Vow to Protect by J.L. Beck
Adrian
If I snap at everyone a little more throughout the next week, well, they can fuck off. Even my five give me a wide berth as I go about my business. The only one brave enough to talk to me is Kai, and he keeps things to the point. Until I drop my coffee mug all over the table in my distraction.
“What’s up? Your mood wouldn’t have anything to do with that Novak girl coming to the fight the other night, would it?”
I scowl at the fine weave of his suit, trying to identify it like I always do, but again, I’m distracted. All I see in my head when I close my eyes is her. The soft fall of her hair as it sifts through my fingers, the cupid bow of her full lips begging for a proper kiss. Hell, the scent of her and how her entire body went rigid when I dropped to my knees to help her dress. Of course, now, after expecting her to show up the following morning, she’s nowhere in sight.
“Can I help with something?” Kai offers. It’s only because he doesn’t push me that I answer him this time.
“What is Novak up to?”
Kai shakes his head, uncertain, a place he definitely doesn’t like to be. “You mean Ms. N—”
“Not fucking Val.” Although now that he mentions it, I do want to know why she isn’t currently in my bed naked and sleeping off an orgasm. But I don’t tell him that. “No, her father. He’s been out of town for a while. His business trips don’t usually last so long, and when they do, he takes Sal with him. I want to know where he’s been, what Sal has been up to in his absence, and where Valentina is at all times.”
Kai nods, clearly relieved to be given a task in his purview, and heads out of the dining room. I should eat something, but I can’t focus. Even more so now that I have spilled coffee all over the place and need to change.
I’m forced to put up a mental barrier to Val and the disruption of her in order to focus. As soon as she’s here, and she’s mine, I’ll be able to relax. Until then, everything reminds me of her and the fact that I don’t have her here with me, safe and sound.
Once I’m cleaned up, I head down to the command center, a large room my trusted lieutenants like to use to debrief or prep for something. It’s a big enough space to hold us all and doesn’t feel as formal as the dining room or living rooms.
Vincent, my first lieutenant, second only in rank to Kai, has his big feet slung up on the desk, his blond ringlets mussed, his white button-down straining against his solid frame. I shove his legs off the table when I come around it and take a seat between him and my fourth lieutenant. Alexei is dressed up today in a suit and tie, which isn’t his usual uniform.
“Kai have you on recon today?” I ask Alexei, even while glaring back at Vincent, who’s grumbling at me.
“Yeah. Kai is sending me to monitor your little princess.”
I shove him out of the chair before he can react and spin away from my grip. “She’s not a fucking princess. And when she does come here, you’ll be the perfect gentleman.”
“But what about you, boss? Are you going to be the perfect gentleman?” he says, backing toward the door.
I stand, my hands crushing the leather of the chair I’d been sitting in. “Let’s be very clear. If anyone touches her or so much as looks at Valentina, I will kill him.”
The room is deadly silent as I continue. “You may be the people I trust most in the world, but she will be my wife. She just doesn’t know it yet.”
Both men stare at me with their hands up in an attempt to calm me. I feel foolish. Snapping at my men is not something I usually do. I’ve seen how easily a man can tear down his entire world by treating his men poorly.
Alexei rushes out before I have time to come up with some kind of an explanation. I won’t apologize, but he deserves to know me snapping at him was more about me than him.
That leaves Vincent. I glance over at him, resuming my seat, and stare up at the oversized monitor on the wall. It keeps track of any current operations in my range. But today, it’s blank, nothing but a news show on mute with the subtitles scrolling at the bottom.
“You okay, boss?” Vincent finally dares to ask.
“I’m sure Kai has already briefed you. I’m waiting on something, and you know how much I love to be kept waiting.”
He snorts his agreement and shifts in his chair to snag his phone off the table. “It’s Kai. He’s on the fiancé and says he’s acting stranger than usual.”
I consider this new information. With Val’s father out of town, that leaves Sal alone with her and her friend she mentioned…Rosa, Rose…What would make him start acting erratically?
It bothers me, a low thrum in my gut, that I feel like I’m missing a key part of this puzzle. And once I find that missing piece, I’ll regret slipping it into the slot to see the entire picture. It doesn’t matter, leaving it unfinished isn’t an option.
“Go, follow him, let Kai figure out what the elder Novak is up to. If you get anything weird, send me a text so I know immediately.”
Vincent scoops up his keys, pockets his phone, and leaves the room without another word. Something I like about the man.
