Page 25

“Here you go,” Justin says, putting a takeaway cup down on my desk. “You getting anywhere?” he asks. The air quickly fills with a scent of fresh coffee, and my dopamine spikes excitedly. Reaching out, I pick it up and sigh, happy that he thought to bring the caffeine.

“I’ve just finished up with the team—I’ve sent them to follow another lead and ask around on the streets. We just have to keep pushing, or we’ll always be a step behind in finding Andrei.”

“That’s good, man.”

“Thanks for the coffee.” I take a deep breath and lean back in the office chair, stretching my legs out in front of me.

Work has been a great escape for me these past few days.

After that night, in my stupid drunken moment, when I called Sera and made a fucking idiot of myself—I promised myself to take a massive step backwards. To really give her the space she needs without any pressure at all.

It is a lot harder than it sounds, though.

I struggle with it constantly. I have to keep telling myself that I’m doing the right thing.

Most of me wants to fight for her—to call her every minute of every day and smother her with my love.

But it would push her away from me and that would be devastating.

So, I’ve focused on work and it’s going pretty well.

In private, I’ve been working on trying to figure out who is responsible for the discrepancies—who the rat is inside my office.

But with my team, the team that knows my real business, we’ve been working on finding more leads to locate Andrei.

Justin is part of that team.

He’s been pulling late nights and overtime to support me in this and I’m grateful to have him with me.

He flops down onto the sofa and leans over the documents that I’ve spread across the coffee table in the corner of my office.

It’s a map of the city and notes on key points of interest that we’re focusing on in our search for Andrei.

He traces his finger over the routes and red marks.

“What happened with that club—the one on Spencer Street?”

“Nothing. We questioned the guy. He actually spilled a ton of information, but not about Andrei.” I shrug.

This morning, Sera is at a doctor’s appointment and I hate the fact that I’m not there with her. I have my phone volume turned up full to make sure I don’t miss her call.

But the more I glance at my phone, waiting, the more annoyed I get with myself. She will call when she’s ready.

Patience, Nico. Patience.

I stand up and wander over to Justin, sitting on the sofa opposite him I spin the map to face me. I tap against the markings. “This is the next point of interest,” I say, then lean back against the sofa and sip my coffee.

“ This coffee is great. Is it from the place on the corner?” I ask.

“The one with the chocolate croissants.” He nods.

I smile, thinking about how much Sera loves those things.

“Hey, I was wondering—did you ever catch the asshole syphoning funds. You haven’t updated me on that.” Justin says.

I haven’t updated anyone except my brothers and the Kuznetsovs.

We all decided it was better that the fewer people who knew about what was happening, and the little details, the better it would be.

It’s the most logical way to keep everyone safe and to keep the information from getting into the wrong hands.

“Yes, we’re still busy with that,” I comment, brushing the topic aside without giving anything away.

“You must be pretty pissed off though. Finding out that Orlov got someone that close to you.” He says, picking up his own coffee.

Except I never told him that we found out it was Orlov.

“Orlov?” I ask, knotting my brows.

“Yeah, man, what a blow.” He looks up at me, and instantly his eyes are filled with panic as he realizes he’s slipped up.

“Shit. I just remembered that I have to—“ he stands up, knocking his coffee over. Swearing, he bends down to grab the paper cup, but it’s already spreading, dark, hot fluid over the floor.

“Justin,” I say with malice, rising to my feet.

“Fuck.” He mutters, stepping backwards and falling back into the sofa. His eyes are wide with fear. If his slipping up with that information wasn’t enough, his reaction now is all the confirmation I need.

I leap over the coffee table and grab his collar, shaking him. “It was you?” I snarl into his face. “You’re the rat? This entire fucking time? We’ve been working together for years—what the fuck—“

“I didn’t have a choice.” He shouts.

“You always have a fucking choice.” I snarl.

“The money—“ he stammers.

“What about the fucking money—what about your fucking loyalty.”

“They said I could get a cut of everything I stole.” He whimpers.

My mind is racing. I can’t believe this. What am I supposed to do now? Someone this close has been working with the enemy—someone I trusted. Someone I would have called a friend.

My phone rings and I pull it from my pocket, answering with anger in my voice. “Nico speaking.”

Luka is on the other line. “Nico, where are you?”

“The office. I’ve got—“

“They found her bodyguard dead. She’s gone. They took her.”

“What?” My mind snaps in two.

“Outside the doctor’s office. The cops tipped us off because they traced the plates to us after some poor guy stumbled over the scene. She’s gone, Nico. They took her. We’re pulling up the surveillance footage now to find the plates of the van that took her.”

I can’t breathe and my anger is so intense that my vision turns white with blind rage. “I’m going to call you back in a moment,” I say to Luka before hanging up on him.

Beneath me, Justin’s eyes flash with fear. He heard the conversation.

“Where is she?” I growl, savage and dangerous.

“Nico, man, I never knew they were going to take her, they just said she—“

“You’re the one who gave her to them?” I ask, not realizing that his betrayal went deeper than money and all the way to the pits of hell.

“I found out you two were together—they pay me for information. She had an insane price on her head, so I told them you two were dating—“

My fingers lock around his throat and I squeeze, blocking off his air and snapping the words from his lips.

He gags and chokes and tries to squirm out from beneath me.

“I’m going to ask you once. Just once. And if you don’t answer me, I won’t show an ounce of mercy. Do I make myself clear?”

His lips are turning blue and his eyes are beginning to bulge from his head.

“Where is Serafina?” I say, my voice void of even an ounce of emotion. The lethal delivery of my tone has him shaking beneath me.

I release my fingers just enough and he sucks in a staggered, desperate breath of air.

