“Oh! I can find her! I need my phone!” I rush to the door, making sure to avoid stepping in the blood.
Ivan barks an order for his security men, then follows me through the hallway leading to the employee locker room. If anyone in the lounge notices me with all the blood over me, they know better to than to comment or stare.
“Vee? What’s going on?” Meredith catches up to me in the locker room. Ivan is right behind her, shoving his way in.
“Caroline. I can find her.” I throw open my locker and dig out my phone, scrolling for the location app. “We were nervous about her going with that guy, so I asked her to share her location with me. I’d forgotten about that until now.”
“If her phone’s on, you’ll be able to pinpoint where she is.” Ivan watches my phone with me, waiting for the little icon to stop circling.
“Is she okay? Why are you covered in blood?” Meredith fires off questions.
“Meredith, I need you to seal off the room the Santuccis were in. My men will be down to clean it, but I don’t want it used the rest of the night.”
Meredith nods without question. “Of course.”
“Here! She’s here.” I show him the screen.
He takes the phone from me, zooming in on the map. A murderous glint to his eye, he looks up at me. “Who the hell was that guy?”
“Devon, she just called him Devon.” I should have asked more questions. “Kieran said he knew him from when they were kids. Devon works for the DeAngelos now.”
His jaw gets tighter. He pulls his own phone from his coat pocket.
“We need to go get her.” I argue.
His stare makes me go still. The anger over what I’ve done isn’t gone, but he’s focused now. Getting Caroline out of that hell matters first.
“Artem, are they at the house yet?” His eyes lock with mine. “One of our girls, Caroline, is inside. I’m sending you a picture, it’ll come from an unknown number.”
Ivan cradles his phone between his ear and shoulder while he uses Kieran’s phone to send Caroline’s photos to Artem. The silence while he listens to whatever Artem is telling him, is suffocating. Like a thin wire being wrapped around my throat.
“Yes. Good. Okay, let me know when you have her, and bring her straight to the doctor’s house. He’ll be waiting. He’s closer than Alexander’s or Obsidian; take her to him.” He ends the call.
“What’s going on? Why is Artem already there?” I grab hold of Ivan’s arm.
His thumb taps his phone and again he’s on another call.
“Artem’s there now, one of our girls is in there. He’s going to get her and take her to the Doc’s house. I need someone to come down here and get Vivienne.”
“I’m going with you; she’s going to need—” I snap my mouth shut when his finger presses to my lips. He continues speaking to the person on the phone.
“They need to take her home. She’s not to leave. For any reason.” He reaches into my locker and grabs my jacket, shoving it at me. “If she tries to leave, move her to the pit.”
A chill runs through me with his last order. I’ve heard of the pit. The girls gossip about there being another level to Obsidian where they take their enemies when they need to deal with them.
“Ivan. What’s going on?” I yank my jacket on over my uniform.
“Lev is coming down to get you.” He disappears into the shower room and comes back with a towel.
“Why are your men at that place?”
He wipes my face with the towel then my chest, cleaning off as much blood as the towel will soak up.
“The DeAngelos have what they call pleasure houses around the city. Women are bought and sold there, rented out to the highest bidder to do whatever the fuck they want with them. We’re taking out the house tonight.”
“The one Caroline’s at?”
“Yes.” His jaw tenses, and he tosses the dirty towel into the large bin. “Lev is taking you home.”
