Chapter 29

twenty-nine

Sergi – Two Hours Earlier

I can't help the grin on my face when we leave my girl at the mansion. Al and Damian chuckle at me but I just shrug.

Damian slaps my back. "Good to have you home, brother." Al nods in agreement.

"It's good to be home, brother, even better to have my woman back."

They both grin.

Twenty minutes later, we arrive at our office, and I get giddy. Dimitri smirks while Juan chuckles at me. We all head to the basement where Peter is already waiting for us with a scowl on his face. I sigh, he's been trying to contact my girl, but she's not there yet.

I slap his back and put my hand on the biometric scanner, stating, "Just give her time."

He scowls harder. "She forgave you ."

Shaking my head, I turn toward him. He sounds fucking bitter. "Did I fuck up? Too fucking right, I did, and I owned up to it. But you abandoned her at the drop of a fucking hat. You barely scanned the DNA document, if you did you, would have seen it was a poor forgery. You didn't even question how that bitch got a sample of your DNA to even do the test. Avery was abused and molested for years, all because her biological father refused to take her. It's not something she can forgive and forget in a few months. You must own up to your mistakes. It took her months to even talk to me, Peter, but what you did made her suffer for years ."

His face is white, but I ignore that. I turn and head into the room with the others. I smirk when I see the three idiots chained to the ceiling wearing only their underwear. They all look up, and when they see my cold stare, they tremble.

I look to Damian, my Pahkan, and he smirks. "Looks like these three died in a boating accident trying to flee the country. Sadly, they went down with the boat."

I grin coldly at them. Ben pisses himself while Hannah openly cries. Julian looks at me and sneers. "You'll die for this; you don't know who we are."

I chuckle darkly as Al states, "Professor Julian Whitmore, but that's not your real degree; you forged it with help from the Romanian's."

He pales when I say, "Is now a good time to inform you three that you're honored guests of the Russian Bratva?" Julian pisses himself this time, but I continue, "As well as the Italian and Greek Mafia."

Hannah screams, "I didn't do anything! I didn't!"

I sneer and walk over to her, then I grab her hair. "So you didn't beat my girl, then and try selling her, or let that fat piece of shit nearly rape and kill her?"

She pales and tries to shake her head. "I d-don't know who your g-girl is."

I smile evilly. "Avery Taylor." They all pale and look at me as I state, "Formerly known as Avery Taylor Gibson. But now she's Avery Gibson Popov. My pregnant wife." Ben starts to shake while Julian and Hannah look like they're about to pass out.

"What the fuck!" I hear Damian shout, and I chuckle; Al and Peter stand there, staring at me in shock, while Dimitri and Juan smile. They were both there when I decided I had enough of not having her tethered to me.

Al gets in my face and sneers, "Please fucking tell me my brother from another mother did not get married without us there. If Phoebe finds out, she'll find a way to blame me for it."

I chuckle again, and state, "It was a small courthouse ceremony. She only wanted those two there." I throw both Dimitri and Juan under the bus, but they smirk and shake their heads at me while Damian pouts. I sigh. "We're going to have another ceremony with all of our family after the babies are born, okay?" They just narrow their eyes at me while Peter glares. I point my finger at him. "You have roughly six months to get your ass in gear, because as it stands, she wants my dad to walk her down the aisle." Al and Damian grin when they hear me finally calling Dimitri dad, while Juan just smiles sadly. I tilt my head at him, and he nods. Soon. I'll get there soon.

I turn back to the three soon-to-be-dead people and smile; Julian has already passed out. I shake my head, grab my knife from its holder on my belt, and stab him in the stomach. He wakes up with a gasp, then screams as I pull it out. Ben vomits while Hannah pisses herself and cries, and I smile. I walk to Ben, and slowly slice his ear off as he screams about how sorry he is and to give him mercy.

I snarl, "Like you gave my wife mercy when she was only nine years old?" He starts to cry. I hear a cry of pain next to me and look to see Peter slicing off Julian's finger.

