Page 31 of Forced & Pregnant Bratva Bride (Tarasov Bratva #13)

Three Months Later

The storm rolled in fast; howling winds rattled the windows, and snow slammed against the glass in wild, angry sheets. The sky outside had turned the color of steel, the world disappearing into white.

I sat by the fireplace, leaned back in my rocking chair, the flames crackling as I fixed my eyes on the book in my hand. It was almost midnight, and I should be with my wife in bed, but I couldn’t sleep. I should be in my office reviewing some paperwork since I was still awake.

But I couldn’t leave her side.

This was her ninth month, and from what I understood, the baby could come at any moment. I couldn’t afford not to be there when that happened. I’d failed her once already. Never again.

With that in mind, the paperwork could wait until morning.

The past three months had been even more peaceful than I thought, although a tremendous amount of work had been done to repair what was destroyed during the attack. We renovated the place, spending millions to rebuild and start all over again.

I thought that after the attack, I’d lose a good number of my remaining staff. But I was wrong. I was so wrong to think they’d abandon me at such a crucial time. I wouldn’t have blamed them or even tried to stop them if they’d decided to leave.

However, they stayed, every last one of them. According to the housekeeper, Rosa, they’d all decided not to leave. Not because they felt obligated to stay, but because they wanted to stay. It was a choice that they made.

I couldn’t understand why they chose to stay at a place that endangered their lives—a place where their friends were murdered in cold blood. They stayed behind anyway and assisted with the renovations that took place.

I was grateful for that. These men and women remained loyal until the very end. And for that, they had my respect.

While flipping through the pages of the book in my hand, I recounted the many blessings that slithered into my life since the coming of Leona. She was my better half—the one who made me whole. My good luck charm.

“It’s true that you don’t know what you have until you lose it. But it’s also true that you don’t know what you’ve been missing until it arrives.”

I read that quote in this book just a couple of pages back, and I couldn’t have resonated more with it.

I didn’t realize what I was missing until fate sent Leona my way.

Now, I’d gotten so used to being around her and having her in my life that it was nearly impossible to picture a future without her.

My gaze flickered to the bed where she lay peacefully—fast asleep.

The next twenty minutes were a blur; random thoughts flooded my mind, distracting me from the book. Then came the ultimate distraction that had me worried and fuckin’ confused.

Leona groaned slightly on the bed, and before I’d shift my eyes toward her, a sharp cry rang out, shattering my nerves.

“Egor!” Her scream cut through me like a blade.

I tossed the book aside and sprinted toward the bed, heart pounding like a drum. She was already halfway off the mattress when I got there, anxious and lost.

“It’s coming,” she whimpered, her hands on her belly and her voice tinged with the kind of pain I was unfamiliar with. “The baby’s coming!” She gripped my hand, her gaze locked to mine.

The second I looked into her eyes, I felt it. Fear. Real. Raw. Pure—bone-deep fear that punched me in the fuckin’ gut.

She gasped, fingers digging into flesh as she struggled to stand.

“Rosa!” I called out, my voice echoing off the walls. I faced Leona, urging her to remain calm.

“I am calm!” she snapped, her nails boring deeper in my skin.

“Just breathe, Leona, breathe,” I said, my tone laced with the desperation of a man who had absolutely no idea what he was doing.

Her face twisted in agony, breath ragged.

“Rosa!” I called out a second time, anger swelling up within.

Thankfully, she heard me this time and came barging in with Nikki and two other maids.

“Step back, sir. We’ll take it from here,” Nikki said to me, as polite as she could be.

Rosa, on the other hand, was not so polite. She barked at me, “Get the car ready, now!”

I didn’t hesitate, not even for a split second. “Simon!” I called out, sprinting through the hallway with a thousand scenarios crashing through my mind all at once.

None of them were helpful.

I wasn’t used to panic because I was always in control of every situation. Not this one, clearly. Nothing could have prepared me for this. I’d fought wars, killed without blinking, but none scared me like this one. It was uncharted waters, and I was fuckin’ scared to sail.

Fear was a feeling I wasn’t acquainted with, but tonight, we were buddies.

My wife was going into labor in the middle of a snowstorm. Could this night get any worse?

Simon got the car ready, but the friggin’ snow was piling fast against the front doors, wind whistling as if forcing its way in.

The women arrived with my wife wrapped in a thick blanket, her legs too weak to carry her weight. I slung my arm around her as she cried out, her body curling in pain against my chest.

