Chapter 23
When you thought something would be easy, peasy lemon squeezy. But it’s actually been stress depressy lemon zesty.
— Keely’s secret thoughts
KEELY
Well and truly used, and used well, I headed with Dima into his place.
The kittens met us at the door, and Dima bent down and picked up the first one that made its way over to us.
The next three literally clawed their way up his leg, and he looked at them like they were bugs.
I grinned and took out my phone, switching over to the camera and recording a video that I then sent to the family group chat—both with my brothers, and with Dima’s family.
Dima felt his phone buzz and reached into his pocket, despite his handful of kittens, and pulled it out.
He leveled me with a ‘really?’ look, then shoved it back into his pocket.
My phone buzzed in my hand, and I looked down to see that only Cutter had replied in our group chat, where Chevy and Copper had been super-fast as of late.
Not anymore…
“ What’s with that look on your face?” Dima asked.
I sighed and started stripping out of my clothes.
“ Long story short, Copper had a girl in high school that he loved. His best friend, though neither one of them made a move. Then he killed Dad , and Copper refused to talk to her or allow her visitation. She told him she’d wait for him until he was out. And honestly, I thought she had. Not that I’d really blame her if she didn’t, you know? But then today, we went to the hospital to go surprise Chevy for some brunch, and we both go jump on him in the breakroom where he’s sleeping, and there’s a woman sleeping in his bed.” I paused for dramatic effect. “ Reign .”
“ Fuck .” Dima looked startled. “ And what happened after that?”
“ Reign looked devastated. Chevy looked gutted. Copper left looking awfully blank.” I sighed and held my clothes in my hands, wondering what to do with them.
Dima took them, then immediately tossed them into the kitchen trash.
I giggled and walked through his house in my bra, heading for the shower.
He followed me, but didn’t get inside.
He waited outside the glass doors as I cleaned off, taking much longer than I’d intended thanks to the way his shower was so magical.
“ So that’ll be fun,” Dima finally returned. “ There was this one girl in high school that I really liked. Thought she was fuckin’ gorgeous and felt like maybe I could get her to go out with me, even though she was two years ahead of me in school. One day I head to her place to ask her out, and I see Shasha leaving her house, tucking his shirt in.”
“ Aren’t you and Shasha like five years apart? Wasn’t she underage?” I asked, turning to face him.
“ Yes .” He nodded. “ But at the time, she was eighteen, and I was only sixteen.” He shook his head. “ At the time, I’d been so fuckin’ mad. But then I’d realized that two years when you’re eighteen and twenty isn’t that big of a deal. But two years when you’re sixteen and eighteen is.” He laughed then. “ Funny enough, it wasn’t even what it looked like. Shasha went there because the girl’s dad owed him money. Beat the shit out of the dad and had to make himself presentable afterward. Hence the tucking in the shirt. So for two years I was mad at him because he’d stolen the girl I liked, when in reality he’d just been beating up her dad.”
His eyes went warm as he watched me giggle.
“ Teenage heartache at its finest,” she sobered then. “ That’s not what this is, I don’t think.”
“ I’m just going to say now, you should probably keep yourself out of it.” He pulled a cat off his leg that was trying to climb it again and dropped it to the floor. “ It’ll get ugly, and you need to let that play out between the players, not the sideline.”
I grumbled under my breath, then turned off the shower and got out.
He held out a towel for me, and I willingly went into his arms as he wrapped it around my body.
It was huge and hung down to almost my ankles.
“ This thing is really large,” I pointed out the obvious.
“ It’s a bath sheet that Nastya insisted that I have. All of this décor is hers and Milena’s designs. If you want to change anything, you’re more than welcome,” he offered.
I shrugged. “ Let’s see what I can make happen with my things when they get delivered.”
“ Deal ,” he drawled. “ Now , let’s talk about kittens, and boundaries.”
I snickered. “ I’m not sure that cats know what boundaries are.”
“ Well , I’m not sleeping with them, so you’re going to have to figure them out.”
The next morning I woke before him.
It was the first time in all of our time together that I’d been the first one awake.
Last night after I’d gone to bed, he’d stayed up to work with Shasha .
I wasn’t sure what time he’d come to bed, but what I did know was that I was nice and snuggly now.
Except , I had to pee like a motherfucker, and the nice and snuggly would have to go.
I carefully peeled myself out of Dima’s arms, my eyes going to the dog tags that he kept on twenty-four seven.
They were nestled between his bicep, which was half curled underneath his pillow and his neck.
