Chapter 34 Raisa
RAISA
When I entered Gabriella’s room this morning and saw Andre playing quietly and calmly in his playpen, I narrowed my eyes and wondered why Gabriella had made such a fuss last night about my ‘helping’ her with the baby today.
He seemed fine to me.
Not seeing Gabriella in the room she shared with Luka, though, I walked around a bit. “Gabreilla?”
She hurried out of the bathroom right then. Flustered and with her face rosier than usual, she opened her eyes wide. “Oh, hey.”
“Huh?” I furrowed my brow. “Oh, hey?” I parroted, mocking her. “Why are you acting so weird and surprised that I’m here? You asked me last night to come and help you with Andre, who, and I don’t want to jinx it, but he’s looking pretty content over there.”
She shook her head and ran to me. Taking my hands, she swallowed hard. “No, it’s not that. That was an excuse to get you here.”
“Okay…” I tilted my head to the side. “You’re being weird.”
“This is me being nervous-excited.”
I tried to puzzle her out. A fleeting memory of her declining coffee yesterday morning stood out. I snapped my fingers and pointed at her. “You’re pregnant.”
Her mouth hung open. “You can’t just tell like that.”
“But are you?”
“I think I am.” She smiled awkwardly. “But I don’t know.
I wanted you here as support while I take the test. The last time I went through this…
” She looked away and ran her hand over her long brown waves, kind of shoving the thick mass out of her face.
“I was terrified and alone and worried and then that stupid maid dug through the trash to get the test stick and used it against me to almost get me killed and—”
“Whoa. Easy.” I smiled. “Yes, I’ll be here with you for this.” My lips curled up higher, excited for her. “Go on! Do you have a test?”
She nodded. “Guard the door while I do it,” she said with an excited squee.
“Guard it?” I rolled my eyes. “It’s not like this is bad news. Luka will be thrilled.”
“I know. But I want this moment to be my own this time. And just, I don’t know. He’ll get so overprotective and all and just—” She held her hands out as if to ward me back as she went in the bathroom. “Like you said. I’m being weird.”
I laughed, then waited. She came out a minute later with the test on a towel.
“Is it up yet?” I asked, taking the stick.
“Another minute to go.” She had it covered but let me take it. “I can’t look yet.”
“I can.” I grinned and checked. “Andre’s going to have to get ready to not be the only center of attention around here soon.”
She gasped, then snatched the test from my hand.
She did another controlled squee and hugged me, thoroughly excited.
I was too. I was thrilled for her and I couldn’t wait to be there for her.
After the stilted way my father raised me, with limited contact and no chances for friends, she seemed like my first true friend.
“Don’t tell him yet. Please.” She smiled. “I wanna do something special or cute.”
“I won’t.” I waited as she hid the test in her lingerie drawer—not because a member of the house staff would snoop and use it against her since she’d replaced the catty women. She wanted to keep it out of Luka’s sight for now.
“Maybe have Andre wear a big brother onesie or something.”
She laughed, picking up the baby and kissing him. “Oh, I’m so excited.”
“And this time, you can have a normal experience without delivering in a gunfight.”
She smirked. “Don’t jinx it.”
We left the room together and handed Andre over to Allan, who would watch him while Ivan, Luka, Gabriella, and I went to tour a church.
“Now that my excitement is dealt with,” she said as we went to find the guys.
“Dealt with?” I laughed. “You just found out and it’s only starting.”
“I know. But on to you. Are you excited to get married?”
I smiled. “He hasn’t proposed yet.”
“Isn’t that just a technicality now?”
I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. And I really don’t need a huge wedding whenever it happens. As a matter of fact, I’d worry about my father showing up there and causing trouble.”
“Hmm. No.” Gabriella sounded confident. “I’ve already started planning so much for you.
Luka will spare no expense. He’s already been planning more security here and wherever you might move with Ivan.
If you want my opinion, he is on board with letting me arrange a lavish and over-the-top wedding just to get the attention of anyone who might wonder who you belong to. ”
“I don’t need to brag about being with Ivan.” I gave her a serious look. “I just need to make sure my father knows that I am.”
Then he can take that message to the grave.
Ivan and Luka were already heading toward us, and we were on our way to the church.
Calling the massive old building a church was an understatement.
Yet, after spending so much time in Europe and seeing the really ancient masterpieces of architecture, I felt like this just wasn’t the same.
The cathedral loomed so tall and massive that it still stole my breath.
More than that, it was the first time I’d ventured out of Luka and Gabriella’s enormous home. I’d gone with Ivan to drop off Lev at school, but it wasn’t until we stood in the sunshine and looked up at the front facade of the big church that I realized I hadn’t gone anywhere lately.
It was yet another sign of how much my life had changed in under a month.
Things were shifting so quickly that it should’ve alarmed me, but I wasn’t nervous about being rushed.
My love began with Ivan a long time ago.
We hadn’t just met. And all those years we were apart, I’d never forgotten him.
It was true that absence made the heart fonder, even in my case where I had been so mad about how he’d left.
I smiled at the warmth of the sunshine on my face, marveling that I was a new woman, a different person.
The version of me who had to hurry to work for a pittance of a paycheck was now included in a small group of powerful individuals to tour a church.
This new me wasn’t worried about finances, how to raise my boy on my own, and keeping contingency plans in check.
