Hunter’s Scars – Extended Epilogue
Alek
Four Months Later
Anya was impossibly beautiful when I met her, but she looks even more like an angel now. She’s only just started to show that darling belly. She and Helena have been taking advantage of the local yoga studio and the pregnancy classes they offer. She is busy with the final touches to our house, then we can move in. I offered to just get the bedroom up and going but she said that she’s ready to start nesting as quickly as possible. I guess that I can’t deny her that.
As if I ever really had the power to deny her anything at all.
Whatever Anya and our child wants, she’s going to get.
We have yet another dinner planned for tonight. I’m planning on asking her a very, very important question. One that will tie the two of us together for life if she says yes. I’ve picked out a stunning ring for her, one that will fit her exotic charm and beauty. But there’s something that I have to do first, even if I don’t want to.
I had to pull a hell of a lot of strings to get the meeting I’m going to today. I need everything to go perfectly so that I can fly back home in time to make my dinner date.
Before Anya can marry me, she has to divorce Nikolai officially in the eyes of the court. While I detest the legal system and just about everything involved with it, I know that there’s really not much of a choice. This is what she wants, to be free from him once and for all so that she can take my name. Anya wants this finished before she gives birth so that there can be no issue with the birth certificate. It’s my job to make that happen. No matter what it takes. So, that’s exactly what I plan on doing.
I’ve had Horus deliver at least a dozen copies of the divorce paperwork to the maximum-security prison where Nikolai is being kept, but the bastard has refused to sign a single one. What he’s hoping he’s going to get out of that is unclear. It’s why I am dragging my ass across the country to go and see his miserable ass. Whatever it takes to change his mind.
I take my sunglasses off as the security camera scans me and permits me access. I’m sure that at least half of the guards here would love to lock me up with the rest of the criminals and throw away the key, but money can buy just about anything. And I have all of Nikolai’s.
They take me to a room where Nikolai is waiting, chained and cuffed to the table, his hands shackled to the floor. He’s wearing a mask over the lower half of his face that looks like something straight out of a horror movie. I guess he tried biting again.
I don’t bother with pleasantries or greetings as I slide into the chair across from his and lean back. I cross one ankle over my knee and wait for him to speak first. I place the papers on the table and pull a pen from my pocket. I’m not stupid enough to put it within his easy reach. Not yet. Not until I know that he’s going to sign.
“You’ve wasted your time, Ivankov,” Nikolai practically spits his words at me. “I’m not signing shit.”
“Still haven’t learned to share in there? Pity.” I grin, mostly because I know that it’s going to piss him off… and I just can’t help myself.
“I’m not signing that.”
“Anya will divorce you one way or another. You can spare yourself the humiliation of being dragged through court and her testimony by just signing, asshole.”
“Watch your fucking mouth.”
“I don’t have to watch anything. I’m not the prisoner here, prick.” I continue. Riling him up isn’t going to help anything, I know that. But if he thinks that he’s going to get something out of this deal, he needs to spit it out fast. I don’t have much time here.
Nikolai growls, fuming.
I sigh, relenting. I check my watch. I really do have to get a move on things. “You’re wasting my time. And, unlike you, I have things to do. So, what’s it going to take for you to sign these papers?”
“You think that I don’t know what you’ve been up to? The things that you’ve stolen from me? You can’t possibly think that it’s going to last.”
“Actually, I do think that. I didn’t make any moves in secret, Volkovich. I wanted you to know that I took everything from you. It’s the very least you deserve. I hope you understand how it feels. Isn’t that part of your rehabilitation program? Humility? Making amends?”
“Go fuck yourself.” Nikolai spits again.
“I would rather fuck your wife.” My smile is bordering on feral. It’s hard to keep from leaning across this table and smashing Nikolai’s face into the metal over and over again. I want nothing more than to see him bleed.
We both seem to have learned excellent restraint, but really, it’s probably just because we are being so closely watched at this exact moment.
“I’m going to get out of here, Ivankov.”
“Not likely,” I gloat as I cross my arms over my chest.
“I am, and you’re going to help me do it if you want me to sign those damned papers.” Nikolai says with a knowing smirk.
Of course that’s what he wants. Of course he does. He probably thinks that there’s some sort of poetic irony over the whole thing. I have to fight to keep from sneering at him for the sheer nerve of asking me such a thing. I would love nothing more than to slap the sheer arrogance right off his damned face.