"Please, please, we didn't sell her, she's with you so she made it! Please!" Hannah cries out.

Al walks over to her and shoves a rag into her mouth, and sneers, "And yet your brother-in-law tried to kill her not long ago, so shut your fucking mouth."

She sobs around the rag, and I get back to work slicing this mother fucker. Dimitri, Juan, Al, and Damian take a turn too, and by the time we reach for Hannah, she's pale as a ghost. Ben is still alive—just—he's been sliced from head to toe. His right ear is gone, and most of his fingers, and several toes. I have one more punishment for him, and I want his wife to see it. Julian, however, gets the same courtesy he gave my girl. I booted him hard enough to break a rib and nick his lung, then I watched as he slowly died, suffocating as he pleaded for his life in wet, gasping breaths.

I turn toward Al and hold out my hand. "Tongs."

He smirks and gets them from our workbench as everyone else stands back.

I get in Ben's face and rasp, "So, you like to knock kids out then rape them, do you?"

He tries to shake his head. "I-I'm s-s-sorry."

I tsk and I slice off his underwear. He cries out, probably thinking I'm going to rape him, which is fucking gross. I pull a face, and the men laugh while Al passes me the tongs. I use them to grip his cock, which is getting hard. I gag. When she sees me put a knife to her hubby's hard dick and slice through it, Hannah starts to scream, but it's muffled by the rag. I cut Ben's dick right off. He screams out in pain, and I take the opportunity to shove it down his throat.

I clamp his mouth shut with my glove covered hand while he chokes on his own dick.

I rasp, "This is for my wife, you sick bastard."

He slowly dies, his eyes never leaving mine. He can see the fury in my gaze, and in his I see fear, sorrow, and regret. Too fucking late, dickhead. When he finally goes limp, I move back and smirk, looking over to Hannah. She's fucking terrified. Good. Now she knows how Avs felt at only nine years old.

Just as I'm about to go over to her, a gunshot sounds out and she flops down, a bullet between her eyes. We all turn to see who did it, only to find Phoebe standing there with tears running down her face. Al and I both move together.

I go stone still when she rasps, "I tried calling but you all left your phones out there. Someone took Avery."

My heart rate kicks up, fear and fury taking over. Juan grips my shoulder to bring me back, and I look toward Peter, he's gone pale.

I run out of the building as I hear Damian on his phone. "Get down here now and clean up." Then he hangs up and I know he's now locking the room up to start the "self-clean" cycle. Once everything inside is reduced to ashes, our men will wash it all down.

As I get to the SUV, Dimitri, Juan, Al, Damian, and Phoebe all climb in.

Peter runs to his car, and he shouts, "I'll follow you."

I nod; he must think we're heading home but we're not. I grab my phone from the center console where I left it, and bring up the tracking app. Phoebe looks over my shoulder and gasps.

Knowing she's probably affronted for Avery, I say, "It was in with her father's things. I gave her the bracelet on our wedding day, and she's aware of the tracker because her father is the one who put it there for her mother."

The men all freeze but I don't take notice, not realizing my error. I connect my phone to the SatNav on the car, and the route to where they are keeping her appears on the dashboard screen.

Al curses. "That's Mindy's townhouse." Al puts the car in gear, and tears out of the parking lot.

What the fuck?

Suddenly I feel a smack on the back of my head, and I turn and glare at my cousin. "What the fuck, Phoebe?"

She hits me again, then shouts, "You got married without me!"

Oh fuck.

Al and Damian cough to hide their laughter, while Dimitri and Juan smirk.

I throw them under the bus again. "Dads one and two were there as well." Damian and Al can't hide their laughter now as Phoebe goes red, and both dads glare at me.

"You know what— Wait. Did you just call me dad ." Juan's voice goes from pissed to scared, then awed in a matter of seconds.

I shake my head and I look back at my raging cousin.

Al quickly saves me from my heart to heart with Juan when he announces, "We're here."

