Chapter 15
1148 Words
ISABELLA'S POV
Viktor is here.
No. No, no, no. This couldn't be happening.
I risked a glance over the edge of the roof and immediately wished I hadn't.
The street below is a war zone. Viktor's men and Sokolov's men are in a full-blown gunfight, tourists are screaming and running all over the place, the sound of glass shattering, and bodies falling fills the air.
And in the middle of it all, is Viktor Konstantin himself, covered in blood that might or might not be his own, looking up at the roof.
Looking directly at me.
Our eyes met from the distance. Even from here, I can see the fury in his ice-blue gaze. The determination.
He'd found me.
After six weeks of running, hiding, and trying to build a new life...he'd found me.
And judging by the small army he'd brought, he had no intention of letting me go this time.
"STAY WHERE YOU ARE!" he roared up at me. "DON'T YOU DARE f*****g MOVE!"
Like hell.
I scrambled to my feet, the delivery guy tried to hold me back. "Miss, you can't...there's nowhere to..."
He is right. I am trapped on a roof, surrounded by Sokolov's men on one side and Viktor's men below. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.
The baby. I had to protect the baby.
My hand went to my stomach as I watched Viktor cut through Sokolov's men like death incarnate, moving toward the building entrance.
He was coming for me.
And when he got here, when he saw me, when he realized I was pregnant...
Everything would change.
The life I'd tried to build, the independence I'd fought for, the plan to raise this baby alone and far from his world...all of it would be over.
Because Viktor Konstantin didn't let go of what was his.
And whether I wanted to admit it or not, this baby made me his.
Forever.
VIKTOR'S POV - 24 HOURS EARLIER
"Boss, you need to see this."
I looked up from the maps spread across my desk. Alexei stood in the doorway of my Montenegro safe house, his tablet in hand and an expression I couldn't quite read on his face.
We'd been in the country for three days now, coordinating surveillance, tracking leads, and trying to find Bella before Sokolov's men do. So far, we'd had nothing but dead ends and false sightings.
Until now, apparently.
"What is it?" I stand, and move toward him.
"This is surveillance from yesterday afternoon." He pulled up a video file. "There is a camera positioned outside Dr. Marković's office...the doctor we flagged who does off-the-books prenatal care."
My heart rate kicked up. "And?"
"And this."
He pressed play.
The footage showed the entrance to a small medical building. People came and went, looking very unremarkable. Then the timestamp hit 3:47 PM and a figure emerged that made my breath stop.
Bella.
She looked different than I remembered. She looks thinner and paler. With dark circles under her eyes. Her hair is pulled back in a simple ponytail, and she wore jeans and a loose sweater that hung off her frame.
But it was definitely her. Those storm-gray eyes. That determined set to her jaw. And the way she moved, is filled with controlled grace even when she was clearly exhausted.
She is alive and she is safe.
She walked out of a prenatal clinic.
"Keep watching," Alexei said quietly.
On the screen, Bella paused on the sidewalk and pulled something from her purse. Even in the grainy surveillance footage, I could see what it was.
An ultrasound photo.
She stared at it for a long moment, her expression soft in a way I'd never seen before. Then she pressed her fingers to her lips, touched the photo gently, like a kiss...and then tucked it carefully back into her purse.
One hand went to her stomach. Resting there protectively.
The video ended.
I stood frozen, unable to process what I'd just seen.
"There's more," Alexei said. He pulled up a series of photos taken with a telephoto lens. Consisting of Bella walking. Bella at a café. Bella climbing stairs to a small apartment. "We've been tracking her for the past week. She's working at a café called Mira's under the name Elena Petrov. Living in a small flat three blocks from the waterfront, while keeping a very low profile."
I couldn't speak. Couldn't think past the image of Bella touching that ultrasound photo with such tenderness.
"And this." Alexei pulled up one final image. A photo taken through a window, Bella in what must be her apartment, sitting on a worn couch with her hand on her stomach.
Her very slightly rounded stomach.
"She's pregnant," I said. My voice sounded hollow, distant. "She's actually pregnant."
"Yes." Alexei watched me carefully. "Based on her last appointment with Dr. Marković two weeks ago, she would be about seven to eight weeks along now."
Seven to eight weeks.
I did the math automatically. It had been almost eight weeks since that night. Since I'd taken her virginity and I'd pushed her away. Destroying everything good that could ever happened in my life
"It's mine." Not a question. A statement of absolute fact.
"Yes."
I sank into the nearest chair, my legs suddenly unable to hold me. Bella is truly pregnant. She is carrying my child. And she is hiding in Montenegro, alone and hunted, because I'd driven her away.
"Boss?" Alexei's voice came from far away. "What do you want to do?"
What did I want to do? I wanted to go back in time and undo every cruel word I'd said to her. I want to tell her the truth...that I'd pushed her away out of fear, not indifference. I want to fall on my knees and beg her forgiveness.
But most of all, I wanted to find her. Bring her home. Protect her and our baby from Sokolov and every other threat in this godforsaken world.
"Where is she right now?" I asked.
"At work. She's been at the café since six this morning." He checked his watch. "Her shift ends at two."
Three hours.
"Get everyone together in twenty minutes." I stood, my mind already shifting into operational mode. "We move today. No more waiting."
"What's the plan?"
"We bring her home." I met his eyes, let him see the absolute determination there. "Whether she wants to come or not."
"She's going to fight you."
"I know." I grabbed my jacket, checked my weapons out of habit. "But she's carrying my child, Alexei. My heir. She's vulnerable, being hunted, and she's trying to do this alone because I was too much of a coward to admit I loved her."
"You're really going to tell her that?"
"If she'll listen." I headed for the door. "But first, I'm getting her somewhere safe. The rest we can figure out after."
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