28. Anton

28

ANTON

I used to consider myself a smart man. Having a younger brother like Nikolai, I was naturally forced into the role of being the level-headed sibling, the one who always weighed both sides of a situation before making any sort of decision. It’s something Alexei has always valued in me too—the ability to be objective. To take a step back and remove emotion from the equation.

But it turns out it only takes a smile and a great pair of legs to have me losing all ability to think rationally.

Was I really so blinded by her beauty that I couldn’t see Nina for who she really was?

Igor Ivanov is her father.

I slam my glass down on the bar so hard I’m surprised it doesn’t shatter, and the bartender takes that as his cue to pour me another.

There’s no way my cousins are going to let me get away with fucking up so spectacularly.

The moment I learned her name, I should have had Rosa or Rurik look into Nina’s background. It’s standard protocol, considering who my family is.

But I wasn’t thinking with my head. If I had been, I could have saved myself a lot of fucking heartache.

“My glass is empty,” I mutter as I set the rocks glass down on the bar top again.

The bartender quickly gets to work fixing me a fresh drink, and I waste no time downing the clear liquid. I can barely feel the burn of the vodka as it hits my throat, and that only pisses me off more.

Was everything a lie? Or did somewhere along the way, the lines became blurred, and she truly fell in love with me?

My chest tightens as I realize it doesn’t even matter. Ultimately, she’s the daughter of the most dangerous man in Russia. The man who is responsible for murdering my aunt and uncle, and for kidnapping my cousin’s half-brother and doing god-knows-what to him for the past three decades.

I frown as I stare down at my drink.

She knows about Lev, and likely knows where he is. She’s known all this time and never bothered to tell me.

I fight the urge to launch my glass across the bar in anger.

Alarm bells should have started to ring when she began asking about if I’ve killed anyone. It’s likely she was wanting information about the night I killed Maxim so she could report back to her father. The thought has bile rising in my throat as I realize the danger I’ve put my family in.

She’s seen pictures of my cousin’s children, she knows intimate details about my mother and brother. Not only that, but she’s had access to the security codes of my home.

“Fuck.” I run my hand over my face.

I’m a fucking fool.

“Another, Mr. Koslov?” the bartender asks.

I nod as I feel myself start to sink.

How the hell am I meant to fix this? If it was anyone else, my cousins would order a hit, but this is Nina. My Nina.

A few hours ago, she was the woman I thought I would spend the rest of my life with. As much as I wish I could just turn those feelings off, I can’t because I’m really fucking in love with her, that much is true.

I think I’ve been in love with her since the moment she fell into my lap and I first looked into her ocean blue eyes. She stole the breath from me, and I’ve been drowning ever since.

And now she might be pregnant… Or so she claims. For all I know, that could just be another lie to trap me.

If it is, it’s fucking cruel.

But that doesn’t sound like Nina.

Then again, I don’t know Nina at all. For all I know, she could be just as cruel and cunning as her father.

“Can I settle my tab?” I grunt at the bartender.

As much as I want to spend all night numbing myself with alcohol, I need to face reality sooner rather than later. I need to know if there is some truth to what she said, at least about the pregnancy. If she really is carrying my child, then there’s no way in hell I’m letting Igor Ivanov get anywhere near her.

I park around the back of the house and head in through the back door, hoping that Nina is still around. I know I told her to get the hell out, but I’m hoping that she decided not to listen.

“Nina?” I call out. “Nina!”

Silence.

I bolt through the kitchen and sprint up the stairs toward her room.

“Nina?” I bang my fist on the door, and it swings open.

My stomach sinks as I step inside and notice the pile of old pointe shoes that she kept beside the chair has gone, and I know she has too.

I storm into the closet and notice it’s been completely stripped of her things and the counter in the bathroom is no longer littered with makeup and various bottles.

She’s gone.

I toss the bag of pregnancy tests down on the bed and sink down beside it as I try to think of what to do.

Do I call Alexei and tell him that there’s a possibility Nina might be pregnant?

He’s going to be pissed about the situation either way, and I need to get out of my head. Having another perspective on the situation might help me to think more clearly because it’s apparent that I can’t be trusted to make good choices when Nina is involved.

I pull my phone out of my pocket to dial my eldest cousin.

“Anton!”

I sigh at the sound of my mother’s voice.

I really just want to be alone, but then I hear her call my name again, and I know I can’t ignore her.

Switching my phone off and tucking it back inside my jacket, I get to my feet and head out of the room, abandoning the bag of pregnancy tests on the bed.

“What is it, Mamulichka ?” I head down the stairs, though I stop dead in my tracks at the sight of the front door hanging off its hinges. “What the fuck?”

I hurry down the remaining stairs and storm over to the door.

I must have been so lost in my own thoughts when I got home earlier that I didn’t even notice.

My mother is standing, staring out at the drive, shaking her head repeatedly as she mumbles to herself.

“ Mamulichka ?” I place a hand on her shoulder. “ Mamulichka , what happened?”

Every fiber of my body is screaming at me to go into fight mode.

“The men did it.”

“Men? You mean my guards?”

