Page 87 of The Bratva's Bounty

Weakly, I fished around under the seat of the chair until I felt the item I had taped there before I even knocked Lev out. I feared the thing might snap with how tightly I clutched it in anticipation as I sat up and looked at Lev with a tearful smile. "Close your eyes,d?i ca," I commanded in a soft voice.

Lev looked at me warily, but he obeyed. "I swear, if you're going to whack me in the face with a plank of wood…" he grumbled with a playful chortle.

Memories of that day flashed through my mind at his mention of it, making me laugh a little. "No, no, nothing like that, I promise." I might be a little mean to Lev, but bodily harm like that was a little too far.

Nervously, I held the item in my hands and looked it over one last time to ensure everything was still perfect before holding it toward him. "Alright, open your eyes." A shaky exhale squeezed out of my tight chest as I watched his eyes flutter open.

His face fell at the sight of the object. Disbelief bulged at his eyes, making me worry that they might pop out of his head. My concern and anxiety skyrocketed when he sat there stunned.

"Le—ah!" I cut out with a squeal that turned into full-blown laughter because Lev shot up to his feet with me in his arms.

Spinning around, Lev shouted excitedly into the air and laughed with me as he practically danced around with me.

"Lev, you're gonna make me throw up," I remarked, slapping at his shoulder.

Quickly, he apologized and set me down on my feet. Then, he grabbed my face and kissed me deeply with a happy chuckle. "Zhizn moya, are you really? Please tell me it is real." His tearful eyes begged me with so much hope.

Immediately, I smiled brightly at him while nodding my head, "Yes, I really am pregnant." Tears streamed down our cheeks with my confirmation, and we held each other for a long while on the couch.

After two long years, it was finally happening. We were finally going to have our family—our child.

Not gonna lie, it has been disheartening for me when month after month would pass with negative results. There was nothing wrong with us health-wise, and technically, I wasn't infertile because my eggs were healthy. Biologically, there was no explanation as to why we didn't conceive within that first year of trying.

When the second year of our relationship rolled around without any positive results, we began to talk about other means, such as IVF or adoption. We had both decided to put it off until after the wedding, not wanting to add more stress than necessary to our lives.

So, imagine my surprise when I decided to pee on a stick a few days ago on a whim and had it come back positive. Of course, being the paranoid little shit I was, I took five more in total in the days to come to make sure the first wasn't some fluke. I also had our doctors collect my blood as well to verify my hormone levels. The only definitive answer was an ultrasound, which was scheduled fortoday.

Looking up at the clock on the wall, I beamed with excitement when I noticed the time. With a giddy giggle, I tapped Lev's chest repeatedly, urging him to get up. "Come on, let's go see our baby."

I could see the questions and confusion written all over his grinning face, but I guess he was too ecstatic to burst the bubble right now. He waited for me to get up completely before he sat up and wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me in for a tight hug. With my stomach leveled with his face, he buried it softly into me, being extra gentle. "I really can't believe it." His muffled words tickled me a little, causing me to giggle.

His head rolled back to look up at me with his infectious grin and lovely blues that were full of nothing but pure gratitude and adoration. "Thank you, and I know those two words will never be enough to express my eternal gratitude, but I will spend forever showing it to you every second of every day for the rest of our lives."

Pressing his face back into my belly, he spoiled it with loving and tender kisses.

Unable to help it, I buried both my hands into his hair and pet his head. "You are going to be an amazing father, Lev."

Chuckling softly, his tender eyes looked back up at me. "And I never would have gotten such a chance if it weren't for you, Nicole, so thank you for imploding yourself into my life. Thank you for giving me a chance to love you and for letting me knock you up."

The stifled laugh turned into a full one when I failed to contain my amusement from his words. "Oh, little lion," I sighed playfully and lightly slapped his pouty cheek. "It's cute how you think you had an option in it all," I half-joked, throwing my head back slightly in a rather boisterous laugh.

My cheery laugh warmed up the whole air around us until the walls lit up with their own delight from the overwhelming amusement that radiated from me. "Oh, Lev," I sighed through my dying laughter.

Taking a moment, I looked at him adoringly, smiling at his cute face. "The moment I decided to turn the tables on you was when your choice in loving me went up in flames." Pressing a deep and possessive kiss against his lips, Igroaned deeply with him as I claimed him roughly. "Don't forget, little lion, I always get what I want no matter what."

A spark of fight lit up his eyes right before they rolled away from me with his widening smirk. I watched as his mouth opened and remained so for a moment before he changed his mind with a chuckle and shake of his head. "I love you, Nicole."

If it weren't for the way his eyes completely melted with ardor, then I would've poked and prodded at him until he confessed to his fleeting thoughts. Well, that and the fact we had an appointment to see our baby took precedent over toying with Lev.

Rolling my own pair of eyes, I let him win with a relenting sigh as I took his wrists into my hands to inspect them. They were a little chaffed and red, but they weren't bleeding or showing signs of possible bruising. Peering up at him with a soft and tender smile, I brought his hands up to my face, kissing every inch of them before comforting his wrists with my lips. "We'll leave after I get some ointment on you, and I'll feed you in the car," I told him with a flash of a big smile right before peeping up to my tippy toes and kissing him chastely.

After tending to his reddened areas with some ointment to ease any discomfort he'd possibly feel—and to help him heal properly—I forced him to hydrate himself before letting him into the car to drive us to the doctor's office. And, yes, he drove like a fucking maniac because he was too excited to see our baby. I barely managed to feed him properly because of how much he caused the car to jerk with his acceleration. Honestly, how not a crumb or drop of sauce fell onto the pristine floor or leather seat was beyond my comprehension.

"Hey, little lion, can we drop by the office building on the way? I just want to pop by and check things out." Well, I probably could've told him to swing by the place, but I felt generous and wanted to actually ask.

Blowing up my own company all those years ago wasn't for show or anything. Okay, maybe a big reason was to stick a huge ass middle finger to my parents basically, but that was besides the other plans and reasons I had. Aside from wanting to wipe the slate clean, I knew Angel's little safe haven business needed to expand. So, since I had plans to be involved greatly in the whole business, I figured a central place of operations for us and our workerswould be grand. Also, the property was big enough to build a secondary building that we turned into a housing place for the victims under our care and protection.

"Yeah, it's on the way, so I don't see why not," Lev replied with an indifferent shrug.