Gilded Tears: A Russian Mafia Romance (Kovalyov Bratva Book 2) Nicole Fox (no david read aloud TXT) 📖

to give you,” Maisie Blackwell tells me. “Like I said, she disappeared weeks ago. Didn’t leave a note or anything.”

I look around and my eyes land on a slight woman loitering in the corner of the room. She’s got a shaved head and scars that line her scalp.

She looks young, but she has the worn-down expression of someone much older. She’s looking at me with narrowed eyes, but it’s not suspicious.

More like she’s trying to figure out who I am.

Maisie notices who I’m staring at. “That’s Tonya,” she says. “She and Emily used to eat their meals together sometimes. Maybe Emily told her something before she left.”

Someone calls for Maisie’s attention. “If you’ll excuse me, Officer,” she says. “I’ll be up front if you need me.”

I wince at her use of the title. I didn’t have much of a choice besides lying.

It’s a battered women’s shelter—she wasn’t about to give up information about a former tenant to a tattooed mob boss who came charging through her door with a vengeance.

A fake badge and an air of authority opened the door, though.

I nod at her. “I appreciate your cooperation, madam.”

Then I turn my attention back to Tonya.

She stares back at me, matching my intensity for a little while. But soon she starts to squirm with self-consciousness.

“What?” she asks. All bold challenge with nothing to back it up.

I move into the room. She backs up against the wall. “I don’t think you’re supposed to be in here,” she says. “You sure as hell don’t look like a cop, neither.”

I take another step closer. A few women perk up, wondering what’s happening.

I ignore them all and keep my attention fixed on Tonya.

“What do you want from me?” she asks.

“You knew Es… Emily?” I ask, correcting myself at the last moment.

Her eyes go wide. “You’re her man,” she says.

My silence is confirmation.

“Fuck,” she breathes, but her expression changes instantly. “You came for her.”

“Where is she?”

Her brow furrows and she looks angry—really angry. “Fuck if I know. Bitch didn’t exactly tell me before she fled the coop. Didn’t even say goodbye.”

“When did she leave?”

She shrugs. “Few weeks ago, I guess,” she replies. “Can’t have gone far, with the little brat in tow.”

Goddammit. Another dead end. I’m sick of this. Sick of coming so close and missing again and again and again.

I need to get out of this shithole now. Before I lose my temper.

I turn and start walking out of the shelter.

“Hey, where are you going?” Tonya asks.

“To find my woman.”

“Tell your woman that the decent thing to do before you leave is to say thanks to the person who sacrificed her bunk for you!”

I suppress my smile. “I’ll tell her.”

Tonya opens her mouth, then lets it fall closed again.

I wait patiently. Silence opens more doors than force, sometimes.

Then she mumbles something, but it’s too low for me to catch.

“What was that?” I ask. “Speak up.”

She pauses, considers repeating herself. Then she changes her mind.

“Nothing,” she says quickly. “Never mind.”

I leave Tonya to her lone bunk and make my way back outside. I’m frustrated enough to punch a hole in a wall.

But that won’t get me anywhere. I need to focus. Find a new way forward.

I’m driving aimlessly through town, trying to blow off steam, when I pass a bus terminal.

That’s as good a lead as any, I suppose.

I park, hop out, and check the schedule, wondering where the fuck Esme had decided to go next.

Tonya was right about one thing: with a newborn in tow, she can’t have gone far.

And then something catches my eye as I’m staring at the maps detailing all the different routes.

I see the ocean.

Months Earlier

“That’s one thing I miss about the compound,” Esme tells me as she places her head against my shoulder. “The ocean. It was so close, I used to go for midnight runs when I needed an escape.”

“The ocean, huh?”

“Cesar loved it, too. We always used to joke that we’d get a little hut on the ocean one day. No one else around for miles. Just us. I’ve always wanted to live by the ocean.”

“It’s been so long since I’ve been near the sea,” she muses. “I miss it.”

“I’ll get you to an ocean soon,” I promise her.

“Yeah?”

I nod and kiss the top of her head. “Yeah. We can take long walks on the beach and our child can splash around in the water.”

She smiles—a bright, open smile that leaves me with a fierce sense of pride and possession. “That sounds perfect,” she nods. “That’s exactly what I want.”

“You know what I want?” I ask.

“What?”

“I want to recreate that day on the beach on our honeymoon…”

Esme’s cheeks blush scarlet as she remembers the longing that unleashed between us on the beach that afternoon. The day we broke through together.

“One day,” she murmurs through the blush. “One day.”

The beach. She went to the fucking beach.

I leap in my car and rev the engine as I head towards the beach town that’s only an hour from where I am.

The map has indicated that it’s a small little backwater place. If she’s still there, it shouldn’t be a problem to track her down.

I have a gut feeling that this is it. This is where I find her.

The question is, once I do find her… then what?

I don’t allow myself any time to focus on that right now.

First, I’ll reclaim my wife and my child.

The rest—I’ll worry about later.

30

Artem

Three hours.

In the end, that’s all it took. That’s how long I needed to close the final distance.

It was surprisingly easy.

Once I’d gotten to the surprisingly pretty beach side town, I’d made some inquiries and checked in at local pubs and cafes.

The fourth time I’d thrown the lure into the water, I’d gotten a bite. The owner of a café had pointed me in the direction of a day care center in the heart of the town.

I’d walked in at seven in the evening and asked to speak to someone in charge. A short conversation later and the