Pain exploded through my skull. The world tilted sideways as blood stained the floor around me.
The last thing I saw before darkness swallowed me was Mikhail Volkov standing over me, my blood staining his boots.
Chapter Fifteen
Ariana
Dinner had been cold for hours. Not that I was hungry. Not anymore.
Every few seconds, my eyes drifted to the clock on the microwave, watching the green numbers change as time marched on.
9:47.
9:48.
9:49.
I checked my phone again.
No missed calls.
No texts.
No response.
This wasn’t the first time Henry had been out late.
Over the past week, he’d been preoccupied.
Phone calls taken outside.
Meetings that couldn’t wait until morning.
The occasional night when I’d wake up in the darkness and discover his side of the bed empty.
Whenever I asked, he’d tell me he had a few work-related things come up.
It sounded plausible enough. But I couldn’t shake the feeling he was hiding something from me. Something connected to Sarah.
As much as I hated the thought of Henry putting himself in danger, I understood why he couldn’t walk away.
What I didn’t understand was why he kept me in the dark, even after promising he wouldn’t.
I swallowed down another large gulp of wine and grabbed the cell phone Henry had given me, hitting his contact again.
And again, it went straight to voicemail.
I slammed the phone down on the counter, surprised the screen didn’t break. After downing the rest of my wine, I pushed back from the kitchen island.
If Henry wasn’t going to tell me what was going on, maybe someone else would.
I stormed out of the house and down the stone path leading toward the pool house. I didn’t bother knocking. Instead, I shoved the door open and marched inside.
Blake sat at the small kitchen table, his attention fixed on a large monitor while his fingers moved rapidly across the keyboard of his laptop.
The second he saw me, his posture stiffened, and he punched a key.
Whatever had been on the monitor disappeared, but not before I caught a glimpse of the grainy surveillance footage of what appeared to be a port, large containers surrounding several men.