CHAPTER NINETEEN
CLAIRE
Standing in front of Ivan after all these years felt surreal, like facing down a demon from my darkest nightmares. He was the reason I lived in constant paranoia, always looking over my shoulder, hiding beneath hats and sunglasses whenever I stepped out. Innocent lives had ended simply because I’d slipped from his grasp. Now, he had the audacity to think Gia would hand me over like a lost trinket. Vino was right—I was nothing more than property to Ivan. True, Vino was possessive, even obsessive—but with him, I felt cherished rather than owned. Despite the fury I felt over his tampering with my birth control, I knew he genuinely loved me. What other man would adopt three separate identities just to fulfill every one of my dreams?
Motherhood had always terrified me, deeply rooted in the trauma of losing my own mother. I never wanted a child to endure that same devastating loss. Yet now, as I stood here pregnant, I was determined to give my child the love and safety I’d lost far too soon.
My reflection smiled faintly back at me in the restroom mirror. Only I—and perhaps his loyal team—fully understood the immense restraint it had taken Vino not to break Ivan’s neck right there in the hallway.
“Boss chick, ready?” Lativia asked softly.
I met her eyes confidently. “Yes, Lativia, I am.”
Elegantly dressed women drifted gracefully through the restroom doors. As I opened the door, I stopped abruptly upon seeing the two large men waiting for me in the hallway.
Wearing the same shampoo Claire used while with Ivan was a risky move. I knew it provoked him. When he inhaled the scent of my hair, it took all my self-control not to reach for the dagger hidden under my dress and plunge it into his heart.
“Delaney,” one guard approached me respectfully, though with a menacing undertone. “Mr. Sokolov wishes to speak with you.”
Feigning discomfort, I fanned myself lightly. “I’m feeling flushed. Tell him to join me outside.” I gestured toward the open patio.
His men stood there, seemingly unsure of what to do.
I confidently strode toward the rear entrance.
The thought of Ivan trying to kidnap Angelo’s wife to bargain for me twisted my stomach.
Sick bastard.
A muscular guard near the door smiled and opened it politely. “After you.”
Luckily, Vino had men all over the venue to protect me.
I hoped Ivan’s men walked away.
“Thank you,” I murmured.
I walked deeper into the backyard. The serenity was deceptive, tinged with memories of running from Vino through similar woods. My pulse quickened anxiously.
Vino’s team. Our team had to be nearby. Voice chatter came through my earpiece. “Anyone got eyes on Delaney?” Vino asked.
Before I could respond, Ivan’s deep, familiar voice and the scent of his familiar cologne froze me in place. “Beautiful night, isn’t it?”
My skin crawled. Memories of the night he raped me became so vivid.
I swallowed hard. “It is. The fairy lights make it feel peaceful. I could stay here all night.”
“Are you planning to join the orgy?” Ivan asked bluntly.
What happened to the kind gorgeous boy I once knew? He used to have a heart.
I chuckled. “No, I think I’m more of an observer.”
He laughed. “Nothing wrong with that.”
His eyes roamed over me. “You’re beautiful.”
“Thank you.”
Tony was a master at prosthetics. Angelo and I looked like strikingly attractive people, albeit fake.
With my hands clasped behind my back, I continued deeper into the woods. “Enjoy your night.”
He hurried to catch up with me. “You shouldn’t be out here alone.”
“I’ll be fine.” I peered up at the fairy lights laced through the trees. It was truly breathtaking.
Without warning, Ivan seized my wrist and pulled me behind a tree, signaling his security detail to halt with a raised hand.
“You’d better head back, Mr. Bratva.”
His eyes slid over my lips. “Who said I was with the Bratva?”
“My husband, silly. He’s in the mafia.”
Ivan chuckled darkly. “Well, that means we’re both powerful men attracted to beautiful… women.”
Yet somehow it felt as if he was about to add “black women.”
“Ivan,” Polina called from the distance.
“Uh oh, here she comes.”
“Fuck,” he muttered.
Ivan cursed under his breath, gripping my hand tightly, urging me deeper into the shadows.
“I’m not running from her.”
“If she sees us together, she’ll kill you.”
I flashed a cocky smirk and cradled his face in my hands. “I’d like to see her try.”
In a bold move, I cradled Ivan’s face firmly, drawing him close. His hands immediately gripped my ass, pulling me tightly against him as he kissed me fiercely.
“I want to fuck you,” he growled.
I slammed my hands into his chest. “Get down on the ground. I want you to eat my pussy like it’s your precious Claire’s.”
His blue eyes lit up as he dropped to the ground. He shook his head. “There are two of you.”
“No, just one.” I reached under my gown and retrieved a tranquilizer from a holster at my thigh.
“If my husband catches you sniffing Claire’s pussy, he’ll murder you,” I chuckled.
“What?” His confusion was brief, replaced by shock as I plunged the syringe into his neck. “You wanted Claire, you got her.”
Ivan collapsed limply onto the grass.
“What did you do to my husband?” Polina demanded from behind.
Drawing a tranquilizer gun from my thigh holster, I grinned as I glanced over my shoulder.
“I just let him get a whiff of my pussy.”
Her eyes widened in shock. “You bitch.”
She reached for the gun hidden under her dress.
“Don’t,” Lativia intervened, pressing a tranquilizer to Polina’s neck.
“It’s ironic,” I said coldly. “You told Ivan earlier that if he brought me here, you’d kill me.”
Her eyes widened even more. “What?”
I leveled the tranq gun at her chest. “It’s me, Claire. I’m here to kill you.”
She chuckled darkly. “You’ll never leave Russia alive.”
“Nor will you.”
I pulled the trigger and, the tranquilizer hit her chest.
Her body went limp in Latvia’s arms.
“Glacier, Pyro, we’re a go,” I announced over the earpiece while slipping a plastic glove from the seam of my dress onto my hand. Slowly, I peeled off the poisonous lip stain from my lips and stowed it inside the glove. I shoved the used glove back into the seam of my dress.
“We’re here,” Glacier confirmed, emerging from the shadows.
“Lativia, get her out of here,” Glacier ordered.
“You!” one of Ivan’s bodyguards barked, pointing directly at me.
“Time to move, boss chick.” Lativia fired her tranq gun at Ivan’s bodyguard.
Glacier and Pyro then tossed Ivan and Polina into black bags that reminded me of garment bags and dragged their bodies through the woods.
Angelo burst out the back door, slamming his fist into one of the guards’ faces, while Tony and Vix fired their tranq guns, dropping Ivan’s men like flies.
I kept glancing over my shoulder as I struggled to run in my stilettos. The largest of the guards—Boris—plunged his fist into Angelo’s jaw.
“No,” I yelled.
“Fucking keep going, baby,” I heard Angelo over the earpiece.
Suddenly, Xavier swept me into his arms, sprinting through the trees. “You’re shaking. Calm down. The rest of the team and the boss will get out of there.”
“Serigé’s men to the rescue,” one of the men in the group yelled as they ran past us toward the house.
Xavier’s shoulders relaxed. “The cavalry’s here.”
Gunfire erupted behind us, though our men weren’t using real bullets. Our team fired back with tranquilizer darts. Vino said we’d use tranquilizer guns instead to avoid additional complications leaving the country.
Safe inside the waiting SUV, I anxiously stared through the rear window, silently praying. “Come on, baby, please make it back.”