Page 62 of Blood Oath Christmas
We all stumble inside in a tangle of limbs—me, the intruder, and Viktor close behind. The man beneath me cries out as we hit the hardwood floor of the entryway, and I immediately begin patting him down for weapons, my hands moving with practiced efficiency.
"What the hell?" Ivy's voice cuts through the chaos, sharp with alarm.
I look up to see her standing frozen in the entryway, her coat half on, keys dangling from her fingers. Her blue eyes are wide with shock, darting between me and the man I have pinned to the floor. Behind her, in the living room doorway, Trisha appears with her hand pressed to her chest, her face pale as winter snow.
"Konstantin!" Ivy's voice rises to a near shout. "What are you doing? Get off him!"
The man beneath me is blubbering something, but I'm too focused on making sure he's not armed to pay attention to his words. My hands move over his jacket, his pockets, checking for the telltale bulge of a gun or knife. When I'm satisfied he's clean, I finally look down at his face.
Recognition hits me like a punch to the gut.
Frank Gilgran. Ivy's ex-boyfriend.
The man who thinks he has some claim to my wife.
I release him and stand slowly, my movements deliberate and controlled. Frank scrambles to his feet, adjusting his glasses and smoothing down his rumpled brown hair. He's exactly as pathetic as I remember—tall but soft, with the kind of build that suggests he's never thrown a real punch in his life.
But that isn’t true, if I’m being honest with myself. Frank may not be muscle-bound, but he’s good looking enough. Andhe’s respectable too. A principal at a school. Intelligent, makes good money, and could offer Ivy a decent life. The kind I can’t.
"I–I wasn't doing anything wrong," Frank stammers, his hazel eyes darting nervously between Viktor and me. "I was just… I've been visiting Trisha’s house every other day, hoping to hear something about Ivy. To see if she's okay."
The words hit me like gasoline on a fire. Every other day. This fool has been stalking my wife's mother's house, lurking around like some lovesick teenager. The rage that builds in my chest is white-hot, but I keep my voice quiet, lethal.
"Ivy is my wife, Frank." Each word is carefully measured, carrying the weight of a promise and a threat. "She doesn't need your concern anymore."
Frank's face flushes red, and for a moment, I see something that surprises me—genuine pain. Not just wounded pride or male ego, but real heartbreak. It makes him more dangerous than I initially thought, because desperate men do stupid things.
"But her marriage was so sudden," Frank says, his voice gaining strength as he speaks. He turns to Ivy. "We were dating, Ivy. We had plans. I don't understand what happened. One day you're with me, and the next you're married to…" He gestures at me, his expression a mixture of confusion and disgust. "To him."
"Frank, please—” Ivy starts, but I cut her off.
"What happened," I say, taking a step closer to Frank, "is that Ivy chose me. She married me. And that means you have no business lurking around her family's home like some kind of stalker."
"I'm not stalking anyone!" Frank's voice cracks slightly. "I love her! I've loved her for years, and I know she cares about me too. This whole thing doesn't make sense. Ivy, tell me this isn't real. Tell me you didn't choose this… this criminal over what we had."
The word 'criminal' hangs in the air like a challenge. Viktor shifts beside me, and I can feel the tension radiating from him.
Suddenly, Frank’s eyes light up and a look of what can only be described as hope flashes across his features. “It’s because of the murder you witnessed, right?” he says, his voice a little high with excitement. “That’s why you married a… afamilyman.” The way he says ‘family’ leaves no doubt that he means Mafia.
“This is just temporary. For protection, right?” He doesn’t give anyone a chance to answer. “As soon as this is over, then we can?—”
I take a threatening step forward.
"Leave him alone, Konstantin," she says, her voice steady despite the chaos around us. "Frank isn't a threat to me. He just doesn’t understand. With good reason."
She's defending him, this weak man who thinks he can win her back with persistence and pathetic displays of devotion. But as I watch her face, I see something else—guilt. She feels responsible for his pain, and that protective instinct of hers is kicking in.
It's one of the things I love about her, and right now, it's driving me insane.
She turns her attention to her ex. “I’m sorry, Frank, but that’s not going to happen. Konstantin and I are well and truly married, and that’s not going to change once I testify.”
I almost feel sorry for the man as I watch his face crumple. He really does love her, and if I’m being honest with myself, he would have made a better husband had the circumstances been different. He could have given Ivy a normal life like she deserved.
But I don’t let any of those weaker feelings show. “He’s obsessed with you, Ivy. That can be very dangerous.”
Frank protests, but his voice lacks conviction. "I just… I needed to know she was safe. When she disappeared, when noone would tell me anything, I thought something terrible had happened to her."
"Something terrible did happen to her," I say, and the truth of it hits me like a physical blow. "She witnessed a murder. She was put in danger because of the world I live in. But she's safe now, and she's with me."
