they were lying in wait for the others,” Zakhar explains. “At least that’s what we suspect. Emma showed up a couple of hours ago with Gedeon and Shura in tow. That’s when we realized that Caroline and Lazar were a no-show.”

Gedeon points to the outer boundaries of the school. “We were doing a search of the grounds. We told Emma and the kids to stay put until we came back.”

Of course she didn’t stay put. She went looking for Caroline.

“We believe she and the other two kids were taken from the same spot where Caroline was taken.”

“Oh, and boss?”

I turn to Zakhar, who hands me a phone with a regretful grimace. I stare down at the lockscreen that lights up when it changes hands. It’s a photo of all three kids, smiling back at the camera.

Emma’s phone.

“Blyat’,” I spit, twisting around. “The three of you stay here and clean up this mess. Recover Lazar’s body and make sure the cops stay out of our business. Say whatever you have to fucking say.”

None of them dare to say anything else. I storm back to my car and dial Kirill.

“Did you find them?” he asks as soon as he answers.

“I found Emma’s phone.”

“Fucking hell… so—”

“They’ve been taken. I severely underestimated Adrik.”

“You think it was Adrik?”

“Who the fuck else could it be?” I demand. “I didn’t think he was insane enough to try this shit, but he was released a week ago now. He’s had time.”

“But he doesn’t have the resources.”

“That we know of.”

“Should I go back down to the cellar and beat some answers out of Vadim?”

“First—we call an emergency meeting. Second—I’ll deal with Vadim. Third—I get my family back.”

53

EMMA

The van has no windows in the back, which means it’s near pitch black in here. But I can make out three little silhouettes and, if nothing else, that comforts me.

Caroline jumped on me the moment I’d been thrown into the van. All three kids scrambled around me as we’d grappled with the black cloth bags over our heads until we finally managed to rip them off.

“They did that to me, too,” Caroline told us in a small, terrified voice.

We’ve been driving for what seems like a long time. Or maybe that’s just the fear and adrenaline talking, stretching time into weird shapes. Reagan and Caroline’s heads are both tucked into my lap while Josh sits next to me with his arms wrapped tightly around his legs.

“Auntie Em, I’m scared,” Reagan squeaks softly.

Her eyes are so wide as they turn up at me that the whites of her eyes seem to shine. Her chin is trembling hard and all I can do is stroke her hair.

“I’m gonna protect you, okay?” I assure her. “I’m gonna protect all of you.”

“How?” Caroline asks. “You’re trapped here, too.”

She has a point.