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I don’t realize I’m shaking until Hope grabs my hand.
“How did you figure it out?” I whisper, eyes closed.
“You stopped drinking coffee, your bathroom smelled like vomit when I cleaned it, and…” She pauses before the words rush out of her. “I swear I wasn’t snooping, but I dumped your bathroom trash can and the test fell out. It was hard to miss. I didn’t see the result, but I know what pregnancy tests look like. That with everything else, I just… I knew.”
“I guess I’m no good at keeping secrets.”
“Are you mad?” she asks.
“No. It’s okay. It’s actually nice to have one more person I’m not hiding it from.”
“Mr. Kulikov knows then?”
More guilt tightens the knot in my stomach. “No. Mariya does. She’s the one who realized it was even a possibility. I’d probably still be in denial if she didn’t force the test into my hand.”
“Sounds like Ms. Mariya,” Hope chuckles. “Are you going to tell Yakov soon?”
“I don’t know. I have no idea what I’m going to do. About any of it,” I admit. “Could you please not tell anyone? Especially not Yakov? I need time to figure this out.”
She zips her fingers across her lips. “It’s not my secret to share. I won’t breathe a word.”
I pull her into a hug. “Thank you, Hope.”
“Of course. You’re not in this alone,” she says.
She sounds so confident when she says that. I wish more than anything that I could believe her.
64
YAKOV
“Do you want to hit up The Rouge Lounge, brother?” Nik asks as he throws open my office door. He pauses in the doorway and looks around. “What the hell happened?”
I’ve been in my office for two days straight, but I look around the room with new eyes. It could certainly be tidier.
“I’ve been working in here.”
“And sleeping in here, too, by the looks of it.” He eyes my pillow and blanket strewn across the sofa. “Things between you and Luna still on the rocks?”
“This has nothing to do with Luna.” I snap. “I’ll clean up when Akim is dead.”
Because once Akim is dead, Luna will be gone. Then I can walk around my house without the fear that I’ll slip and accidentally find my dick deep inside of her.
It’s been days since I’ve seen her and I feel the distance. I thought the ache for her would fade, but apparently, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Right now, even the thought of touching Luna has me semi-hard.
“Speaking of…” Nik kicks my office door closed and slides his phone across my desk. “Here’s an article about The Rouge Lounge.”
“What the fuck is that?” I scroll through the article, stopping as soon as I see a familiar name. “Akim’s club is finally opening.”
“In two days,” Nik confirms. “At the bottom of that article, he tells the interviewer that he is going to be standing outside the front doors the entire night, personally welcoming guests inside.”
“He might as well paint a bullseye on his back.” I toss back Nik’s phone. “It’s the perfect time to strike.”
“There are going to be a lot of people there.”
“Enough that we can slip into the mayhem without anyone seeing a thing.” I drum my fingers on top of my desk, thinking. “We have to be smart about it, though. If we march up to the club with an army, Akim will see it coming from a mile away.”
“We could set up a wider perimeter and minimize how many people go in.”
