Chapter 11
1207 Words
VIKTOR
THIRTY MINUTES LATER - PRIVATE AIRFIELD
The jet was warming up when I arrived, my security team are already loading the equipment and weapons. Twenty of my best men, are armed to the teeth, ready to tear Montenegro apart to find one nineteen-year-old girl who hated my guts.
Worth it. She was worth all of it.
Alexei caught up to me as I headed for the stairs. "Boss, we have an update."
I stopped, my heart in my throat. "Did you find her?"
"Not exactly. But..." He pulled up something on his tablet. "We traced her movements over the past three weeks. There's something you need to know."
"What?"
"She's been going to the same pharmacy every few days. Always buying the same things." He showed me a list of purchases. "Crackers. Ginger tea. Anti-nausea medication. And three days ago..."
He swiped to a different screen that contains a security footage from inside the pharmacy. Bella is at the counter, looking pale and exhausted, while placing three boxes on the counter.
Pregnancy tests.
My entire world stopped.
"She bought three pregnancy tests," I said slowly, the words not quite connecting in my brain. "Three weeks ago. Right after..."
Right after she left Moscow.
Right after I'd taken her virginity and come inside her. Multiple times. Without protection.
"Oh my God." I grabbed the tablet from Alexei, staring at the grainy footage of Bella buying pregnancy tests. "Is she...did she...do we know if..."
"We don't know." Alexei's voice was gentle. "She bought the tests but we don't have confirmation of the results. It's possible she's not pregnant. It's possible she is but doesn't know yet. Or..."
"Or she knows and she didn't tell me because I called her a mistake and pushed her away." I shoved the tablet back at him, a new kind of rage building in my chest. "She could be carrying my child right now. And Sokolov's men almost grabbed her."
The implications crashed over me like a wave.
If Bella was pregnant with my baby...my heir, my child, a piece of both of us...then Sokolov capturing her was even worse than I'd thought. He wouldn't just use her as leverage against me.
He'd use the baby too.
"We need to go. Now." I took the stairs two at a time, Alexei right behind me.
"Boss, even if she is pregnant, we don't know where..."
"I don't care if I have to search every building in Kotor. I don't care if it takes days or weeks or months." I reached the top of the stairs and turned to face my men. "We're not coming back without her. Understood?"
"Yes, sir," they chorused.
"Sokolov's men are already looking for her. Which means this is a race. And we don't lose races." I looked each of them in the eye. "The woman we're retrieving is nineteen years old. She's scared. She might be pregnant. And she's been through hell because of me. So when we find her...and we WILL find her...you treat her gently. Anyone who frightens her or handles her roughly answers to me personally. Clear?"
"Clear, boss."
I boarded the jet, my mind already in Montenegro, already searching every street and alley for her storm-gray eyes and dark hair.
Hold on, Bella, I thought as the jet's engines roared to life. I'm coming. And this time, I'm not letting you go. Even if you hate me for it.
Because if you're carrying my child...if there's even a chance that you're pregnant with my baby...then everything changes.
You're not just the woman I love.
You're the mother of my heir.
And I'll burn Montenegro to the ground before I let Sokolov take you from me.
DURING THE FLIGHT
"Boss, we might have something."
I looked up from the maps of Kotor I'd been studying for the past hour. Alexei stood in the aisle, his phone in his hand.
"What?"
"One of our contacts in Montenegro...a doctor who does off-the-books work for people who need discretion." He sat down across from me. "He says a young woman matching Bella's description came to see him four days ago."
My heart stopped. "And?"
"She wanted prenatal care. Claimed she was eight weeks pregnant but had no identification, no medical history, and paid cash."
Eight weeks.
The timing matched perfectly. If Bella was eight weeks pregnant, that meant...
"It's mine." The words came out flat, certain. "The baby's mine."
"We don't know for sure..."
"She was a virgin, Alexei. I was her first. If she's pregnant, it's mine." I leaned back in my seat, my mind racing. "Did your contact examine her? Is she healthy? Is the baby..."
"He said both seemed fine. But she was underweight, stressed, and he recommended she see him again in two weeks for a full workup." Alexei paused. "Viktor, if she's pregnant and running from Sokolov's men..."
"Then every second matters." I stood up, started pacing the narrow aisle. "Stress can cause miscarriage. So can physical trauma. And she jumped between f*****g buildings two hours ago."
The image of Bella dangling from that windowsill played on repeat in my mind. Her slipping, falling. Landing hard enough to...
No. I couldn't think like that.
"When we land, I want that doctor brought to wherever we're setting up base. And I want every hospital and clinic in the area monitored in case she goes in."
"You think she might be hurt from the jump?"
"I think she risked her life to escape Sokolov's men, and I need to know she's okay." I stopped pacing, and looked at Alexei. "I need to know they're both okay."
"You're sure it's yours?"
"Yes." No hesitation. No doubt. "And that changes everything."
I'd pushed Bella away to protect her. But I'd failed. Sokolov had found her anyway. And now she wasn't just Bella anymore.
She is Bella and my child. My baby. My heir growing inside her.
There was no way in hell I was letting them go.
Not this time.
Not ever.
"We land in forty minutes," Alexei said. "What's the plan?"
"We find her. We bring her home. And we make sure Sokolov understands that touching what's mine comes with a price."
"And if she fights you? If she refuses to come back?"
I thought about Bella's face when I'd rejected her. The tears. The rage. The way she'd called me a coward.
She is going to fight me. Of course she was.
But I'd deal with that when the time came.
"Then I carry her onto the jet myself if I have to." I met Alexei's eyes. "She's pregnant with my child, Alexei. She doesn't get a choice anymore. Her safety...their safety...is all that matters now."
"She's really going to hate you."
"I know." I turned back to the window, watching the clouds stream past. "But she'll be alive to hate me. And our baby will be safe. That's all I care about."
The jet began its descent toward Montenegro.
Somewhere down there, Bella is hiding. Scared. Alone. and possibly hurt.
I am coming for her. And this time, I wasn't letting fear make my decisions.
This time, I am taking what is mine.
Even if it meant becoming the monster she already thought I was.
- Writer
