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Three dots appeared and disappeared, over and over again, showing me that she was second-guessing another message for me, too.

Louisa: Please be careful and come home to us as soon as you can.

Damn, I liked that. I fucking loved that she would look forward to my return. No one else ever had.

Nikolai: I will.

I would hold off on texting her that I loved her, wanting to convey that in person. As I reached my car and got in to drive north and into California, though, I was confident that pursuing her former supervisor to question him and kill him would be another strong demonstration of how far I would go to ensure her happiness and safety.

Killing in the name of love.

32

LOUISA

Nikolai didn’t come home. His impulsive move to travel meant that he likely wouldn’t, so I wasn’t worried.

Well, I was. I had a hunch I would always worry when it came to all that he could be expected to do for the Bratva as an enforcer. I’d witnessed his preference for delegating tasks, but he was still very much “on” when things like this popped up.

I was sure that one of the others could’ve gone in his place. Even a high-level soldier. But I wasn’t shocked that Nikolai would want to be the one to take out Owen. To make him pay for all that he’d ever done to me.

As I woke up and considered that he would never fail to prove to me that he respected me and wanted me safe and happy, I smiled and looked at the ceiling. The ceiling in Brady’s room. Because he hadn’t wanted to camp out in the living room, after all. Paloma headed to her room, and we said we’d plan to do another “camp out” when Nikolai could join us.

I got up without waking Brady and went to the bathroom.

I checked my phone as I went, by habit, and I frowned at the last text that Nikolai had sent. It was from last night, him confirming he was “in position.” After that, nothing.

That doesn’t mean anything bad. It was late. He’s probably crashing and sleeping at a hotel before coming home.

After I used the restroom, I checked that Brady was still sleeping and walked down the hall to my room. At the door to what had been my room for such a short time, I smiled and shook my head.

Whoops.

I continued down the hall to our room. Mine and Nikolai’s. Because according to Brady, he assumed we’d act as a mama and daddy would.

For that to be accurate, that would mean you would have a brother or sister on the way.

I walked into the closet, acknowledging that thought would fall under the category of wishful thinking. With how challenging my delivery had been to bring Brady into the world, there was a sad but valid chance that I’d struggle to conceive again.

But we haven’t been using protection.

I shrugged to myself as I yawned and reached for clothes to change into, looking forward to Nikolai checking in with me or just showing up with his return. But no matter how much I envisioned him coming home, I couldn’t shake off the idea of whether Nikolai and I could ever act like a mother and father together.

That could mean him adopting Brady.

Which would imply we’d be marrying.

I went still, my hand on a skirt I tugged on over my panties.

Or… that we would have a baby together.

Racking my brain as I counted back to when I’d last had my period, a slow sense of ohmygod filled my head.

Wait.

That can’t be right.

I pulled my skirt into place and hurried to the nightstand where I’d placed my phone to charge.