Page 114 of Ivory Oath

This isn’t an accident or a surprise. We decided to start a family. Viviana and I made the choice to grow our family and now… it’s here.

We’re having a baby.

And suddenly, nothing else matters.

Viviana’s full lips twist into a dazed smile. She blinks back tears. “Mikhail?—”

A knock at the front door interrupts her.

I was going to wait until later to ream Anatoly for lying to me, but now is as good a time as ever. Luckily for him, I’m in a surprisingly good mood.

I walk past Viviana to the door and yank it open.

But it isn’t Anatoly standing on the porch.

“Mikhail Novikov, I am a federal agent,” A bald man holding an FBI badge advances on me as his colleagues stand behind him, guns pointed at my chest. “And you are under arrest.”

“Mikhail?” Viviana tears around the corner. Her hair is a mess from my hands and her neck is red. At least she’s wearing clothes. “What’s going on? What’s happening?”

I don’t have the luxury of time to explain everything. So I say the only things that matter.

“I love you. Get Nat.”

47

VIVIANA

I love you. Get Nat.

What does that mean?

I mean, I know what it means, but it doesn’t do anything to quiet the torrential downpour of questions flooding my brain.

I’m frozen on the doorstep as scrawny, dour men that Mikhail could knock out in a second drag him down the front steps of the mansion. He’s a head taller than all of them. There’s no way they could keep him down if he wanted to resist.

Hell, maybe I’ll charge down there and take a few swings. With the adrenaline pumping through me, it might be a fair fight.

A bald agent puts his hand on the back of Mikhail’s head and I want to break his wrist. How dare they? He’s mine.

They shove him into the backseat.

“I love you, too!” I yell back just as the door closes.

I don’t know if Mikhail heard me. The dark car slips down the driveway as quietly as it arrived. I’d still be frozen in the doorway if a large hand didn’t land on my shoulder.

I scream and spin around into a solid wall of muscle.

“It’s me,” Anatoly says evenly, grabbing my shoulders to steady me.

I lean back to look up at him. There’s a tight frown on his face. He knows.

I pound my fist into his chest. “Where in the hell were you? They just arrested Mikhail! Why weren’t you here?”

He gently grabs my wrists, keeping distance between us. “I thought you might like to have at least one person here to guard you and your son while Mikhail is away. If I had come out to rubberneck, they would have taken me in for questioning, too.”

He’s making a good point, but I struggle against his hold anyway. I twist and fight and yank on my wrists because I have no idea what else to do.

Mikhail is gone.

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