“Sloane Marinova,” I answer automatically, giving her the date.
Her finger taps and drags across the screen again before she inhales. “Okay…”
Something in that one word makes my skin crawl.
“I’m just going to get the doctor so he can?—”
Kirill is already on his feet before she can finish.
“No.” The word cracks through the room sharply enough to make her freeze. “You will tell us.” He steps closer, his eyes fixing on hers. “Right now.”
She clears her throat. “Okay…well…the bloodwork taken when you arrived after the accident showed low levels of hCG in your system.” Her gaze flicks between us. “Which indicates an early pregnancy. I will have the doctor speak with you guys. I’m sorry…”
Then she slips out of the room, leaving the words behind like a bomb.
Pregnant.
Oh my God.
Neither of us moves. We just stare at each other like this has to be some kind of mistake, some misunderstanding. Because how can this be real with our boys missing and everything falling apart around us?
My hand drifts to my stomach, my fingers resting there while my mind scrambles to catch up.
“I’m late,” I whisper. “I didn’t even realize…”
With the accident, the wedding, the boys, Eli…everything happened so fast, I wasn’t paying attention.
Kirill is still staring at me like the ground just lifted beneath him. He drags his fingers through his hair before looking back at me, and when he reaches for me again, his grip is firm as he presses a kiss to my knuckles.
“This is good.”
My eyes search his, trying to understand how he can say that when nothing feels good right now.
“I want a life with you, Sloane. And even though this isn’t how I would have wanted us to find out, I’m happy.”
A sob breaks out of me, and he pulls me into him, holding me as his palm moves up and down my back.
“We will get them back,” he says. “And we will tell them together. I promise you, detka. If it’s the last thing I do.”
KIRILL
I hated leaving Sloane at the hospital, but she wanted me to go and bring the boys home, which is exactly what I’m doing.
She isn’t alone, though. Emilia and Fiona came to stay with her, both of them refusing to leave her side while the doctors monitor the concussion and…our baby.
A baby.
My palm goes to the back of my neck, pressing into my skin. I’ve wanted another child for a long time, and now that it’s withher, I can’t wait. But until the kids are safe, we can’t really let ourselves celebrate it.
Standing in the stables at Konstantin’s, I stare at Timur hanging from the steel beam bolted into the ceiling, his blood dripping slowly.
It didn’t take long to figure out he was working for the wrong side. After I asked him for intel on Barrett and Eli, he fed me bad information. Even showed me photos to make it look like they were still in New York while one of my other contacts told me Eli was in New Jersey.
Now he’ll pay the price for it.
His wrists are chained above his head, forcing his body to stretch painfully upward while his feet barely skim the ground. The metal cuffs have already cut deep into his skin from the way he’s been thrashing for the last twenty minutes. His back is torn open from the whip lying on the floor behind me, crimson running in uneven lines down his ribs and pooling at his waist.
He won’t hold out much longer. Not when the pain is about to get bad enough that loyalty stops mattering.