I trust my men, but the itch to have her here under my own gaze is too much, so I try to focus on other things. An upcoming job we were hired to facilitate that should go off without a hitch. Even with Kai at the helm, as he usually is since my father’s death, there shouldn't be any problems. So why do I still feel so off?
I resolve to stop being so fucking pussy whipped, especially since I haven’t even had her yet, and get back to work. It’s not until Kai throws a file folder on the table in front of me later in the day that I realize I’d finally managed to focus and get some shit done.
“What’s this?” I ask, already opening the brown kraft folder to peruse the contents.
“It’s the surveillance I ordered on Novak. He’s in New York. He has been for over a week maybe? There wasn’t any definitive answer on when he left. And my spy on the inside of Novak’s place was MIA when I tried to contact him.”
I shove the maps I’d been working on to the side and bring the file flat onto the glossy surface. While thinking, I slip out of my jacket, roll up my sleeves, and settle back into the chair. Novak is working on an oceanic smuggling deal. The idea looks lucrative with very little oversight from law enforcement if they’ve already lined up a ship and forged customs documents.
Knowing this stuff about my enemy always helps inform my next move, yet I’m annoyed there isn’t one mention of Valentina.
“What about the girl?” I ask, still scanning the images he provided.
Kai shakes his head. “She hasn’t left the house in days from what I can tell and was last seen on the night she came to the casino. Maybe she decided to hide out since her father is gone and her creepy fiancé is lurking around.”
“Why is Sal around? Doesn’t he usually go with Novak on these trips? What’s he been doing all this time while Novak has been gone?”
Finally, Kai takes the seat beside me and settles in to talk. “From what I can tell, he’s been beating on prostitutes and spending Novak’s money right under his nose. Mostly on the prostitutes and then to their pimps to keep them from bashing his head in. It helps his family has a solid foothold in that industry.”
If an industry is what you could call it. I always preferred the term human trafficking for what Sal and his family get wrapped up in. While I have no problem putting a bullet in someone’s ear, I draw the line with hurting women and children like that.
A vision of my mother’s face flashes in my mind for a heartbeat before I shake it away and look back over Kai’s report. “Get Vincent back here. He hasn’t texted me, and I want to know more about what this jackhole has been up to since his babysitter has been gone. And for fuck’s sake, find out where Val is.”
“She’s at the house, boss,” he supplies. “I’ve had people on it since we took her home the other night. She hasn’t left the place once. Why does she need to with the size of her staff?”
With Sal out doing whatever the fuck knows what, and Novak in New York seemingly indefinitely, this might be the only shot I get. I check my watch and then the window. The sun will be going down soon. Perfect.
“Round up the team. We’re going in to get her.” The minute the words are out of my mouth, I know they are the right move. I can feel it under my skin, urging me to find her, take her, touch her.
“What are you thinking?” Kai asks, not even pretending to move on my orders.
I drag him up by his very expensive suit collar. “We’re going after her, and once she’s here, I can stop thinking about her and actually get some work done.”
It takes Kai another minute to follow me. Of all my men, he’s often the only one who will disagree with me on things. Something I’ve always appreciated about him.
“Are you sure about this? If Novak finds out it was you who took his daughter, he’ll declare war.”
“Aren’t we already at war? And we both know he doesn’t give a shit about her unless it’s to use her in a bargain. It’s the only reason Sal is in her life to begin with.”
With no further argument, he rounds up the rest of the team until all seven of us are standing on the driveway waiting for the cars to take us. Technically, I could have done this alone or with Kai, but I want to be prepared for any strange security Sal might have put into place during Novak’s absence. Without our usual spy, our intel is too old to risk going in alone.
I feel better on the drive to the house. But then as we pull up to the gate, my stomach drops out. The entire house is dark, and it looks deserted. Even on lower staff days, the lights would all be turned on, security would be monitoring the gate, and hell, even a chubby guard dog was known to roam the property on occasion. But now, there’s nothing but eerie quiet, which settles unevenly across my shoulders.
If something has happened to her, then Sal is the next person who will get a visit tonight. I don’t care if he helped or not.
We pull up down the road and hoof it to the gate, Andrea pulling up last since she can work the charm on the mostly male staff if necessary.
Even the sounds of the woods around the property feels quiet. We enter through a servant’s side door, the one the staff usually take, and find the entire place empty. Everything is shiny and clean. It’s like someone told the staff to take a few days off and not return.
It doesn’t bode well. I palm my handgun and lead the way through the kitchen and down the hall. It’s not far to her bedroom, according to the earlier spy’s maps, but it’s not the darkness that makes me stop in the middle of the corridor. It’s the acrid scent of death in the air.
A scent I’ll never forget.
