Evil had been in this lift. With Tess.

I needed out of this metal box that travelled way far too slow. I needed to scale the building like King Kong and smash every last ass**le into pulp.

Snarling, I punched the mirrored wall so hard it shattered. Cracks radiated from my fist, splintering into tiny pieces and tinkling to the floor.

“Mercer, wh—”

The elevator doors opened, and I bolted.

I slammed my shoulder into the metal door and gulped in a breath as I stumbled and fell to my knee. The sun was a dagger, a f**king bazooka to my head with its brightness. My vision turned completely white as I battled to stay lucid.

Gritting my teeth, I forced my body to obey and half-lumbered, half-ran across the minefield of sunlight. Birds took wing, squawking at my interruption.

With my heart in my throat, I exploded into my office.

“Mercer! Tell me what the hell is going on! You’re f**king scaring me.” Frederick chased after me. I didn’t waste my breath answering. I couldn’t afford to waste any part of my rapidly failing body.

I had to know Tess was here. Safe. Protected.

It’s all in my mind. It’s a horrid daydream. My brain is playing tricks. It’s not real.

But the stench was worse here, the carpet wet with large puddles. Shit.

The energy of the office wasn’t tranquil anymore, it was tainted. Brittle and tense, it lurked with a nasty undercurrent: something black and hellishly cold—evil and putrid.

The migraine throbbed around my skull, squeezing my thoughts in a never-ending vice. I sensed death and unhappiness. Tess’s strength and pureness were nowhere to be found. Some chasm that had been full before was now empty and dark.

Don’t be such a f**king drama queen.

I stomped on the fear, crushing it. The stink of cigarettes permeated the lounge, guiding me down the corridor and into the spare bedroom.

I followed the reek, but retraced my steps to unlock my HK P2000 pistol from the sideboard. Frederick skidded into the office, gawking around like a maniac. Considering he was supposed to be the calm one of our duo, he looked wired and ready to kill.

“Do you think I should take that?” He eyed the gun in my unsteady hand. My vision wavered in and out. One moment full colour, the next black and white. He had a point, but screw my head. Screw my shitty eyesight. I was in charge of Tess’s safety; I’d use the f**king gun.

Ignoring him, I crouched and moved silently down the corridor. I’d never been so thankful for being deathly silent on my feet before.

The urge to shoot some f**ktard who dared breach my space and take what was mine consumed me. The beast inside roared and raged, ready to go nuclear with fury.

I swung my arm wide, finger pressing the trigger as I entered the bedroom.

Nothing.

The bed was untouched, the room perfect as I left it.

Frederick fell back, keeping close to me with his legs bent, ready to fight at a moment’s notice. If I had to have anyone at my back, it was him. He looked like a pu**y, but he fought with the best of them.

Frederick was my wingman, my confidant, and ally, but he didn’t have the same blackness in his soul, or the blurred lines of right and wrong.

“Tess, où es tu?” Where are you? I whisper-growled, inching into the walk-in wardrobe.

A single empty hanger lay on the floor.

My heart exploded through my ribs; my headache stole my vision, leaving me completely blind for a second.

I grabbed hold of the shelf holding my shoes, trying to stabilize myself and bring my heart rate into submission.

Frederick didn’t say a word while I suffered and blinked, coaxing my eyesight to return.

Finally, a scramble of images came back to me, and I motioned for him to have my back as I moved toward the bathroom.

On the carpet, leading the way like a sinister path, were droplets of water. Staining the beige carpet a darker brown. It started off as a trickle, until splashes grew bigger and drenched the carpet outside the bathroom door.

Gulping back nausea and violence, I nudged open the door with my toe and charged in, waving the pistol into every corner.

Only once I knew the room was clear did I let myself take in the scene of my worst f**king nightmare.

“Q, don’t move. I’ll call the police.”

I stood in a puddle, staring at a bath full of water and no Tess. The towel rail dangled from the wall, and Tess’s clothes from that morning were on a chair.

The migraine swelled to epic proportions. I stumbled against the wall, shaking off the blackness, the cloak of unconsciousness. I wouldn’t let a weakness stop me from understanding.

