“I’m coming.”
I try to swing my legs off the bed, but he stops me immediately, his fingers pressing gently but firmly around my arm.
“You heard what the doctors said. You and our baby need to rest.”
The way he saysour babysends warmth through all the panic and grief crashing inside me.
My hand covers his. “I love you, Kirill. And I love our baby. But if you think I’m going to lie here while you go get our sons, then you don’t know me at all. If you don’t take me, I’ll ask Emilia to do it.”
A voice cuts in from the hallway right away. “I sure fucking will.”
Kirill pinches the bridge of his nose. “You’re not helping, sister-in-law.”
“Sorry.” Emilia strides in with Fiona at her side. “But us girls gotta stick together in this fucked-up family, and I’m not about to help you keep a mother from seeing her sons. If she wants to go, she should at least have the option.”
Kirill swivels toward her, frustration flashing across his face. “And if something happens to her? Then what? Hmm? I will not allow it.”
I tug on his wrist, knowing he’s just trying to protect me.
“I know you’re worried,” I tell him when he faces me. “But you’ll be there. Your brothers will be there. Your men will be there. I won’t get in the way, I promise. I’ll stay in the car. But I have to go. Please, Kirill.”
He closes his eyes and releases a long exhale. “Fine. But you stay in the car at all times.”
“Deal.”
Emilia gives me a subtle wink, and for the first time since the accident, a small smile tugs at my mouth.
The boys are coming home. They have to be. Because there is no future without them.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
KIRILL
She’s hereagainst my better judgment, with Eli and his men in that house.
But I knew I couldn’t keep her away. If something happens to her, though—to any of them—I will never forgive myself.
At least she’s remained in the car, two of my men watching over her while the rest of us move through the tree line toward the house as we take our positions. Konstantin crouches beside me behind the thick trunk of an oak, one of our men several feet away with a handheld thermal scanner aimed at the house.
The small screen glows faintly in the dark as he sweeps it across the structure. He studies it, then holds up seven fingers.
One of them better be Eli. I need that ublyudok.Scumbag.
“Where are the boys?” I whisper.
The man points to a cluster of heat signatures near the center of the house. “Living room. Five men around them.”
Good. Less than we expected.
Konstantin taps his finger against the side of his gun, the signal that it’s time.
A few of our men peel off toward the back with Aleksei and Anton while the rest of us spread into position, every seconddragging until a bang suddenly tears from outside at the rear of the house, just like we planned.
Metal clatters. Glass shatters. Voices erupt inside.
“Go check that out,” someone barks.
A second later, footsteps pound across the floor before a door swings open. Two men rush out the back with their weapons drawn, heading straight for the noise.
