Page 83 of Possessive Mafia Bodyguard

“Do you love her?” Leonid asks eventually.

“Do you really need to ask?” I counter.

“I want to hear it from you.”

Fair enough. “Yes, I love her. I fell in love with her the first moment we met. I loved her even more, if that’s possible, when she stole my gun and walked away, and I’ll continue to love her until I take my last breath.”

Leonid is silent.

“She’s in self-destruct mode because she doesn’t know how else to handle it,” Andrej says finally.

His wife is pregnant. Gianna told me that the pregnancy news took her and Leonid by surprise too. If anything can unite the three of us, surely it will be this.

“She doesn’t know that I know about it. I found the test in my guest bathroom the last time she disappeared, but Gianna had already guessed.”

A tic pulses in Leonid’s jaw. “You spoke to my wife?”

“I thought Tamara was sick, and I didn’t know who else to speak to. I didn’t want to question your relationship with her, neither did I want to undermine your position, but I couldn’t sit back and do nothing to help her. She’s frightened,” I conclude. “And I accept full responsibility.” I raise my hands in the universal gesture of peace.

“I like this guy.” Andrej addresses his brother and tilts his head in my direction.

Leonid doesn’t react. “Do you know where she is?”

“My brother is tracking her as we speak. She’s heading out of town.”

They exchange glances. Finally, Leonid says, “We know where she is headed. Is she armed?”

The question sends a chill down my spine. “Are you?”

A glimmer of a smile lifts the corners of his mouth. “She’s following the distraction, not the cause.”

“Which means?”

If they know where the distraction is headed, stands to reason they know the cause’s location too, and I’m struggling to stand here in this room with them knowing that they chose to do nothing about either.

“How well do you know Tamara?” Andrej asks.

My hands ball into fists. “If you know where the cause is, I’d appreciate it if you get to the point. The woman I love is in danger, and I’ll follow her to the wrong destination if that’s what I need to do.”

“She’ll handle the distraction and meet us at the docks.” Andrej holds my gaze, defying me to overstep the mark and give him a reason to stop me from walking out of here the way I came in. “So, are you in or are you going to demand answers while Tamara tackles the whole fucking Bratva family alone?”

“I’m in.”

I’m only now paying attention to the two men who chose to hear me out when they could’ve locked me in this room and finished the war with the Petrovs just as easily without me as with me. They were not relaxing in bed with their wives when I arrived. They are wearing clothes that bear no designer label to be found in my closet, immaculate shoes, and they are armed for battle.

I didn’t interrupt a cozy evening.

I walked in on a meticulously planned Bratva operation.

“We’ve got her.”

The call comes from Connor while I’m driving to the Port of Chicago with Leonid and Andrej. How my life has changed since I met Tamara. Two months ago, this would never have happened in my wildest imagination. If someone had told me I would be riding in the back seat of Leonid Ivanov’s car, I’d have known they’d predicted the date of my death.

But here we are, working on the same side because I have no choice but to trust them.

“Is she…” The question sticks in my throat.

“Angry?” Connor says. “Fuck yeah, but the anger is directed at you, so I think I’m safe. I can’t vouch for the fucker in the aircraft hangar we just left behind.”