Slapping myself, I managed to shake away the stupor long enough to move forward and dip my fingers into the water.

Lukewarm.

Tess had taken a bath like I told her, and while I sat in a meeting she suffered a f**king nightmare.

My broken eyes found Frederick’s. “How did they get up here, Roux? What happened to the goddamn security cameras and guards?” My heart beat thickly, sending more pressure to my skull.

I wobbled, but righted myself before Frederick could help. I didn’t want his help. I wasn’t an invalid! I was a bastard of an idiot for thinking Tess was safe.

How the hell did the motherfuckers find me? How did they manage to capture Tess right from under my nose!

I sagged against the wall as the migraine seized control. The mirrored tiles reflected a man with demons snarling at his heels and his world imploding around him.

“I don’t know. But I’ll find out. We’ll get her back, man,” Frederick said, his voice low. He left the bathroom, leaving me with horrible images: images of Tess beaten, raped, and sold. Ruined, and broken. Gone.

I couldn’t let that happen. Disregarding the fact I could barely see, I lurched out the bathroom and collided with Frederick, who’d stooped to pick up a piece of paper from the floor.

I snatched it off him, trying to read the scrawl, but the writing turned into insects on the page, scurrying away from understanding.

“Q. You really need to lie down. You’ll have a stroke at the rate you’re going.”

I snarled, “Don’t tell me to f**king calm down. A woman who was supposed to be in my protection has been taken. A woman who has lived through so much already has been snatched from my very f**king arms, and I failed her! So don’t tell me to f**king calm down until I find her and make the bastards pay.”

Shoving the note back under his nose, I demanded, “Read.”

Frederick took the paper, swallowing hard.

“Deal’s off, Mercer.”

My heart seized, and the room warped, squeezing in on me, crushing me.

Something smashed free inside, tearing at every bar, every lock I’d ever created. The last few days I’d tried desperately hard to tame myself. Brainwash myself into being a better man for Tess, but with those three words, I shrugged off the falseness that I could never be. I growled and welcomed the feralness, the raging psychotic temper.

The beast sprung free, and I breathed hard. This was who I was. A man who craved blood. A man who laughed when breaking a bone, and didn’t flinch when shooting a bullet into a ra**st.

Frederick continued. I didn’t want to hear anymore.

“I’ve taken back what was mine and sold for a better deal.

Fuck you.

Gerald Dubolazov.”

Gerald? In my moment of migraine weakness, I couldn’t remember which cockroach he was.

Frederick smoothed the crinkled paper, muttering, “The seal is the Red Wolverine.”

I spun and punched the wall so hard my fist disappeared through the drywall. I wished it was someone’s head.

That f**king Russian bastard. Dubolazov. The man who practically owned all of Russia. The Russian president thought he ruled, the mafia thought they controlled, but they were in the pockets of one man: Gerald Dubolazov, the king of everything dirty and wrong.

“Merde!”

Stalking back into the bathroom, I searched for clues. Anything that might shed light on how they found Tess and where they took her. The window of time to get her back was terrifyingly small.

Blonde strands littered the floor, and I clenched my jaw. Just the thought of someone hurting Tess made me see litres of blood and acres of f**king carnage.

In my mind the sound of a huge, ominous clock began to sound. Tick, tick, ticking the seconds away, marking the moments Tess’s life hung in the balance. I had to find her before it was too late.

Something crunched under my shoe, and I bent to investigate. The moment I set eyes on it, my migraine left the realm of excruciating and amplified into kill-worthy.

I toppled sideways as Frederick appeared over my shoulder. “Fuck me, that isn’t good.”

He could say that again.

The evidence of what happened to Tess enraged the beast, clawing at my mind. I forgot everything but the need to plunge my hands deep into the kidnappers’ chests and rip out their f**king hearts.

I want blood. I want corpses. I want to dance on unmarked graves for this. I wouldn’t rest until every single person involved died a slow and bone-shrivelling death.

My hand closed tight around the object of my rage, and I made an oath. I would find Tess, I would save her, and I would kill every last son of a bitch who took her.