Chapter 34 #2
Kyle looked around the tiny bathroom for the test wand. His wife had shown him one once, and he knew what to look for. He found it on the floor beside the vanity. Breaking every rule of evidence in the book, he picked it up. Two pink lines. The test was positive.
Victoria was pregnant.
She’d been back in his life for only three weeks. Could a pregnancy test give results so soon?
Hell if he knew. But Victoria wasn’t the kind of woman to sleep around. She’d been reluctant to sleep with him at first. He didn’t doubt the baby was his.
With his heart in his throat, he set the test wand on the vanity. This explained everything. Victoria was going to run but not because of Yuri. It was because of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. She wouldn’t risk giving birth in prison and being separated from her baby. Their baby.
“Jack’s in the hall waiting on forensics,” Deke said from the doorway. “You okay?”
Blindly, he turned. Frustration and betrayal made it impossible to think straight as he pushed past his brother and went back through the apartment and into the hallway.
Clearly, she hadn’t planned on telling him about the pregnancy. She would have disappeared, and he would never have known. How could she keep something like this from him? Then again, she had a history of withholding important information.
He stared at the wall, wanting like hell to ram his fist through the drywall.
The stairwell door opened, and the FBI forensic team walked toward him. Two guys he’d worked with before, each carrying heavy black metal cases, acknowledged him with nods.
“Inside.” He pointed to the open door. “Take prints, hair fibers…” Anything that could give them a clue as to what had happened and where Yuri might have taken Victoria.
Not that Yuri would be stupid enough to leave any useful evidence behind.
The only evidence he’d intentionally left was the lingering cigar smoke.
Yuri had wanted him to know he was the one who’d taken Victoria.
“There’s something else you should know,” Tracee said, stepping closer. “She made me swear not to tell you, but I think I have to.”
“She’s pregnant,” he heard himself say. He still couldn’t completely process the truth. “She lied to me. She said she couldn’t have children.”
“No, she didn’t lie to you. Until today, she didn’t know she could conceive. That snake of an ex-husband was behind the whole thing.”
“What do you mean?”
“While they were still married, they tried having children but couldn’t.
She went to a doctor and got tested. The doctor called when she was out and Yuri spoke with him.
Yuri lied to her and told her she was sterile.
Today she exhibited classic signs of morning sickness.
She called her old doctor in Chicago, who confirmed it.
The doctor said she was perfectly capable of having children and always had been.
Yuri was the one with the problem, not her. ”
“Oh, Jesus.” He leaned against the wall, fearing if he didn’t, he’d collapse onto the floor. “What have I done?”
Victoria was pregnant with his baby, and Yuri had them both.
It was his fault. He should have been protecting her, loving her, but instead he’d been obsessed with nailing Yuri and Nikolai Lebedev. In the time it took for his heart to beat once, none of that mattered anymore.
More regret and anger sliced into him.
Just when he’d thought he was over feeling the guilt of letting down the woman he loved, he’d gone and done it again. What should have been the joy of impending fatherhood was overshadowed by grisly images of Victoria and their child at the mercy of Yuri’s obsessive rage.
He couldn’t lose them.
Unable to hold back a second longer, Kyle pounded his fist on the wall, cracking the Sheetrock. Many times before, he’d gone into enemy territory after captured servicemen. This time was different. This time he was in love with the captive. Somehow, he had to find her.
After getting a grip on his emotions, he turned back to Tracee. “There’s nothing you can do here. Go home. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.”
She stared at him. “You’re inhuman. That has to be it.
How can you stand there so calmly when Victoria’s been kidnapped by a psychopath?
You’re acting as if this is just another case to you.
This is Victoria we’re talking about. Our Victoria.
She could be dead! What’s wrong with you? Why don’t you show some emotion?”
He held her angry gaze a moment before answering. “Because it’s the only way I can deal with this.”
“You love her, don’t you?”
“With everything that I am.”
She pointed a finger at him, close enough to practically jab him in the chest. “You’d better call me the minute you hear something. She has no family. I’m her only family.”
“You’re wrong about that.” The truth slammed into him harder than a brick wall. “I’m her family now, too.”
“So are we.” Jack had come up behind them and put his hand on Kyle’s right shoulder; Deke did the same on his left.
More emotion threatened to choke the life out of him. He assumed they’d overheard him say Victoria was pregnant.
