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“Wrong move, bitch!” Viktor snarls. His fist collides with my face with the power of a truck.
My head snaps to the side as a sharp ringing bursts through my ear. My jaw snaps upward, crashing my teeth together, and hot pain explodes across the right side of my face while the phone falls from my hand.
It was a desperate attempt, my last chance to make sure Viktor will meet his end when he’s done with me.
It’s all I have left.
I regain my balance, and Viktor is suddenly in my space with his hand around my throat. Our eyes meet, and he smiles coldly as something hot and painful impacts my abdomen.
Every muscle inside me tenses and I’m frozen, locked in place. Warmth spreads out from the pressure and as my heart beats once, the pain grows.
It becomes searing. My lips part as I struggle to breathe.
I look down, and my entire world dims around the edges.
Protruding from my stomach, clasped in Viktor’s hand, is the hilt of a knife. The blade is embedded deeply inside me, radiating hot agony with every terrified beat of my heart.
“I knew that fucking baby was still alive inside you,” he growls, applying further pressure to the blade.
I can’t speak. I can’t breathe. A smothered wail rises in my throat, followed by several choked gasps.
My baby.
Not my baby.
No.
Not like this.
Not like this.
“I’ve changed my mind.” He brings me close until scarcely an inch exists between our foreheads. “I’m going to keep you. AndI’m going to make you watch as I burn down everything you’ve tried to create. Businesses? Gone. Alliances? Dust. I’ll keep you locked up in my basement, powerless to do anything but witness how great I am in power. And if you’re lucky…”
His cold gaze drifts down my body.
“Maybe I’ll put another baby in you.”
I still can’t speak. It’s like the blade turned off my ability to think, breathe, or move. I’m utterly frozen, and as Viktor reels off the horror of my future, cold tears roll down my raw cheeks.
I blink sluggishly, and someone crashes into Viktor, sending the two of them flying away from me. They land on the roof, rolling together while Viktor’s guards surge forward and take aim. Only, they can’t shoot. The two figures are too intertwined, grunting and grappling with one another. Fists fly, blood sprays, and then the shadow pulls Viktor to his feet.
No.
Not a shadow.
Erik!
Blood soaks his shirt, seeping from the gunshot wound on his chest. His skin is ashen and his smile lopsided when our eyes meet. Pain bleeds across his face as he glances down to where my own hands circle the knife plunged into my body. My legs wobble.
“E–Erik…”
“Anastasia.” He continues to grapple with Viktor, who yells obscenities and demands for his men to open fire. None of themcan risk taking the shot and killing Viktor, so they merely stand with their guns raised.
“I’m sorry,” Erik croaks, and our eyes meet. “I love you.”
Erik wraps both arms around Viktor and with a trembling cry, he throws the both of them off the edge of the roof.
“No!”