We all get out and spread out. Al keeps Phoebe behind him, knowing she won't stay in the car. Peter jogs over, looking confused.

"Her adoptive father put a tracker in his wife's bracelet. Avery thought it was a brilliant idea and decided to wear it."

He sighs in relief, and we all enter the house through the unsecured front door. I roll my eyes. Fucking amateurs.

We all freeze in the kitchen area, which is absolutely fucking rank. It's littered with several weeks' worth of old, moldy dishes and trash everywhere.

We hear voices coming from the basement and we slowly make our way down the wooden stairs. Everything in me runs cold when I hear a soon-to-be-dead man threaten my wife. And when we round the corner, both Damian and I look at each other in shock. Vasiliki fucking Gheada, the Romanian family boss, who we've been looking for since he gave us the slip. Phoebe recognizes him and sneers before we all get ready to make a move. I lean out further to look for Avery—and then I see her. Dimitri has to keep a hold of me; my girl is strapped to a table, wearing only a bra, she's naked from the waist down, and she's bleeding, a lot, from between her legs. There's also blood and swelling on her face, and there's bruising on her belly, which sends my heart skyrocketing in my chest.

Fuck. The twins.

"You either push those brats out so I can finally finish the job and send you back to your mother, or I cut them out, which will most likely kill them. What do you say, Avery? I really hope you choose the first one, as it seems Mindy, here, has paid me quite a lot for those brats."

Tears run down Avery's cheeks as she screams, "Noooo!" in pain, and my fucking patience has run out.

I shoot the fucker in the hand holding the machete as Mindy screams. When Vasiliki drops to the floor, crying out in pain, Al runs toward Avery. Phoebe keeps her gun trained on Mindy, while Peter is standing stalk still, eyes wide, face pale, looking at his daughter.

For fuck's sake.

I smack him on the back of his head, and he snaps out of it, and goes with Juan to find blankets, knowing Avs won't want him near her.

I run for Vasiliki, and I punch him in the face—once, twice, three times—before I twist his arm in an unnatural angle, snapping it. He screams in pain, and I grab the machete and swing it into his neck, nearly cutting his head off. He dies instantly. I turn to Mindy, but Phoebe beats me to it.

Phoebe grabs the bat and blasts Mindy in the head. Mindy screams in pain, falling to the ground as Phoebe does it two more times, crushing her skull. Mindy's eyes open, but there's no life behind them.

I hear Phoebe mutter, "Wanted to do that for months now."

Good fucking riddance.

I'm breathing hard when suddenly I hear "Sergi!" I look over to see Avery pushing out one of our twins.

I shout, "Fuck!"

I run over to her and lean over her as tears run down my cheeks. I grab her hand, and she squeezes it as she pushes.

"Okay baby, you're okay. You've got this," I murmur as Phoebe grabs her other hand. I can see she's getting tired. My heart thunders when suddenly a cry.

I look over to see Al holding one of the babies, and he proclaims, "A beautiful, baby boy." Phoebe walks over to him, and takes my son, who has dark blond hair like mine, and places him on my wife's chest.

I kiss her head and place my hand on our son's back. "He's perfect," I whisper.

She smiles and rasps back, "Anthony Dimitri." I grin, we never spoke about names, she only said she had a few in mind but never brought it up again. Dimitri openly sobs. I look at him and tilt my head so he knows how much he fucking means to me and to Avery.

Love and pride shine through his eyes.

Avery tenses and Phoebe quickly takes the baby, placing him in a blanket that Juan just gave her. Juan and Peter peer down at their grandson, both grinning.

"Okay, Avery, your little girl wants to meet you. Push, sweetheart," Al demans.

Avery screams out in pain, gripping my hand, and pushes a few more times before her body goes limp. Her breathing is erratic.

Suddenly, I hear Alexandr rasp, "Shit, she's not breathing."

My legs nearly give out. Fuck no!

Avery claws my arms and screams, "Sergi! Save her, save her!"

