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CHAPTER 17
Gavril
I stared at my wife, astonished that she’d tried to pull the same fucking stunt again. When Ivan had called me and stated that there was a man at my fucking house, harassing my wife, I had ordered the car to be turned around, thinking that it could be a number of people. It was rare that they got past the iron gate, but considering I had just left myself, anyone could have slipped through while they were open.
My first thought was that whoever had dared come to my personal residence would pay for harassing my wife in danger.
But when I had seen Naomi herself behind the wheel of the car, every thought of how I was going to handle the situation had flown out of the window. She had been told not to leave, not to interfere with my staff, yet there she was, on her way out, and she would have made it had I not turned around.
Where was she going? Why? Those were just a few of the questions I was going to get answers for right fucking now before I lost my shit.
Still, as I looked at my wife, I noted a paleness to her face, and the tears marring her cheeks.
Something wasn’t right. Something had scared Naomi, and I wanted to know why and who.
“Tell me,” I bit out. “Or you will never leave this mansion again.”
Her eyes widened, and she drew in a trembling breath. “I was coming to warn you.”
Warn me? Her words didn’t lessen the anger I felt at what she had done, but it posed a curious question as to what my wife felt was going to harm me. Forcing myself to hear her out, I sat behind the desk, motioning for her to sit as well.
She didn’t, instead wrapping her arms around her waist as if she was attempting to protect our child from some unseen force.
It wasn’t from me. Even though I was pissed off at her stunt, I would never harm her while she was carrying our child. “Start talking,” I growled. “I don’t have all day.”
She drew in a breath and her eyes filled with tears, making me want to comfort her.
“My stalker,” she forced out. “He found me. He was at this very house right before you showed up.”
Fuck. That posed all sorts of issues for me and my plans for the Krasnaya Bratva takeover. If this asshole knew who she was, then he could denounce my claims to her being Sveta and everything else would be blown to hell.
“Why are you afraid of him?” I asked harshly, tapping my fingers on the desk. “What did he do to you?”
Naomi refused to meet my gaze, instead focusing on the bookshelf next to my head. “When I was in college, I met this guy, Jon Hampton. He was a psychology major, and we hit it off immediately. I didn’t have the best of relationships in high school, and he was everything I wanted in a guy.”
Her lower lip trembled and I watched Naomi pull herself back together, wondering what sort of guy she saw me as. Likely a fucking monster that ate little kids for breakfast. After all, I had given her very little reason to think otherwise.
“He was kind, attentive, funny, and I fell hard and fast for him,” she continued, her eyes distant as if she was lost in a memory that I couldn’t decipher. Hell, already I wanted to tear the fucker limb from limb for thinking he could come into my personal domain and harass my wife. She was just adding fuel to the fire by giving me a picture of her happiness.
But there was more to the story. I was sure of it, and I was willing to bide my time until she told me.
“We dated for about a year,” she said softly, her voice barely above a whisper now. “And I loved him. Or at least whatever a nineteen-year-old kid thought love was. He gave me everything I could have asked for, and I was already starting to picture a future with him.”
A shudder went through her and I clenched my hand into a fist, not sure if I was ready for what she was going to tell me next. Whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be good or she would still be with the fucker.
Something had happened, something that had her terrified of him even now.
“One night we went to this party,” Naomi finally said, her throat working. “He handed me a drink, and I remember feeling like I was drunk. But it felt different. I tried to get him to take me home, but he kept laughing and dancing and soon I blacked out.”
That fucker. I gritted my teeth at how he had taken advantage of her. While I did a lot of shitty things, I never roofied anyone.
“When I came to, I was in a parking lot.” Naomi reached up to her cheek, as if she could still feel the pavement against her skin. “They were having a conversation about me, about what they were going to do to me, and a few—” Her voice caught, and I nearly upended the desk in my own dark rage. “A few put their hands on me, as if they were trying to assess whether or not I was worth the money.”
I wanted to tell her to stop, the pain in her voice almost too much to bear, but she didn’t even realize I was in the room with her right now, likely reliving the horror of that night in her mind. “They got me to a hotel room, but before they could do anything else, my best friend found me and pulled me out of there. Ilsa threatened them with a gun and nearly shot one of the guys as we were getting away. It’s one of the reasons she became a detective.”
Naomi let out a slow breath while I tried to process what she had told me. No wonder she had reacted so strongly to the women on the dock or questioned me about the girls. She had lived through a horror that not many would have gotten out of and had been betrayed by someone she had trusted, someone she had loved.
I was going to kill him with my bare hands.
“I would wager everything I own,” she finished, her gaze finding mine. “That Jon was the one who found us in Russia. No matter how hard I try to get away from him, he’s always finding me and trying to finish what he started all those years ago.” She bit her lower lip. “He knows about me, Gavril. He knows about our baby.”
I wasn’t about to figure out how he had found her or how he knew about the baby, but it didn’t matter. I would search the ends of the earth to find him now and destroy him little by little so that Naomi could have her peace about him.
“He will never get to you again,” I promised her, standing. “I swear it.”
Naomi’s eyes filled with tears. “That was why I was coming to you today. He found me, and I thought you needed to know in case he starts leaking it to the press that I’m not Sveta.”
“I don’t give a shit about that,” I bit out, rounding the desk. I could not care less if he blasted it to the world right now. What mattered was that I had thought the absolute worst about her in that moment, and she had been coming to save me.
Me, the bastard who stole her life from her. I felt like I was two feet tall right now, hating that I had ever questioned her loyalty to me.
She had only been trying to warn me. She had only ever cared about me.
Naomi flinched as I reached her, my hands touching hers.
“I’m so sorry,” I said hoarsely. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. I’m sorry I pulled you out of that car.”
There was a shit load of other things I needed to apologize to her for, but she threw herself at me, sobbing against my chest, and I lost all thought.
The only thing that mattered was that I was going to keep her safe. This asshole had gone up against the wrong person this time, and he wasn’t going to lay a hand on what was mine.
“You are safe,” I murmured, my hand tight in her hair. “You are safe, Naomi.”
She only cried harder and I tightened my hold on her, letting her wet the front of my dress shirt for as long as she needed to. I was her husband in every sense of the word, and she was carrying my child. It was my duty to make sure that no harm came to her, and dammit, I was going to make certain that I wiped the fucker off the face of the earth.
Not only that, but I would teach Naomi some self-defense. She would need it if she remained my wife, though the thoughts of last night came roaring back to me, along with guilt.
To think I had seriously considered getting rid of her after our child was born. How the fuck did I think I could do something like that to her? I was pissed off, but now, after hearing her story, I understood her hesitation.
I understood her questioning.