“I’ve got you,” I muttered. “I’ve got you, solnste .”

The unforgiving cold slammed into us the moment we stepped out of the building. Snowflakes pelted my face—blinding—but I kept going. I carried her toward the idling car, headlights dim behind the swirling whites.

Simon opened the car’s back door, and the woman helped me get her inside. Rosa and I slipped into the backseat with her in the middle while Simon took the wheel.

“Drive!” I barked, slamming the door shut.

He set the car in motion and sped out of the compound.

The roads were nearly invisible, the blizzard thick and relentless. Simon swerved to avoid a fallen branch, and I held my wife tighter, shielding her as the car jerked.

She leaned back into the seat, her breath coming in short gasps, her face twisted in pain and agony.

“Just hold on, solnste —we’re almost there,” I said, feeling her squeeze against my fingers.

The car sped down the icy road, tires struggling for traction. Windshield wipers fought the storm, useless against the wall of snow. She clung to my hand, nails digging into my skin with each contraction.

“Faster, Simon!” I yelled even though I knew he was driving as fast as he could in the storm.

A few minutes later, a hospital came into view like a lighthouse in the middle of the storm. At last.

“Just a little longer, solnste ,” I said, squeezing against her hands.

Simon accelerated onward and didn’t ease off the gas. The tires screeched loudly as he turned into the emergency bay.

I stepped out of the vehicle and helped her out, both her hands slung over my shoulder and Rosa’s.

“Somebody, help!” I roared, bursting the hospital doors open. “Help!”

A nurse ran out with a gurney, followed closely by a team. “We’ve got her, sir. We’ll take it from here.”

They took her from me, lowering her onto the stretcher.

“Egor!” she called out.

“I’m here.” I held on to her hand, rushing beside the moving stretcher.

The hallway stretched out forever. Lights flashed above in a dizzying rhythm. Doors opened. Voices rose. The smell of antiseptic lingered everywhere.

“Don’t leave me,” she pleaded.

“I won’t.”

They wheeled her into the delivery room—fast, too fast, yet everything felt like slow motion. My heart was racing like a galloping horse, and I’d never been so helpless before, so powerless.

Leona was stripped of her soaked clothes and hooked to monitors, oxygen, and IV lines.

I threw my hands on my head, confused by everything happening so quickly. It was as if my brain had abandoned me, and all I could do at the moment was worry, hope, and pray. I watched with a breaking heart as contractions hit my wife in waves, each one worse than the last.

She cried out, her pain vibrating through every nerve in my body. I couldn’t possibly imagine the kind of agony she must be feeling right now. And there was nothing that I could do about it. Nothing.

I felt so useless.

“She’s at nine centimeters—the baby’s coming now!” one of the nurses announced, her voice steady but dripping with urgency.

These people were trained to stay calm in situations like this. It was impressive.

I stayed at my wife’s side, gripping her hand. Her fingers trembled in mine. Her eyes were glassy, panicked.

“I’m scared, Egor,” she said, looking right into my eyes. “I don’t think I can do this.”

“Yes, you can!” I blurted out, trying to encourage her even though the fear in her eyes got me more worried than I was a second ago. “You’ve got this.”

She shook her head.

“Hey, look at me!” I tapped her face, my expression darkening slightly. “There’s a life in you that needs to be born. You’ve waited nine months for this day; you can’t give up now. You hear me?”

She locked her jaw and nodded her head.

“We Tarasovs don’t back down from a fight, remember?” I asked, my words boosting her confidence. “This is a fight that I need you to see through to the end.”

Her grip tightened around my hands.

“I’m right here,” I promised. “And I am not going anywhere.”

She let out a low moan, pain twisting her features, her back arching off the bed as another contraction slammed into her.

“Breathe, solnste , breathe,” I encouraged.

The doctor, a female, moved in place, glancing between my wife’s legs. “Alright, time to push,” she said, snapping her gloves in place. “Let’s meet this little one, shall we?”

Leona bore down with every ounce of strength she could muster, her face red, eyes wide. Veins lined her forehead, and her grip tightened around my fingers with a deadly strength I didn’t know she had.

She screamed through the effort, pulling on the sheets beneath her.

“Almost there, Leona. You’re doing great,” the doctor encouraged. “I can already see the baby’s head.”

My heart gladdened, eyes wide with anticipation. “You hear that, solnste ? Just one more push.”

Leona shook her head. “I’m so tired,” she said, her voice weak, her eyelids fluttering shut.