30. Anton

30

ANTON

I wanted to make Igor Ivanov fucking suffer for his crimes. I wanted to take my time, slicing him up piece by piece, until I had him begging me for mercy.

I wanted pain to be his final memory, like it was for my aunt and uncle.

So, as I drive Nina away from the wreckage of his warehouse, I don’t feel relief that he might finally be gone. Instead, I feel pure, undiluted rage.

“Anton?” Nina whispers.

She keeps saying my name, as if she can’t quite believe that I’m here.

I know she’s thinking about how close we both came to being caught in that wreckage, and that thought keeps running through my mind too.

I almost lost her, again .

I squeeze her hand, which I haven’t let go off since we got in the car, in the hope that it will bring her some comfort as I drive us to the hospital.

There’s so much that needs to be said, but right now my priority is to make sure both she and the baby are okay.

Apart from the marks on her wrists and ankles from the restraints, she looks unharmed, but I’m not about to take any chances.

Neither one of us has mentioned the high probability that her father was caught in that explosion.

Alexei has asked for confirmation that he’s dead, but there’s no fucking way he got out of the explosion alive. If he wasn’t killed by the building collapsing, the smoke would have caused him to suffocate.

Maybe it was a little painful after all. If it was at all…

Nina remains quiet once we arrive at the hospital, and she changes into a gown and gets settled on the bed in the private room.

My stomach is in knots as the doctor comes in and begins talking away to Nina.

I don’t hear a word, my head so full of all the ways things could have gone wrong that I can’t focus on anything other than the feeling of Nina’s warm fingers entwined with my own.

Nina squeezes my hand, pulling me back.

“Anton, look.” Nina points to the small screen.

I frown at the grainy image, but I have no idea what I’m looking at.

“That’s our baby,” Nina whispers, her blue eyes wide with wonder.

“From the measurements, you look to be around six weeks along.”

My heart swells, as I notice the blob looks like a head and what will be a body. “It’s so small,”

I stare in awe at the screen.

I’m going to be a father.

“You have a while to go yet, but so far, everything looks good.”

“Thank you so much,” Nina says, the smile on her face only growing as she gazes at the monitor.

“I’ll leave this up for you both to look at, and I’ll be back shortly with some paperwork for you to fill out.”

The moment the doctor leaves, I climb onto the bed beside Nina and pull her against my chest, so overcome with emotion that my eyes sting.

“I love you so much,” I whisper against her hair. “Thank you for being mine.”

Nina is quiet for a moment, and I pull back to see her brow is furrowed.

“What is it?”

She shakes her head, nibbling on her lower lip in the way she does when she’s worried about something.

“Nina, zayka, talk to me.”

“You and Katerina…” she mumbles. “Did you love her?”

Nina turns to look up at me, her clear blue eyes red rimmed and tired-looking. She should really sleep, but I also don’t want to deny her the truth of my past.

I want this to mark a fresh start for us, and that means coming clean about Katerina.

“I did. We planned on one day getting married, but…”

“But what?”

“Her father used her as a bargaining chip to pay off a debt.”

“Oh, my god,” Nina whispers.

“I tried to help her, but she got caught in the crossfire between her father and the man he’d sold her to. She…she didn’t survive.”

I take a deep breath, closing my eyes for a second.

“Everyone expected me to just get over it, but I was barely twenty, and seeing who you thought was the love of your life be shot right in front of you… That’s not something you just get over.”

“Anton…” Nina reaches up to cup my cheek.

I lean into her, savoring the feel of her warm touch.

“My mother was the only person who could see how truly in love we were. She took it almost as hard as I did, which makes it even harder when she doesn’t remember what happened. I hate lying to her, but there’s no way I’m going to remind her of what happened.”

“I’m sorry that you went through such a loss.” Nina strokes my cheek.

“Everything happens for a reason.”

“Perhaps… But that doesn’t make it any less painful.”

“No, you’re right. But everything has led to this point, and I can honestly say that I’ve never been happier. Which reminds me…”

I reluctantly slide off the bed and reach into my pocket for the ring box.

Nina’s eyes go wide as I sink to one knee and open up the box to reveal the thin gold band with a single teardrop shaped diamond in the center.

“My beautiful Nina, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

“Where… How…” She shakes her head as she stares at the ring.

“I’ve had this in my pocket since the day I asked you about turning the pool house into a ballet studio.” My neck starts burning up. “I knew then that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“You never mentioned anything…”

“Well, I thought we should at least officially move in together first before I start pulling rings out of my pocket.” I chuckle.

