Chapter Fifteen - Emily
Going to the clinic the other day and making sure the baby’s doing okay has eased a little of the pressure on my brain. I’m going to have to work out coping mechanisms to deal with my fears and phobias about Ryurik finding out because I’m already attached to the baby, even if it’s only been incubating in my stomach for less than seven weeks.
Walking to my car, tired but happy I’ve finished for evening, I’m beat and ready for the longest, hottest shower there is. We’re no closer to getting a read on Ryurik, but now I’ve got a sense of his street operations and the blocks he covers. It’s a tough situation in our department because for too long a blind eye has been turned, a power vacuum formed between the corrupt and the just to keep the people of Chicago safe.
This is why I wanted to be a detective and not a normal cop in the city. It would be too heart-wrenching to deal with all the shootings, the carjackings, and the robberies, but being in the organized crime unit is giving me an insight into why it might be a worse department to be in.
Bringing my keys out, I’m met by Jeff again. I smile as he steps in stride with me to the car, a slightly sheepish expression on his handsome face. He’s cute. In the right way. Very bashful. And he’s not a hard guy to like. “Hey, there you are. Lost in those thoughts again,” he starts out.
“Yeah, that’s me. Lost in them deep today,” I admit, wishing things were simple.
“How about sharing them with me over the weekend sometime maybe?” he counters, his innocent request melting my heart. He’s a shy guy. Aw, but the issue is another man is lurking in the back of my brain, rent free.
I start to talk, thinking it might be a smart idea to go out with Jeff. At a bare minimum it might start to give me the distance I need to sort through what to do about Ryurik.
A whoosh comes from the side of me, giving me no time to respond, a harsh voice ringing out and responding on my behalf. “No. She’s not free on the weekend. She’s already got plans. Back off!” Ryurik commands in rough possession, my mouth dropping open as I watch Jeff’s reaction.
“Are you okay, Emily?” Jeff asks calmly, his hand sticking into his pants pocket, the situation approaching becoming volatile. What the fuck is he doing apprehending me in the Chicago Police Department parking lot? He doesn’t have anyone else with him, and he’s snatching me up in front of my work colleague! He is nuts, and all my senses are rocking, but I keep my smile even and cool as Ryurik glares at me, shifting his large bulk between Jeff and me.
“Hey, Jeff. It’s fine. Maybe some other weekend.” Jeff squints at Ryurik who has a navy-blue baseball cap hanging low over his eyes. At least he has enough sense to not come out without a partial disguise. I wait for the penny to drop with Jeff. The stalemate is incredibly unnerving, my heart leaping into my throat.
“Okay. See you tomorrow, Emily. You’ve got my number,” he adds, squinting at Ryurik, and it’s only seconds before he realizes who the guy is. Please don’t look harder, Jeff. Just go. You don’t want to involve yourself in this mess. Telepathically, I load the message to him, hoping he gets it, and slowly I watch him glide over to his car and get in as Ryurik’s hand grips around my bicep like a boa constrictor.
“Okay, thanks, Jeff. Have a good night,” I call out with as much composure as possible. Wrenching my arm free of his grip, I glare at him, hissing back at him. “ You are a maniac, Ryurik! You’re in a Chicago Police Department parking lot, and you’re trying to manhandle me?”
Ryurik’s sweating, and his eyes are red. “I don’t care where we are,” he grinds, stepping forward as Jeff drives off. “You aren’t going anywhere with that guy.”
I’m angered and scared by his demeanor, and Ryurik backs me down to the hood of my car. I’m so stunned by his irritational behavior that I’m fearing for my life. My leg caves in as I hit the front bumper of my vehicle, my breath hitching in my throat. Desperate for somebody to come out of the automatic glass doors, I look in that direction, but they stay clamped shut.
“What the fuck are you talking about? You can’t tell me who I’m going to talk to, Ryurik. And last time I checked, you were just on trial for being a cop killer.” I’m baiting an unhinged time bomb, and I know it, but the combination of being found out, carrying his child, and his invasion into my world is forcing me into a corner.
