Page 35 of Fierce Vows

I hold up a hand.“If you are the person who holds my wife from me.”

His façade drops, along with his genial nature.Something much harder emerges, like watching a predator drop the mask before its prey.“Of course, Gallo.I am Bogdan Inavoff.”

“I’d say it’s a pleasure but it’s business, so of course, it’s not.”I don’t smile or react.Just wait.

Something of my father is in that gesture, or lack thereof, and I give him a mental salute.

Inavoff surveys me with cold features that are as barren as the wasteland he lives in, pretty glass pieces he has constructed around him aside.“Your wife is this way.Please, bring your party.”He turns on his heel without gesturing for me to follow, and walks away with a slow, steady gait.

I study his back as I let him lead us deeper into the house noting the lack of visible security and men.Mine outnumber his twenty to one at best right now, and that lack of display annoys me.I keep my emotions in check, but note the pristine walls, the impeccable art that must be worth millions, so casually displayed.

Perhaps Inavoff’s security looks different to mine.Providing I walk away with my people alive and unharmed, I really don’t care about this man in the least.He can continue to live his fucked up existence so we can all get back to ours.

I round a corner and something red and black flashes in my peripheral.At my other side, Dom draws, and my hand raises half a second too late to stop him before the shot goes wide, shattering something no doubt priceless over my shoulder as Willow crashes into me at full tilt.

I rock back on my heels, absorbing her momentum, wrapping her in my arms.She makes a muffled sound, wriggling a little, but I don’t care, crushing her to my body tightly.It’s only when I realize her cries are of pain that I release her and step back but she clings to me, tears pouring unchecked down her face.

Willow is many things—all passion and love and fire and vengeance.In front of an enemy, however, she is never, not once, anything but what she wants to be.

But I am coming to realize that the man standing behind her may not be my enemy, or hers.

I cup her cheek, grazing my lips across the corner of her mouth and send a silent prayer heavenward in pure gratitude of her continued existence.She shudders, clinging to me as sobs wrack her too-thin frame.Swearing between clenched teeth, I cradle her to my body and give Ivanoff a nod over her head.

He watches me, the corner of his scarred face twisted in his version of a strained smile.

This rescue will cost me, and I’m not entirely sure I can afford his fee.The thought settles low in my gut, but for now I push it aside and concentrate on Willow.

“Talk to me,” I murmur into her hair, striving to maintain my calm when all I want to do is strip us both naked and press our bodies skin to skin in the most intimate way possible.“Gods, wife.I’ve been without you for too long.Do you know how many men I killed in the pursuit of wrapping my fists in your hair and kissing you stupid?”I stroke her nape gently, my touch at odds with my words.

She shivers again, wincing and twisting.“Rafe, I can’t—”

I swallow hard, knowing I’ll have to take it easy with her until she’s healed.Until I can scalp the cunt who hurt her fuckingagain.“I love you,” I whisper.

Her broken smile lights my fucked up world and it’s worth every one of Dom’s loud as shit snores to find her again.“You brought Thalia?”

I nod, dropping a shoulder as I tuck her into my side with zero intention of letting her go, now or ever again.“She’s here.”

“Good.”Willow sucks in a breath.“Then there is someone she needs to meet.”She smiles at the healer who studies her with her usual calm, and steps forward.“Bogdan Inavoff knows someone you might have known, once.One of the girls,” she starts.

Thalia blinks.“From Sing—” her voice cracks and dies.

Willow nods encouragingly.“Yes.She’s—not here.But she was his niece.It’s one of the girls Dom and Rafe brought back once.A long time ago.”

I frown at her, then at Inavoff.“I don’t remember delivering a girl to Russia.”

Our host shakes his head.“You wouldn’t.It was on American soil.My sister’s daughter.She ...was never again right.”He steps forward until he’s within arm’s reach of Thalia.“She isn’t with us anymore.”Sorrow crosses his features, fleeting, but it’s there, or was, and we all witness its passing.

Thalia blinks.“I’m sorry,” she whispers in her cracked voice, a remnant of the horrors Kirrill Singleton inflicted on her, too.“I wish I could have done—”

“You did all you could.All of you,” Inavoff nods in my direction as Dom shifts at Thalia’s back.“Willow’s return—as safe as I could make her after I found her—is my way of repaying that favor for my Ania.”

“Thank you.”I hold out my hand.

Inavoff smiles faintly, his face twisting up on one side.“I appreciate the westerner in you, Gallo, but that’s not how we do things in Rossiya.”

“That’s sweet, but I’m not here for a party.”I tug Willow toward the door.

She looks up at me and frowns.“Rafe,” she says, a hint of reproach in her voice.

---