“And what makes you think that I’m going to give you anything at all? I’m only here as a courtesy that you sure as hell don’t deserve in the first place.” I lean forward, making sure that he’s getting my point.
“Yes, well, when you commandeered all my assets like some bandit in the night, you effectively prevented me from hiring my own council. So you can either hire one on my behalf, or you can give my funds back. Either or.” Nikolai continues.
“I don’t think that you understand the position that you’re in here. You have no leverage. Nothing to bargain with. I don’t have to give you shit.”
“If you want me to sign those papers you do. Hire my lawyer, and you can have the whore.”
My knuckles crack from the force of not punching him. What I wouldn’t give to be able to lock him in a room somewhere and punch him until every bone in my fist breaks.
“And just who might this lawyer that you’re wanting be?”
“Kate Thorne.” Nikolai says flatly.
I scoff. Everybody has heard of her. “She’s never going to work with somebody like you.”
“Of course she will. She is known for taking on the toughest challenges, and my case will be for her. She will take it, because you’re going to pay whatever fee that she names, no matter how high. Or else, I’m keeping Anya.”
I sneer at him. I push away from the table. “We’re done here.”
“Oh, and you’re going to testify in my favor too.” Nikolai adds.
“You’re truly delusional, do you know that?”
“I’m correct. That is what’s going to happen. If you want to storm out of here and talk it over with Anya, be my guest, but you will be back here because you’re going to realize that this is your only option. I’m getting out of this prison whether you like it or not. You will do this, and we will finish our business later. As free men. Don’t you want to see which one of us is really going to come out on top?” Nikolai taunts.
I do. I do want to see how that fight goes. But it’s not just me that I have to think about. It’s Anya and the baby. We still haven’t even learned the sex of the child yet. Anya says that she doesn’t want to know because it doesn’t matter.
No lawyer in their right might will let him out. No judge or jury will permit something like that with the a crime list as long as his.
It might be a mistake, but I know in my bones that he’s going to rot in here.
Besides, if he’s out of prison it will make it all the easier for me to put a bullet between his eyes. I won’t even feel bad about it. “Fine.” The word is like bile on my tongue.
“I want more than that, Ivankov.”
“You have my word, Volkovich, I’ll get you the damned lawyer but we both know it’s not going to be enough to get out of here.”
Nikolai leans forward, his fingertips brushing the bottom of the divorce decree and pulls it closer to him. He holds his hand out expectantly for me to put the pen in his hands, and I oblige him. What choice is there? There is nothing that I won’t do for Anya’s happiness. If she wants a huge wedding and rings and a legal ceremony, then that’s exactly what she’s going to get.
No matter the cost.
“Actually,” Nicolai smirks gleefully. “Perhaps my new lawyer ought to be the one to look over these papers before I go ahead and sign them. Why don’t you just go ahead and pass all of those on along to Ms. Thorne and she can bring them back here when she’s done looking over everything.”
Of course, the bastard would pull something like this. Of course, he’s going to try to pull something at the very last minute to ensure that he keeps having the upper hand.
The plastic of the pen threatens to break in my hand.
“You should probably get a move on, though. My sources say that my wife is a good few months along now. I don’t think that I have to remind you what will happen if she still has my last name when the child is born?”
I don’t even want to know how he knows. Anya is going to be devastated when she finds out that he knows. She’s been so damned careful. It’s almost impossible to get her out of the house since she started showing, all for nothing. All of this, all of our vigilance and efforts have been for fucking nothing.
“And I will lay claim to that child, Alek, if it is born with my name. Mark my word., Nikolai promises, a sinister twist in his voice as his lips twist higher into a feral smile.
I tuck the divorce papers away in my coat, slip my glasses back on my face and head out of the prison. Anything for the happiness of my family. Anything.
***
Tonight was supposed to be a wonderful occasion and I can’t help but feel like I ruined it. We have only just finished our meal but the engagement ring in my pocket already feels like a weight. How am I supposed to look Anya in the eye and tell her what happened today? I had hoped that I could present her with the papers signed. I was going to grant her the freedom that she has been obsessed with over the last few months, and rightly so. Then, I was going to present her with the option of joining herself to me.
I know that she wants to. She’s been hinting at it. Not subtly either.
The ring that I have purchased for her, she practically picked out herself. Short of going there and pulling it out and taking my card. She talks about marriage all the time and how things in our future are going to be. It wasn’t something that I had ever given any true serious thought to before her. Lilian and I would have probably gotten married at some point, but not for love. We would have done it for Henry.
