Chapter 34
YURI
It takes Elena exactly six minutes to pull up the security footage.
Six minutes that feel like six years.
We’re all crowded into the security room, Elena hunched over a keyboard, eyes blazing as she flicks through the mansion’s CCTV feeds with ruthless precision.
Lev stands behind her chair, arms folded tight across his chest, jaw locked.
Alexei paces the floor like a caged animal, muttering something low and angry under his breath.
Luk stays silent as he watches Elena’s screen.
My heart is hammering, pulse roaring in my ears.
And then Elena freezes a frame. “There” she says. “That’s them.”
The image is taken from a distant angle off the southwest garden path. Tatiana and Astrid, walking side by side, heading toward the trees. For a second, the image fuzzes out, static interfering, before snapping back in with clearer resolution.
Lev frowns. “How could she be so stupid as to pull off a kidnapping right on our property?”
Elena smirks. “Because she thinks it’s a blind spot.”
Alexei stops pacing. “What the hell does that mean?”
She leans back slightly, fingers never leaving the keys.
“I designed a fake blind spot in the surveillance grid. A gap just big enough to make someone think they’d disappear from view if they timed it right.
What they don’t know is I layered a secondary stream underneath.
Lower resolution, infrared overlays. Just enough to catch a silhouette. Just enough to catch them.”
“So they thought they were being clever,” Lev says, “but you were prepared for such a moment.”
“I was hoping I wouldn’t have to use it,” Elena sighs. “But I knew if someone tried something inside the perimeter, it would be there. And I may have intentionally let it slip among the staff that the so-called blind spot existed.”
She scrolls forward in the footage. Astrid and Tatiana vanish into the trees. Ten seconds later, three more figures enter the frame dressed in black, moving fast.
“They took her,” I say, my voice raw, my stomach clenching. “They took her from right under our nose.”
Elena nods once, her mouth a flat line. “But now we know where they went.”
We stare at the monitor, watching as Astrid is dragged into the back of a black van by masked men in tactical gear. Her head is limp, hair covering her face. Even with the grainy footage, I can see she’s barely conscious. My knuckles tighten as rage coils around my ribs.
“Facial recognition,” Elena mutters, fingers already flying over the keys, eyes darting between the grainy images and the second monitor. The software flashes, spinning, passing through thousands of profiles at impossible speeds. “Almost there.”
Seconds tick by. No one breathes.
The software pings, once, twice, as matches pop up, names appearing in red beneath their faces.
“Cartel thugs,” Elena says. Her voice is flat and cold. “Confirmed.”
Lev growls, fists tightening at his sides. “Son of a bitch.”
“Wait,” Elena murmurs, leaning closer. She taps rapidly, pulling up a second camera feed from the estate perimeter. It’s time stamped moments after Astrid’s abduction. The screen shifts, zooming in on a car idling just outside our eastern gate. She enhances the plate, runs the data again.
A photo appears, a clear match.
“Christian De la Rosa,” Elena says, eyes widening. “He was right outside the gates. He was here.”
Alexei swears violently in Russian. Luk exhales a long, heavy breath. Lev is rigid beside me.
The room tilts. Ice runs through my veins, then fire.
Spalding isn’t just dirty FBI. He’s working with De la Rosa. It was never just about bribery, shells, and offshore funds—it was about revenge. A counterattack for what we did to the cartel, for burning his empire to the ground.
And now he has Astrid and our unborn children.
“How the hell did this happen?” Alexei snaps, pacing again, tension etched into every line of his body.
“They kept their partnership quiet,” Elena says. “Shells, proxies, digital shadows. Astrid and I were just getting close—”
“Astrid found the connection,” I say, barely recognizing the sound of my own voice. “She messaged me earlier. We were supposed to talk about it tonight. She found their first transaction.”
Lev curses. “They got to her first.”
Luk turns, his presence filling the room, his voice low and steady. “We need to move quickly. We don’t have long. They’ll use her for leverage.”
He doesn’t have to explain. If Spalding brings the FBI down on us using Astrid as a weapon, they’ll rip everything apart—our operations, our accounts, our family. Decades of work, power, influence, all swept away in federal raids and courtroom theater.
Lev steps closer. “We don’t know what Spalding’s endgame is yet.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Alexei says fiercely. “We find them. We end it.”
