How do I bring it up now, though?
How can I tell him?
We weren’t glowering at each other or relying on cold-shoulder treatments anymore, but I had to be delicate about sharing this news with him. Having sex was a good sign of our being close, but each time I wrangled with the guilt of not telling him about the baby, I felt more stressed and anxious about the fact that I’d kept it from him this long already.
He shifted on the bed, probably easing more to his other side to accommodate his injuries on his still-healing body.
Moving with him, I snuggled closer and tipped my head up more to face him. And I consequently got lost in the intensity of his brown gaze locked on me. As if I were all he truly wanted and needed—in every sense. Staring each other down wasn’t intimidating. That was how familiar we were with each other. The longer I watched him, though, the clearer his worry started to show.
Leaning closer to kiss him, I sighed against the possessive brush of his lips over mine. It would never get old. It would never fail to stun and excite me that after all these years, despite the separation between us, we’d come together like this.
Even if it didn’t last, we’d always have these few days. Because that was one thing I’d never be naïve about. Nothing ever lasted forever, the good or the bad, and I’d learned to try to live in the moment as much as I could.
Which is so not happening with a baby on the way.Ihadto think ahead and plan there.
I cleared my throat, tired of the guilt over keeping this secret from him. Before I could speak, though, he opened his mouth and cut me off.
“He’s got a hit on you.”
I blinked, then furrowed my brow as I studied him. “What?” That had come out of freaking nowhere.
“Anton.” He sighed, hugging me closer again. “He’s got a hit on you.”
“What…?” I shook my head, not liking the direction of his thoughts. He’d seemed pensive, lying with me like this as we woke up slowly, but it was sobering to realize he’d been mulling over my threats.
“When we left that other safehouse. Didn’t you hear them?”
“No.” I hadn’t, really. I had tunnel-vision. Or tunnel-hearing, super-focused on moving and escaping.
“They said to gether. Nothim. They showed up there to get you, Katerina.”
“Probably because they knew I had to be there with you. It was a Kozlov safehouse.” I scooted back a bit to face him more fully. This wasn’t a cozy topic at all. I was on edge, not relaxed. “The same as this being an Ivanov safehouse. If someone were to track us here, they’d target you.”
“Maybe. But you can’t change my mind about Anton putting a hit out on you.” He kissed me and tugged me back down to lie with him. “You already said you were done with him, that you’d cut ties.”
“Yes, but…” I sighed, pressing my cheek against his chest. He was right and there was no way to argue it. “I was so focused on the fear that he’d have a hit on you, to get you back since you escaped.”
“I have no doubt he does want me dead.”
I furrowed my brow again. “But you were alive in captivity.” He’d told me that to use as a means of getting him out.
“For now. They wanted me alive. I realized that early on. But until I know who was behind kidnapping me, who is behind all this hell my family is facing, I can’t figure out what their game is. I need to know who the player is, who the mastermind is.”
“Anton is involved,” I replied.
“But is he working alone? Is he the only one I need to go after? I need to settle this from the top, the very top. If Anton’s just a contributor, I have to focus on taking down whoever is callingallthe shots. That’s my mission, Katerina. I have to figure this out before going home and letting anyone try to take me or someone else from my family again.”
What about me?
What would you say or think about the fact that I’m carrying part of your family now?
Without letting go of me, he reached over to grab his slim phone off the nightstand. I watched as he sent that one line of code to the program that his brothers would detect and see. This was his way of proving he was still alive while he saw through this mission.
“Has anything else happened to your family since you’ve been gone?” I sat up, too awake to relax any longer. “I hadn’t heard anything. I mean, not after the rumor that you had been taken. I was focused on finding that video and looking for you.”
“I would have no way of knowing. The contractors who took me and moved me around didn’t let much slip. Only at the end, one said they’d plan to take someone else from my family, but that specific contractor was killed. I have to assume that taking me was only one step of the plan to bring my family down.”
News of more potential threats and strikes against his family chilled me. I was already nervous aboutmyfuture, and I was skeptically hopeful that I could have a role in his. But that would be living with him and taking a leap of faith that the Ivanovs would let me into their family and home.