I would always look over my shoulder. Until I saw my father dead, I would be nervous. But when I did that right now, glanced over my shoulder, all I saw was Ivan.
He gave me one of those secret smiles and came closer to wrap his arm around me. “You okay?”
I kissed his cheek as a reply. “Yes.” I’d be better if my father were dead, but I knew that would come. It had to. Ivan wouldn’t leave a loose thread like that to threaten me or Lev.
“What if we just got this done now?” Luka asked inside the mostly empty church. A few devout people were praying up front in the first couple of pews. Nuns in habit walked in a straight line near candles lit in an alcove. He held his arms out as if to say why not?
“You got two witnesses,” he said, pointing at himself and Gabriella. “We’ll find a priest somewhere around here.”
Gabriella gawked at him.
Ivan chuckled. “I wouldn’t be opposed if that’s what Raisa wants.”
Gabriella squeaked and turned her appalled expression to him.
“I’d rather have Lev here,” I said, trying not to laugh at Gabriella’s reaction.
Luka smiled and kissed her. “I’m joking.”
She spluttered. “Don’t you even dare!”
Watching them tease each other was cute, but I secretly didn’t mind Luka’s idea. If it would keep Lev safe, then yes. I’d committed to being with Ivan from the first night I’d met him. From the beginning, I just knew that he would be my first and last lover.
“I love you,” Ivan said as the other couple walked ahead, Luka poking fun at her yet.
“I love you, too,” I replied. “And I can’t wait to be your wife—however we end up tying the knot this time.”
He kissed me before Luka motioned for him to walk with him. A couple of Dubinin soldiers went with them as they spoke to the man in charge of security. Gabriella gestured for me to come check out something along the aisle to the side. “I just wanted to look at that stained-glass window closer.”
I went with her, knowing Dubinin men were here. We were still within view of the men, but that paranoia would always linger in me. Simmering and still-burning embers of being guarded was just something I’d have to live with.
“Ugh. That incense is making me nauseous,” she whispered, waving her hand in front of her face.
“Every smell is going to bug you again.”
Gabriella and I admired the artwork so high up on the wall, but before we could walk further away, I turned and didn’t see the men.
All I saw was a line of those nuns. Sisters. Whatever they were. With those long trailing habits covering their faces, they looked like statues.
Wait.
I perked at the clues I worried I was too late to notice.
They really were like statues. Big and broad-shouldered. Since when were nuns so ripped and tall?
I tensed as it all clicked into place.
That wasn’t only overly potent incense that bothered Gabriella. It was extra gross because it was mixing with men’s cologne.
These weren’t nuns. They were too close, sticking with us and forming a line to block us over here.
“Fuck.” I reached for Gabriella to urge her to run with me.
But it was too late.
A man’s hand shot out at me. The “nun” nearest to me grabbed me and spun me into a chokehold so secure and swift that I didn’t even have time to cry out for Ivan. I fought, bucking as I watched them grab Gabriella too.
In a blink of the eye, we were carried away.
Just like that, they’d gotten us.
Why her?
Why not just me?
Is this someone after her or me?
How can we just randomly be lumped together like this?
Questions filled my head, but seeing Gabriella fighting the man who carried her out the back door of the church somehow kept my panic at bay. Seeing my new friend in danger ignited that mama bear mode. I was defensive of her, and her new baby, too.
I would not be fucking kidnapped like this. Nor would she.
Outside, before we were pushed into cars, I bucked and fought harder. Like an animal, I thrashed and used all I had to break free.
“Fuck. Hold on to her, dammit,” one man, an old Petrov guard I remembered, said.
That did it.
This was my father’s doing. They’d come here for me and had taken Gabriella with me.
I arched my back and drove my foot into my captor’s crotch. It worked. He grunted and nearly dropped me. The instant his hand flew off my mouth, I lunged into the air for Gabriella’s attacker.
A sharp hook to his head did the trick. He groaned, releasing her. Already, another “nun” was rushing to grab hold of me again. Using my back to block him from getting Gabriella, I screamed at her to go.
“Run. Go get help. Run!”
She didn’t wait. She didn’t try to be a hero and stay to help me. Fortunately, she ran. After skidding and scrambling to get onto her feet fully, she stood up and bolted out of there.
I was too late to fight for my freedom again.
She got away, but I was tossed into the backseat of the car too quickly. The door slammed shut.
And as the car began to pull away, I spotted the vicious snarl my father wore. He sat in the front, glowering at me through the reflection of the mirror.
“Where’s the bastard?” he demanded.
I gathered up spit and shot it at the back of his face. “Fuck you.”
He growled, cursing and ranting, but I tuned him out.
There wasn’t a chance in hell that he’d get away with this.
Ivan would never let Lev near this man.
He’d be safe. And it was with this moment of danger that a new fact crystallized in my mind.
With so many changes, I hadn’t paid much attention to how I was no longer a single parent.
It wasn’t solely up to me to provide for Lev.
Even if something happened to me now, Lev would have Ivan and the others.
It was a morbid, depressing fact to acknowledge, but I did. I wasn’t a defeatist. This fight was only beginning as far as I was concerned, but I didn’t have to be paranoid and gripped with the fear of Lev losing his whole family—me. He’d have others.
It was up to me to get back to them as quickly as possible now.
My father went too far to threaten me and my son before, and I’d be damned if he succeeded in this retake of violence today.