Elena swivels in her chair, eyes locking onto mine. There’s steel in her gaze, an iron resolve beneath the anger and worry. “Yuri?”
I exhale sharply, every muscle tense, adrenaline coursing through my veins. “We mobilize everyone,” I say. “No mistakes, no second chances. Find Spalding, find De la Rosa, and bring Astrid home.”
Lev nods sharply. “Done.”
I stare at Astrid’s frozen image on the screen—head slumped, helpless, at their mercy. My chest tightens, anger and fear intertwining like poison.
Spalding and De la Rosa think they’ve pulled the rug from under us. But what they don’t understand, what they’ve never understood, is that the Ivanovs thrive in chaos.
For a moment, the room is deathly quiet as if everyone’s waiting for a match to strike, a spark that will ignite everything. Elena’s eyes hold mine, searching for guidance, strength, and answers I can’t quite give yet.
Luk breaks the silence. “Yuri, what aren’t you telling us?”
I exhale slowly. I’d planned on waiting for the perfect moment, something private and quiet, a gift to share with Astrid by my side. But now, there’s no more waiting. Not with Astrid’s life hanging by a thread.
“She’s pregnant,” I say, voice steady despite the tightness gripping my throat. “Astrid is carrying my twins.”
Luk’s expression shifts, something warm and unguarded flashing behind the anger. Lev’s brows lift sharply, a rare softness washing briefly across his features. Alexei lets out a stunned, whispered curse.
Elena’s hands fly to her mouth, her eyes wide. “Oh my God. Yuri, are you serious?”
“Wait,” Luk says. “Twins?”
“Twins,” I confirm quietly. “Astrid’s pregnant with my children.”
The reaction is immediate. Elena rushes forward, pulling me into an embrace fierce enough to leave bruises. “Twins,” she whispers, her voice full of awe.
Lev grips my shoulder firmly, his silent nod conveying all the support and pride he can’t quite say aloud. Alexei is grinning—stunned, delighted, utterly disbelieving. Even Luk’s stoicism cracks, his eyes glistening with pride and something softer, infinitely more human than I’m used to seeing.
“Congratulations, brother,” he says quietly.
“Thanks,” I say, emotion tangling in my chest, my throat tight. “But now you understand why we have no choice. The stakes have never been higher.”
Elena nods sharply, her expression sobering fast. “Spalding couldn’t have known about this.” She turns back to the monitors, fingers flying across the keyboard again. “He’s made a mistake. And we’ll use it to destroy him.”
The screens flicker, shifting rapidly between grainy images of traffic cameras, street views, and distant security footage. Elena built this software herself—innovative, ruthless, and completely illegal. It works like magic, piecing together movements across hours, tracking every subtle motion.
I watch as Elena tracks him frame-by-frame, stitching together his route all the way from the estate to wherever his destination is. It’s extraordinary.
“Perfect sleuthing,” Lev murmurs appreciatively, nodding at Elena. “You’ve outdone yourself, Elena.”
“Now,” I say, voice hard, determination seeping through every fiber of my being. “We find Astrid before something happens we can’t undo.”
“We’ll get her back,” Alexei says confidently. “Spalding’s fucked himself, crossing this line.”
Luk nods slowly. “This family has never been stronger. We will remind them why they should’ve feared us from the start.”
They’re all right, of course, but beneath the determination and the fury, a fear gnaws at my gut, deeper and sharper than I’ve ever known.
Astrid is somewhere out there—alone, afraid, and in danger. Carrying my children. Our children. And I realize that as much as I need my family’s strength right now, Astrid needs mine even more.
My heart beats faster, a desperate drumbeat in my chest.
“You have the location yet?” I ask Elena, barely able to control the urgency in my voice.
“Almost,” she replies quietly, eyes locked on her screen. “He’s good, but not as good as he thinks. I’ll have him.”
I close my eyes for just a second, feeling the truth settle deep in my bones.
Astrid isn’t just a lover, or a partner, or even the mother of my unborn children—she’s my future.
My reason. The part of my life I didn’t even know I’d been missing until she walked into it, fierce and brilliant and brave enough to stand beside me.
And I’ll tear the entire world apart if that’s what it takes to bring her home.