Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Genevieve
“All good,” the doctor smiled, wiping off the gooey paste from my abdomen. “You’ll have to keep your feet up for the rest of the day, though. We need to monitor that ankle ache.”
“Will do,” I replied, even though I had zero plans of doing as she said.
As someone who had been working nonstop since before I was a teenager, having no job for the first time drove me dangerously close to the brink of insanity. Taking frequent walks and feeding the ducks in the pond were the only reasons I had yet to lose my marbles.
She wiped the probe, her eyes focused on her task as she spoke. “The pharmacy will have your drugs ready on the way out. I added a little something to help you sleep better.”
I was done with the appointment in no time. It was my second visit since the first one, so there wasn’t much to be done, but I still got anxious.
The doctor assured me everything was fine and my worries were common with most first-time mothers, but I still couldn’t relax.
The knowledge of a life growing inside you—even if they were barely six weeks old—had a way of changing and refining the way you saw the world around you, the way you related to it, and the way you related to yourself.
Despite my need to get out of the house, I hadn't taken another job simply because of the stories I’d consumed on the effects of stress on pregnancy, especially in the first trimester.
I stepped out into the afternoon light, one hand resting low on my stomach out of habit, and reached into my bag for my phone.
A black SUV rolled up to the curb beside me, stopping directly in my path.
I looked up just as the back doors swung open and two men stepped out. Big men, dark suits, faces set with a determination that caused all the muscles in my body to lock up at once.
“Genevieve Sinclair,” the taller one said. Not a question.
“Who’s asking?” I replied, already stepping back, scanning the sidewalk for anyone, anything.
“Get in the car.”
“No,” I said, louder than necessary in the hopes of attracting some audience.
A woman walking past glanced over; she halted for a moment, but a glare from the man pushed her feet forward, quickening her pace like she hadn’t seen anything at all.
The shorter one moved first, reaching for my arm.
I swung my bag at him without thinking, caught him across the jaw, and bolted for the clinic doors.
I didn’t get three steps before a hand closed around my arm and yanked me back so hard I nearly lost my footing.
I twisted, clawed at his wrist, and screamed for help until my throat burned with it.
“Let go of me!”
“I would go easy if I were you,” he hissed into my ear. “I hear all that fight and adrenaline is not good for the baby.”
Everything in me went still. The scream died in my throat and my fight slowed to a stop. I lifted my eyes to find him watching with satisfaction, a sardonic smile gracing his brutal features.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Please,” I whispered. “Please don’t hurt her.”
“Nobody wants to hurt anyone,” he said, straightening up. “Get in the car and this stays easy.”
I glanced around the walkway one last time.
It wasn’t the busiest area in the city, and I had chosen the hospital for that very reason, but now, it felt like the perfect crime scene.
The few witnesses only lifted the collars of their coats, stuck their hands into their pockets, and hurried off in the opposite direction.
Defeated and partly crippled by fear, I got in the car.
They slid in on either side of me, boxing me in, and the doors locked with a heavy click that made my stomach turn.
“You have the wrong person,” I said the moment the car started moving.
“I think you’re exactly who we’re looking for, Miss Sinclair.”
“I doubt it.” My voice was shaky, almost desperate. “Maybe it’s a mix-up with the names or identity, but I assure you, I am no troublemaker. I stay out of people's ways. There’s no need for anyone to kidnap me.”
“But we’re not kidnapping you, my dear.” The taller one spoke in a posh British accent I hadn’t noticed earlier. “We’re simply bringing you in for a little… questioning.”
I swallowed tightly, my palms growing clammy with sweat at his reply. Everyone knew a second location was an absolute nightmare. I had to work out an escape as soon as possible.
“You can always question me here, you know? I’ll answer your questions and I promise to be honest.”
“That would’ve been the time-efficient option.” He glanced at me briefly. “Only the questions are not from me.”
A chill that had nothing to do with the harsh air conditioning settled deep inside me.
When I saw the men, I’d assumed the worst. A hit and run, a ransom kidnapping—I’d considered everything except the one name that kept gnawing at me.
I was convinced if I didn’t speak of him or say his name, he would have no power over me.
Besides, I had managed to stay hidden for three weeks.
“Who sent you?” I finally gathered the courage to ask.
This time, it was the shorter man who answered, his voice thick with a Russian accent that destroyed whatever hope was left in me.