Was there a fault with the security system that I was unaware of that meant they couldn’t use the keypad to unlock the door? Surely, I would have been notified if there was a problem…

“The men who took her.” Mama stares out of the window, her eyes glazed.

“Took who?” I press. “Nina?”

“What are you going to do about Katerina?” She turns to face me.

I force myself to take a deep breath and remain calm.

“Katerina isn’t here, Mamulichka .” I try to keep my voice steady.

“I know, they took her.”

My patience is slipping, likely from the amount of alcohol in my system, but my mother doesn’t deserve to take the brunt of my frustration. It’s not her fault that she’s confused.

“ Mamulichka , what are you talking about? Did you see something?”

My mother nods her head and then gives me that look she used to give me when I was a child and had been caught stealing sweets out of the cupboard.

“You upset her. I raised you better than that, Anton.”

I run my hand over my jaw as I try to process everything.

She must be referring to Nina, but I’m confused about the series of events that followed me leaving for the bar.

Is my mother having a rare moment of lucidity or is she getting confused with events that happened in the past?

I need to go and check the security footage to see what the hell happened.

“Then they came and took her. She argued with the big one, but then he grabbed her and dragged her outside. What a horrible man. Missing half his earlobe…”

My blood runs cold.

Igor was here, in my goddamned house, where my sick mother lives.

I left her unprotected because I was too busy drowning my sorrows with vodka. If something had happened…

Where the fuck were my guards? It might be the middle of the night, but that doesn’t give them the right to slack off.

Unless Igor decided to shed a little blood and once the sun comes up, I’ll find evidence of his visit scattered around my property.

The image has me grinding my teeth together so hard my jaw aches.

“ Mamulichka , let’s get you back to your rooms.” I place a comforting arm around her shoulder as I start to mentally list everyone I need to call to sort this out.

“Then you’ll find Katerina? You’ll talk to her and apologize?”

“Yes, I’ll fix everything, Mamulichka , don’t you worry.”

As I lead my mother back across the foyer, I catch sight of Nina’s phone on the ground. I bend down and stuff it into my pocket, vowing to destroy it the moment my mother is safely back in her rooms. I have no doubt that there’s a tracker of some kind that led Igor here, and I don’t want to ever risk my mother’s safety like that again.

I will do better, not just for her, but for my entire family.

It’s late, and Annie is fast asleep in her room when I bring my mother back through. Normally, I ask her to lock the door that leads to the main house in case she wanders off in the middle of the night, but these things get missed.

It just so happens that it’s the very night that Igor Ivanov decided to pay a visit to my home.

After reassuring my mother multiple times that I’m going to fix this mess, I leave her in her room and make my way into my study where I call Yakov.

“Yakov? I need you at the house. We have a situation.”

“What kind of situation?”

“The Igor Ivanov kind.”

“I’ll be right there,” he grunts, shutting off the call.

Without my mother around to help keep my rage in check, my body starts to shake from the combination of the adrenaline and alcohol coursing through my veins.

Igor was here, and he took Nina. From how my mother described the interaction, it sounds like she didn’t go willingly.

I’m not sure how to interpret that, but I don’t have time to sit and dwell on the what-ifs.

The fact of the matter is, Igor is sniffing around my property, and he might have just kidnapped my unborn child right out from under my nose. Regardless of what Nina and I truly mean to one another, I have a duty to protect my family.

The safe hidden beneath my desk is fully stocked with multiple handguns and replacement magazines.

I have no plan, but I know that whatever happens, I’m going to need to make sure I’m armed. So, I tuck a gun into each holster and grab all of the magazines just to be safe.

As I climb to my feet, I catch sight of a handwritten letter on my desk.

Instantly, my stomach sinks as I read the name delicately scrawled at the bottom.

Nina .

I scan the contents, my chest tightening as I read her heartfelt words.

I want to believe her when she says she loves me. It’s all I’ve wanted to hear for weeks. But even if her words are true, it doesn’t change the fact that she betrayed my trust.

Use this list to bring him down.

I frown, not understanding what she means. It’s only when I turn the letter over and see the names and addresses that I realize what she’s gifted to me.

Scribbled on the back of her letter is a list of Igor’s most trusted men, along with their aliases and hideout locations.

I can barely believe my eyes as I scan the list, particularly when I read the very last name.

“Lev…”

If these turn out to be legit, Nina has just handed me the ultimate weapon.

With this list, there’s no way my cousins and I will fail at bringing down Igor. Without his men, he has nothing. He won’t stand a chance against the Koslov bratva, which can only mean…

“She loves me,” I whisper, turning the note back over and tracing her name with my thumb.

There’s no denying that what she told me is true, especially if she’s willing to sacrifice her own father to prove it.

That realization hits me like a ton of bricks, and I have to grip the edge of the desk to steady myself.

It was all true, which means she really is carrying my child.

Tucking the note into my pocket, I reach for my phone and call Mikhail.

We likely don’t have a lot of time, and if Igor learns of the child that Nina carries, there’s no way he won’t use her to send me a message. I might have murdered his son to save one of my own, but I won’t let Nina or my unborn child pay for my crimes.

“Mikhail?” I bark when the call connects. “I need your help.”

“With what?”

“Taking down Igor Ivanov, once and for all.”