Chapter 50
CHAPTER FIFTY
SLOANE
I jolt awake to the sound of Kirill roaring and something shattering in the distance. I sit up too fast, blinking against the harsh lights, not even knowing where I am at first. Then it all slams into me at once.
The accident. The boys.
Oh my God. The boys.
I rip the IV from my arm and shove myself out of bed, but the second my feet hit the floor, dizziness crashes over me. I grab the edge of the mattress before I can fall, squeezing my eyes shut as the room tilts.
The door flies open and footsteps rush in, more than one set. When I force my eyes open again, everything blurs together.
“What are you doing?” Kirill is there in an instant, grabbing my hips and easing me back onto the bed. “You need to lie down. You’re hurt.”
“No.” I clutch his forearm, breaking apart as tears cloud my vision. “They took the boys. You need to get the boys.”
“My brothers are on it.” His words come fast, strained. “Please, Sloane. I cannot worry about you too right now. Goddamn.” The curse rips out of him in a ragged growl as he gets to his feet and slams a hand into the wall.
He gives me his back, chest heaving, and the sight of him like this only makes the fear inside me swell until I can barely breathe.
Where are our boys? What are they doing to them?
“He wanted twenty million for each,” I choke out. “He said—”
“I know.”
Kirill turns back to me and sits on the edge of the bed again, taking my hand in his. His knuckles are bruised, split in places, like he’s already put them through a wall more than once.
Lifting my left arm sends pain shooting through it, but I bite it back. The last thing I want is to give him something else to worry about.
“He left a video on your phone,” he says.
“Show me.”
My eyes flick frantically around the room, panic climbing when I don’t see my phone anywhere. But then he pulls it from his pocket and unlocks it, his jaw tightening as he opens the message.
The video starts immediately.
“Mommy…” Milo’s voice quivers so badly, it’s as though something sharp is being driven straight into my chest. “Please come get me.”
The sight of him nearly destroys me. He’s sitting on a brown leather sofa somewhere I don’t recognize, Lev pressed close beside him, rocking and mumbling under his breath.
Milo’s hands are shaking hard, eyes swollen and red as he keeps glancing over his shoulder like he’s waiting for someone to grab him again.
I cover my mouth, but the sob escapes anyway. Kirill’s grip on the phone tightens until his knuckles go white.
“I did this,” I whisper, everything in me breaking. “Me. If you want to hate anyone, please hate me.”
“Net.” His head jerks once. “This is Eli.” The name comes out like poison. “All of this is Eli.”
He’s on his feet a second later, moving so fast it startles me, his nostrils flaring, every line of him drawn tight.
“He will—” The words cut off in a curse. “Blyat.”
This time, his fist crashes down onto the metal rail at the end of the bed, the sharp clang ringing through the room as he stands there facing me, chest rising and falling like he’s holding himself back by force. When he speaks again, it’s gruffer, more terrifying.
“We will find our boys.” His shoulders stay locked. “And we will bring them home.” A vein pulses at the side of his neck. “And what I do to that svolich after that…” He turns his head just enough for me to catch the edge of his expression, something brutal in it. “No one will ever forget it.”
The door opens a second later, and a nurse steps in with a tablet in her hand, stopping short when she sees me sitting up.
“Hi there. How are you feeling? Any headaches?”
Kirill moves aside at once so she can come closer.
“No,” I lie even though my head throbs, but I don’t need Kirill to worry about me right now.
“That’s good. If you do experience one, let me know.” She starts fixing my IV. “Please stay in bed, and if you need the restroom, ask one of us for help. You have a concussion, and we don’t want you overexerting yourself.”
The nurse glances down at the screen again, nodding to herself.
“Your vitals are stabilizing nicely,” she says, almost under her breath as she looks over the chart. “We’ll still want to monitor you for a little while, though, and someone from OB should be down shortly to check on the baby.”
For a second, I don’t understand what she’s said. Then Kirill and I both go completely still.
“The baby?” I repeat, certain I heard her wrong.
“Yes.” Her attention stays on the chart as she keeps flipping through it.
A small laugh escapes me, because of course she has me confused with someone else. “Um…I’m not pregnant.”
The nurse stops moving. She peers up from the tablet, then back down at it again, her brows drawn as she reads whatever is written there.
“Can you repeat your name and date of birth for me?”
“Sloane Marinova,” I answer automatically, giving her the date.
Her finger taps and drags across the screen again before she inhales. “Okay…”
Something in that one word makes my skin crawl.
“I’m just going to get the doctor so he can—”
Kirill is already on his feet before she can finish.
“No.” The word cracks through the room sharply enough to make her freeze. “You will tell us.” He steps closer, his eyes fixing on hers. “Right now.”