Henry who has become the light of our lives.
Just this morning he finished picking the final touches that he wants to put onto his room when it is finished at our house. Anya has been furniture shopping while helping Helena with some of her online courses. My sister has decided that in addition to being a middle school teacher, she also wants to obtain her master’s degree.
I don’t know who in our little found family is the proudest of her if I’m being honest.
“Spit it out.” Anya says over dessert. She wipes the corners of her mouth before slapping her cloth napkin down onto the table in front of her.
I turn my focus to her, truly looking at her. She looks ethereal in the gown I chose for her. Jewel tones and panels of fabric that drape so prettily over her rounded belly, pushing her breasts up and accentuating every curve of her body. It would have been perfect. Will be. The answer to her question is right on the very tip of my tongue. The words are right there, ready to spill out.
No secrets. We did promise one another that. I certainly am not going to start keeping stuff from her now.
“I went to the prison today and saw him.” I don’t have to specify who I mean, she knows.
Anya visibly pales at the comment.
“See?” I gesture to her. “That is why I hesitated to tell you. He still has this grip of terror over you and nothing I do or say is going to make it any better.”
It makes me feel weak. My whole purpose in life now is to protect her and our child. To make her feel safe. To know that all of them can depend on me no matter what comes. And yet there’s doubt on her face.
“What did he say? Why did you go?”
I pick at an invisible spec of lint on the tablecloth. “I wanted him to sign the damned papers, it was supposed to be a present for you.”
“Naturally he didn’t sign them.”
“Quite the opposite. It seems that he’s been damned busy since he’s been behind bars. He wants me to hire a lawy-”
“You said no. Right? That’s fucking insane. No way in fuck are we hiring somebody to defend him! There’s a reason that he can’t find representation! He’s a fucking psychopath, Alek! The judge will grant me a divorce on the grounds of estrangement eventually, they have to…” Anya’s hands drop to her belly, to our child, as if she can cover their ears so that no sound can carry through her skin.
“We both know he’s still buying every judge that he comes across.”
“He can’t! There has to be a limit! Alek! This cannot-”
“He knows that you’re pregnant Anya…” I answer bluntly, ripping off the bandage. I can hardly meet her eyes as my own rage simmers just below the surface.
Anya says nothing but tears start to well in her eyes. “It’s never going to be over… is it?”
I hate the way her shoulders slump. I hate that she looks so damned tormented and there’s nothing I can do about it. At least, nothing that is not terribly complicated. “If we play along with his little game, then we have the chance to twist this in a way that will work to our advantage.”
The words sound cheap to my own damn ears.
“No. That’s how he works. He’s going to use this to his advantage just so that he can have another chance to kill me… to kill Helena… to hurt Henry… our child. Alek, we can’t!”
She’s starting to hyperventilate. I move out of my seat and move to kneel in front of her. I take both of her hands into my own and shake my head. “I’m never going to allow that to happen. Surely you have to know that I’m never going to allow somebody like him near you again. The ball is in our court this time, we have the cards. We will make this work in our favor.”
“You can’t know that, you can’t.”
“You have to trust me. Trust this plan. And if worse comes to worse, then he can be free just so I can kill him myself.” I would be lying if I said that it wasn’t a damned appealing prospect in and of itself.
Anya sniffles and pushes her fingers through mine with a sad nod.
“I’m sorry that it has to come to this. I really am.” I say, and I mean it. “It’s certainly not how I wanted tonight to go…”
“How did you want tonight to go?” Anya asks.
I pull the ring box from my pocket and place it on the table, closed. I let it sit between us on the table with a sigh. “I had a whole plan to give you the papers and then ask you to share your freedom with me…”
Anya snatches the box and openes it. “Shh.” She says, her tears drying as she looks at the ring and pulls it from the box. She placed it on her finger slowly and holds her hand out in front of her and admires the way the diamonds catch the light.
She flings her hands around my neck next and hugs herself to my body with enough force that she nearly knocks us both backward onto the ground.
“You’re right.” She mutters against the side of my face. “We will face this together.”
“Always.” I kiss her temple and smile. “Is that a yes? Will you marry me?”
“Yes, of course! I love you, Alek.”
“Whatever else comes, we will overcome it as a family.” I kiss her softly. “I love you too.”
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