The Marriage (Darkest Lies Trilogy Book 3) by Bethany-Kris (animal farm read .txt) 📕

He had one option—charter a jet to Vegas, and find her. Catching a flight last minute would be a joke.

He didn’t give a fuck anymore—not about his father’s orders to stay in New York, or if he was going to be followed by Dima and his men. At this point, he literally had everything to lose. Karine was his everything, after all. He didn’t give a fuck about the consequences of being seen, or how visible it would make him to officials. Too much damage had been done already. Marky was dead. They had too much attention from the FBI and police, and it wouldn’t be long before the two merged to see how they might be able to help one another.

These were things that were entirely out of his control. Nothing could be done to stop what had already happened.

Roman focused on what he could—Karine, and locating her. He was the one who failed to keep her safe, no excuses.

He blamed himself for leaving her there. Maybe trying to prioritize getting her help should have taken a backseat to move her as far out of the country and reach as he could. His hubris was assuming he should have relied on anybody to take care of her.

That they were capable.

Nobody could be trusted.

Before he even had a chance to hit the unlock button on the fob for the rental Porsche he’d been using, a van pulled into the garage. The two men driving had parked five feet from Roman and jumped out before the garage door even closed completely.

Lincoln and Kostya nodded his way, but even their smiles were grim. He hadn’t expected to see the two—men Marky had considered friends in Roman’s crew of guys, who worked closely for him.

“We have a surprise for you,” Kostya said as Lincoln rounded the back of the van with Roman.

For a moment—Roman fantasized about seeing Karine sitting in there. That somehow, in a matter of a few hours, she had found her way to him. All the way from Nevada. It was a foolish, errant thought that he knew couldn’t be true when nobody but him and the people in another state knew she was missing.

Of course, it wasn’t Karine.

It was Masha.

She sat crouched in the corner in the back of the van. Her shaking betrayed the fear she was in, despite the courage with which she met Roman’s eyes.

He stood there in silence, staring back at her until his brain managed to comprehend the piece of the puzzle that had suddenly been laid at his feet.

“Found her hanging around Leon’s gas station,” Lincoln explained as he stepped back beside Roman. “Begging for change so she could make phone calls.”

“The feelers came through, then?”

The man nodded. “She was trying to sell some things—it gave us a general location. The streets did the rest.”

“Who was she trying to call?” Roman asked.

Kostya jumped into the van so he could drag Masha out. Perhaps if Roman cared about the woman, or had any sympathy for the predicament she found herself in, then her screech when Kostya yanked her by her hair would have bothered him.

Instead, Roman figured, at this point, she deserved what she got. Especially if she had any hand in some of their current circumstances, and he suspected she did. Had she been a man they were looking for, she would have already been beaten beyond recognition before ever being placed at his feet.

“You’ll have to ask her because she’s not talking,” Lincoln replied.

Bound at her ankles and wrists with zip ties, she crumpled to the ground in front of him, and she dared to look up at Roman with tears streaming down her cheeks. Her lips quivered, but she didn’t speak.

He couldn’t afford to let himself feel anything as he stared into the frightened face of a woman who might have answers to his most important question. Masha’s disappearance had made little sense, and given she wasn’t familiar with New York, wouldn’t have survived without help from someone else.

There was only a couple of people she might have been in contact with—Maxim, or Dima. Roman was starting to think regardless of which man he found, one prick would lead him straight to the other. Who was chasing who here?

Where was Karine?

“Get her in the basement,” he ordered the men, pulling a cigarette out to light between his lips.

He’d changed his mind about going to Nevada to find Karine.

He had seen it in Masha’s eyes—she was scared for a reason. She did have answers. Roman intended on prying them out of her.

*

The men carried Masha to the basement of the garage without removing her binds. As Roman flicked his cigarette butt to the floor and approached her, he noticed the gash on the bottom of her lip which bled a little when she grimaced.

It wasn’t a new injury, the split through the healing scab said it had been reopened.

“Who did that?” he asked, curious if she would tell him the truth. Whatever that truth was, even if it was as simple as someone on the streets had roughed her up. Her willingness to be honest and talk was the only thing that might allow her to see the outside of this basement.

Masha wouldn’t meet his eyes, then, but she also didn’t bother to struggle with her ties. Likely knowing it was a pointless endeavor.

“Maxim,” she whispered. “Because he found out I had stolen things that could be traced.”

Masha constantly surprised him.

More than he should let her.

“Leave,” Roman demanded to the quiet space, needing privacy for the conversation and events that might come next. The men locked the basement door behind them when they left, and he already had his sharp gaze back on Masha. “You’re going to tell me everything—right fucking now.”

Masha shook her head, those eyes of hers growing big and wild. “I can’t—you don’t understand.”

“What the fuck did you do?” Roman hissed.

He had no reason to raise his voice. Masha was well aware of what men like him could