Page 85 of Bought to Bear Bratva Heir

And honestly, he was lucky I hadn’t dragged it out. Not after what I had just heard. I wanted my family back safe and sound, and that was the only reason the men in this room weren’t being dragged into one of my many warehouses to be tortured.

Fucking Marguerite.

I’d always known she was trouble, but when my tech guys had hacked her phone, allowing me to listen in on what was going on in this derelict house, even I had been shocked.

Venom. She was full of venom, and like a fool hell-bent on revenge, I hadn’t seen what was right in front of my face. I’d known she was bad news; I had always known. She had been too forward in her affections, and now I knew why. She wanted my baby in her belly. She wanted to be the mother of the Popovitch heir, but to do that, she needed to get rid of Alec.

And she had been planning on pinning the blame on Daisy.

A shudder of rage swept through me violently as I stepped over the body of her fallen lover. Other men were rising from their seats. Slowly. Much too slowly for my own men who filed behind.

They were amateurs, and they didn’t stand a chance. I didn’t bother to look left and right as I strode through the room. I knew where I had to go.

The moment we had gotten this lead, I had the blueprints for this whole block in front of me, and I had memorized them all.

I pushed open the door with my foot; the hinges squeaked loudly, but that didn’t really matter. It wasn’t like I was trying to be quiet. The element of surprise was gone the moment I had discharged my weapon.

Still, Marguerite had the good graces to look shocked as she swung the gun in her hand away from the corner and towards me.

"Ilya."

I took her in with a sweep of my eyes; she looked the same as she always did. Perfectly put together, but there was a tightness, a kind of madness in her face that made me wary.

Marguerite looked like a cornered animal, which was strange because she had just been pointing that gun into the corner of the shabby room.

She had been pointing a gun at my son, or more specifically, at the woman I had loved and hated in equal measures who had placed herself bodily in front of him.

A split second—that’s all I gave myself to check on them, and even then it hit me like a sledgehammer.

They looked like disaster victims, all hollow eyes and cheeks. Filth coated their clothes and skin.

Fuck, how long had it been since they had been allowed to wash, or to eat? Even in that split second where I looked at them, I could see how much weight had dropped off of them. Especially Daisy.

Had she been giving her food to Alec? It felt like something she would do.

For six years, I had called her selfish when in reality she was the least selfish woman in the entire world.

I sprinted toward Marguerite and knocked the gun out of her hand. She cried out in pain and stumbled back a few steps. Then she quickly looked at me.

"Ilya, you came." Marguerite stepped forward, her face and voice the perfect mixture of relief and happiness, and my eyes swung back to her.

The second she realized I hadn’t lowered my weapon, her steps faltered.

"I knew you would come," she tried again. "I got here as soon as I heard. I had to protect Alec."

My eyes flashed angrily. "Do not call him that. Only his mother and I get to call him that, or the people who love him, and you are none of those things."

My voice was calm, icy. It didn’t reflect the mountain of warring feelings that were coursing through my body.

Marguerite's face fell. "Okay, I’m sorry," she mumbled. "I understand." She lifted her hopeful face to me. "But I got here in time. Hopefully, one day I will be his family. Your family."

Steadily I looked at her. Jesus, she really was a good actress. Academy Award good, but my eyes were open now, and I saw her for exactly what she was.

A manipulating snake.

One who thought she was smart enough to use me.

"You had your gun pointed at my child and—" around her shoulder I glanced at Daisy. Who hadn’t moved. She guarded the corner where my son crouched with her arms outstretched. More than willing to sacrifice her life for our son.