Russian Boss’s Secret Baby by Bella King

Ch 20

SLATE

“I’m coming in, Mia, whether you like it or not.”

I don’t actually know the location of the keys for the rooms in this house. Anybody could lock me out of any room, and I would just have to deal with it. My best bet is to go the old-fashioned way and ram into the door until it breaks.

I stand back and run toward the door, applying my full weight to my right shoulder as I make contact. The door cracks but doesn’t open. No problem, I’ll try again. I attempt two more times until the door finally starts to give out. I can rip it off the hinges now.

When I enter the room, I don’t see Mia anywhere. The window near my bed is open, though, and I’m irate to see that she’s felt the need to try and escape from me through a window like a fucking prisoner. She never struck me as the type to be so melodramatic.

Her footprints have made vague impressions in the carpet, and as I study them, I can see her thought process and eventual escape. When I look closer, I notice that the footprints are coming from the bathroom where she was originally hiding. Why would she be hiding in there?

I need to find her.

It’s a good thing I put a tracking device on her car.

I don’t want to say that I distrust Mia, necessarily. She just seems like she spooks easily. I thought the way she handled the overdosed man was very impressive, but I still hadn’t done much of a vetting process on her and really didn’t know what she was capable of at all.

Plus, I’m paying her extremely well to keep all of my secrets, I think it’s only fair that I take some liberties and keep an eye on her.

When I pull up the tracking app on my phone, I notice that she’s already gotten about twenty minutes away and is parked at a diner on the far side of town. How the fuck did she get there so quickly? She must’ve really been flying.

I know I can’t take Vasya with me for something like this. It’s too personal.

In my mind’s eye, I try to retrace her steps in her attempt to escape. Would she have gone around the front of the house?

Would Eli have seen her?

Unfortunately, needing Eli’s information gives him a point of leverage, even after I beat the shit out of him. I hate to humiliate myself that way after I tried showing him his place, but it might be necessary.

When I walk out the door, I see him lying there still, dozing in and out of consciousness. As soon as he sees me, he flinches and scrambles to his knees to escape. “I swear to Christ! I’ll stop! Just please don’t hurt me again, Slate. I’ll do anything,” he pleads, on the verge of tears just like the little bitch he is.

“This is not about you this time,” I say, grabbing the back of his head by his hair and holding him at eye-level as I kneel before him. “I’m not going to hurt you this time as long as you don’t lie to me. And I will know if you’re lying,” I threaten.

In no mood to challenge me again, Eli looks up at me with full attention. “Yes, anything, I’ll tell you anything I know,” he says, still pleading but with more resolve now.

“Did Mia walk this way in the last half-hour?” I ask, maintaining a tight grip on Eli’s hair.

I can see him hesitating

“Do not make me ask again, Eli,” I growl. “Have you seen Mia?”

“Okay, okay, yes. She was over here, I saw her run to her car. She sped out of here pretty fast,” he says, slight relief in his voice as I lessen my grip on him.

Why was she running?

Is she running from me?

I drop Eli back to his place on the grass. He simply closes his eyes and exhales, soaking in the exquisite high of my groveling.

In my embarrassment, I’m tempted to kick him in the ribs once more to re-establish my dominance, but I know I’ll get too distracted if I keep thinking about it. I head over to the cars, knowing I need to take one that looks different than Mia’s used to.

I’ll take Eli’s car.

“Hey,” I call out to Eli, who is still lying on the ground. I might have to do something about that, it seems he could actually die if I leave him here too much longer.

He doesn’t reply.

I stride back up to him. “I need your keys. I’m taking your car,” I announce, kneeling back down to feel through his pockets for the keys.

“What? Fuck you,” says Eli hoarsely. He curls himself up more to prevent me from having access to his pockets.

Okay, that’s it.

I stand to my feet again and kick him in the head five or six times. After the fourth time, he groans and slumps to the ground with his full weight, no longer fighting the urge to stay awake.

Whether he’s dead or not is something I can deal with later. I kneel back down and quickly search for his keys, finding them in the inner pocket of his jacket.

Looking back one last time, I try to loosely put together a plan to discard of him dead or alive when I get back, but I know that I’ll have bigger problems to deal with if I do find Mia. If she’s trying to escape from me, that immediately makes her untrustworthy.

I really don’t want to hurt her, but if she’s going to threaten the security of my empire, I’ll have to do something, even if it’s as simple as keeping her prisoner. I foolishly allowed her access to all of the most important information that would connect me to numerous high-profile crimes.

Fortunately for me, the tracker can lead me right to her. I don’t need to spend the entire day searching aimlessly for her. Though I do stop to consider what was going through her mind when she drove away.

When she sped through these streets just as I am now, was she in a blind panic? Was she confused or scared? Was she calm and eager to squeal to the police about everything she’s seen here?

I’m annoyed that I need to drive carefully to avoid suspicion as I’ve stolen this car from a man who potentially lies dead on my front lawn. It will take me longer to reach Mia, and by that point, she could be long gone.

Then, I’d just have to crawl across the country, following her every move until I could finally catch her. Being in an unfamiliar vehicle will make it easy, and not having Vasya with me makes me more conspicuous.

I finally creep up to the diner about forty minutes later.

My eyes scan the parking lot, and I let out a sigh of relief when I see that her car is still there, parked at the very back of the lot near a tree line in the shade. All I have to do now is wait for her to come out.

I light up a cigar and lean back in my seat.