Page 51 of Defiant Devotion

Ben lowered the dead man to the ground. Hewasdead now, with that fatal crack of his neck. Ben’s hands slipped away from the man’s head, and he didn’t bother watching his kill slump to the floor. His gaze was on me, worried and alarmed.

“Are you okay?”

I nodded, cringing at the aches in my side. They weren’t too low in my abdomen, so I was hopeful it was just a sore muscle, not something to do with the baby. “They’re dead.”

“Yeah.” He approached, not losing that worried stare. “They’re dead. I’ll handle the cleanup.”

“I’ll help—” As I handed him the gun, I had to stop at the tightening of the cramp in my belly. Putting my hand on Oleg’s bed, I waited for the pain to recede.

“Sonya.” Ben shoved the gun into its holster at his back. He didn’t stop there, though. As soon as his hands were free, he collected me in his arms and encouraged me to lean against him. “Sonya, you’re bleeding.”

Huh?

I looked down at my arms and hands, guessing that the nurse had injured me in our fight. The only blood I could find was lower, on my thighs. The light-gray leggings I wore showed darker spots of crimson near my crotch.

I lifted my face and furrowed my brow at Ben, realizing why he seemed so worried now.

The baby!

20

BEN

“Easy. Just breathe,” I coached. Holding on to Sonya, I guided her toward a chair.

Her cringes and winces couldn’t be a good sign. Yes, she was strong. But she was also pregnant and had been pushing it a lot. I was no expert at pregnant women, but I was pretty sure they weren’t supposed to engage in combat.

“Just a pulled muscle,” she protested weakly as she walked with me toward a chair.

“But that’s blood.” I looked down again at her. “And that woman didn’t have anything like a blade.”

“I think…” She faltered in her step, closing her eyes as she winced again.

“Too bad,” I growled. I was taking charge. This was our baby she was carrying. A new life neither of us had expected but one I would protect. I didn’t care what she thought or wanted at this moment. She needed to be checked out. “Hold on to me.”

Before she could protest again, I leaned down to pick her up. As strong as she was, both physically and mentally, it seemed that she’d finally reached the point of trusting me and leaning on me. Tucking her face against me, she clung to me as I carried her out of the room.

I paused only long enough to check that the door to Oleg’s room closed behind us. As soon as it was shut, I hurried down the hall to the elevator. “Where is the maternity ward?” I asked the first person I spotted in scrubs and wearing a medical ID.

“What? Hey— Are you all?—”

“Where is the maternity ward?” I demanded again.

“Fourth. Fourth floor,” the young man said before I rushed by.

I carried Sonya into the elevator, and that was where she fidgeted to be set down. “Settle down. I’m making sure you two are okay.”

“I know. But the room. Those bodies…”

She wasn’t just talking the talk when she said she was devoted to her family. This brilliant, sharp woman worried about Oleg. And she had a point. With Baranov guards down, that Petrov soldier, and the nurse the Ilyins paid off, there was a lot of cause for concern. Any staff member could walk in and freak out. Lev had to be updated.

I didn’t want to call him to gain favor in case I wanted to join the family. I only had to follow through with this cleanup for Sonya’s sake. Her worry had to be that spotting of blood, not her uncle.

Adjusting my hold on her as we rode down to the fourth floor, I got my phone out and called him.

“What is it?” he answered.

“I came to see Oleg just now and the guards had been taken down. They’re inside his room. I also found a Petrov soldier trying to smother himanda nurse the Ilyins paid off to drug him until he died so it’d look like a natural death.”

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