I run over to Alexandr and take my daughter, laying her on the blanket Peter placed on the floor, and start CPR, trying to be as delicate as I can. Her lips are blue, and tears fill my vision. I can barely see Al as he watches me trying to save my fucking daughter. Pain like no other fills me.

I scream, "Fuck, come on, baby girl! Breathe for daddy!"

I sob, still doing CPR on by daughter, when I hear Dimitri shout, "She's crashing!"

I turn my head and see my wife, my fucking world, lifeless; her body is completely still. My heart stops. Fuck, please no! I look to my daughter, who's still not breathing, then to my wife. Al's trying to stop the bleeding from between Avery's legs, but there's too much. I can hear my son crying in the background. I'm being torn in three separate directions.

I hear a loud bang from the door, and Sofia rushes in with Ivan, who we call Surg. He's a Made Man but also a qualified surgeon.

I sob in relief.

"Oh my God!" Sofia yells, and she comes over to me as Surg hurries to my wife. I fall flat on my ass as Sofia takes over CPR, knowing this is her area expertise as a pediatric nurse. I look over to my wife and see the doc shove his hand inside her, making me flinch.

He shouts, "We need to move her, or we'll lose her

I jump to my feet and rush over to them. I pick up Avery, bridal style, while Surg keeps his hand inside her to stop the bleeding. Her head goes limp on my shoulder, making my heart rate triple. As I go to walk up the stairs, I look at Sofia and see her still working on my daughter. I don't know how, but I know she won't make it. It's impossible. A sob builds in my throat, and I keep moving, not looking back. If Avery doesn't die from this, losing our daughter just might do the job.

The twenty-minute drive to the hospital only takes us ten. Surg called ahead, and a gurney and several doctors and nurses are waiting for us. They open the car door and grab her from me. Surg's hand is still in place, and they take her inside. Dimitri, Peter, and I rush in while Juan parks the car. Damian and Al stayed behind with Sofia. The nurse looks at me as I stare at the double doors behind which they took my wife.

A nurse puts a gentle hand on my arm and offers a soft smile. "What's his name?"

I clear my throat and rasp, "Anthony Dimitri Popov-Garcia." Juan came in right at that point and gasps at my son's name. But I can't focus.

The nurse nods. "We're going to take him up to NICU and have a look at him."

I just nod, not moving a muscle.

Phoebe steps up beside me. "I'll go with him, okay?"

I nod again, still not moving, and they go off to make sure my son's healthy despite his traumatic birth. Dimitri pulls me back into the waiting room. The same one we were in with Phoebe, the same room where I decided to pull back from my love and make her into my whore. Mindy taking her was my fault; I fucked her. I did this. A sob claws out of my throat, as my knees buckle. I fall to the floor, and placing my face in my hands, I cry. My wife might not make it, and I don't think my daughter did.

Dimitri wraps his arms around me as Maria hurries into the room.

"My boy," she cries, and wraps her arms around me. I hold her tight, and cry into her neck. Pain like no other flashes through me at the thought of raising my son without his mother and sister.

Dimitri drags me up and over to a seat, and Maria takes the seat right next to me. Dimitri kneels in front of me.

He grips my cheeks, and rasps, "Have faith."

I shake my head, and sob. "If she survives this, losing our daughter will destroy her. She doesn't even have a name."

Dimitri grips my face harder, and he rasps, "Natalia Iris. That's the name Avery whispered before…before…." He can't finish the sentence.

Avery not only named our son after our fathers, but also our daughter after our mothers.

My angel.

Dimitri wraps his arms around me and holds me tight as Al and Damian rush in. I look up and my heart stops. If my daughter didn't survive, then I can kiss goodbye to my relationship with Avery. This will kill her, and I know I'm to blame for it all.

Al rushes over to me and pulls me up, hugging me tight. "Sofia did it! As soon as you left, my fighter of a niece cried out. Sofia never gave up. They're in NICU with Phoebe and Anthony. Your daughter has a high chance of recovery. She was only out of oxygen for about three minutes, brother, but she made it."

