Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 118309 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118309 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
I must miss a private conversation between Maksim and Eva as she objects to his silent denial as if they shared many words. I’d be jealous of their ability to communicate without words if there weren’t a heap of similarities I had missed earlier. They could be mistaken as siblings.
“It could take a heap of weight off your shoulders, Maksim, and help us find Ano.”
“Ano is missing?”
Again, Maksim doesn’t look set to lie.
He merely continues to skirt the truth like he has our entire marriage.
“Do it.” Maksim tries to cut me off, but I peer past his shoulder, stare Eva in the eyes, and repeat, “Do it. Do whatever you need to do to get answers.”
“Answers that will leave me no choice but to retaliate,” Maksim sneers. “Do you understand that, Doc? They took my fucking wife from right under my fucking nose. I can’t let that slide.”
“You can, and you will.”
My head snaps to the side so fast I almost make myself sick. I don’t know which way is up when Maksim’s mother starts barking orders seconds after she enters the room. She takes command, making me realize Maksim isn’t the king of his realm just yet. His mother is.
My throat dries even more when Mrs. Ivanov shifts her focus to me. She stares at me like she is assessing my soul from the inside out before she twists to face Eva. “Digestive benzodiazepine or injectable?”
“There are no puncture wounds in her arms or between her toes,” Eva answers, alerting me to the fact she was the one poking and prodding me during our short commute to my building. “But I don’t believe she ingested it either.” Her next question exposes that her cover may not be fraudulent. “Rumors have been circling for some time that a biochemist has created a new drug that works as effectively as GHB, but it is dispensed as a vapor instead of a liquid. It makes it almost impossible to trace back to the source since there is nothing to compare it to. Vapors—”
“Burn off,” I interrupt, too intrigued not to include myself in their conversation. “How long was I missing?”
“Nine hours,” Maksim answers. His low tone shreds my heart.
I place my hand over his balled and bruised one resting next to my thigh and squeeze it before shifting my focus back to Eva. “There could still be residue in my nasal cavity or respiratory tract.”
When Maksim’s mother silently questions Eva, she takes a moment to ponder before jerking up her chin. “It will still be hard to trace since the manufacturing is being kept under wraps, but any sample is better than none.”
“Do you have what is needed to test it?”
Eva almost shakes her head, but a second after her lips part, she waggles her brows instead. “I can have everything I need here in under a minute.”
Mrs. Ivanov gives her silent permission to do what needs to be done before she devotes all her attention to me. Well, more my wedding rings than me as a whole.
“Mrs. Ivanov—”
“Mrs. Ivanov?” she interrupts, scoffing. “I believe the only person in this room with that title is you, dear.”
“Ma,” Maksim snaps out like his mother’s tone is rude. It wasn’t. She sounds more pleasantly surprised than frustrated. “She just got back from God fucking knows where. Now is not the time.”
“Yes. I suppose you are right.” It is a highly inappropriate time for me to smile, but it can’t be helped when she adds, “I’m sure future grandbaby talks can wait. However, this can’t.” Her tone takes on a serious note as she twists to face Maksim. “She is here. In front of you. Safe and protected. So stop acting like she’s not.”
“She is my wife,” Maksim snarls, banging his chest. “It is my job to protect her, and I fucking failed.”
She acts as if his last four words didn’t shred her heart to pieces like they did mine. “You have an entire team at your disposal—”
“It. Is. My. Job,” he repeats, shouting.
There is so much shame in his voice. So much disappointment. He truly believes he has failed me. I know that isn’t the case, but I learn where Maksim gets his spitfire stubbornness from before I can say anything.
His mother pulls him to the corner of the room without a single bead of sweat breaking onto her neck before she gets up in his face. “Your job is to protect her. I agree. That is precisely what you’ve been doing the past several weeks and the exact reason they let her go uninjured.” Without taking her eyes off her son, she points to me. “If she were anyone else but your wife, she would be dead. You saved her, Maksim. You protected her as promised.”
“If I don’t defend her honor, if I don’t respond to what they did, they won’t stop. I’ll be seen as a mockery, like a coward who can’t defend his own wife. Is that what you want, Ma? Do you want the legacy we’ve been building since he left us to crumble back to the pittance he wrongly believed we deserved?”