Page 22 of The Enemy’s Defector (Ivanov Syndicate #3)

Just like we had on the way here, we were quick on our feet and cautious of our surroundings.

I didn’t bother to ask any more questions because his answers about any details wouldn’t matter.

Being quiet and critical of the way we went, I tried not to be so tense and distracted by this gnawing ache in my heart.

He could come to love me yet.

We could build on this.

Stop being so damn picky and greedy and worrying about love.

This is life-or-death.

This is about survival.

Survive first then ask him about his feelings.

I rolled my eyes at my inner monologue and did my best to dispel this funky mood.

I’m marrying Nikolai Ivanov. This will work out, one way or another!

He led me toward the second floor of what seemed to be a busy apartment building.

After living in the seclusion at the mansion, then being on the run and staying in isolated hideouts with Nik, it seemed so weird to re-enter society.

It felt strange to tiptoe this close to others again.

People resided here. Lives were carrying on like usual in all these apartments.

I smelled meals being cooked. The stench of boiled cabbage bothered my nose that was so much more sensitive with my pregnancy.

The sounds of TVs, music blaring, and children screaming in play.

It all bombarded me, almost serving to wake me up to life .

I hadn’t realized I needed a reminder that the earth still spun regardless of the chaos in my mind and my life.

But I appreciated it and kept my head held high as Nik guided me toward an apartment on the fifth floor, near the end of the hallway.

He knocked three times and the door was opened. As soon as we were given clearance to enter, an Ivanov soldier smiled at Nik.

“Nikolai…” he greeted with a sly chuckle. “I knew you were alive.”

“Of course, I was,” Nik replied smugly, rolling his eyes as he walked further in the narrow hallway. “I gave my brothers a code every day to prove it.”

While I walked in behind him, he held my hand. The soldier lowered his gun, clearly there as a lookout, but as soon as he saw me fully, he raised his firearm and scowled.

“What the?—”

Nik deflected him, smacking his hand down in a chop before the soldier could ever aim the gun toward me at all. “Don’t ever threaten her again.”

“Nikolai. A Kozlov?” He held both hands up in a truce, leaving the gun to dangle from his finger. Shaking his head, he was slow to comprehend. He obeyed but didn’t seem to know why. “What’s going on?”

“Exactly what I asked you to arrange for,” Nik replied coolly, leading me further into the room toward the older man who stood near a pair of windows.

It seemed to be his home, this officiant.

Another Ivanov guard stood near the white-haired stranger, but this soldier didn’t make the same mistake as the first did. He didn’t touch his gun.

“You’re marrying her ?” the second soldier asked.

I sighed and began to shake my head.

“No, none of that, Katerina,” Nik warned.

“I didn’t say anything,” I replied as he indicated for me to face him near the officiant.

“I heard it anyway. That sigh.”

I smirked at him as he held my hands. “Nik. It’s not going to work.” I shrugged one shoulder to gesture at his guards. “They’re already suspicious of me.”

“Fuck them.” He turned to glare at both of the men, who had the grace to lower their gazes. I wasn’t convinced that they were contrite or apologetic at all, just wise to avoid Nik’s scorn directly.

“Your family and your men will always see me as the enemy?—”

“But I don’t,” he retorted hotly. “And I am the one marrying you.”

I cupped his face gently and caressed his cheek while not giving up my smirk. “Yes. But you are an Ivanov and are never separate from your family. Just as I will always carry the taint of my family name and?—”

“Until you take mine.” He dodged my tender touch to snake his arm around my waist and pull me close.

I collided with him, grunting at the force of being flush to him so quickly.

“Let’s get this done,” he growled to the officiant.

The older man blinked, perhaps startled at the impatience in my fiancé’s tone. I was used to it, though, and as the man had us recite a few lines of promising ourselves to each other in the name of matrimony, I gave up on this tension and relished the thrill.

I was doing this.

We were doing this, for real.

I was committing to standing by Nikolai Ivanov for the rest of my life. But as he grinned at me, cocky and stubborn, I realized it wouldn’t change who we were at heart.

Because I’d already stood by him. All my life, I’d aligned with him, and it felt like an afterthought to make it official now.

To quietly make him mine without much fanfare.

“I do,” I replied to the officiant as I stared deep into Nik’s dark-brown gaze.

I hoped he saw the love I held for him.

Then a moment later, he gave me his I do with a self-satisfied smile that could’ve otherwise looked arrogant.

Before I could adjust to the feel of the thin metal ring he’d placed on my finger, I braced for the impact of his hot lips brushing over mine.

I sighed again—a happy one—as I closed my eyes and slid my fingers through his hair.

Holding the back of his head to keep him with me as we kissed as husband and wife, I tried to commit this moment to memory.

No matter how hurried it was, I would treasure this change forever.

I was no longer alone.

This baby was no longer unprotected.

I had a family now, not just a child to raise and love but a husband too.

This was something to celebrate. Eventually.

But not now.

As we broke the kiss and stared into each other’s eyes, letting so many emotions pass between us without a word, the guards who’d been so skeptical of my being here with Nik reacted.

They spun, guns up.

Their arms flung up to barricade us both.

“Get back!” one shouted as the door was kicked in and assassins filed inside to crash my wedding.