Page 134 of Claim

“You keep Daddy’s name out of this. When he gets out of prison, he’s going to come after you for how you treated me.” Her finger jabs inches from my face.

“Zoya, he died in the gulag.” I squint and watch her. I haven’t mentioned it before, but surely she had to have known?

Her fingers wrap into a fist. “You’re lying,” she hisses.

I’ll go to my deathbed before I tell her it was Alexei. “I know for a fact. He’s gone.”

The rage leaks from her expression, but then her lips purse. “No, you’re just saying that to hurt me. I hope Ivan tortures you for weeks for that.” She flips her dark hair over her shoulder and stands.

A knock at the door startles us both.

“He’s early!” She turns on her heel, and hurries to open it.

“Zoya, so pleasant to see you again. This is my associate.” Drago’s deep voice carries into the living room.

“Drago! In here!” I call out.

“No, you really need to—” Zoya protests as he pushes past her.

“Mikhail, what kind of kinky shit are you two up to?” He grins, then winks.

A blond woman with thick sunglasses follows him in. Her heels click on the tile floor before stopping and giving me a longlook up and down. “You’re Mikhail? I expected you to be bigger.” She lowers her shades just enough to let me see the smile in her brown eyes.

Then she turns to Drago. “You’re right, she does look familiar.”

“I told you.” Drago gives me a smug look, raising a brow when he spies the handcuffs. “Do you want out of those?”

“Yesterday would be fast enough.” I tug on them hard enough to make them rattle.

“Leave him be. Who are you?” Zoya crosses her arms and frowns at the blond woman.

I’m curious too.

“Forgive my associate,” the mystery woman croons. “My name is Tatiana.”

CHAPTER 59

ANASTASIA

The long flightdoesn’t help my nausea. I thought most of that was past after the first trimester.

Apparently bumpy landings into Russia kicks it back in.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Nikolai stops me from getting up.

“Yes. I have no doubts. I want to see that bitch burn.” I set my jaw and push myself out of the seat.

Jax and Alexei follow, with Hades padding next to me off the plane.

I feel like I can conquer the world with them around me. Now I just need Mikhail back.

“Enzo gave me the coordinates to the safe house. He spotted them go in, but all of the internal cameras have been decommissioned.” Nikolai pauses. “Ana, I want you to know, there’s a chance Mikhail might not be okay.”

I nod. “It goes with the job, right? I get it.” I’ve never deluded myself that being part of organized crime was a safe position to be in.

The best place to be in that line of work is to be the one in control.

Nikolai pats my shoulder as Alexei holds our bags.

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