Page 42 of Ivory Oath

I grab my pants and yank them on. “I want you to admit that you lied to me.”

“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t think it would make a difference.”

“It would have been the difference between you being kidnapped from a rat-infested motel room by Trofim or you being safe and sound here with me.”

Viviana stands up and slides her arms into the flannel shirt. I get another view at every inch of her bare skin. The swell of her breasts, the soft curve of her waist and the flare of her hips.

She’s going to look incredible carrying my baby. I want to throw her down and fuck her again at just the thought of it.

She wraps the shirt around her, holding it closed. “If I’d told you that night, you would have let me stay here… but it wouldn’t have been because you wanted me here. You would have let me stay here until I gave birth and then you would have kept the baby and sent me away. And I didn’t want to be some breeding cow to you, Mikhail. That’s not what I wanted.”

“You could have died!” I roar. “Both of you could have died. Do you fucking understand that, Viviana?”

I could have lost you both.

Her face softens. She reaches for me, but I step away. “I took you to the hospital. You could have told the doctor. You didn’t even ask Dr. Hamilton to check on the baby.”

“I didn’t—” She blows out a sharp breath. “I didn’t know what was going to happen to me. I didn’t want to say anything until I knew what the plan was.”

Until she knew I wasn’t going to dump her on the curb like garbage again. Until she knew she could trust me.

I hate myself for putting that thought in my head.

I hate Trofim for endangering Viviana and our future family.

I hate that this is good news and all I can think about is the million different ways that it can all go wrong.

“Mikhail,” she breathes, “I’m sorry. Can we start over? I’m happy about this. I want this with you. Don’t you want it, too?”

Before I can answer, my phone rings.

I probably shouldn’t answer it, but it’s late. Too late for anyone to be calling me unless it’s an emergency.

I answer without looking to see who it is.

“Hello?”

“Mikhail.” Raoul’s voice is hoarse. He’s yelling over what sounds like a white noise machine in the background. He coughs, a nasty, hacking sound.

“What’s happening?”

Viviana steps forward, her hand on my arm. We’re in the middle of a fight, but she can tell something is wrong.

I ignore the way that makes me feel and press the phone more firmly to my ear.

“Cerberus Industries,” Raoul says. “It’s on fire.”

18

MIKHAIL

The building is a hollowed-out husk by the time I get there. Flames erupt from what’s left of the third-floor windows and crawl upward, taking the floors above out one by one. It’s not hard to tell where the fire started.

But why?

“I tried to put it out when I first got here.” Raoul coughs into his elbow again. There’s soot on his neck and ash in his hair.

I was standing on a balcony yelling at Viviana about how she could have gotten herself and our baby killed—meanwhile, my second was running into actual burning buildings.

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