Page 87 of Viparious

TWENTY-FIVE

Vlad

There’s already a smile on my face before I open my eyes and I reach across the mattress for my queen. She usually spreads out, laying half on me, but the sheets are cold. Springing up like I’ll see something other than an empty bed, I move faster than I should be capable of, considering my lack of sleep over the months. Inessa is nowhere in the room, there’s no evidence she was even here, and the brat cut off any light, so I’d stay asleep.

I’m not a heavy sleeper. I would have heard if she was moving things, but I already know without opening the door that she won’t be on the other side. Resolving to drag her back from wherever she’s decided to go, I rush through getting dressed before searching for her.

She’ll be hiding on Vitali’s floor again, like she did before she left. He’ll be an immature idiot and go in a mood when I tell him for the second time that my wife only belongs on our floor, in our room.

It’s later than I thought, and Vitali looks up at the sound of me entering the lounge. I’m on edge at the smile on his face. There’s no joy in it, he’s nervous, and the envelope in his hand has me fucking murderous. His voice is low, the same as when he would fuck up as a teenager and he’d counteract Valentin’s tantrums with remorse.

“It came an hour after she left, I didn’t know what it was and signed for it.”

The apology in his tone isn’t enough. The dumb fuck shouldn’t have touched the fucking thing.

My wife is intelligent, too clever for her own good, because she’s managed to serve me divorce papers when I’ve refused to take them. The last weak suka who tried left with third-degree burns. Now that flame is in my own hands despite the envelope being intact as I rip it out of my idiotic brother’s hand. I know he’s the person with the information I need, so I stop myself from beating the shit out of him.

“What’s the address?”

He sends me it and looks younger as he mumbles at his phone screen. “I thought it was something for the trusts that you needed.”

The envelope is a fuck you, Inessa’s way of making out we’re nothing and sticking to a stupid fucking agreement I regret. But she’s fucked herself, my wife and daughter will be with me. Even though one of them doesn’t want to be.

Some of my anger lessens towards Vitali because he morphs into a two-year-old with tears in his eyes and my t-shirt in his fist as he avoids my eyes.

“It’s done now. She would have found a way to do it.”

My stubborn, bratty wife is resourceful and determined. My cum will still be inside her but she hasn’t stayed. She knows I’m dragging her back to me whether she likes it or not and if she wants me to fucking chase her, she better hope there’s no one beside her while she runs. I know she won’t have some prick in her life, but I can hear the echo of her dreaming about a life with some mundane office prick.

I leave, ready to get my wife back. Dima already has a car pulled up with the engine running, and one of Verena’s car seats is in the back. He doesn’t say a word and the tightness is coming back. I don’t know how long she’s been gone for, and she didn’t take a single thing out of the room. That fact instills hope in me, dangerous and deadly hope. It’s what kills people, that emotion isn’t rational. There are no confirmed paths to take, and it can’t be beaten or killed without stealing a part of its occupant.

I make it to her fucking house in half the time, and she has pipsqueak on the gate like her five-foot-nothing ass could do shit. The house isn’t huge, the grounds are with two guard boxes at the perimeter. It’s too small for her, too plain with its boring brick, and we have horses for fuck’s sake.

Ana senses my anger and she opens the gate without hesitation.

My queen has been organizing all this shit for months. There’s no chance on earth that she managed to have everything fully furnished to her taste and there’s not even a moving truck in sight.Because she purchased it all new. There hasn’t been any spending on my card. If she wants something, that’s where it’s supposed to come from.

I roll to a stop outside the large double doors and step out of the car. Maximoff stands guard, blocking the entryway and shakes his head. It’s not in disappointment, but a warning and a reminder of his position. Controlling my voice is useless. It’s rough and laced with threat if he doesn’t move as I eat up the space.

“I’m here to collect my daughter.”

He puffs his chest out to appear larger and the smug old fuck hardens. “She has twenty-four hours, as per your own clause.”

This is what I get for being fucking nice. I shouldn’t have added it.

All of Maximoff’s men are on guard, waiting for the order inside the house. She isn’t under his group, neither of them are.Myguards are supposed to be with her. Her grandfather can keep the house and fill it with whoever he wants, but my wife and daughter are mine. I’ve just got my head caught up on not fucking dying and not killing a Pakhan. I won’t do it now when I want the life stood behind Maximoff.

The marble floors glisten around the dirty footprints marring it and there’s no packaging. She fucking planned it, had everything ready and if she hadn’t caught me last night, if I hadn’t gone into the nursery, I would have never known that she was leaving.

My blood roars in my ears as I see Inessa walk from the back of the house into the hallway. She cradles our daughter to her chest and pauses. Her shoulders automatically straightening and her chin tilting with strength. But she has one of the same weaknesses as I do and her arms are tensed, the fear isn’t directed at me but the guards who aren’t supposed to be here. She’s supposed to have Ana, Dima, and my brothers, even Viktor would be better than any of these fucks.

She meets my eyes then shifts them to the side where Misha is stood directing the guards to move a sofa for her. That beautiful mind of hers is incomparable as she silently asks me not to make her look weak. There’s no dare or challenge. She’s not being a brat, and she will only ever be viewed as a queen among the masses. So, I allow them all to think it’s due to the hierarchy as I nod my head once at Maximoff then turn to leave. It won’t be for long. The idea has already formed and both of them will be back where they belong tonight.

* * *

If I requiredproof that Inessa won’t be safe in the house that she picked it’s in the fact that I’m walking inside. The guards Maximoff chose were useless and I’ve done him a favor by disposing of them. They’re lucky that it’s getting close to Verena’s feeding time, or I’d have spent more time expelling my rage. The security system is horrendous too, it took less than eight minutes for it to be disabled.

The house is silent as I walk through. I expect Inessa to be somewhere, but she must be exhausted from her unnecessary move. Kicking my shoes off so I don’t wake her, my steps are silent examining the property she chose. It’s not one of the listings I was sent, fucking smart woman knew what I was doing.

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