Ryurik sneers, baring his polished white teeth. “Oh, you think because you’re outside the police station that you’re safe.” He comes closer to my face. My vehicle is in a tucked away position, and I now wish I’d parked closer in, not in a back corner where it can’t be easily seen.
“I am safe.” I’ve got barely enough wiggle room to show my gun as Ryurik grins, shaking his shaggy mane out.
“No. You’re not. I know your little secret, and I don’t give a fuck what anyone in your little police department job thinks.”
Fuck. Please, no. How did he find out? Gulping down the lump stuck at the base of my throat, I stare at the ruthless man in front of me in disbelief. “What are you talking about?” I pant, playing the role of a great pretender.
Ryurik stretches out one hand on the side of the hood as I bite down on my folded bottom lip, the taste of coppery blood tinged on my tongue. “Don’t play dumb cop. You’re pregnant, and I know it’s mine.
There it is. The worst truth imaginable escapes from his mouth. Disgusted with myself I move like a crab to the side of the vehicle. “How did you get my medical records, Ryurik? Did you steal them?” I ask, my voice straddling between breaking into sobs or cracking. I can’t tell which. Neither are preferable.
“What kind of Bratva underboss would I be if I weren’t able to retrieve personal records without another person’s permission?”
“That’s highly illegal,” I bite back, licking my lip, my eyes sealed to the door, but again there’s no movement. There are cameras all over the parking lot and no matter how psycho Ryurik is, I’m sure he’s not that stupid to keep standing here. He’s going to make a move sooner versus later, I figure.
“Is it? More so you’re highly unethical for hiding my own child from me. I have a right to be involved in my child’s life. I wonder what your boss, Jackson, would think about that?” he taunts silkily, the bright green in his eyes shimmering.
I did hide the truth from him, and it’s got me nervous. Maybe it was completely the wrong decision. I say nothing for a minute, thinking quickly on my feet. I don’t want to confirm or deny that I’m having his kid. Maybe if I do, I’ll be calling his bluff. What if he doesn’t have any medical records at all to prove it’s his kid and he had me followed? With a quick conclusion I think that’s a more likely scenario.
Taking the risk, I look straight down the barrel of Ryurik’s psychotic green eyes. “You’re making a big assumption.”
“No. I’m not. You’re mine and I own you. You’re having my kid. A Bratva child.”
Shaking my head, I keep living in the lie. “You’re making the assumption, you’re the only man I’ve slept with since the club,” I taunt, knowing it’s liable to get me slapped, but I need to figure out a plan—and quick.
Ryurik slams the palm of his hand on the top of my hood, the shock of the loud thump as he indents it, making me gasp. “It’s mine. I saw the results. And I know the location of all your friends, and your sickly adopted mother, Laura.”
My eyes widen as my heart takes a beating thinking about Ryurik hurting any of my loved ones, and it’s not as if he won’t do it. He’s already proven he doesn’t care, despite the fact he looks like a friendly, affable, easygoing guy on the surface.
“You stay away from them,” I say, but there’s weakness in my warning and Ryurik smells it.
“Then you stop playing tough detective and listen to me. I know exactly how to make a death look like an accident. And get this,” he breathes, his minty breath covering my face as he leans closer. “You know all about this.”
Willy Dee’s case shows up in my mind. Not that anybody thinks his case is an accident, but if he could so easily get away with killing a senior cop and not receiving so much as a slap on the wrist, then what would it be for him to offload my body in the woods somewhere?
“I think you’re making a mistake,” I tell him, but in the quietest voice possible.
“No. You are. Listen to me,” he says carefully, a slight breeze blowing his hair over his eyes as dusk settles in, the streetlights coming on. “Get in my car. It’s next to yours. Isn’t that sweet, huh? His and hers,” he jokes as my stomach swirls, my head woozy. I have to listen to him and as I round to the passenger door of his SUV, I recall my training for what to do in a kidnap situation, re-running all the test cases.
I’m going to need to draw on every lesson I had, but right now all my training has flown out the window and my mind is frozen numb. I’m on the road to death… surely.