“I never did give you an answer about that.” She bites her lower lip.

“No, you didn’t.” I can’t help but smile as Nina looks at me sheepishly.

“If I say no, do I still get the studio?”

“You want to say no?” My stomach sinks.

Nina’s lips twitch, and I shake my head at her.

“Nina… You are such a tease.”

“I want nothing more than to marry you, Anton Koslov.” She reaches for my hand. “To be your wife, to be the mother of your children… To build a life with you. I’ve never wanted anything more.”

I bow my head as I let out a sigh of relief, my throat too thick with emotion to offer her any words in return.

Nina sniffs and when I finally lift my head, tears roll down her cheeks, but from the huge smile that spreads across her face, I know they’re happy tears.

“This ring was my mother’s. She gave it to me a long time ago and told me to save it for the love of my life.” I slide the ring onto her finger. “But if you would rather have one of your own, we could choose?—”

Nina leans forward and puts a finger on my lips to silence me.

“It’s perfect. And so are you.”

“I love you so damn much.” I wrap my hand around the back of her neck and bring her mouth to mine.

She moans at the first lick of my tongue along her lower lip, and I maneuver myself back onto the bed so I can deepen the kiss.

Her lips part, and I eagerly stroke my tongue against hers.

“Anton,” she gasps, her chest rising and falling heavily as she tries to catch her breath.

“Does this mean you’re moving in?” I kiss along her jaw.

“I guess it does.” She laughs.

“Thank god for that.” I devour her lips again.

“You really should go home and check on Maria,” Nina says as I take a seat in the armchair beside her bed.

“I don’t want to leave you.” I take a sip of my coffee that resembles more muddy water than espresso.

“Anton, you need to see your mother.”

She’s right. My mother has also been through a lot in the past twenty-four hours, what with witnessing Nina’s kidnapping, but the thought of leaving Nina unprotected fills me with dread.

“Emma, Allie, and Beatrice are stopping by soon anyway, so if you want to avoid Emma’s wrath, I’d get out of here.”

“Her wrath?” I chuckle.

“She’ll probably be annoyed that you didn’t warn her about the proposal, or at least ask her permission.”

“Right… I didn’t realize that was expected.”

“Either way, save yourself. I’ll be in good hands. Besides, I have Yakov.”

That knowledge makes me feel a little bit better.

Emma might be tough, but I don’t trust her abilities to keep Nina safe if one of Igor’s men comes knocking.

So, I had Yakov come and join us at the hospital just in case.

“I’ll be back in a few hours.” I bend down to kiss her softly.

Nina sighs as I gently stroke her cheek, and I offer her one last kiss before reluctantly leaving her room after she promises to text me every half an hour.

I put my protectiveness down to the events of the last few hours, but in all honesty, I have a feeling that I’m only going to get worse over the coming months as she gets further along in her pregnancy.

I make a mental note to apologize to my cousins for being a jerk over them being so protective when it comes to their wives and kids.

I race back toward my home, not wanting to be gone more than a few hours.

The sun is starting to set, casting the house in a soft pink glow.

As I park the car outside the front of the house, I take a moment to appreciate the fact that this is where Nina and I will build our life together, and I cannot fucking wait.

It turns out that Igor had sent out a fake call the night that he took Nina that had all of my guards rushing to my family’s penthouse in the city. Because of that, in the last twenty-four hours, I’ve reworked my entire security system, with some guidance from Mikhail, which should prevent anyone from hacking the system.

I never want to risk the lives of those I love ever again.

As I head inside the house, I decide it’s best to put on a fresh pot of coffee before going to see my mother. After being awake for over twenty-four hours, the adrenaline is starting to wear off, and I’m exhausted.

Heading into the kitchen, I catch sight of the crumpled photo still on the table from when I threw it at Nina.

I grind my teeth as I turn it over and look at Igor surrounded by his children.

He deserved to fucking burn in that wreck for the hell he put my family through, and Nina for that matter.

I still can’t believe how someone as kind and gentle as her was raised by such a monster.

She truly is the light in the darkness, and I feel a great privilege that I will soon get to call her my wife, and she can truly put the past behind her.

My eyes flick to Lev, and I wince at the shadows in his eyes.

He looks haunted, and I can’t begin to imagine the sort of demons he now has to fight because of Igor.

Though from the looks of this picture, it seems as if the demons have already won.

I shake my head. “What happened to you?”