Page 119 of Ivory Oath

“We’ll fight back,” Anatoly agrees softly.

Raoul nods. “Whatever it takes.”

49

VIVIANA

I’m still awake when Mikhail slips through our bedroom door.

It’s been two days of not knowing where he was. Two days of wishing he was here. Now that he is, I wonder if he wasn’t safer in custody.

He’s padding softly across the floor, but he stops when I roll over to face him. “You should be asleep.”

“Probably,” I agree. “But I’m not tired.”

It’s not true; I’m exhausted. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to lie down and turn my brain off.

“Stress isn’t good for the baby.”

“Tell that to the men trying to kill my husband.”

He kicks off his shoes next to the bed and climbs in next to me. “If they were trying to kill me, I’d have a lot less to worry about.”

“Everything is such a mess,” I whisper. “If you’d just married Helen, then?—”

“Then I still would have come to my senses, divorced her, and gone looking for you.” His hand strokes warm circles into my lower back. “Nothing would have changed, Viviana. It was always going to end up like this.”

It’s sweet, in a way. The idea that Mikhail and I are destined to be. It would be a pretty picture if all this pesky war and bloodshed would stop getting in the way.

“Just call off the war.”

“I can’t just?—”

“Surrender,” I continue, talking over him. “Wave the white flag. Whatever it is you have to do to make it stop. Why can’t you do that?”

“You grew up the daughter of a don. You know why.”

“Tell me anyway.”

He rolls onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. “Because they won’t stop coming for me even if I stop fighting back. Surrendering will just make it easier for them to get to you and Dante.”

“So, what? That’s it? They decide they want to come after you and you’re forced into this fight? It’s not fair. You should get to back down if you want to.”

“I don’t want to back down. War is in the job description. I knew what I was signing up for when I overthrew Trofim. It’s the world I was born into.”

“And I was born into a family who wanted to trade me to the highest bidder!” I retort. “I didn’t like it, so I left it behind.”

“Your father isn’t letting us forget it, either,” he mumbles.

He’s not wrong. I left, but that life is still breathing down my neck. Down all of our necks.

I frown. “I’m the reason you didn’t marry Helen. And the only reason my father is after you is because I ran away. This is all?—”

“It’s not your fault,” Mikhail interjects.

I shake my head. “Maybe I should have stayed away. Dante was probably safer with you when I was gone.”

“You wouldn’t say that if you’d seen him,” Mikhail says darkly. “He’s better with you around.”

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