Pearl

The world was spinning.

I couldn’t stand on my own two feet.

No matter how many breaths I took, I wasn’t getting enough air.

My heart was beating so fast I thought I’d have a heart attack.

So many tears.

The sobs. They made my chest hurt.

He told me he loved me before he disappeared. His tracker had shut off. I was completely in the dark in another country. My husband was captured, probably suffering every single moment as it passed.

I waited to wake up from this nightmare, but it never ended.

I called Cane over and over but could never get through to him. I hoped that meant he was in the middle of getting Crow back. I hoped he was putting a bullet in between Tristan’s eyes at that very moment. I hoped he was doing everything he possibly could to save my husband—the love of my life.

Lars sat beside me on the patio. The night had passed, and it was a beautiful and sunny day in Greece. But to me, I was in the middle of the biggest storm in history. The ship was sinking, and I didn’t think we’d survive.

Lars wrapped his hand around mine and held it on the cushion, doing the only thing he could to comfort me. I’d hugged Lars once or twice over the years, but we’d never touched this way. And I knew why.

He was scared.

I cried on and off as the hours passed. Not knowing what was going on was the worst part. I wanted to take off to Italy, but I wasn’t sure what help I would be. The reason Crow sent me away was to protect me. It would make all of his efforts pointless if I handed myself over to the people he was protecting me from.

My phone rang, and Cane’s name popped up on the screen.

I answered instantly. “Please tell me you got him. Tell me he’s okay. Please…”

Cane’s silence was the most painful answer.

I started to cry.

“I’m working on it, Pearl,” he said calmly. “Losing that signal has made things more difficult. But I promise you, I won’t stop until I find him.”

“You have to get him back.”

“I will, Pearl.”

“I can’t live without him…” I sobbed between my words, an emotional wreck. “I can’t. You have to get him back.”

“I know,” he whispered. “I will. I know he’s still in Italy. I’ve contacted all the air traffic controllers, and no private planes have taken off in the last day. So I think they’re hiding nearby.”

“You need to narrow it down more.”

“I know.”

“What does he want, Cane?” I whispered. “Does he want Adelina?” I didn’t want to turn that woman over to the devil, not after everything we did to save her. But I didn’t want to lose my husband either. We’d both suffered so much. We just wanted a quiet life in the countryside where we could raise our child. Apparently, that was too much to ask.

Cane was quiet for nearly a minute. “No, he doesn’t want Adelina.”

“Then what is it? Money?” I asked. “Crow put everything into an offshore account. I can get all of that for you, and you can hand it over to him.”

“He doesn’t want money.”

“Then, what?” I pressed. “Whatever it is, just give it to him.”

Cane sighed. “Pearl, he wants you.”

The words fell on my shoulders like a ton of bricks. I felt the flood of fear, remembering the way Tristan looked at me when I went to his compound. He eye-fucked me then, and he wanted to make his fantasies a reality. He wanted to punish both Cane and Crow for crossing him. Taking me was the best way to accomplish that. Cane didn’t need to spell it out for me.

In any other situation, I would have agreed to the trade in a heartbeat. I’d been a prisoner before, and I could do it again. I would find a way to escape, or Crow would find a way to rescue me. But now that I was pregnant, that wasn’t an option. Crow couldn’t protect our child.

I was the only one who could.

“I would…but I can’t.” My voice cracked. “Not with—”

“I know. Crow would never want that. I can’t make the trade. I know my brother…and he’d rather die.”

I knew that too. “You can’t give up, Cane.”

“Never. I’m supposed to give my answer to Tristan in eight hours. I’m afraid he’ll kill Crow the second I say yes.”

He might. “I would leave to help you, but I can’t make it back in time.”

“No,” he said firmly. “Crow wants you there. You aren’t leaving. I’m sure the only thing keeping him sane right now is knowing that you’re safe. Trust me.”

I knew that too. “Then what are we going to do? We need to figure out where he is. How do you plan to narrow it down?”

Cane’s silence was disturbing.

“You must have something.”

“I think he’s in Rome, but it’s a pretty big place. It’s hard to narrow it down.”

“Ask people in contact with Tristan.”

“I have,” he said. “They haven’t heard from him since his compound was destroyed. He purposely laid low so he could take us out like this. Tristan is pissed. That much is clear.”

Which meant he was doing terrible things to Crow. “There has to be something…”

Cane was quiet, thinking furiously over the phone.

My mind was drawing a blank, but that was because I didn’t do this sort of thing. Cane and Crow had been part of the underworld their entire lives. They knew how their enemies thought, knew their moves before they made them. I had nothing to offer other than the fact that I knew Crow the best.

What would he do?

“I guess I could do a satellite scan,” Cane said. “But by the time we get all the images, we won’t have much time to do anything with them.”

An idea came to mind. “If they’re in Rome, Crow probably knows exactly where they are.”

“I guess,” Cane said. “Assuming they didn’t pull a sack over his head.”

“Why would they cover his face if they’re planning on killing him?” I hated to talk that way, but it had to be said.

“It’s possible. But what’s your point?”

“If you could talk to Crow, he could probably tell you where he is.”

Cane sighed over the phone. “That would never happen. Tristan isn’t going to let that happen.”

“Just hear me out.”

“I don’t see the point.”

“Shut up and listen. Tell Tristan that you agree to the trade, but you don’t know where I am. Only Crow does.”

“I know we’re both stressed out right now, but that’s stupid. Crow knows I would never make this trade—not in a million years. If the situation were reversed and I was the one in there, he would let me die instead of handing my wife over.”

“Exactly.”

“What?” he asked incredulously. “What point did you just make?”

“When he tells Crow that you agreed to the trade, Crow will know you’re lying.”

“Hmm…”

“Because he knows you would never do that to him. He knows you would never hand me over to Tristan.”

“Even so, then what?”

“You tell Tristan that Crow will only give up the coordinates if you talk to him personally. You’ll need to persuade him. Tristan will listen in on the conversation, obviously. But Crow might be able to give you hints of where he’s at without Tristan realizing it.”

“What if Crow doesn’t have any hints?”

“Then he just won’t say anything. But if he does give you some bogus location, then we’ll know he gets what we’re trying to do.”

Cane mulled over my words before he responded. “It’s crazy…but it could work.”

“We don’t have any other options. I know Crow. He’s been looking for an escape route ever since he got there. He would have taken in every single detail if he thought it could help him.”

“You’re right.”

“So, we’re going to do this?”

“Yeah,” Cane said. “I think it’s our best option. I’m gonna take the men to Rome because I think that’s where Tristan is hiding. That way, we can move in quickly if Crow gives us any information.”

“Okay.” God, I hoped this worked. This was the only ploy we had up our sleeves. If it didn’t work, I would lose Crow forever. I would raise our child alone, a widow who would be lost. It didn’t matter that Crow prepared everything for me to be taken care of. All the money made no difference without him beside me. I would never get remarried because I believed in one love per lifetime—and he was mine.

“Pearl, I promise I’ll do everything I can to get him back—even if that means taking a bullet for him.”

I knew Cane loved Crow as much as I did, just in a different way.

“And if I can’t, you know I’ll be there for both of you until my last breath.”

I knew that too. “Let’s not talk that way. I can barely breathe as it is.”