A Dance with Danger

Chapter Seventy two

Tiberius' POV

The past two hours had been a blur. My men and I had scoured every inch of Chicago. Every alley, every corner, every street. We checked every safe house, every hideout, every abandoned warehouse we could think of, but no sign of Estelle. My chest felt like a vice was slowly tightening around my heart, and every failed search was like a blade twisting deeper into my soul.

We had nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

My mind kept racing. The kidnapper had to be close. There was no way they could have gotten far, but the deeper I dug, the further away the answers seemed. Estelle had been taken by one of my own men—someone I trusted. How the fuck had that happened?

I glanced at the men who’d been with me. They were just as frustrated. I knew they felt the weight of her disappearance just as much as I did, but there was nothing any of us could do. We were running on fumes, and the harder we tried to find her, the more hopeless it seemed.

Finally, we returned to the safe house. My body was exhausted, but my mind was still racing, incapable of rest. I needed to know where she was. I needed to find her—now.

I walked into the living room where Papa Ilya and Father Damien were already sitting. They looked up at me, their expressions concerned but steady. Ilya, as usual, was the first to speak.

"We're going to find her, Tiberius," Papa Ilya said, his tone heavy with promise. He always had that calming presence, the one that made you feel like everything would be alright even when it felt like the world was crumbling around you. But right now, I wasn't sure I believed him. The hole in my chest was only growing with each passing second.

Father Damien stepped behind Ilya, his strong arms wrapping around his shoulders in a protective gesture. The two of them were the epitome of stability, but even their presence couldn't calm the rage that was bubbling up inside me.

I nodded curtly, barely registering their words. They were offering reassurance, but all I could think about was Estelle. Where the fuck was she? Who the hell had taken her? And why?

Just as the silence settled in, Killian's voice rang out from the other room.

"I got something!"

My heart skipped a beat, and without thinking, I moved toward him, my body moving on autopilot. Maybe this was it. Maybe, just maybe, we had found something that would lead us to her.

I entered the room where Killian was sitting at the desk, surrounded by monitors and laptops. His eyes were glued to one of the screens, and his fingers flew across the keyboard as he typed rapidly.

"Talk to me," I demanded, my voice barely a whisper but heavy with urgency.

Killian looked up at me, his face a mixture of exhaustion and determination. "I’ve been analyzing the footage from the ambush—there's something strange. The guard that was supposed to take Estelle, the one you told her to go with? I’ve been tracking his movements." He paused, the tension thick in the air. "Tiberius, I think we’ve been played."

My stomach twisted in knots. "What the fuck do you mean 'played'?"

Killian clicked on a file, and the footage appeared on the screen. It was from a security camera in one of the alleyways near the safe house. It showed the guard I had trusted, the one I had sent with Estelle. His face was unmistakable, but there was something in his eyes that wasn’t right—something cold, almost calculating.

I watched the footage as the guard, with Estelle in tow, walked toward a van parked in the alley. But instead of getting in the vehicle to take her to safety, he glanced around, almost as if he were making sure no one was watching. And then, without warning, he shoved Estelle into the van and slammed the door shut. The footage cut off there, but it was enough to send a surge of adrenaline through my veins.

I knew it—the bastard had betrayed me.

The guard had been in on it all along. The entire time, he had been working with whoever had planned this ambush. And now, Estelle was in the hands of those who wanted to hurt her, possibly even worse.

"Son of a bitch," I muttered under my breath, my hands balling into fists. "I’ll fucking kill him."

Papa Ilya and Father Damien entered the room just as the video ended. I could see the realization on their faces as they processed what had just happened.

Ilya’s gaze turned cold. "Tiberius, you need to stay focused," he said, his voice low and firm. "We can deal with the guard later. Right now, you need to find her. We don’t have time to waste."

His words should’ve calmed me, but instead, it was like pouring gasoline on a fire. I was losing control. I could feel it—my anger, my frustration, everything. The dark side of me, the one that I usually kept locked away, was starting to claw its way to the surface.

"You don’t get it," I snapped, my voice a low growl. "They’ve crossed the line. They’ve gone too far. They’ve hurt her."

I could feel the weight of my emotions threatening to crush me, but it wasn’t just pain. It was rage. Rage that I hadn’t been able to stop this from happening. I had failed. And failure—failure was something I didn’t do.

Papa Ilya stepped forward, his calm eyes never leaving mine. "Tiberius, I know you’re angry. But you can’t let that consume you. If you lose yourself, if you let the anger take over, you won’t find her. You’ll destroy everything you’ve worked for."

I looked at him, and for a moment, I saw the father figure I’d never had—someone who had always been there, someone who could see through my facade. I wanted to listen. I did. But the anger inside me was growing, becoming more than just a passing emotion.

I couldn’t stop it.

Not anymore.

My mind was a battlefield, the war between logic and rage tearing me apart. I was slipping, slowly but surely. And the worst part? I wasn’t even fighting it anymore.

"I’m going to find her, Papa," I said, my voice hollow. "And when I do, I’m going to make sure whoever is behind this regrets every fucking second of it."

I wasn’t sure if I was speaking to him, to myself, or to the darkness inside me. But it didn’t matter. All I could focus on was getting Estelle back.

Suddenly, Killian’s voice cut through the air again. "I’ve got a lead. A van matching the description of the one in the footage was tracked to a warehouse on the outskirts of town."

My heart skipped a beat. This was it. The breakthrough we had been waiting for.

"We go now," I growled, my voice rough. My entire being was focused on the mission. Finding Estelle.

The men began gathering their gear, preparing for what was about to come. As they moved with practiced precision, I felt my mind narrowing, the world around me fading into a haze of bloodlust and vengeance.

Papa Ilya placed a hand on my shoulder, his grip firm but gentle. "Tiberius, you need to stay in control. I know you want to tear this city apart, but don’t forget—your wife needs you to be the man she married. Not the monster you’ve been turning into."

I could hear the warning in his voice, but it was like background noise now. The dark side of me—the side that had been dormant for so long—was clawing its way to the surface. And there was no stopping it.

Not anymore.

“I don’t care,” I muttered, my words cold and final. “Nothing else matters. Not now.”

I turned toward Killian, my eyes burning with determination. “Let’s go. We’re getting her back. No one touches her again. Not while I’m still breathing.”

The air around me crackled with a dangerous energy, and I could feel the darkness inside me rising, ready to break free. This wasn’t just about getting Estelle back anymore. It was about sending a message.

A message that no one fucks with what’s mine.

And I was going to make sure they knew it.

We're rounding down to the last few chapters 😭😭😭😭 I'm crying. See you guys on the other side