The chain was curled around his neck and ran along his muscular shoulder and collarbone.
It was such a great view that I pulled my phone out and snapped a photo.
I cursed when the shutter sounded, but Dima didn’t wake.
Carefully tiptoeing out of the room, I did my business and got ready for the day.
I had to be with Copper in an hour and a half, and I needed to find something to wear before then, meaning I’d have to run by my apartment.
I had some clothes, but not nearly enough.
Since I didn’t have an alternate ride, I called an Uber , then wrote a note and left it on the kitchen counter.
I fed the cats and left, disarming and rearming the alarm after I shut the door behind me.
“ Where you goin’?” my brother, Cutter , asked.
I looked up to find him stopped at the end of the walkway that led to the street.
He eyed the Uber that was waiting for me, then raised his brow.
“ Copper’s taking my car, and I’m apparently carless for the time being. So I need a ride back to my apartment,” I explained.
“ Thought you moved in with Dima ?” He raised a brow.
“ I did,” I said. “ Kind of. I just said I would, not that I’ve moved a single thing other than a few sets of clothes. I have to go back to my apartment and get a few things before I have to meet Copper at the office. The rest is scheduled to be packed up this weekend.”
His eyes went hard. “ Chevy told me what y’all walked in on.”
I shrugged as I went to the Uber and said, “ Hi .”
The woman smiled in greeting, and I looked over the hood of the car and said, “ We’ll talk about it when I get home.”
“ We’re going to have to figure something out, because Copper’s gone from his place.” I sighed. “ There’s more to that than him being angry. But I’ll talk to you later. Gotta go.”
I dropped into the SUV , thankful that there was a woman driving and not a man.
Men always made me uncomfortable.
“ The drive should take about fifteen minutes,” the woman said.
But there was something about her voice that had me frowning.
“ Are you okay?” I asked as she pulled out of the street the Semyonovs lived on.
She looked up at me in the rearview mirror, and when our eyes met, I knew that something was wrong.
Then I saw the head pop up over the back seat, and a thick arm came around my neck and pulled. “ Nothing’s wrong. Not anymore.”
We drove what felt like all the way through Dallas , ending up in Irving at a big white building in the middle of nowhere.
Chester gestured for me to get out on his side, and I had no other choice but to do so.
I only had to delay for a little bit.
It’d been plenty long enough for Copper to wonder where I was, and he would’ve called Dima already.
I had to give myself another half hour or so, and he’d be here.
I knew it.
That meant I had to cooperate. At least for now.
We made it inside and Chester gestured at a table with a computer.
I sat down, my eyes wary.
“ Sign into your bank,” he ordered.
“ No , thank you.” I smiled serenely.
His eyes narrowed, and his hand fisted, as if he was about to really fuck me up. But then he shifted, and all of the anger drained out of his face.
“ If you don’t do what I’m asking, I’m going to make you wish you did,” he warned, his eyes narrowed and blank.
That fear never came.
Because he wasn’t very scary.
He had no clue what scary was.
Honestly , as I stared at him, I wondered if he would even be able to hurt me.
He didn’t look like it.
Then again, people surprised you sometimes…
“ You stupid motherfucker!” I heard roared as a woman barreled into the building, hands waving in the air. “ We had a fucking plan!”
“ Natasha , that plan was taking too long.” He turned his angry eyes to me. “ I’ve waited years for this chance. I’m done waiting. I got let go yesterday, and I want to move.”
I frowned, wondering what the hell they were talking about.
“ And now I have to take all those goddamn cats back because you didn’t do a good enough job getting rid of them!” she snarled.
Whoa .
What in the hell was going on here?
But with her saying cats, I knew exactly who she was.
Natasha Leo .
Her angry eyes turned to me then, and I nearly gasped.
Those eyes.
I knew those eyes.
I stared at those eyes in the mirror every morning.
I looked back to Chester , and looked at him harder.
Was I related to them?
Proving that she was well adept at reading expressions, she pointed at me.
“ Yes , you should know me.” She narrowed her eyes. “ I’m your sister after all.”
If I wasn’t in a chair with sides, I would’ve fallen straight out of it at her words.
My mouth fell open. “ What ?”
“ Oh , that’s rich. Acting like you don’t know what I’m talking about.” She turned to Chester . “ We should just kill her now.”
Now , where I believed that Chester wouldn’t hurt me, the same couldn’t be said for the woman.
She looked unhinged.
My sister .
Oh my god .
