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She huffs a laugh. “What?”
“We’re going to get Simon back. And then the three of us—well, the four of us—we’ll go live it up on some tropical island. I think we’ve earned it.”
She gives me a watery smile. It’s wishful thinking, a silly daydream to distract from the looming feeling of doom. Truth be told, things are looking bleak. I don’t like our chances of survival. There’s no way in hell I trust Levitsky to return Simon without something going horribly, terribly wrong.
“If I don’t make it out of this…” I murmur.
Natalya presses her fingers to my lips. “Stop.”
“Listen to me, Nat. Just listen. If I don’t make it out of this, I want you to contact Pyotr. He’ll fly you to New York and set you up with a brand-new life. He’ll keep you safe for me.”
Her brows knit together into a steep frown. “I’m not going anywhere without you, Dimitri. And nothing’s going to happen to you. We’ll survive this. We’ll survivehim.”
“Just promise me, angel. Please?”
“You’re talking like we’ve already lost.”
My heart twists painfully in my chest. It’s hard not to feel defeated when time and time again, everything’s gone wrong. I thought we could outsmart Levitsky, take him down before he could do any real damage.
“Promise me,” I repeat, desperation shredding my throat. “Please. I can’t stand the thought of anything happening to you.”
Natalya hops up on her toes and tilts her face up, angling her lips so she can kiss me sweetly. The soft press of her mouth makes my chest hurt more. She really is my angel. I’ll be damned if I let Levitsky take her away from me.
“I promise,” she whispers. “But wewillget out of this. You, me, Simon, and the baby. We’re going on that vacation no matter what, you hear me?”
I manage the thinnest of smiles. Maybe she’s right. It’s not over until it’s over. If I let Levitsky get to me, if I let him drag me down, then he’s already won half the battle.
“Dimitri!” Mikhail shouts from upstairs.
“What?”
“Get up here! Luka’s found something.”
A spark of hope ignites in me. Do I dare get my hopes up? I don’t know if my heart can take another let down.
“Come on,” Natalya says eagerly. She’s already racing out of the kitchen to bound up the stairs.
I take a deep breath and follow.
Chapter 38
Dimitri
“I’m a fucking genius, thank you very much,” Luka says, singing his own praises.
“Cut to the chase,” I snap. “Did we find him or not?”
“I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Out with it, Luka. Before I have an aneurism.”
“The good news is the plate came up as a match. The only reason I was able to find it so fast was because it’s got atonof outstanding parking tickets on file.”
“The bad news?” Natalya prompts.
“It doesn’t belong to Levitsky.”
If I were a lesser man, I’d probably lose it. But we’ve come this far; I’m not giving up now. “Whodoesit belong to?” I ask tightly.