Tracee exhaled a long breath. “Just call me.” She stormed down the hall and pushed open the stairwell door.
“If all Yuri wanted was to kill her,” Jack said, hitching his head to the apartment, “you’d have found her body in there.”
“I know.” He nodded.
“Yuri could be figuring you into his plans, as well,” Deke added.
“I know that, too.” Through the open door, he watched the forensic agents dusting for prints and knew exactly whose prints they’d find: his, Victoria’s, and Yuri’s.
“I gave Mike an update on the way over,” Jack said. “Money talks. He’s reaching out to his CI and every snitch in Brighton Beach.”
“Good.” That’s what he would have done, too, but it might not be enough.
Think! Put yourself in Yuri’s head. You know him well enough. What were his goals?
“He wants his money. I’m betting he thinks she still has it.”
“What happens when he realizes she doesn’t have his money anymore because Uncle Sam took it?” Deke asked. “Do you think he’ll—”
“Kill her?” Kyle said more than asked. He’d already considered that five times in the last thirty minutes. He shook his head. “Maybe not. He’s obsessed with her, always has been. I think he’ll want to keep her. Like a possession.”
What worried him most was what would happen when Yuri figured out Victoria wasn’t the same person anymore. She was strong. A force to be reckoned with. A woman who wouldn’t take his sadistic brand of love lying down anymore. When he figured that out, then he might kill her.
And had Yuri seen the pregnancy test?
Would he hurt Victoria because the baby wasn’t his?
That vat of acid sitting in the pit of his stomach started boiling over. “He has to know I’ll come after him. He knows he can’t hide her anywhere in the U.S. He’ll have to take her out of the country. Somewhere without an extradition treaty.”
Jack yanked out his phone. “I’ll get an alert out to every airport, train station, bus depot, and marine terminal in the country. If he tries leaving, he’ll get snagged somewhere.”
“He’s too smart for that. He’ll assume his money is still in Chicago. That’ll be his first stop, but he won’t risk taking her on any form of commercial transportation. The chances of getting caught with a captive are too great.”
“Then he’ll have to drive,” Deke said. “Back roads only. No bridges, tunnels, or other choke points that could easily be monitored by police.”
“Maybe.” Maybe not. “We haven’t considered the possibility that she’d go with Yuri willingly.”
“Seriously?” Deke raised an eyebrow. “Why would she do that?”
“To stay alive.” That day at Semyon Novikov’s came back to him with so much clarity he could practically remember every word she’d spoken.
“She always wanted children and thought she couldn’t have any.
She’ll do anything to keep this baby alive.
” His baby, and he loved her for it. For that, and so many other reasons.
“Even if it means playing Yuri’s twisted game. ”
He took a deep breath, praying for a miracle he knew deep in his heart wasn’t coming.
“Yuri Petrov is a sneaky sonofabitch, and the Bratva has connections everywhere. Like any business, networking is everything. But if Yuri’s plan all along was to keep the money for himself, he wouldn’t trust anyone in Nikolai Lebedev’s network.
He’d rely on his Chicago contacts, people who are loyal to him. ”
All it would take was a payoff to the right person and Yuri could leave the country undetected. Forever. Maybe with Victoria.
Maybe without her.
The forensic team would take at least another two hours. Time Victoria might not have. He bit back the shout of fear, rage, and desperation he could barely keep from roaring out of his throat. She’s pregnant. He still couldn’t believe it. “I’ll find her.” I have to.
“We know you will.” Jack gave his shoulder a shake. “We’ll be there with you.”
Kyle checked his phone for any missed calls or texts, but there were none.
Victoria was out there alone, thinking he’d abandoned her again. In many ways, he had. If only he hadn’t been such a stubborn, egocentric ass. If only…
Those were the exact same thoughts he’d had the day his wife had been killed in a car accident.
He hadn’t been with her, driving her to the doctor’s office for a prenatal checkup.
If he had been, the accident wouldn’t have happened.
His wife wouldn’t have been killed. His unborn child wouldn’t have died with her.
He could not, would not let history repeat itself.
Gritting his teeth, he hissed in a breath laden with more violence than he’d felt in his entire life. “I’ll turn over every single rock on the planet until I find him.”
Because he hadn’t taken out Yuri Petrov when he’d had the chance, Victoria’s life was at stake. So was another life.
One he hadn’t known existed until today.