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Nikolai was coming.

He always found us.

He would always find me.

Chapter forty-two

Selina

Antonio approached the car as I screamed, joined by my sons, who still tried to stop him. Andrei grabbed his thigh and bit down hard, making him grunt in pain. He shoved him off and struck him at the temple with the butt of his gun, drawing a thin trickle of blood from my baby’s brow.

“Andrei !”

“Let go of Mama!” Rafael kept screaming, pounding his fists against Antonio’s back, but he ignored him entirely.

“Don’t worry, kid. We’ll be home soon,” he muttered as he opened the back door of the car.

Panic surged through me. I could not let him take me. I could not abandon my sons. They needed me.

Suddenly, I stopped resisting. The moment he yanked me forward again, I stumbled into him, throwing us both off balance. He groaned as his head slammed against the car’s frame, but I was already up again, grabbing Rafael’s hand and pulling Andrei with me. We sprinted toward Mikhail and Alexei, but before we got far, Antonio seized me by the hair and yanked me back.

I screamed in pain.

“I hope you’ll be just as feisty in bed,Cara mia,” he murmured against my neck, his voice thick with lust. “That really turns me on.”

The wave of disgust that surged within me gave rise to an explosion of fury. “The thought of you naked makes me sick, asshole ! And your dick isn’t even a third of Nikolai’s!” Iscreamed. I didn’t care what I said anymore—I only wanted to wound him. If not with my fists, then with my words.

He spun me around violently, forcing me to face him, but I couldn’t help the twisted sense of triumph that bubbled up at the sight of his face contorted with rage.

“You little—”

“He makes me scream all night in positions you couldn’t even imagine !” I spat. “All night long, because he has stamina you’ll never even dream of with your pathetic weakness !”

His expression darkened, and his hand lifted to strike me, but he froze at the sound of screeching tires. A car barreled toward us, coming to a hard stop between the warehouses. In an instant, Antonio’s men surrounded it, guns drawn and ready.

My heart skipped a beat as I saw who stepped out.

“Nikolai,” I whispered.

“Mikhail !” His voice broke when he saw our son lying in a pool of blood. He tried to run toward us but halted as more weapons aimed at him.

“I’m okay, dad,” Mikhail croaked, raising a shaky hand, and a sob tore from my chest.

“Well, well, what a surprise !” Antonio sneered, yanking my hair to make me whimper again.

“Let her go, Antonio,” my husband said, stepping closer.

Antonio raised his gun—the same gun he had used to shoot Mikhail—and this time aimed it at Alexei, who still pressed his shirt to his brother’s wound.

“No !” I screamed, reaching for his weapon, but he yanked me back again.

“Stay put,Cara mia. We’re going to play a little game,” he said with that smile that always stole the air from my lungs. “Let’ssee… do you love these kids like your own ? Or would you rather sacrifice them ?”

He released me and gestured to one of his men, “give her a gun.”

One of them handed me a weapon. I looked at Nikolai, uncertain and he gave me a slight nod. My hands trembled as I took it.

“Alright then ! Kill him,Cara mia, or I shoot the brats,” Antonio ordered.