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He pushed me through the doors into a brightly lit room that was even scarier than the dark, empty basement. It seemed to be an office of some sort, but everything was covered in sheets of plastic, decked out to make it easier to keep evidence of a murder to a minimum. Even the lone window had plastic taped over it. He really didn’t want to have to wipe up any blood. He shoved me into a chair, the heavy plastic sheeting making a crinkling sound when I hit the seat. Glancing at his men, he paced back and forth in front of me.
“You seem antsy,” I taunted, throwing caution to the wind. I was in a murder room, for goodness’ sake. My only hope was to buy time at this point. And have the satisfaction of making him as angry as I was. “You should be nervous, Anton. Ivan knows everything, and it’s only a matter of time before you get your comeuppance for taking me.”
The words were hollow, but my voice came across as brave, anyway. Sweat broke out on his brow as he continued to pace the small room. If only it was just me and him and not two other, weapon-wielding muscle men. I really thought I was mad enough to have a fair shot in a fight with Anton.
There was a light knock at the door, one of the silly rhythmic knocks that kids did for their secret clubs. Anton looked at the door, shocked, clearly not expecting anyone. The two other men stiffened, the one aiming his gun and the other holding up his baseball bat.
“Who the fuck is that?” Anton asked, staring at the door.
The next moment, there was an explosive sound of shattering glass and a man burst in through the window off to the side of me, tearing through the plastic sheeting. I was too stunned and so happy to see my husband to utter his name. He’d really found me. It hadn’t been idle boasting. Somehow Ivan had found me. It struck me that I’d been able to be so brazen because I never really doubted it. He landed on the floor as gracefully as a cat and raised his gun.
Before Anton’s men could turn around, he took them out with two well-aimed shots in rapid succession. Another man kicked through the door, aiming his gun on Anton as his men dropped to the floor with blood oozing from the holes in their heads. Good thing there was all that plastic. Ivan turned to point his own gun at his young nemesis.
“It’s over,” he said, voice as cold as ice and the sweetest sound I ever heard.
“Like hell,” Anton muttered.
Panicked at having two guns trained on him, he leaped and grabbed me by my shirt, yanking me in front of him. His arm snaked around my neck and squeezed just like a python. He snapped open his pocket knife with his free hand and jabbed it against my cheek.
“I’ll kill her,” he said, backing toward the door. He stepped over one of his men’s bodies, dragging me along with him. “Put your guns down or I swear I’ll carve her up.”
As I was being dragged backwards, I locked eyes with Ivan. I could read everything in that stormy blue gaze. A wellspring of promises lay there, behind the cold fury aimed at Anton. I nodded slightly, knowing I could trust him to the ends of the earth. He almost imperceptibly returned the nod, and I closed my eyes.
There was a deafening crack and Anton’s grip slackened. He began to fall, his dead weight drawing me down with him. Before he collapsed completely on top of me, strong hands ripped me free and gathered me close to a body I knew all too well. I buried my face in Ivan’s chest as he clutched at my hair, uttering soft words of reassurance.
He sent the other man to make sure the rest of the building was secure and to let the others who were still outside know what was going on. I wrapped my arms around him and held on as he guided me from the plastic room that had seen death after all, just not mine, thanks to Ivan.
As soon as we were outside in the sunshine, I pulled his head down to kiss him fiercely, then shoved him away and slapped him hard across the face. Tears started rolling down my cheeks, and I angrily swiped them away before pulling him close again. He held on, stroking my back and ducking down to kiss me.
“I’m sorry, Reina. I’m sorry, my queen,” he repeated over and over.
I leaned back, gripping his shirt to tell him to stop. He’d saved me, that was all that mattered. I noticed my bare finger and gasped, running back into the warehouse again. The place was swarming with Ivan’s men so I knew I was completely safe, but Ivan chased after me anyway. Back in the office, I looked at the three bodies with disgust, then leaned over Anton to search his pockets.
“Reina, what are you doing?” Ivan asked, probably concerned for my sanity after all that.
But I found what I wanted, pulling out my rings and holding them up triumphantly. “He thought he could take my rings from me,” I said, kicking Anton’s lifeless body before Ivan led me back outside once more.
I took his hand and pressed my diamond engagement ring and the simple gold band into his palm. He looked at me in confusion, his brow furrowed as if he might start bellowing until I held out my hand with my fingers spread. I waggled my ring finger and looked at him expectantly.
With a relieved smile, he put them back on. “Where they belong,” he said.
I nodded fiercely and grabbed onto him again, never wanting to let go. “Take me home, Ivan. I want to go home.”
Chapter 18 - Ivan
Once we got back to the house, I wouldn’t let Reina out of my sight. Now that she was back with me, I wasn’t going to lose her again. I was shocked that she seemed fine when I settled her in an armchair at the back of my office with a blanket and a bowl of berries instead of letting her go to my room. More than fine, actually, even while I “interviewed” everyone that Nikolai’s employee, Reynaldo had named as possibly being untrustworthy. It was only the fact that his information had led us to saving Reina that saved his life, but he was going to be on a very tight leash for the foreseeable future.
So far, two of my security team had fled, disappearing as soon as Dmitri and I took off to the warehouse where Anton was keeping her. Aleksei had people combing the city for them, all of the airports under surveillance if they tried to leave the state. There wasn’t a place on earth far enough away that I wouldn’t track them down after what they allowed to happen in my home. To my woman.
They’ll discover, the same as anyone who betrays me, that the money they received just wasn’t worth what happened to them when I caught them, as I always did.
At first I was afraid I might have to postpone the interrogations to give Reina time to recover, and her steely calm made me think she was in shock from her ordeal. But my queen was made of sterner stuff than that, and she assured me she was fine. She shouldn’t have cut such an intimidating figure, curled up in my oversized armchair and wrapped in a blanket at the back of the room, but every time I turned to check on her, she was glaring at the subject, probably scaring them worse than I was. I was bursting with pride for my little queen and done with caring who saw me dote on her. I’d never lay a rough hand on her again. The time she was gone and I feared I might be too late to save her and the baby was the worst hell I’d ever lived through. It wouldn’t happen again, no matter who knew she was my wife.
I kept up my interrogations until I saw her head nodding toward her chest and the next time I peeked at her, her book had fallen from her hands. I called Dmitri and Nikolai in to continue on without me while I took her upstairs, but when I tried to lift her, she shook herself awake, giving the person currently being questioned a glare so cold, it could have rivaled one of mine.
“I’m perfectly fine,” she said, picking up her book again. “Keep working.”
I smiled at her to show her how proud I was of her, but scooped her into my arms all the same. “Dmitri and Nikolai can handle it for now,” I told her. She frowned and looked like she might argue, wanting to get all the traitors as badly as I did. But not at the expense of her health. “You need to rest for the baby,” I said in a low voice.
