LOGINLOLETTE.The hour came and went, and then another one after it.I'd stopped pretending to be calm around the forty-minute mark. Adrian had gone still in that particular way he did when he was holding something back, phone gripped so tight in his hand I worried he'd crack the screen.When it finally buzzed, we both flinched.RICHARD: Two structures cleared. Empty. Third location requires more careful approach — active security presence detected. Team in position, awaiting further intel before moving."Active security," I repeated. "That means it's the right one.""It means someone's guarding something." Adrian's jaw was tight. "Doesn't confirm it's them.""You don't believe that."He didn't answer, which was its own answer.We drove to the staging area Richard had set up two blocks from wherever this third location actually was — I still didn't know the exact address, and some small, self-protective part of me was grateful for that. Not knowing meant I couldn't obsess over Google Maps
LOLETTE.Igor arrived at seven that evening, and I could hear him yelling from two floors up.Not at me. Not even really at Adrian, from what I could piece together through the muffled walls of the penthouse. At the situation itself, at Damien, at a version of Alexei who'd apparently fathered a fourth son and never once mentioned it to the family that had spent decades building an empire around his name.I sat curled up on the couch in the living room, half-watching the door to Adrian's study, half-drafting a text to Evlor that I kept deleting before I sent it. There wasn't a version of "my kidnapped sons might come home in four days if my ex-boyfriend's illegitimate half-brother doesn't change his mind about extorting the family oil company" that fit in a casual check-in text.The study door opened around eight. Igor came out first, tie loosened, face flushed with whatever argument had just happened behind that door. He stopped when he saw me on the couch."Lolette." He said my name
ADRIAN.Sasha stood in the middle of the conference room with the printed terms in his hand, reading them for the third time like he expected the words to rearrange themselves into something less insane if he just looked hard enough."You want to give him twenty-five percent of the company," he said finally."Yes.""Twenty-five percent. Equal to what you, Sev, and I each hold." He set the paper down on the table with a precision that felt more dangerous than if he'd thrown it. "Based on the word of a man who kidnapped two four-year-olds to get your attention.""I know how it sounds.""Do you? Because from where I'm standing, it sounds like you walked into a warehouse and let a stranger dictate the terms of our family's entire company in under ten minutes.""He's not a stranger. He's our brother."That landed harder than I meant it to. Sasha's jaw tightened."We don't know that.""He looks like Dad, Sasha. Same eyes. Same jaw." I pushed a hand through my hair. "And he knew things about
ADRIAN Sasha didn't yell. He never yelled. Which was somehow worse than if he had, because his voice went quiet and precise instead, each word landing like something he'd already calculated the weight of."You want me to draft legal documentation," he said, "granting a man we've never met, who kidnapped your sons, an equal ownership stake in a company worth eleven billion dollars.""Yes.""Based on a claim you haven't verified, delivered under duress, with no guarantee he releases the boys once it's filed.""Yes."Sasha set his pen down on the conference table with a precision that felt more threatening than if he'd thrown it across the room. We were alone in his office, twenty floors above the street, the city spread out gold and indifferent through the windows behind him."Adrian. Think about what you're asking me to do.""I have thought about it. For the last two hours, that's the only thing I've thought about.""Then think harder." He stood and walked to the window, hands in his
LOLETTE.I counted every single car that passed the intersection while I waited.Forty-one. Forty-two. Marcus had circled back to the block two streets over the second Adrian disappeared into that warehouse, and I'd spent every minute since watching the clock on the dashboard tick forward in increments that felt physically painful.Richard sat in the front seat with a laptop open, radio silent, his jaw tight enough that I could see the muscle working from where I sat."How long has it been?" I asked."Nineteen minutes.""That's too long.""It's not." He didn't look up from the screen. "If it were going wrong, we'd know."I didn't ask how he'd know. I didn't want to think too hard about what "knowing" would actually look like in this situation.At twenty-three minutes, my phone buzzed.ADRIAN: Coming to you now. I'm okay.Relief hit me so hard I actually pressed a hand against my chest, like I needed to physically hold myself together.He appeared on foot four minutes later, walking fa
ADRIAN.The warehouse looked exactly like every abandoned building in every movie I'd ever seen, which somehow made it worse instead of better.Rust bleeding down corrugated metal siding. Windows either boarded or broken, no in-between. A chain-link fence with a gap someone had cut through years ago and never bothered fixing.Marcus stopped the car two blocks out like Richard had instructed. I sat there for a second with my hand on the door handle, feeling the wire taped against my ribs under my shirt, and tried to remember how to breathe normally."Sir." Marcus's voice was tight. "You don't have to do this.""Yes I do."I got out before he could say anything else.The walk took four minutes. I counted them, because counting gave my brain something to do besides imagining every possible way this could go wrong.The warehouse door was already open when I reached it, hanging on one hinge like it had been that way for years. I stepped inside and let my eyes adjust to the dim light filter
ADRIAN.I woke up to sunlight streaming through windows I didn't recognize.For half a second I couldn't remember where I was. Then it came back. Montauk. The estate. The press conference in two hours that would destroy everything.Lolette was still asleep beside me.We were both fully clothed on t
ADRIAN.The police station smelled like stale coffee and industrial cleaner.I hated everything about it.The fluorescent lights. The linoleum floors. The way every sound echoed off the walls.But mostly, I hated the waiting.We'd been here for over an hour, shuttled from one desk to another, filli
LOLETTE."I'll start making calls," Sev said, already pulling out his phone. "We have investigators on retainer. The best in the country."Adrian nodded, moving behind his desk and pulling up something on his computer. "Get them on this immediately. I want a full team assembled within the hour."I
FIVE YEARS AGO ADRIAN I sat sprawled on the couch in the den, phone in hand, staring at the screen like it might magically tell me what to do. I’d typed a message to Lolette, then deleted it. Typed another, then deleted that one too. My thumb hovered over the keyboard, and I pressed a hand to m