She clears her throat. “Okay…well…the bloodwork taken when you arrived after the accident showed low levels of hCG in your system.” Her gaze flicks between us. “Which indicates an early pregnancy. I will have the doctor speak with you guys. I’m sorry…”
Then she slips out of the room, leaving the words behind like a bomb.
Pregnant.
Oh my God.
Neither of us moves. We just stare at each other like this has to be some kind of mistake, some misunderstanding. Because how can this be real with our boys missing and everything falling apart around us?
My hand drifts to my stomach, my fingers resting there while my mind scrambles to catch up.
“I’m late,” I whisper. “I didn’t even realize…”
With the accident, the wedding, the boys, Eli…everything happened so fast, I wasn’t paying attention.
Kirill is still staring at me like the ground just lifted beneath him. He drags his fingers through his hair before looking back at me, and when he reaches for me again, his grip is firm as he presses a kiss to my knuckles.
“This is good.”
My eyes search his, trying to understand how he can say that when nothing feels good right now.
“I want a life with you, Sloane. And even though this isn’t how I would have wanted us to find out, I’m happy.”
A sob breaks out of me, and he pulls me into him, holding me as his palm moves up and down my back.
“We will get them back,” he says. “And we will tell them together. I promise you, detka. If it’s the last thing I do.”
KIRILL
I hated leaving Sloane at the hospital, but she wanted me to go and bring the boys home, which is exactly what I’m doing.
She isn’t alone, though. Emilia and Fiona came to stay with her, both of them refusing to leave her side while the doctors monitor the concussion and…our baby.
A baby.
My palm goes to the back of my neck, pressing into my skin. I’ve wanted another child for a long time, and now that it’s with her, I can’t wait. But until the kids are safe, we can’t really let ourselves celebrate it.
Standing in the stables at Konstantin’s, I stare at Timur hanging from the steel beam bolted into the ceiling, his blood dripping slowly.
It didn’t take long to figure out he was working for the wrong side. After I asked him for intel on Barrett and Eli, he fed me bad information. Even showed me photos to make it look like they were still in New York while one of my other contacts told me Eli was in New Jersey.
Now he’ll pay the price for it.
His wrists are chained above his head, forcing his body to stretch painfully upward while his feet barely skim the ground.
The metal cuffs have already cut deep into his skin from the way he’s been thrashing for the last twenty minutes.
His back is torn open from the whip lying on the floor behind me, crimson running in uneven lines down his ribs and pooling at his waist.
He won’t hold out much longer. Not when the pain is about to get bad enough that loyalty stops mattering.
My brothers stand nearby, none of them interfering. They all understand this is mine.
The only sound filling the room right now is this man’s ragged breathing and the slow hiss of the blowtorch sitting in my grip. The small blue flame flickers to life with a sharp click, and Timur’s head jerks upward instantly, his eyes widening with raw panic as he realizes what’s coming next.
“I told you…p-p-please,” he sobs. “I told you I don’t know anything!”
I move in until the heat from the torch reflects faintly in his irises.
“You work for Eli.” I remain composed even though everything in me bleeds for revenge. “You had to be there when they took my sons, or at the very least know where they are.”
His head shakes wildly. “I don’t know where he’s keeping them! I-I swear.”
The flame licks his shoulder, and he screams. The smell of burning flesh twines with the air, his entire body jerking violently against the chains as he tries to wrench away.
I hold it there a moment longer before pulling it back. “Still don’t know?”
His chest heaves as tears mix with sweat on his face.
“P-p-p-please,” he gasps, barely able to form the word.
The torch drifts slowly downward along his ribs, the metal tip hovering just close enough that he can feel it.
“Talk.”
“I swear…I don’t know!”
I burn him again, right on the welts across his back, and he howls. Stepping forward, I shut off the torch before grabbing his hair, jerking his head back until his eyes are forced open again.
“My sons. Where are they?”
His mouth parts, but nothing comes out at first except a strangled whimper. The torch flares again, drifting to his chest this time.
“No, no, please—” The flame devours his skin, and his entire body convulses as another shriek breaks free. “I’ll…I’ll tell you… Please. Stop. I’ll tell you.”
Finally.
“There…there’s a cabin,” he pants, every syllable labored. “Near Briar State Park. It’s his grandmother’s, b-but he uses it for things. That’s where they are.”
I glance at my brothers. “We move now.”
Pulling the pistol from my holster, I aim it at the man’s head.
“No, no, plea—”
The shot cuts him off. One round to the skull, and he’s dead on impact.
“I’ll gather the men.” Konstantin is already barking orders to the others while I lower the gun and head for my car.
“Where are you going?” Aleksei calls after me.
“To the hospital. I’ll be back soon.”
I need to see her before I leave. Sloane needs to know we may have found them. And that very soon, this will all be over.