Page 63 of Claimed By the Boss

But now Radimir is standing here like he’s holding a live grenade.

I clench my jaw. “She’s been with me for a week,” I remind him. “I dropped her off less than an hour ago. What could possibly be wrong?”

“It’s nothing like that,” he rushes to explain. “She’s home safe and sound.”

“Then what exactly is the problem?” I ask, exhaling through my nose, trying to keep my temper in check.

“She’s been to a medical office twice,” he says slowly. “We couldn’t get the exact details right away. But we finally found out what suite she’s been visiting.”

My hands curl into fists at my sides, and suddenly I’m worried. Is she sick? Is that what she’s been hiding from me? I catalog every mental image of her I have, from the moment I met her at that restaurant to the moment I dropped her off. I’m trying to determine whether she’s lost weight, whether she looks more tired than before.

A weight forms in the pit of my stomach as I run worst-case scenarios. But logic wins and reminds me that the man with the actual answers is standing right in front of me.

“Radimir, spit it out,” I demand.

“It’s an obstetrician.”

The words hit like a bullet to the chest. I go completely still. For a second, all I can hear is the blood rushing in my ears. An obstetrician. There’s only one reason she would see an obstetrician twice in as many months.

Once the news finally settles and I can think again, I move. Radimir steps aside as I storm past him. I don’t even grab my coat. I don’t wait for my car. I just walk out into the street, hand already dialing her number.

It rings once, then twice, then goes to voicemail. I try again. Still nothing. I’m halfway down the block when Alek catches up with me, grabbing my arm.

“Damien. What the hell is going on?”

“She’s pregnant,” I snap. “And she didn’t tell me.”

His eyes widen, but he doesn’t say anything.

“You’re sure about this?”

“She’s been hiding something from me for weeks,” I say. “I’m sure about that. What else would it be?”

He puts his hand on my shoulder to stop me, but I shove it off and start walking faster.

“She’s been going to a doctor and hiding it, Alek. Here I am planning our future together, and she’s been keeping this huge secret from me.”

He keeps pace beside me, silent.

The world feels different now. Tilted. I don’t even know how to process it. My brain keeps flashing back to the island. Her soft sighs. The way she touched her stomach when she didn’t know I was looking. The way she declined wine at every dinner.

She’s been keeping my child a secret from me. I’m furious. I’m terrified. I need to know why she didn’t tell me, and I need to hear it from her lips right now.

“At least let me call your driver,” Alek says when we’ve crossed two blocks. “She’s two miles away!”

“I need the walk to clear my head,” I tell him. “Otherwise, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

21

LYRA

The apartment is so quiet when I walk in it almost rings. I drop my bag on the couch, toe off my shoes, and stand there for a beat, letting the silence sink in. For a few days, I’d been able to pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist. Now that I’m home, reality creeps back in.

No matter what happened on that island, Damien is still in the Bratva. It’s a harsh, punishing truth.

I pull my laptop from my bag and sit at the kitchen table. My hands hover over the lid for a heartbeat before I open it. The screen glows in the dim room, washing my fingers in light as I log into the private server I built. I haven’t had time to check it since Damien whisked me away on our vacation. One click and I’m connected to the feed.

Static hums in my ears before voices start coming through. Most of it is in Russian, rapid and sharp, the cadence clipped in ways I can’t follow. My grasp of the language is nonexistent, so the words slide over me without meaning. I jot down timestamps anyway, hoping I can translate them later.