Chapter 34
PAVEL
" S pit it out, my little kitten," I said, reaching over the center console to run my hand over Alina's thigh. "I can practically hear you overthinking."
It had been a little over a month since the incident with the cops, and things had settled into a routine of sorts.
Honest-to-God, domestic fucking bliss.
And I loved it.
Alina was still not allowed to go anywhere without an armed guard or me by her side. But now, it was less about my questions of trust and more about her safety. I knew she wasn't going to run away or go to the cops.
Even if she wanted to—which I was fairly sure she didn’t—she knew how treacherous it was. She was perfectly content not putting herself in harm's way.
And after witnessing both of my brothers pull out their hair in frustration as their wives ran straight into danger, I could appreciate Alina's newfound survival instincts .
It also helped that I had loosened the reins a lot. I’d given her a top-of-the-line laptop and phone so she could contact the other wives and her grandmother whenever she wished.
And I was even content to accompany her. The afghan her grandmother was knitting with the yarn I bought was coming along nicely. But my real reward was seeing the way her face lit up when I returned home with the bags of supplies.
Most women would demand diamonds, furs, cars.
Not my babygirl.
She was over-the-moon thrilled with a few bags of yarn.
I truly was the luckiest fucking man on earth.
The moon peeked through the trees, casting flickers of light on the dark pavement as I drove us to the compound in Virginia.
Alina and I had spent a few hours with her grandmother, and now we were headed to a family dinner with Artem, Viktoria, Kostya, and Marina.
I thought the change of scenery would make Alina happy, but she was sitting in the passenger seat, playing with the hem of her dress, distracted.
The moonlight reflected through the windshield, giving her skin the most beautiful ethereal glow.
The car had been quiet—but not the comfortable silence I’d grown used to. Something was off.
She shifted beside me, her fingers still toying with the hem of her dress.
"Come on, kitten, tell me what's wrong. I can't fix it if you don't tell me. You're not worried about having dinner with my brothers, are you? I know they can be a pain in the ass, but they aren't that bad if you're drunk."
My joke fell flat.
I wasn't sure she even heard it. And then it didn't matter whether she did or not.
She blurted out, “I think I’m pregnant!”
I blinked, stunned, the words slamming into my chest like bullets.
Pregnant.
My foot left the gas for the brake as I pulled over to the shoulder, cutting across the lane with a hard jerk of the wheel. The city had already fallen away behind us—we were on a stretch of highway flanked by dark forest, the compound still miles ahead.
The engine idled low, headlights catching on the guardrail as I shifted into Park and turned to her.
Trying to process what she just said, for several long seconds, I couldn’t speak. I could only stare at her—absorbing that she was not just the woman I loved, but the mother of my child.
She started rambling, her voice rushed and cracking:
“I already love this baby more than my own life and if you don’t want her, that’s fine, I’ll raise her on my own like my grandmother raised me and I don’t need you even though with every pulse of blood in my veins all I want is to be by your side until my dying breath and?—”
I cut her off with a kiss so hard it made her gasp.
“Open your eyes, sweetheart,” I whispered as I cupped her cheek.
“I want you to stare right into my eyes so you know I’m telling you the truth when I say that I think you are the strongest, kindest, most beautiful woman I have ever known.
I love you more than a crude brute like me could ever possibly express. ”
My mind raced with worry.
What if she didn’t want to hear it?
What if she didn’t feel the same way?
It didn't matter. She needed to know, and I needed to tell her.
The words left my lips before I could stop them.
And they were true.
I loved her.
The only reason I hadn't already said them—roared them from the rooftops until the entire world knew how protected she was—was because I didn't want to scare her.
Alina gasped softly. A single tear ran down her cheek.
I leaned in and kissed it away.
She blinked as more tears welled. “Really? You love me? Truly?”
“Of course, I love you. You’re my sweet little kitten.”
She swallowed, looking almost afraid to ask. “And the baby?”
My hand splayed over her stomach. “I didn’t think you could make me any happier than I already was… but damn, woman… you still surprise me.” I kissed her cheek and whispered into her ear. “I couldn’t be happier about the baby.”
A wobbly, slightly watery smile practically beaming from her beautiful face, she peppered my cheeks in kisses, saying, "I love you too, Pavel, so much, and I can't wait for us to meet our chi?— "
Blinding white light exploded through the windshield, turning the world into a glaring nightmare.
Another set of headlights blazed to life behind us, filling the rearview mirror and effectively blinding us.
My chest tightened.
This wasn’t random.
This was a coordinated attack.
"Get down!" I roared, throwing the Range Rover into Drive.
The engine screamed as I floored the accelerator, but we were boxed in, with nowhere to run. Trees and guardrails on both sides, death closing in from the front and back.
In the driver's side mirror, I caught the silhouette of assault rifles being raised.
"Pavel!" Alina's terrified scream cut through the chaos.
The first shots shattered our rear window.
They weren't trying to capture us.
They were here to kill my wife and my unborn child.
Over my dead fucking body.
Metal shrieked against metal as we collided with the barrier.
The other car didn't stop—it pushed harder, grinding against us until our Range Rover flipped over the railing.
Glass erupted in a thousand deadly fragments as we tumbled off the elevated road into the dense forest below.
The world became a chaos of spinning metal, shattering glass, exploding airbags, and the sickening crunch of trees splintering against our car.
Then nothing but cold, horrifying darkness.