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
I fell into a crippling silence, my arms circling around my belly in a protective instinct.
If the men knew I was pregnant, then he certainly knew.
Dread clogged my senses. My decision to leave might’ve been an abrupt one, but it was also the best.
It made things easier for both parties and demanded no commitment from him, but like Anna had warned, men like Kazimir had an ego the size of the world, and even though they might be the ones in the wrong, they didn’t do well with rejection.
A hidden child was even worse, especially for one who belonged in the mafia. They never let their blood grow away from their roots.
We pulled off the main road, taking a right onto an untarred road flanked by trees on both sides.
Every mile covered caused the knot in my stomach to tighten till it was almost painful to breathe, and I found myself whispering a pitiful plea.
“Please don’t take me to him.”
The men exchanged confused glances but didn’t say anything.
“Please,” I repeated. “Please.”
Three weeks had been enough for the hurt I felt to give way to a burning hatred, but even that part of me knew I was no match for Kazimir in the real world.
He had called me little bird, and I’d taken to the name failing to understand how well it depicted our relationship.
I was prey, and he was an apex predator. I only had a good time because he willed it, and now that I had broken the spell, there was no telling what lay on the other end for me.
The car came to a stop before I could mutter another plea, and I was dragged out of it in a flash.
I wasn’t given the time to collect myself before the shorter man grabbed my upper arm in a painful grip.
I let out a sharp yelp.
“Easy, Anton.” An icy tone hit me like cold water. “I told you she was delicate.”
Svetlana stood in front of a two-story building that looked more like a haunted house than a warehouse, her outfit polished as usual.
“Bring her in.” She walked into the building with an air of importance while I was pulled in after her.
The ride from the hospital, although tense and worrying, had afforded me some time to think of the worst-case scenarios and figure out different ways to get out of them, but neither of the scenes had Svetlana in them, much less featuring her as the mastermind.
Maybe Kazimir is in there, a voice in my head whispered, but I doubted it.
Kazimir didn’t seem like the type to put a woman at the forefront of his dirty work. He preferred more direct means.
I was shoved into a room with very little lighting. Just like I thought, there was no Kazimir, only Svetlana perched on a sofa like some queen of rotting houses and crumbling furniture.
“Genevieve,” she smiled. “Sit down. You look pale.”
“What is this?” My voice shook and I hated it.
“Sit,” she said, her smile not moving an inch. “We have a lot to talk about, you and I.”
I didn’t sit. My legs were shaking and I could feel my body rattling with uncertainties, but I didn’t dare take a seat.
“You should be thanking me,” she said, swirling the contents of a glass I hadn’t noticed before. “I tried to warn you. I gave you all the clues you needed, but you got greedy. And greed, as we all know, little bird…” Her lips curved into something sinister. “Has dire consequences.”
I ignored the way the endearment grated at my skin. “What are you talking about, Svetlana? I left the moment you told me about your relationship. He deceived me.”
“Uh-uh.” She shook her head. “I think you loved the benefits that came with it so much that you chose to bury your head in the clouds despite the signs around you. You’re no victim, Genevieve, you made intentional decisions, but that’s alright.
” She straightened. “I know how to deal with the likes of you.”
My eyes narrowed, darting from side to side. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“I told Kazimir what you are,” she shrugged.
“A spy, sent to work your way into his life. I told him you placed yourself in front of him as the perfect little damsel, all softness and innocence, so he’d never think to question how convenient it all was.
” She smiled behind the rim of her glass.
“He was too angry to see straight by the time I finished.”
“That’s a lie,” I countered. “You know that’s a lie.”
“Doesn’t matter if it’s true,” she said. “It only matters if he believes it, and grief makes men believe all sorts of things.”
My hands curled into fists by my sides. “So this is you cleaning up your own mess.”
“This is me finishing what I should have finished months ago.” She stood, circling behind my chair so I had to twist to keep her in sight.
“If you’d disappeared quietly after that first night, none of this would be necessary.
I would have married him, I would have had my ring, and you could have raised your bastard somewhere far away from all of this. Instead, you let him fall for you.”
“Fall for me?” I let out a dry, humorless laugh. “All of this is because you think he fell for me?”
Her expression soured, but she didn’t speak.
