Page 127 of Nine Months to Love
“Try me.”
We glare at each other for a long time, and I wonder if the violence that’s always simmered below the surface with us will finally boil and burst.
Finally, Iakov nods. “Fine. If she contacts me, I’ll let you know.”
“Good.”
I stand. Taras opens the door.
“Stefan,” Iakov calls after me.
I turn back.
“For what it’s worth, I did like you. Before everything went to shit.”
“Yeah,” I say. “I liked you, too.”
I walk out. Taras follows. The door closes behind us. In the elevator, he exhales. “That went better than expected.”
“Did it?”
“You didn’t kill him. I call that a win.”
“He doesn’t know where she is.”
“You believe him?”
“Strangely enough, I do.”
The elevator dings and we step out into the lobby. The doorman still doesn’t look up from his phone. Outside, the air is cold. I breathe it in. Let it clear my head, like Olivia said the pool did for her this morning.
“What now?” Taras asks.
“Now, we wait. She’ll surface eventually. And when she does, we’ll be ready.”
We cross the street to the car. I get in the driver’s seat. Taras settles beside me.
“You really would have burned the building down,” he says. “Wouldn’t you?”
I start the engine. “In a heartbeat.”
He laughs. “You’re a sick bastard, you know that?”
Clenching my teeth, I pull away from the curb and head back toward the estate. Toward Olivia. Toward the only thing that matters anymore.
Behind us, Iakov’s building disappears into the night.
38
OLIVIA
The journal in my lap might as well be a ticking time bomb.
I’ve been reading for over an hour, curled up in the leather armchair in Stefan’s study. My coffee went cold twenty minutes ago. I haven’t touched it since the first sip triggered another wave of nausea.
Pregnancy is every bit as glamorous as they say it is.
It’s not all bad, though. I’m wearing one of Stefan’s shirts over my leggings. It’s too big, the sleeves swallowing my hands, but it smells like him. Citrus and smoke. That’s much easier on my stomach than the coffee scent is.
