Chapter Eighty

Chapter Eighty
The steel door closed behind Dmitri.
Anika waited.
Ten seconds.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Only when the footsteps beyond the door disappeared did she let her shoulders drop.
Lizzy turned toward her.
“What the hell was that?”
Anika flexed her bound wrists.
“What?”
“The video.”
Anika looked at her.
“You spent half of it staring around the room.”
“Exactly.”
Understanding slowly replaced the confusion on Lizzy’s face.
“You were showing them.”
“I was trying.”
Anika leaned back against the concrete wall.
“Nikolai will watch it again.”
“Again?”
“Frame by frame.”
“What did you see?” Lizzy asked.
“Not enough.”
The room had been chosen carefully.
Concrete walls.
Concrete floor.
Steel door.
One overhead light.
No windows.
Nothing stamped, painted, labeled, or abandoned somewhere Dmitri might have overlooked it.
But nothing was truly empty.
“The light flickers.”
Lizzy glanced upward.
“Bad wiring?”
“Maybe.”
Anika shifted, pressing her palm flat against the floor.
“Or power draw.”
As if summoned by the words, a faint vibration traveled through the concrete.
“There.”
They waited.
A low mechanical hum followed.
Distant.
Heavy.
Then it disappeared.
“Generator?” Lizzy whispered.
“Machinery. Ventilation. Could be either.”
“Helpful?”
“Potentially.”
Lizzy sighed.
“You’re terrifyingly calm about this.”
“No, I’m not.”
The answer came too quickly.
Lizzy looked at her.
Anika’s hand had drifted unconsciously toward her abdomen.
She pulled it away.
Too late.
Lizzy’s expression changed.
“Any cramping?”
“No.”
“Bleeding?”
“No.”
“Dizziness?”
“Not anymore.”
“That’s something.”
“It’s nothing.”
“Anika.”
“I was hit. Drugged. Dragged into a vehicle. I have no idea what they gave me or whether—”
Her voice broke.
She stopped.
Lizzy shifted closer until their shoulders touched.
“Don’t.”
Anika stared ahead.
“Don’t what?”
“Decide you’ve lost something when you don’t know that you have.”
Anika swallowed.
“I should have told him.”
“You were going to.”
“I waited.”
“For two days.”
“Two days too long.”
“You were scared.”
Anika closed her eyes.
She had been.
Of Nikolai’s reaction.
Of the Bratva.
Of loving something so small and vulnerable in a world built around violence.
Now the fear felt almost laughable.
She would give anything to be standing in their bedroom watching Nikolai read that stupid note.
“He knows.”
Anika opened her eyes.
Lizzy was watching her.
“What?”
“He’ll search for anything that might help find us, he’ll go through everything.”
The nightstand.
The test.
The note.
Anika’s chest tightened.
“He knows,” Lizzy repeated.
Anika stared at the steel door.
Somewhere beyond these walls, Nikolai knew he was going to be a father.
And she had no idea what that knowledge had done to him.
The lock turned.
Both women straightened.
The door opened.
Dmitri entered alone.
Anika’s expression emptied.
He noticed.
“You’re remarkably composed.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“Curious.”
His gaze moved between them.
“Most people become more cooperative after realizing how completely isolated they are.”
Anika smiled faintly.
“I’m not most people...”
Lizzy made a small sound beside her that might have been a laugh.
Dmitri ignored it.
“Nikolai received the video?” Anika asked.
“He did.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“Was he devastated?”
Dmitri studied her.
“You think this is amusing?”
“No. I think you do.”
Something sharpened behind his eyes.
Good.
Angry people talked.
Arrogant men talked more.
Dmitri was both.
“He demanded proof you were alive,” he said.
Anika’s heart kicked.
She kept her face neutral.
“Predictable.”
“Very.”
There it was again.
That certainty.
Dmitri believed he understood Nikolai because he had once stood beside him.
Anika tilted her head.
“You keep saying that.”
“Because he is.”
“No.”
Dmitri’s gaze narrowed.
“No?”
“You know how Nikolai conducts business. How he responds to threats. How he protects the organization.”
“I know him better than you ever will.”
Anika almost laughed.
“That’s where you’re wrong.”
Dmitri stepped closer.
“He built his life around control. Then you came along.”
“And?”
“And gave him something to lose.”
Anika understood.
Finally.
Not the history.
Not what Dmitri believed Nikolai had stolen.
But the mistake beneath all of it.
“You think I’m his weakness.”
“You are.”
Anika smiled.
Not because she felt brave.
Because Dmitri genuinely believed it.
“No.”
His expression hardened.
“You’re sitting restrained in a room you cannot identify because Nikolai Volkov loves you. I’d call that a weakness.”
“You found something he loves,” Anika said. “That isn’t the same thing.”
“To men like Nikolai, it is.”
“You really don’t know him.”
Dmitri crouched in front of her.
“And you do?”
“Yes.”
The answer came without hesitation.
His eyes searched hers.
“Every man has a weakness, Anika. I simply found his.”
Her smile disappeared.
“No.”
Dmitri’s gaze sharpened.
“No?”
“You found his reason.”
Silence.
Beside her, Lizzy went perfectly still.
“Love makes people foolish.”
“Sometimes.”
“Desperate.”
“Yes.”
“Predictable.”
Anika smiled again.
“That’s the part you got wrong.”
Something flickered across Dmitri’s face.
Tiny.
Gone almost immediately.
But she saw it.
“You think Nikolai will follow your rules because you have me.”
“He already is.”
“No. He’s letting you think he is.”
Dmitri stood.
Anika watched him carefully.
“What did you ask for?”
His expression changed.
There.
Another tiny reaction.
She had found something.
“You don’t know?”
“I’ve been a little busy.”
Dmitri smiled.
“The Bratva.”
Lizzy inhaled beside her.
Anika stared at him.
Not because the demand surprised her.
Because of the way he said it.
Not power.
Possession.
“You want his organization.”
“I want what belongs to me.”
Anika’s pulse slowed.
There it was.
“What belongs to you?”
Dmitri’s jaw tightened.
“The Bratva existed before Nikolai ever sat at its head.”
“That doesn’t make it yours.”
“No.”
Too fast.
Anika caught it.
She studied him.
“This isn’t a coup.”
Dmitri said nothing.
“You don’t want to take something from Nikolai.”
Still nothing.
“You think you’re taking it back.”
His eyes went cold.
Anika knew she was right.
“Interesting.”
“Careful.”
The warning was quiet.
She ignored it.
“What did his father take from you?”
Dmitri’s expression changed.
Only for a second.
But it was enough.
Anika felt Lizzy shift beside her.
She had seen it too.
Dmitri stepped backward.
“You should worry less about history and more about whether Nikolai makes the correct decision.”
“He will.”
“You don’t even know the choice.”
“I don’t need to.”
Dmitri turned toward the door.
Anika watched him reach for the handle.
“He’s coming for us.”
Dmitri stopped.
“He’ll negotiate. He’ll make you believe you have him exactly where you want him.”
Slowly, he looked back.
“And then?”
Anika held his gaze.
“He’ll burn your entire fucking world down.”
For the first time since he entered—
Dmitri didn’t smile.
He left.
The steel door slammed shut.
The lock turned.
Anika waited until his footsteps faded.
Lizzy released the breath she’d been holding.
“You really enjoy antagonizing dangerous men.”
“It’s becoming a hobby.”
“Please find a new one.”
Despite everything, Anika almost laughed.