“Look around you, Svetlana, you have the man. If he fell for me, he wouldn’t lie. He wouldn’t keep me on the sidelines, and he certainly wouldn't tell you I was…” I swallowed the unwanted wave of emotions. “I left. I’ll stay away. I have no interest in being in your lives.”
“It doesn’t matter now,” she said, crouching in front of me, close enough that I could smell the wine on her breath. “I orchestrated all of it, Genevieve. The story I gave him—it was intended to make him abhor you and run into my arms, but instead, he’s tearing down the city in search of you.”
Her eyes took on a fiery glow that caused me to bristle. “I hate to be humiliated, Genevieve, and I won’t let a scum like you and that bastard you’re growing make a fool out of me.”
My arms instinctively wrapped around my belly, my feet moving a couple of steps back.
Her lips curled. “Not to worry, I’d never stoop low enough to have my hands covered in blood like yours. I only intend to keep you until he grows weary of his search.”
“You know he won’t stop looking,” I said, and I didn’t know if I believed it or just needed to say it out loud.
“They always think that,” she said, standing and smoothing her dress. “Right up until they don’t.”
Shouting erupted outside before she’d even turned around—boots pounding against marble, voices barking orders too fast to follow. The door slammed open so hard the glass panel beside it cracked.
Svetlana’s wine glass shattered against the floor, her face turning white as a sheet.
“Nikolai,” she said, backing toward the far door, her composure cracking for the first time since I’d walked in. “This isn’t what it looks like.”
I turned to find the Italian stalking towards her in slow but steady strides.
“It looks exactly like what it is,” he said, and his voice had none of the warmth I was used to from him.
She turned and ran. Two of the men went after her through the side door, but I heard tires shriek against gravel seconds later and a few curses followed.
Nikolai hissed, a string of curses following before he turned to me, his eyes devoid of the ice from earlier.
“Are you hurt? The baby?”
“We’re fine,” I said, though my whole body hadn’t stopped shaking since the SUV. “I’m fine.”
He watched me for a moment like he knew he was supposed to do more than just ask, but also had no clue what to do.
“Kazimir isn’t far behind,” he finally said. “Ten minutes, maybe less.”
The name shook my body out of shock and forced a response. “Good for him. I have to leave.”
Nikolai beat me to the door. “This is a bit out of town, and it’ll take hours to get an Uber if you find one.”
I wanted to push past him and head out anyway, but after being kidnapped and narrowly escaping confinement, certain levels of stubbornness were very unnecessary.
I turned back, leaning against the wall and crossing my arms over my chest.
“Svetlana is a liar who would do whatever it takes to get what she wants.”
“Sounds like a match made in heaven if you ask me.”
Nikolai squinted. “What do you mean—”
Something in me snapped at the sound of his irrationally calm demeanor.
“Look, Nikolai, I appreciate you trying to soften the blow, but in case you haven’t noticed, I’ve had the worst hours of my life.
I never asked to be here, nor did I ask to be dragged into this.
I was lied to and deceived, and now I have to deal with being kidnapped and threatened, so do me a goddamn favour and do not play the devil's advocate.”
It took some time for him to recover from my outburst, but when he did, the sound of tires against gravel beat him to whatever he had to say.
I didn’t need an announcement to know who had arrived. I had all my senses and the hairs on my skin to thank for that.
“Genevieve.” Kazimir hurried over to me, but I held my arms out, stopping him in his tracks.
His brows squinted in a way I would’ve thought adorable a month ago; only now, I saw a fake, manipulative bastard with superb acting skills.
“I want to leave.”
“Baby, I know she must’ve done some cruel—”
“She?” I echoed, my voice surprisingly calmer than the storm brewing inside me. “She did nothing, Kazimir, this was all you.”
His frown deepened further. “I don’t… whatever she told you is a lie. She said you were—”
“I heard the recording, Kazimir.” My voice broke clean in half. “I heard you tell her I was nothing.”
“That’s not—”
“I don’t care what it is or isn’t,” I said. “I want to go home.”
“Gen…” His voice was almost too low to hear.
I turned away. I couldn’t bring myself to look at him without the pain coming back. “Take me home.”
Nikolai cleared his throat and stepped toward the door. “I’ll drive her.”
Kazimir didn’t move, didn’t argue, just stood there watching. Maybe he realized there was nothing he could do, maybe he realized he had been caught in his own net. Whatever it was, he eventually stepped aside and let me walk past him.
I didn’t look back.