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That’s because no one had betrayed him like Elena before. Every time he saw her, a maelstrom of conflicting feelings assaulted him; hate, rage, desire—he went back and forth between them. Fucking her had made matters worse. He wasn’t ever going to forgive her, but he was already thinking of keeping her as his sex slave. Taking her over and over again, until she could no longer live without his touch. Defiling her in so many ways that there would be no part of her body that he hadn’t claimed.
“She’ll live.” He took the chair next to the bed, turned it around, and sat across it. “She’s too tough to die on me from a cold.”
In his head, he’d killed her over a dozen times. When he went to Lorenzo’s hiding place, he’d looked forward to killing them together. When he’d wired the place with enough C4 to bring down the building, he’d relished in the thought of burying the couple in the rubble. Yet, here she was. Alive and kicking.
Not so much kicking right now, but given the chance, she would. There was a fire in her veins, he remembered as much. That time she thought he’d looked at another woman, and he’d been stupid enough to goad her. Hell, he’d barely even noticed the waitress flirting with him, but Elena sure had. The little lioness was damn possessive.
When another fond memory of days gone by resurfaced, he jumped up from the chair. Whatever there had been between them ages ago, she had destroyed it. First by cheating on him, second by stealing his daughter. There was no forgiveness for that. There was no free ticket out of the jail he was going to stash her in.
“Give me thirty minutes, then send Vicky in.”
Katya perked up. “You’re finally going to let her see her mom?”
“Just go, little imp.”
Grumbling, she did as he asked. He checked his phone before settling back in the chair. Damon had started a search party for Pedro Morelli. He didn’t know it yet, but his days were numbered. Scouts were looking for him all over the state. There was nowhere to hide long before they would find him. Something had triggered the bastard to turn against them, and the key was Vicky. When he put her back in Katya’s care, he hadn’t asked her about Pedro. His girl had put on a brave face for the world, but he could see the shadows beneath her eyes. He hadn’t missed her look when Vito asked him to send her out. It killed him she actually believed he might hand her over to Vito. There shouldn’t be a doubt in Vicky’s mind that to him, she would come first. Family always did. He was saddened by the fact that his daughter looked at him with distrust in her eyes. And who did he have to thank for that?
His anger rose as he stared at the object of his hate.
He grabbed the sheets and pulled them away.
“Wakey, wakey, princess. Your dragon has arrived and is ready to breathe fire.”
Elena whimpered in her sleep, clutching the bedsheets. Then she moaned and groaned again.
He waited until she opened her eyes and looked somewhat coherent. As Kristoff’s underboss, he’d once served in all the ranks of the Bratva, from soldier to handler to torturer. He knew when his target was wide awake, or just awake enough to understand him. Elena was the latter. That was all he needed.
“Did Lorenzo know? That Vicky wasn’t his?” Shit. That wasn’t what he’d planned to ask. It would do him no good to dig up the past. All he needed to know was what Pedro was after.
She swallowed, her eyes teary from the fever. “He did.”
He grabbed the chair, trying to keep himself from grabbing her. “When?”
Suddenly, he needed to know. It was more important than everything. More important than Pedro, who had fled the state, more important than the Pakhan’s visit, or his bride waiting for him downstairs in the living room. His past and present were intertwined in an intricate, messy knot, and there was nothing he could do to untangle it. He craved hearing the answers to his questions. Answers he’d been denied for so long.
Elena tried to look away, facing the wall, but he didn’t let her.
He grabbed her chin. “When did he find out about you being pregnant with my child?”
“I told him the second I found out. I got morning sickness practically right away.”
Right away. “How did you know I was the father?”
“I just knew.” Again, she tried to look away.
This time, he let her. He didn’t want to think about her having sex with Morelli. He didn’t even want to think about any man touching her. Right then and there he decided on another punishment for her. No man was going to touch her again, during this lifetime. No other than him.
He caught a fistful of hair at the back of her head. Her eyes strained as she was forced to look up at him.
“When you found out you were pregnant, you never thought about telling me?”
A strange look appeared on her face. Not that he gave a shit about what she was thinking in that vault of a mind of hers. Her silence, however, said more than a thousand words. Or so he thought.
“I did,” she whispered. “I looked you up when I was close to my due date.”
He let go of her. “Bullshit.”
Something dark flashed in her eyes. “Oh, it’s no bullshit. I went back to your place. You hadn’t changed the locks, so I let myself in.”
