In the distance, sirens. Muted at first, then growing.
“Deal with the authorities,” I said, shaking the dust from my hair.“Make sure they compile a thorough report for us.” I looked at what remained of the room.“I’m calling a meeting. These rats are hiding on the outskirts of my city and I intend to find every single one of them.”
I climbed out over broken wood, bricks and shattered glass and whistled for Bogdan and Tikhon. They swept my car for further devices before I got in and called Tau.
He was already on top of the house security. The compound was guarded better than my father’s property had been—which was now evident—but I wasn’t taking any chances.
This was the problem in the new world.
There were no rules.
??????
My men needed a show of strength. After a quick shower and change of clothes I headed downstairs.
Iskra came out of the living room as I reached the bottom of the stairs. She still wore what she’d had on earlier—the camel top, the brown drawstring trousers, the long matching cardigan. She looked at the activity around the house and then at me.
“Is everything all right?” she asked, stopping beside the newel post.
There had been a flurry of movement since I arrived back—checks inside and outside, men repositioned, the kind of controlled urgency that was impossible to miss if you’d been paying any attention at all. She had been paying attention.
“There was an attack on my father’s house,” I said, straightening my sleeves with a tug.
“Is he—?”
“Dead. Konstantin confirmed it shortly before I came down.”
She frowned.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
My eyes dropped to her waistband for a moment. The slight curve. The thing I wasn’t permitted to touch.
I nodded and turned away before I said something we would both regret.
Chapter 36
Iskra
Over the following weeks there was no need to wonder what was happening. Men came and went through the house at all hours. The news reported explosions on the outskirts of Chernograd. Body parts were showing up in various locations across the city—the kind of message that didn’t require translation.
Vadim’s retaliation was not silent. It was purposefully loud, deliberate and visible. A full team had gone to Chechnya to eradicate Tolam’s network at the source.
I didn’t usually know the details. But I had learned to piece things together—from conversations beside open doorways, fragments carried through windows left ajar, the occasional hour spent at the top of the staircase where sound travelled better than anyone seemed to account for.
Tau always caught me.
Those dark eyes finding me without searching, the way they always did. He never said anything. He didn’t need to. He simply held my gaze until I slinked away, the chastisement delivered entirely without words. And since Vadim had never called me out on it, I had to presume Tau hadn’t reported back the way Radovan would have.
The distraction was welcome.
It stopped me from thinking too carefully about what would happen in five months when I gave birth to his son or daughter.
It stopped me from wondering where he spent his nights.
??????
The tiny outfit hung on the smallest clothes hanger I’d ever seen. The onesie was a knitted cream creation with a brown baby deer on it. The buttons looked wooden but when I touched one it was smooth plastic, running from the shoulder to the hip. It had a matching brown hat—suitable for a boy or a girl.
