Page 86 of Forbidden Vows

I squeeze her knee. “Don’t engage him.”

“See? This is what I mean. So easy to rile up. I was devastated when Karpov swooped in and won you, Eileen. The only reason I proposed to Ciara instead was because I needed another way into the family. If you weren’t going to come to me willingly so that I could finally grab the Donovan estate, I had to try a different approach.”

“Why are you so desperate to get my father’s fortune? You’re a powerful and influential man, Sergei. You don’t need us,” I say.

“He does need us,” Ciara groans.

“I’m going to killyoufirst,” Sergei replies, pointing a finger at her. “It’ll be ruled a suicide. Plenty of witnesses to confirm thatyou were unstable. You have been unstable ever since Karpov left you for your stepsister. Then your father died. It’ll be a tragedy.”

“You make it very hard not to promise you a world of pain, Sergei,” I shoot back. “Enough with the gloating.”

“That’s all he’s got. Gloating. He is out of money, Eileen. He’s been broke for a while now. Getting rid of his siblings seemed like a good idea until he realized that they were the ones keeping the Kuznetsov businesses running. Once he was left on his own, Sergei proved exactly how incompetent he truly is. One by one, his companies started going under. Throw in a gambling debt, and here he is. The mighty Sergei Kuznetsov is nothing more than a loser and a flop.”

He is about to lunge at her, but I get up, stopping him in his tracks. Hesitating, he scowls at Ciara.

“Is that true?” I ask him.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“What are you going to do, Sergei? Kill us both and expect to get away with it? Have you forgotten about the treaty?”

For a moment, Sergei appears uncertain. Ciara is right. These are the actions of a desperate man who lied and who has to keep lying in order to save his own ass. It puts me at a slight advantage, provided I can buy us some time.

“Ciara’s death will be ruled a suicide. You’ll be diagnosed with a heart condition because of the pregnancy. There wasn’t anything anyone could do,” he mutters, completely dodging my question.

“Do you really plan to kill me and my unborn children? Sergei, I’m trying to reason with you here. My stepsister and I are stillalive right now, and it’s in your best interest to keep it that way, because nobody’s going to buy your story. Anton already knows the truth. Your men left Ian back at the café.”

“Shut up!” he snaps. “Shut the hell up!”

He’s losing it. Good. It means he’s getting closer to the edge and he’s not thinking straight anymore.

I lower my gaze, the blood rushing through my veins as I struggle to keep myself calm and composed. I cannot allow him to see fear or despair on my face. Finally, after a lengthy, heavy silence where all I can hear is his ragged breathing, Sergei inhales sharply and walks back to the door.

“I’ll let you know when the marriage certificate gets here,” he says. “Paul will bring it over as soon as the judge signs it.”

He gives me one last glance over his shoulder. He’s screwed, and he knows it. He was playing fast and loose this whole time. This puts him in a whole new light. I thought he was calculated and five steps ahead of us. I was wrong.

Go figure.

It’s time for Sergei to meet his fate.

Chapter 30

Anton

Every atom in my body is about to explode.

It’s taking a tremendous amount of energy and self-control not to let that happen. Every deep breath, every movement I make contains all the rage that I must keep from blowing outward, from obliterating everything and everyone in my path.

“He has her,” I say, my voice angry and cold as I make my way up the stairs to the second floor of the private hospital. Andrei is with me.

“He has both girls. That’s what our intel is saying so far.”

“Any traceable phone numbers?”

“Our people are combing through everything we’ve gathered so far.”

“Time isn’t on our side,” I grimly remind him.

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