"Stubborn. Angry. Refusing to rest like the doctor ordered." There's affection in his voice despite the exasperation. "She wants to know when she can leave."
"Tell her she can leave whenever she wants." The words hurt coming out, but they're necessary. "But also tell her that I'll have security follow her if she goes back home. Not to control her, but to keep her safe."
"You're letting her go?"
"No, but let her think she’s free for tonight. It might help her rest.”
“You want me to lie to her?”
“I want you to do what’s best for my child,” I say in that cold tone I’ve perfected. “Tomorrow, she’ll come here.”
“She’s going to cut my balls off when she finds out I lied to her.”
“Yes, she is. But if she’s going after yours, mine are safe.”
He curses before I hang up.
She’ll get over it. She might be carrying my child, but she is still my captive.
23
DANTE
My phone rings at sunrise, cutting through the restless half-sleep I've been pretending passes for actual rest. I've been staring at the ceiling for hours, my mind cycling through everything that changed yesterday. Hannah's pregnant. She's carrying my child. The thought still doesn't feel real.
"Alexei," I answer, my voice rough.
"Morning, boss. Sleep well?"
I'm about to tell him the truth—that I haven't slept at all, that every time I close my eyes I see Hannah falling down those stairs with my child inside her—when he continues without waiting for my answer.
"Hannah's awake. I told her we were coming back to the estate like you instructed." There's a pause, and I can hear shouting in the background. "She hasn't stopped yelling at me for the past ten minutes. I'm pretty sure she just called me a lying sack ofshit in three different languages. She’s clearly been picking up on Russian. Her insults don’t make a lot of sense, but she told me to fuck a dog."
Despite everything, I laugh. Actually laugh, the sound surprising me with its genuineness.
"What's she saying now?" I ask, because the shouting has gotten louder.
"Something about how she's not going anywhere with me and that she’s going to put my balls in a glass jar and make me look at them..." He pauses. "Okay, now she's threatening to castrate me with a butter knife she apparently stole from her dinner tray last night."
I laugh again, harder this time. Of course she did. Of course my pregnant, concussed, furious woman is planning to emasculate my best friend with hospital cutlery.
"We'll be there soon to pick you both up," I say.
"Boss," Alexei's voice drops to a whisper, "I am not riding in the same car as her. She looks like she wants to murder me with her bare hands."
"Then you'll take a separate vehicle."
"Thank you. I was starting to fear for my life."
I end the call and head for the shower, already planning the conversation I need to have with Hannah. She's angry, scared, and feeling betrayed. I understand all of that. But she's also carrying my child, which changes everything whether she wants to accept it or not.
The drive to the hospital gives me time to prepare for whatever version of Hannah I'm about to face. Angry Hannah I can handle. Hurt Hannah breaks something inside me. But pregnant, protective Hannah? That's uncharted territory.
I find her in the discharge area, fully dressed and practically vibrating with fury. When she sees me, her green eyes flash with something that could incinerate steel.
"You," she says, pointing at me with her eyes flashing with unbridled fury. "You're a lying bastard."
"Good morning to you too, Red."
