Page 66 of Paved in Hate

“Come in,” I say loud enough for Emily to hear.

She walks in with a hand on her lower back and a very distinct pregnant waddle that I’m kind enough to not point out. I do raise a brow and laugh, though, which earns me a scowl that doesn’t even come close to looking angry and a soft shake of her head.

“Stop making fun of me.” She smiles at Katya. “Your husband is an ass.”

“Don’t I know it,” she says, earning her a smack on the ass and a kiss to the tip of her cute nose.

Emily takes the seat Danil offers her, sinking into it with a grateful sigh. “Okay, so what’s with all this cloak-and-dagger shit?”

I look at Lev and Danil. “What the fuck does that mean?” They both shrug, so I switch to English and ask Emily, “What the fuck does that mean? Your English phrases make no sense to me sometimes.”

Emily smiles and leans back in the chair, making herself comfortable, or as comfortable as she can with a large pregnant belly. “Spy stuff, secretive, sneaking around spy stuff. You might want to hurry, too, because as soon as Roman gets out of the shower and realizes I’m not in the bedroom, he’s going to come looking for me.”

She’s right, of course. As soon as he can’t find her, he’s going to search the place top to bottom.

I reach a hand out and gesture to her belly. “If I tell you something shocking, you’re not going to go into labor, right? Because Roman will fucking kill me if you go into early labor because of me.”

Emily pats her belly and gives me a reassuring smile. “I promise to not go into early labor. Now, tell me what the hell is going on.”

“Your baby’s going to have a potty mouth,” I warn her.

“Oh please. This little guy is going to be cussing like a sailor by the time he’s five if his crazy uncles have anything to say about it.”

“We would never. As soon as the babies start coming, it’s going to be nothing but shoots and darn-its.” I look to Lev and Danil for confirmation.

“I’ll probably stick with holy crap,” Lev says.

“I’m partial to butthole,” Danil says.

“I bet you are,” I say, unable to help it.

Emily points a finger at me with a big smile on her face. “Stop trying to make me laugh. Seriously, what’s going on?”

I don’t grab the sketchpad this time, because there’s no way in hell I’m showing Emily those drawings. She may say she won’t go into early labor, but I’m not about to take that risk. What I’m about to tell her is bad enough.

“Okay,” I start, pulling Katya tighter against me because her presence is soothing, and I’m not afraid to embrace that, “we recently learned something about Alina, and we need your help to keep Roman from doing something crazy.”

“What about Matvey?” she quickly asks. I can hear the worry in her tone. She cares about him like a brother, she cares for all of us like that, so I’m not at all surprised to see her instantly worry about him.

“We’ll deal with Matvey,” Lev tells her, “and Roman won’t do anything crazy as long as you’re here when we tell him.”

“Tell him what exactly?”

I’m about to start explaining everything when Katya surprises me by speaking first. “I’ve never seen Alina, so I had no idea what she looked like, but we kind of just figured out that she’s Konstantin’s pet. She’s alive,” she quickly adds, “but I’m not going to lie to you and say she’s being treated well.”

Emily grips her belly tighter and her face goes paler than I’d like.

“Emily?” I ask, stepping forward in case I need to rush her to the hospital. “You okay?”

“I’m okay.” She gives my hand a soft squeeze. “Don’t worry. I’m not having this baby just yet.”

“Thank fuck,” I say, making her smile.

“I’m so happy she’s alive. I just feel horrible for her. I can’t imagine what she’s going through.” She looks up at us. “So she’s here now? She’s at their mansion?”

“Yeah,” I tell her.

“And you want me to make sure Roman doesn’t run out of here and try to rescue her without a plan?”

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