Page 119 of Ivory Ashes

Anatoly narrows his eyes. He doesn’t buy it, but I don’t care. He doesn’t need to buy it.

I just need it to be true.

For once in his life, Anatoly decides to keep whatever he’s thinking to himself. Instead, he smirks. “What’s so important it dragged you away from your woman?”

Pulling away from Viviana’s naked, sleep-warm body should be counted as torture. Few things could have gotten me out of that bed.

This is one of them.

“Someone kidnapped her.”

Anatoly frowns. “I’m going to assume you’d be a lot more upset right now if Viviana was missing, so kindly explain what the hell you’re talking about.”

“When she was little,” I grit out. Even thinking about it has my blood rushing in my ears. “They locked her in a trunk. It’s why she is claustrophobic.”

“It’s why she tried to rip my head off when I opened the closet door,” Anatoly infers, the pieces coming together. “A-ha. I knew there was more there.”

Raoul opens the office door and slips inside. “Sorry I’m late.”

“It’s okay. You just missed learning about Viviana’s kidnapping.”

I can tell Anatoly just wants to confuse Raoul the way I just confused him, but Raoul only nods. “When she was twelve?”

“How the fuck do you know that?” I snap.

“After we talked the other day, I looked into her past like you asked.” Raoul looks from my blank face to Anatoly’s, his frown deepening with every passing second. “That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”

Anatoly throws up his hands. “No, man! We talked about this. Mikhail needs to get to know Viviana the old-fashioned way. No private investigators and no background checks.”

Raoul shrugs. “Guess I missed that memo. I dug up some stuff.”

“Like what?” I ask.

At the same time, Anatoly barks, “Don’t say a word, Raoul.”

“I’ll remind you both that you work for me.” I wave Anatoly off and turn to Raoul. “Do you know who kidnapped her?”

“No. It was a small blip in the information I found out, but I could dig deeper. I could get names if you want them.”

“Oh, I fucking want them,” I growl. “And I’m not going to stop until every single person responsible for hurting Viviana is dead.”

“And he says it isn’t love.” Anatoly is mumbling and snorting under his breath.

“What was that?” I curve my hand around my ear and lean towards him. “I couldn’t hear you. Speak up.”

He’s wise enough not to say it a second time.

“I’m wondering if you want us to keep monitoring Helen and the Greeks,” he says instead. “They might try to retaliate against Viviana.”

I wish they would. I’ll kill them, too.

“Do both,” I announce. “Any threat towards Viviana or Dante needs to be monitored.”

“And the men who kidnapped her eighteen years ago qualify as a ‘threat’?” Anatoly drawls, unconvinced.

“Anything causing my wife distress is a threat. The fact that those men survived to live another day bothers her. I intend to fix it.”

Whatever Anatoly thinks about my motivations, his eyes glimmer with the promise of bloodshed. “What do you have in mind?”

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