Chapter 11

ELEVEN

The plane isn’t registered, but to take off or land, even on a private airstrip, they have to let somebody know. It will take some searching, but I’m confident I will find where they are flying to. I just hope it’s in time.

I don’t sleep or eat.

I leave the others to clean the house so Bert will rest. They want it to be perfect for when she comes home. Jonas even makes him pancakes. They are all confident in my abilities to find her, even when I’m not. If I find where she flew out to, they could have travelled again, yet I know I have to find her. The look she gave us when she left haunts me, and it’s all I see.

I can’t lose her, not like I lost Bas.

I refuse to let another person I love drift away when I can stop it. I know the pressure is mounting on me, but I keep moving. I have four computers open, working at all times. One scans any international data with her photograph, looking for her, the second looks for her passport—which is a long shot but worth trying—and a third searches for her father’s.

“Anything?” Jonas demands from behind me.

I ignore him, using the fourth computer to search through the data of all incoming flights today.

“Dimitri, anything?” he snaps.

“Not fucking yet!” I spin. “Just fuck off and let me work. I’m trying my best.”

“Hey, we know you are.” He moves over, crouching before me and taking my hand. “We know. This isn’t all down to you.”

“I have to find her,” I murmur, dropping my gaze to the floor in shame. “I have to. I couldn’t save him, but I can save her. I can. I will.”

“We will,” Jonas promises. “This isn’t like Bas. Nova will fight to get back to us. She’s so strong, stronger than any of us. We have to trust in that just like she has to trust in us right now to find her, but blaming yourself will not accomplish that, okay? So focus, find her, and give me a fucking target to destroy because right now, I’m fucking useless and I hate it.”

“Scan the bodies.” I jerk my head up. “If we can find out who they are, we can trace their payments back to the source and we might just find her.”

“Got it, I’ll do that.” He stands. “You good?”

I nod, even though we both know it’s a lie. “We’re going to get her back,” I murmur.

“We are, and when we do, we’ll burn the fucking world for her.”

* * *

JONAS

I feel useless as I pace near the front door. All the bodies have been checked, and we are running their IDs to see if we can find any links. We are tugging at every thread, unravelling the game he has set before us so we can find our girl, yet there is nothing more I can do. There is nothing I can shoot and nobody I can fight. I’m stuck waiting while my girl gets farther and farther away.

It’s clear we are all feeling the pressure. Isaac is working around the clock to get Bert fixed and back to health, as if making sure he’s absolutely fine will bring her back. Louis is on the phone with every military contact he can think of, screaming at them. Seeing him lose control really hammers home just how fucked we are.

Nico is in the gym, beating the shit out of the equipment to stop himself from going on a killing spree, and Dimitri? He’s barely slept or moved, his eyes are bloodshot, his clothes are rumpled and stained, and he hasn’t moved away from the computers since the moment he woke up.

And me? I’m standing guard, as if they will come back. I know they won’t. He doesn’t want us. No, he wants her—the only experiment to succeed. He wants his daughter and what her mind holds, and the idea of what they could be doing to her right now makes me feral.

I’m like a wild animal, but the only person who is able to soothe me is gone.

They have backed us into a corner, but don’t they know that only makes us more dangerous? After all, we have something to fight for now, which we never did before—our family, our heart, our reason to live.

I remind myself that she’s survived his treatments before as I pace, ragging at my hair. She’s survived so much pain at his hands. We promised her she would never be taken again, but we broke that promise. I hate it, and I hate that she’s alone again. I hate that she’s hurting, grieving, and in agony, and we aren’t there to hold her.

I need my Nova, and if I have to kill every single person who gets in my way to get her back, I will, and when I find her father?

I’m going to torture him to death for hurting the love of my life.