“She’s—she’s—she’s in the warehouse—by—by the docks. The red building. With the blue—the blue—shutters.” He gasps and sobs and tries to tug my hand away from his neck.

“Thank you. I’ll make this quick.”

“No—“ his words cut off again, and this time I press harder. My fingers digging into his flesh as images of what might be happening to her flood my mind. He gave her to them. He betrayed me and he will pay for it with his life.

The blood vessels in his eyes burst as I increase pressure. The whites of his eyes turn red and his lips go from blue to purple.

Veins pulse along his temple and slowly his kicking stops. His fingers fall slack, his arm falls limp at his side.

His tongue, swollen and grotesque, protrudes out of his mouth.

I stand up, looking down at his lifeless body. Not a flicker of remorse touches me.

Turning from him, I dial Luka as I rush downstairs to my car.

“I know where she is,” I say, running him through everything that just happened. “Meet me at the pin I’ve just sent you. Bring everyone.”

My brothers and all of the Kuznetsov brothers have the red building surrounded. We close in around the building, moving in stealth until I burst forward and kick the door down.

All at once, we flood into the warehouse.

One by one, their men fall.

The scene is brutal as we move through the space. They never stood a chance. They never expected us. In their arrogance, they actually believed they had the upper hand.

“She’s here.” Rigor shouts over the gunfire.

I bolt towards him, pushing past him into the small room where Sera is being held. She’s tied to a chair, her eyes covered, her mouth gagged.

I drop my gun and hurriedly pull the blindfold from her face.

“It’s me, angel. It’s me.” I say, pulling the gag from her lips, I wipe her tears away. She is sobbing as she falls into my arms, leaning into me, clutching her fingers around my shirt and holding on with fear and desperation.

“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” I repeat as I lift her and carry her out of the hell she’s been trapped in. I can’t believe she had to go through this because of me. I can never let this happen again.

Outside the building, I pause, seeing Yilian run towards me. “Get her out of here. We’re going to knock these fuckers off the face of the planet.”

I nod. She doesn’t need to see any of this.

Setting her into the passenger seat of my car, I climb in as well and turn towards her.

“Sera?” She hasn’t said a word. “Are you hurt?”

She shakes her head. She lifts her hand towards me, but it’s shaking so badly she pauses, staring at it. I pull her into another hug, and she climbs onto my lap, crying into my shoulder. “I knew you’d come.” She says. ”I knew everything would be ok.”

At home, in the penthouse, Sera has spent the last forty minutes soaking in the tub and I’ve prepared some food for her, anxious to speak to her, but reluctant to say what needs to be said.

I’ve never felt more disgusting in my entire life. Disgusted with myself for doing this to her. Angry that I was so selfish. Angry that I didn’t let her go before it got to this point. Everything that happened is my fault.

She walks into the living room, rubbing a towel over her damp hair. The pink sweatpants and hoodie look cute on her. If I look at her now, I would never guess what she’s been through.

The scars and trauma of what has happened will be in her heart.

She sits down next to me and I take a heavy breath.

“I’ve been wrong, Serafina.”

“How so?” She asks, reaching out and taking my hand.

I shake my head and pull it away from her and pain shoots through her eyes.

I bite my lip. “I was wrong to try and keep you. I’ve booked a ticket for you to fly out tomorrow morning.

You will get a new passport. A new identity.

You have to leave here and never look back.

You and the baby will be safe. It’s all been arranged, and it’s something I should have done right in the beginning.

I’m a fucking asshole for doing this to you—it’s my fault and I can never forgive myself—“ I choke on my words, turning away from her to hide the tears of anger and regret.

Serafina pulls at my shirt, then takes my arm and forces me to look at her. She stares into my eyes, and I feel my entire world being ripped out from beneath me.

“Nico.” She whispers my name.

“You don’t have to say anything.” I breathe.

She smiles, her eyes narrowing as tears begin to spill from them, but she smiles—then she crawls over the sofa and onto my lap, straddling her legs over me as she wraps her arms around my neck. I wrap my arms around her waist, burying my face in her hair and breathing in the scent of her.

“I’m in love with you.” She says, laughing and crying at the same time. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying with you. There is nowhere else I want to be, and I know you’ll keep me and our babies safe.”

“You—“ I stammer, not believing her words.

“I love you.” She leans back, looking into my eyes and smiling.

“Sera—everything you went through—“

“I don’t care, Nico. Listen to me—I love you and I’m staying right here.”

I shake my head. Then I nod. “You’re staying?” I say in disbelief.

“Yes.” She’s laughing as she grabs my face and kisses me.

The joy that hits me is like a tidal wave, knocking me out of myself and then pulling me right back in.

My head is spinning, and I’ve never been more overwhelmed in my life.

I pull her away from me because I need to look at her when I say this.

“Sera, you are everything I’ve ever wanted, and I love you more than words can describe. I want you. I want you forever—but if you have any doubt—at all—even the smallest, tiniest sliver—you need to tell me now because once you give yourself to me I’m never going to be able to let go.”

She bites her lip, and her eyes glitter with happiness.

“I don’t want you to let go.” She grins. “I love you forever.”

Sera tilts her head to the side. “Also—we’re having twins.”

She scrunches her nose, waiting for my response.

“Two? Two babies?” I laugh. “I didn’t think it could get any better.”

I grab her against me again and her body melts against mine. We mold into one, sitting on the sofa, filled with relief, love, hope, excitement—every emotion spinning inside me as I sit in disbelief at how lucky I am.

The impossible—the most amazing thing that could ever happen to me—she is mine. And I mean it when I tell her that I am never going to let her go. She’s locked in my heart now, and my life is with her.