Page 29 of The Enemy’s Defector (Ivanov Syndicate #3)

NIKOLAI

K aterina wasn’t fooling me.

I knew she was awake.

When I came into the room to bring her to dinner, she lay still on the bed and pretended to be resting and not awake to see me.

Instead of pushing the issue and insisting that she get up and join me for dinner, I let her be and backed up.

I went down to the main floor, leaving the dinner the cooks prepared for us in our apartment for her to check out on her own.

Letting her put distance between us wasn’t easy.

All day long, while I met with my brothers and sat in on meetings with the supervisors, she was on my mind.

I hated how we’d fought, and I really loathed the possibility that I might have fucked up.

I hadn’t wanted to act like an overbearing hard ass for the hell of it. The only reason I wanted to bring medical care to her instead of taking her to an office was so I’d avoid that trigger of returning to the place where I’d been taken.

When I was captured, it was just me. I only had to worry about myself. About enduring the experience in the name of getting intel and protecting my family.

But now, I was her husband.

I would be a father soon.

Those two new labels put so much more immediate meaning into my life that the idea of being taken again was a nightmare I wanted to avoid. I didn’t want to subject my wife, or later, my child, to the horror of losing me.

But I’d gone about it all wrong.

Taking a seat at the table where Maxim and Sloane sat with Saul, I sighed and avoided making too much eye contact.

“Ah. Relegated to the proverbial dog house?” Sloane joked.

I shot her a look.

“She’s still mad?” Saul guessed.

“She’s pretending to be asleep and avoiding me,” I replied.

“Can’t blame her,” Sloane quipped.

I narrowed my eyes at her as we all loaded our plates. “You don’t even know her.”

“But what I saw earlier, and what I’ve heard, I like.” She returned my cool expression with a haughty one of her own.

“Oh, so he’s not filling your head with nonsense about her being an enemy of the family who can’t be trusted?” I asked, indicating Maxim.

“The only thing he’s filling me with is?—”

Maxim elbowed her and shot her a droll look, to which she smiled mischievously. Facing me, he cleared his throat. “I know better than to tell her what to think.”

“Maybe that’s a lesson you need to learn,” she advised.

“I’ve never told Katerina what to think. She’s as, if not more, stubborn than you,” I told her.

“Then why would you be so insistent about her not going to a hospital or office for her pregnancy or birth?” she asked.

“For fuck’s sake, she’s only two months pregnant now. It’s not like she’s having the baby tomorrow. There’s time,” I argued. “I didn’t realize that it was a big issue for her.”

“You didn’t know that Regina Kozlov died when Katerina was born?” Maxim asked.

I scowled at him. “Actually, I didn’t.” And it pissed me off that he knew that detail. I had always prided myself on knowing Katerina the best.

“I only knew when Father mentioned something at the funeral,” Maxim said. “I don’t think it’s common knowledge.”

“Yeah,” Saul added. “I remember us talking about Beatrice once, after you know, she betrayed us all. Katerina never wanted to talk about her mother much.”

“Then maybe it was a hard topic for her to handle,” Sloane said.

It seemed to be a trigger point for her. I only wished I’d known that before.

“Besides, you can’t actually be scared about going back to that office, are you?” Saul asked me. “It wouldn’t kill you to compromise on this if she feels so strongly about it.”

I shook my head, eating and wishing I had an appetite for any of it.

Knowing Katerina was mad at me weighed me down.

“No. I’m not scared to go to a fucking parking lot.

And yes, I’ll compromise.” I’d already made arrangements for her to have all her other appointments at the doctor’s office.

I’d planned ahead with the due date we’d received today to clear out the other rooms in the maternity ward that week so we’d have more privacy and security there.

Money could buy anything, and I wasn’t hesitant to use it on her.

“Good,” Sloan concluded.

I smirked at her, amused.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to become best friends with her and get it in your head that you’ll always get your way with me.” Maxim arched one brow at her.

“Am I not allowed to befriend my sister-in-law?” she asked.

Maxim didn’t reply, focusing on his food. He still had an issue with fully trusting her and I wondered how much more of it I could handle. He had to be on board with welcoming Katerina into the family so that all the men and soldiers who served us would fall into line.

“Because she needs one. Lucy seems iffy about her being here,” Sloane replied, matter-of-fact.

“And I’m impressed. From what I’ve seen and heard, Katerina is aware that she’ll be put to the test. She’s not blind to the fact that she’ll be doubted just because she’s a Kozlov.

And still, she was brave enough to butt heads with you and stand her ground.

She’s got grit. She stands for what she thinks is right.

And that’s impressive. So, yeah.” She sipped her water and held her head high.

“If she wants a friend, I’ll be there waiting for her. ”

I appreciated Sloane’s take on it. She would be a good ally for Katerina, but I would let them figure it out.

