Free The Score by Bethany-Kris Page A

next to walking out of his house that morning knowing his wife’s heart was breaking, was hand his trembling, scared, and crying son off to another man. It was safer for Demyan, though.
    No doubt, they weren’t there for Ivan.
    Anton watched Ivan curl a fighting Demyan into his chest as he got to his knees on the floor and automatically put his hands behind his head. The less threatening he seemed at their entrance, the less likely they were to cause him harm, never mind his son seeing it.
    “Demyan, it’s okay,” Anton repeated when the first kick to the door landed with a solid thump. The second and third only followed louder, harder. “Hide his face, Ivan!”
    When the door finally broke, it wasn’t a second before Anton found himself face down on the floor, his son’s cries overtaking all other sounds. Cuffs tightened around his wrists to an almost painful point, but Anton refused to show it. A boot landed hard between his shoulder blades, keeping him pinned to the floor even though he wasn’t fighting.
    “ Papa !”
    “Anton Daniil Avdonin, you’re under arrest for the murder of Sonny Carducci, Tatiana Belov, Sergei Belov …”
    Anton tuned the words out and focused on his son, instead.
    ***
    “Vine!”
    Frantically, Viviana turned in every direction she could look searching for the familiar voice calling for her. FBI agents had swarmed her home less than an hour earlier when she was getting ready to leave for the bookstore. Everything they held dear in their home, from photographs, to knickknacks, to their son’s toys, were thrown about and strewn so carelessly.
    There was nothing clean or nice about this search.
    Viviana felt intruded on in the worst way.
    “Sasha, I’m in the kitchen,” Viviana called back.
    “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but you’re not permitted inside during—”
    “ Zatknis', idi na khuy ,” Sasha spat. “Get out of my way, you fucking fool, so I can take my grandson in to his mother!”
    Despite the seriousness of the situation, Viviana snorted. In all her years of knowing her mother-in-law, Viviana hadn’t once heard Sasha tell someone to shut up so venomously, never mind the colorful words she used to do it with.
    When a furious Sasha rounded the corner to enter the kitchen with a confused, frightened looking Demyan, Viviana’s heart broke a little more. From what she understood, thanks to the very short call with Ivan, her son had been there to see his father arrested. The team that went in on them at the club hadn’t been particularly nice about it, either.
    “Ma!” Demyan wailed and reached with grabbing hands for Viviana.
    “I’m sorry, Vine. I would have gotten him here sooner, but the traffic is awful and they’ve got roadblocks set up down the street,” Sasha said as she gave her daughter-in-law an awkward, one-armed hug.
    “It’s okay, really.”
    “Here, take him. I think he’s hungry, tired, and in desperate need of a nap.”
    Viviana hadn’t been able to go to the club to pick Demyan up because of the goddamn agents searching her house. No way would it be acceptable for them to be inside the residence without her or Anton’s presence.
    Demyan calmed the moment he could bury his tiny head into his mother’s neck. As was his favorite thing to do when he was overwhelmed, he grasped tightly to the free strands of his mother’s hair and turned silent.
    “What about Anton?” Viviana asked, keeping her tone calm for her son’s sake.
    “Ivan will be with him as much as he can. Arraignment will be in a day or so. The best we can hope for is a bond.”
    “On murder charges,” Viviana said dimly.
    With everything that had happened over the last night and day, Viviana didn’t want to see her husband behind bars. They had too much that needed to be said, whether it was from anger, or not. And no matter what, she loved Anton.
    Always. Even if it fucking hurt.
    “What am I going to do?”
    Sasha nodded, sadness coloring up her familiar blue eyes. “Faith,