I collapse in his arms. Damian rushes over as Al falls with me, both holding me tight as I sob.

Two hours later, Sofia rushes into the waiting room. I lift my head out of my hands and hurry toward her. I hug her tightly to me, and rasp, "Thank you."

She lets out a sob and nod. When she pulls away, she grips my face.

"She's stable. Her vitals are looking good." I nod, relief burning through me. "Do you want to see your babies?"

I shake my head, making her scowl at me. I whisper, "I can't without Avery, Sofia. It's not right without her."

I hear Maria sob in the background as Sofia whispers back, "You know Avery would be pissed if you aren't there for your children, Serg. You know how pissed she'll be at you."

I wipe my eyes and rasp, "At least she'll be pissed. I can't, Sofia." I walk away, heading outside of the waiting room to lean up against the wall. I just need my woman to survive, then everything will be fine.

A few minutes later, I hear someone coming toward me. I look up to see Surg. He's covered in my wife's blood. I go cold at the sight. I meet him halfway, just outside of the waiting room door. Peter sees us first and walks over.

Everyone else follows as I ask in a rasp, "How's my wife, Surg?"

He grips my shoulder and reports, "It was touch and go. She lost a lot of blood and required a blood transfusion, but we managed to stop the hemorrhaging. Also, I managed to save her womb. She's at high risk of sepsis, and the next forty-eight hours are going to be critical." Tears flood my cheeks, and he squeezes my shoulder. "A nurse will take you to see her, but Sergi, go see your fucking kids, will you? Avery will have my ass if she finds out I let you get away with this shit. It's bad enough she'll be pissed I had to shove my fist inside her to control the bleeding."

He shakes his head and walks away. For the first time tonight, I smirk as everyone else chuckles. Avery and Surg are good friends. Turns out, she'll be working with him during her residency. I look toward Sofia, and she grins, then takes my hand.

Juan stops me by gripping my shoulder. "I'll sit with Avs, okay?"

I give him a one arm hug, and let Sofia lead me to my children. I see Juan's wife Valerie rush in on our way to NICU, but I don't stop. She's been relentless in wanting to sit down with me, and to be honest, I don't understand why. I'm not her son. I understand I'm her husband's, but that doesn't make me hers. According to Phoebe, she's been bad mouthing Maria lately about keeping me from her, which has pushed Phoebe to cut her from her life. And if I see her, I'll explode.

When we make it up to NICU, my breath catches at the sight of my twins, snuggled up together in the bassinet. I move toward them when a young nurse steps in front of me, stopping me. She's unbuttoned her work top so her cleavage is showing, and she's giving me ‘fuck me' eyes, while twisting her mousy blonde hair around her finger. I feel Sofia tense next to me while Phoebe scowls. I think the only thing keeping her from killing the nurse is that my son is tightly gripping her finger. My heart melts. Phoebe sees my expression and she smile's gently at me.

My gaze returns to the woman in front of me when she touches my arm. She flashes a coy smile, then coos, "Here visiting with family?"

I scowl at her and say, my voice cold and sharp as steel, "I'm covered in my wife's blood, my wife who's in the ICU, and you're stopping me from checking on my newborn twins because?" She pales and quickly buttons her top.

Sofia snaps, "Get back to your station, Lucy."

The woman, Lucy, pales even more when she notices Sofia, and scampers off. I shake my head and walk over to my daughter first. My heart rate picks up when I see the tiny oxygen tubes attached to her face.

Sofia grips my hand and smiles softly, saying, "It's simply a precaution because she was without oxygen for three minutes."

I swallow and nod. "It seemed longer than that."

She tips her head. "I'm sure it did, but Al was timing it."

I let out a breath and turn toward Al, and he smiles then walks over to my daughter. Placing his hand into her hole of the bassinet, he strokes her hand. She grips his finger, making me smile. I go to my son as another nurse comes over.

"Would you like to hold him?" I swallow hard but nod, and sit down. The woman gently picks my son up and places him in my arms.