Lucy, too. I would leave that up to Katerina to mend instead of pushing anything on her.

Obviously, I’d needed a reminder that my wife isn’t a fan of being ordered around or put in a corner, like she proved this morning about her pregnancy care.

But you’re never alone, Katerina. Never.

She had me. She’d have my brothers and my sisters-in-law.

Hell, you can have Joann, too.

It pained me that Katerina never had friends other than me. Anton was that much of a social pariah that she’d been a loner. If bringing her former housekeeper here would help her feel less alone, I’d make it happen.

After dinner, I left Maxim with Sloan and Saul. Part of me wanted to linger and further encourage my older brother to relax about Katerina being in the family now.

Instead, I went to visit my father. It wasn’t easy to see him struggle with his recovery. He had good days and bad days. While he’d improved over the time that I was taken and held captive, then hiding, he wasn’t his old self yet.

He might never be.

He greeted me and recognized me when I entered his room, and that lifted my spirits. Then, as I spoke with him about my capture and other business things—all of which he had been informed about—he changed the subject to marriage.

“You don’t need to worry about Katerina,” he said.

I raised my brows. “About what?” I dreaded the possibility that he’d gotten word about us arguing earlier.

“About her betraying you like Beatrice.”

I huffed a wry laugh. “I’m glad that you’re not acting like she’s the enemy.”

He sighed, looking off to the side with a vacant expression. “Today, I’m not. I hate how my mind is a mess. How my memories can be so clear one day and scrambled the next.” He faced me solemnly. “Has Maxim or Damon told you about how I mistook Lucy for Katerina?”

I nodded. That story had been shocking to hear, but given his complicated recovery and inconsistent mental status, I wasn’t surprised.

“I’ll never forgive myself for that,” he admitted sadly. “She’s been so calm and quiet and sweet. She’s really good for Damon, and I’m so happy that he’s found someone who supports him and stands with him.”

“I agree.” I had yet to learn much about Lucy, but just seeing how close she and my twin were, I knew that it was a positive happenstance that she’d come here to marry him.

“But when I saw her and thought she was Katerina, I was so gripped with twisted memories about when Thomas died.”

I watched him, sad for him to revisit the time that he’d lost his friend.

Maxim confirmed that he’d passed the word to him already that Anton was responsible for Thomas’s death.

Now that I could see firsthand how upset he was, I wished I’d come to visit more often around the important meetings that had taken up my life since I’d returned.

“I recall being so suspicious of Anton,” he admitted.

“I wanted to launch more investigations into Thomas’s death, but it wasn’t a simple matter of spying and getting answers about it.

I’d never trusted him enough to ever want to be allied with him.

And I think when I mistook Lucy for Katerina that day, my mind was so jumbled that I thought all Kozlovs had to be behind it.

” He rubbed his face, looking a hundred years older.

“And now to know that motherfucker killed him? To have Katerina’s proof that Anton shot my friend? His own brother?”

My anger rose too. “She wants to avenge her father.”

He grunted. “Let her,” he snarled. “Let her pull the trigger and kill that bastard.”

“It won’t come to that, Father.” I drew a deep breath.

Maxim warned me not to give Father too many specifics because it could be a risk.

We all had to be careful with him. One day, he could be fine and the next, he could be lost to us mentally.

But I bet he was already aware of the plans that Maxim and I were hatching with Damon and Saul.

We operated as a team. “It doesn’t matter how involved Anton was in my capture or potentially in your poisonings.

He’s been involved to an extent, and we will end him and destroy him once and for all. ”

He nodded, not losing that hard glare at the wall. “Kill him for killing Thomas.”

“Anton Kozlov will be finished for many reasons,” I replied. “Most of all, Father, his death will be imminent for the danger he placed on Katerina. He dared to put a hit on his niece all because she’d defied him.”

With a gruff grunt again, he shook his head. “He will be so furious that she’s married to you now. That he’s lost his hold over her completely. It’ll be a hard hit for him to accept that she’d never been his spy, never would be his spy, and in fact, will be here plotting against him with us.”

You get it. Why can’t Maxim understand that too?

“What about Dominic Romano?” Father asked, proving that the scheming, calculating man was still in there. “He’s got to be just as involved. Before I was—” He furrowed his brow, rubbing his head. “Before I was poisoned, that was the focus. Looking into Anton and Dominic partnering to bring us down.”

I stood, ready to go check on Katerina again.

“No one’s bringing us down, Father. We’re too strong. We’ve expanded and have another generation to count on now, too.” Smoothing my hand over the front of my suit jacket, I met his sly smile with one of my own. “If any partnership ever formed between the Kozlovs and Romanos, it will be crushed.”

He could mark my word on it.

Because I would never settle for anything upsetting my wife.

Even if I was the cause of her annoyance.

And that was why I planned to return to her and grovel, if necessary.