Page 45 of A Bride for the Mafia King

Nico’s face falls. “You did more than enough.”

My phone starts to vibrate in my pocket and I snatch it up, pressing it to my ear. “Da?”

Mila’s voice on the other end is clipped, urgent. My stomach twists as the words sink in. ‘Pakhan? It’s Eva…she’s gone.’

The phone slips from my hand before I even realize it, clattering against the cracked cement floor. A hollow roar fills my ears as my blood wooshes through my veins at light speed.

“Yaro! Get your ass here now!” I bellow, turning to face the warehouse, voice raw and jagged.

“What is it?” Nico asks, alarmed by the sudden change.

“Someone’s taken Eva,” I tell him, moving through the space, eyes scanning the shadows for my second.

“Yaro! Where the hell are you?!” I bellow again, voice cracking but filled with raw fury.

No answer. No sign of Yaro. My stomach drops hard, sick with the sinking realization.

Yaro is gone.

Eva is gone.

A cold fury ignites deep inside me, betrayal so thick I can taste it.

Yaro knew everything. He’s the one who uncovered Gavril. The one who led me straight into the trap. He played me like a damn toy.

Rage and frustration boils over. I seize the collar of the nearest of my men, one of Yaro’s most trusted, shoving him roughly against the cracked brick wall.

“Where is he?” I demand, my voice barely more than a low growl. “Where the fuck is Yaro?”

He blinks, clearly startled, but he doesn’t break eye contact. “I... haven’t seen him since the start of the cleanup, Tolya.”

My grip tightens, teeth clenched. “Don’t lie to me.”

He holds my gaze, refusing to back down. “I swear. He left right after the fighting finished. Said he had to handle something urgent. Didn’t say where he was going.”

I release him, stepping back, heart hammering in my chest. Turning sharply to Nico. “This was never just Gavril. The rot runs deeper. I’ve been played.”

Nico’s expression hardens, steel settling into his eyes. I pause, eyes narrowing, heart pounding with a bitter certainty. “And it looks like the rat... was closer to home than I ever wanted to admit.”

Nico’s jaw tightens. “Then we don’t have time to relish small victories. We move fast, find her.”

I nod, already moving toward the doors. Because if Yaro’s betrayal runs this deep there’s no telling how much damage he’s done.

Chapter Sixteen

Tolya

Nico’s Office

The door shuts behind us with a thud. But the quiet inside the office presses in like a vise. I move close behind Nico, the two of us nearly shadows of the other at this point.

He reaches for a bottle from his desk drawer, pulls the cap off, and pours us both a shot of something dark and sharp. I take it eagerly at his offering and shoot it back. The burn of the liquor slides down my throat, numbing the rage but not the anger that’s still burning hot in my gut.

How could Yaro do this to me?! Even more, why? Why take Eva? And where?

Nico opens a thick file and spreads it across the desk with a purpose.

“This is everything we have on Yaro,” he says, voice low but sharp. “Movements, meetings, communications... every damn step he’s taken for months.”