Page 61 of Owned By Shadows

Rowan’s hand covers mine on my stomach, his gesture protective and reassuring even as it feels like my world is once again spinning out of control.

“He’s planning to take him.” My voice is a whisper of despair, the realisation making tears spring to my eyes as it hits me. He’s won so many times. How will we ever stop him?

“Over my dead body,” Hunter growls, his hand squeezing mine as his eyes bore into me, emerald fire promising me that Sergi won’t get near me or our child.

“That’s exactly what he’s counting on,” Nik mutters, and my head snaps to him as his expression darkens. “But it won’t happen,Moye Solntse, I swear it.”

The new baby monitor the guys picked up on the mainland, which is sitting next to my medications on the counter, suddenly crackles to life, and I swear to fuck I jump out of my skin. We all freeze, turning to stare at it with wide eyes as a voice comes through the speaker, cultured, accented, and chillingly familiar.

“Such devotion,” Sergi’s voice purrs, and bile fills my throat at hearing it after all this time. Dark memories of my time with him try to resurface, but I push them down, squeezing Hunt’s hand so hard his bones creak. “I’ve always admired that about your men, Iris. It will make it so much more satisfying when they fall one by one, my disappointment of a son included.”

A broken whimper falls from my lips as Nik lunges for the monitor, throwing it against the wall. It shatters into pieces, but it’s too late. The damage has been done, Sergi’s threats and mind games eating away at my sanity.

“Shit! He’s somehow fucking bugged the house,” Roman hisses, the realisation dawning in all of us that Sergi is far more in control than we knew. “The baby things?—”

“Search everything,” Nik orders, already pulling apart the rattle as the others get up and start pulling apart everything we have brought into this space. “Now!”

I’m left on the sofa, arms wrapped around myself as once again, Sergi Petrov proves I am trapped. That I am under his control, at his mercy.

“THE HEARSE (STRIPPED) - BONUS TRACK” BY MATT MAESON

NIKOLAI

Hours later, we found and destroyed three listening devices and swept the entire property. Andrei sent Iris to bed, sitting with her and monitoring her as her blood pressure had spiked to dangerous levels with the stress of it all. Loathing is too gentle of a word to describe how I feel about that man, that cunt of a sperm donor who dares to threaten me and my genuine family.

I find Roman on the beach, staring out at the dark water, the breeze light and smelling of the beautiful tropical flowers that grow all around us, which is beautifully deceptive given the danger we find ourselves in.

“This is my fault,” Roman says without turning, his voice desolate and shoulders rounded. “I led him right to us. If I hadn’t gone to Singapore?—”

“No,” I state firmly, cutting him off as I wrap my arms around him from behind, then pulling him back into my body until there is no space between us. “This was always his play. My father thrives on fear. He wants us looking over our shoulders, jumping at shadows.”

“If he knows exactly where we are, why hasn’t he already moved on us?” Roman asks, voicing the question we’ve all been thinking ever since that fucking package was left on our doorstep. “He has the resources. He could have sent a team.”

My lips curve in a wintry smile. “Because this isn’t just about retrieving Iris or eliminating me. It’s about breaking us first.” I sigh, watching as the waves lap at the shore. Calm, peaceful, and so at odds with the turmoil I feel inside. “My father believes fear is more effective than force. He wants us to tear ourselves apart with paranoia, make mistakes, turn on each other. Only when we’re weakened and desperate, consumed by terror, will he strike.”

“And the baby gifts? The listening devices?” I’ve no doubt Roman hasn’t had an easy life. I know some of his shitty childhood from research I did back when Iris was first with the Shadows, but he’s not experienced the level of calculated evil that is Sergi Petrov before. I, however, have been dealing with it my entire life. Enough that a part of me wonders if I am like him, if my father’s evil is genetic and runs through my veins, through Iris’s baby’s veins.

“A message that no place is safe. That he can reach us anytime, anywhere.” I sigh, so fucking tired of these games. “But there’s something else. The medical equipment, the preparations for a premature birth. He’s waiting.”

Roman’s body stiffens in front of me, understanding hitting him. “For Iris to be further along. He wants to ensure the baby survives if something happens during extraction. Shit, that’s…that’s beyond fucked.”

“Exactly. My father wants his child. His heir.” My lip curls, not because my father sees this baby as my replacement, but at the thought that my sibling, my son, would ever experience a childhood like mine. Not fucking happening. “He’s playing a long game. Letting Iris’s pregnancy progress while he watches us, torments us.”

“What about Iris? Her blood pressure?—”

“Is being monitored by Andrei. The medication helps and I trust that man with my life, and that of my soulmate and ourunborn child.” My jaw tightens, a deep inhale expanding my chest. “We move up our timeline. I’ve already spoken to Alexei.”

“To what end? We’re compromised here, but moving Iris in her condition…” he trails off, and I don’t need him to finish. I know it’s a risk, but we have no choice, not now that Sergi knows where we are.

“Is a risk we have to take. He’s not just threatening us now, he’s threatening my family, our son,Lev.” My voice turns cold, dangerous. “He thinks he’s hunting us. I’m going to remind him that Petrovs are the predators, not the prey.”

Roman turns in my arms, studying my face, and whatever he sees there makes him straighten. “What do you need me to do?”

My chest fills with warmth at his simple request, because it means so much more than the mere words. It means he’s family, that I am not alone, and that we’re all in this together. It means love, which is something Sergi has never had, so he’s blind to the strength it can give us. It’s enough to overthrow a mafia tyrant.

“Pack. Tell the others. We leave at dawn. We’re going to beat him at his own game.” I cup his cheek in my palm, placing a fierce kiss on his plush lips. He gives in immediately, opening up to me completely. Then I pull away sharply, both of us breathless. “And I need you to make one more call to your cousin in Singapore. We’re going to leave my father a message of our own.”

“What kind of message?” Roman’s face is full of adorable confusion, and I kiss the furrow between his brows. When I pull back to look into his eyes again, I know my smile is all teeth.

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