Page 166 of Wicked Villain

“Anushka, I…”

“Forced her to marry you and used her as a tool because you wanted revenge on her father.” She raises her brows. “Doesn’t matter how close you guys got, she’s not going to forget how you started. If an opportunity presented itself to leave, she’d take it. Because that’s all you’ve given her. Nothing but a contract marriage. Does she even know you love her?”

The question cuts straight through my chest, locking my next breath.

My jaw tightens.

I have no answer. Because she doesn’t know.

My wife doesn’t know I love her.

I claimed her body, her loyalty, and, God, I even seized control over her life. But… I’ve never given her the one truth that mattered most. The thing that might have made her stay.

I love her.

And she doesn’t know that I belong to her, too.

“No. I didn’t tell her.” My voice doesn’t even sound like mine. It sounds weak and nothing like the Pakhan I was raised to be.

“I think Anushka may be right. That Gabrielle escaped,” Roman concedes. “Corrado doesn’t seem to be involved in this. Doesn’t mean he’s not. I just can’t find any evidence. The cameras past the bathroom are off. Maybe that wasn’t him.”

“If your wife escaped, she obviously had help from someone who knows what they’re doing and who could slip under the radar,” Kieran offers.

I look at him. He’s none the wiser about Corrado, but he’s not stupid. And Anushka said enough for him to deduce more than what I’ve told him about my marriage.

“If her father wasn’t involved, who’s the next best person?” he continues.

“Her mother,” Aleksandr supplies.

Anushka nods. “Mirella was here the other day. She came to speak to Gabrielle. Something felt off. I didn’t know what, and I thought I was being paranoid. Maybe I wasn’t.”

That bloody woman. Mirella.

“Has anyone called her?” I ask.

“Several times,” Konstantin replies. “The phone rings out to voicemail each time.”

That’s enough to make me suspicious.

Fuck. It could be her. If it is, she fooled everyone. No one would suspect her because she’s sick. Wouldn’t even think that she could be capable of outsmarting all of us. But if this is true, then she did.

“They have a good head start on us, Lev,” Aleksandr points out. “She’s been gone for almost three hours. She could be anywhere.”

“We need to rip this world apart. Find my wife. That’s all I care about. Just find her.”

“If I may,” Kieran interrupts.

“What?”

“If I were going to escape people like us, I’d get out of New York as quickly as possible, but in the most inconspicuous of ways. That’s always going to be by sea.” He holds my gaze. “It makes sense. Come on, it’s why we do the things we do. Anything by sea is harder to track.”

“We’ll start with the sea, then.”

“I have an idea. Come on.”

He walks ahead of me, and I hope like hell whatever he comes up with works.

I’m already too late.