“He wanted twenty million for each,” I choke out. “He said?—”
“I know.”
Kirill turns back to me and sits on the edge of the bed again, taking my hand in his. His knuckles are bruised, split in places, like he’s already put them through a wall more than once.
Lifting my left arm sends pain shooting through it, but I bite it back. The last thing I want is to give him something else to worry about.
“He left a video on your phone,” he says.
“Show me.”
My eyes flick frantically around the room, panic climbing when I don’t see my phone anywhere. But then he pulls it from his pocket and unlocks it, his jaw tightening as he opens the message.
The video starts immediately.
“Mommy…” Milo’s voice quivers so badly, it’s as though something sharp is being driven straight into my chest. “Please come get me.”
The sight of him nearly destroys me. He’s sitting on a brown leather sofa somewhere I don’t recognize, Lev pressed close beside him, rocking and mumbling under his breath. Milo’s hands are shaking hard, eyes swollen and red as he keeps glancing over his shoulder like he’s waiting for someone to grab him again.
I cover my mouth, but the sob escapes anyway. Kirill’s grip on the phone tightens until his knuckles go white.
“I did this,” I whisper, everything in me breaking. “Me. If you want to hate anyone, please hate me.”
“Net.” His head jerks once. “This is Eli.” The name comes out like poison. “All of this is Eli.”
He’s on his feet a second later, moving so fast it startles me, his nostrils flaring, every line of him drawn tight.
“He will—” The words cut off in a curse. “Blyat.”
This time, his fist crashes down onto the metal rail at the end of the bed, the sharp clang ringing through the room as he stands there facing me, chest rising and falling like he’s holding himself back by force. When he speaks again, it’s gruffer, more terrifying.
“We will find our boys.” His shoulders stay locked. “And we will bring them home.” A vein pulses at the side of his neck. “And what I do to that svolich after that…” He turns his head just enough for me to catch the edge of his expression, something brutal in it. “No one will ever forget it.”
The door opens a second later, and a nurse steps in with a tablet in her hand, stopping short when she sees me sitting up.
“Hi there. How are you feeling? Any headaches?”
Kirill moves aside at once so she can come closer.
“No,” I lie even though my head throbs, but I don’t need Kirill to worry about me right now.
“That’s good. If you do experience one, let me know.” She starts fixing my IV. “Please stay in bed, and if you need the restroom, ask one of us for help. You have a concussion, and we don’t want you overexerting yourself.”
The nurse glances down at the screen again, nodding to herself.
“Your vitals are stabilizing nicely,” she says, almost under her breath as she looks over the chart. “We’ll still want to monitor you for a little while, though, and someone from OB should be down shortly to check on the baby.”
For a second, I don’t understand what she’s said. Then Kirill and I both go completely still.
“The baby?” I repeat, certain I heard her wrong.
“Yes.” Her attention stays on the chart as she keeps flipping through it.
A small laugh escapes me, because of course she has me confused with someone else. “Um…I’m not pregnant.”
The nurse stops moving. She peers up from the tablet, then back down at it again, her brows drawn as she reads whatever is written there.
“Can you repeat your name and date of birth for me?”