“ We can’t kill her without getting access to her money first,” Chester said. “ We deserve that much.”
Both of them turned to me then, and I had a sinking feeling in my gut. “ What money?”
“ The money in the trust that you got from daddy dearest.” Natasha crossed her arms over her chest. “ It’s just as much mine as it is yours.”
I scoffed.
That was long gone.
Had been since our grandfather had used it to fight lawyers to keep what little was left.
“ And you owe some to me for having to deal with all this,” Chester said. “ I’ve spent years and countless hours of my life getting to this point. Worked my ass off to become an FBI agent. Solved cases that were definitely a waste of my time. I deserved the money that her stepfather was going to leave to me. Then your boyfriend went and killed him, though I can’t fuckin’ prove it, before I could make him put me into his will, and now all that money goes to Natasha’s mother, who won’t share it.”
I shook my head. “ I’m not tracking. I don’t know what either of y’all are talking about.”
Natasha sat down and leveled her gaze on me. “ You really don’t know, do you?”
“ No , I really don’t,” I admitted. “ Please enlighten me before you kill me, or I’ll have to die being confused.”
Natasha rolled her eyes. “ We’re not going to kill you. We’re going to take all of your money, and then we’re going to make you have an accident. Probably involving a head or spinal injury.”
I think I might rather die…
“ We have the same father,” Natasha said, gesturing from her to me.
I frowned, though I was able to get that much.
“ My mother was married to Alexander Pettigrew .” She smiled, though it was a sour smile, as if her life had been tough and she didn’t want to admit it. “ Alexander Pettigrew was my stepfather. Before you were born, my mother and your father had a one-night stand that ended with me.”
I blinked. “ What ?”
I hadn’t even realized that man had a child in his life.
Though , let’s be honest, I’d done everything that I could not to know anything about that man ever.
“ Long story short, your father and mine refused to acknowledge me because I was a bastard. He paid Alexander to take care of me and keep me the hell away from y’all.” She laughed harshly. “ Alexander abused me from the time that I can first remember. And this one.” She jerked her chin at Chester . “ Well , he just likes my pussy and will do anything that I ask of him.”
I waited for Chester to deny it, and he didn’t.
I didn’t think anyone’s vagina could be that good, but apparently I was wrong.
Then again, Dima had killed someone for me.
Maybe it wasn’t ‘pussy’ as much as he loved her. She was just crude about it.
“ Why , exactly, would you ruin your life to get money that I don’t even have?” I asked, aiming that question at Chester .
“ Money ,” Chester replied harshly. “ You don’t know what it’s like to be so damn poor that you’re living on the streets of Dallas like a rat. Then she found me one night, and I finally saw what it was to be happy. We’ve been together ever since.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “ When we were old enough, we went into law enforcement to try to find a way to get Pettigrew out of prison in hopes that he would be thankful. Instead , he saw it as a personal affront, and refused to ever speak to us again, despite the fact that we were trying to help him.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I stayed silent.
“ For my entire life, I’ve watched y’all live the good life. With your happy brothers, and your great grandfather.” Natasha leaned forward in her chair. “ But I think that should end. I think it’ll be the perfect little ending to see their perfect baby sister no longer whole.”
I blinked.
“ I’d spent years trying to beg for any scrap of attention from our father. Every time he’d come over, I’d bat my big green eyes at him and beg him to notice me. But he acted like I wasn’t there. Then one time he brought you over, and I realized that I’d never get what I wanted. I had to get it some other way.” She leaned forward. “ So I started planting seeds of doubt. When I was fifteen, I began my campaign to make your life a living hell.”
“ Why ?” I asked. “ My life wasn’t good already. He was controlling as hell, and…” I didn’t want to tell her what else he did.
She smiled, though, as if she knew without me saying the words aloud.
“ I started sending Alexander nudes of you.” She grinned. “ I got really great at Photoshop .”
My stomach sank.
“ Then I planted the seed of doubt in our dad’s mind. That you weren’t his.” She grinned. “ Sent him evidence of his wife cheating years and years ago. Made him question everything.”
“ He fell for it, too.” Chester shrugged. “ I remember Alexander and him talking about it multiple times.”
I was sick to my stomach.
I’d always wondered what changed.
Dad had been controlling when I was younger, yes. But he hadn’t been what he’d been at the end.
I’d thought it was because I’d hit puberty, but maybe all along it was them.
“ That was our first operation together.” She narrowed her eyes. “ Truthfully , I was kind of happy to see him gone. Thought he went too quickly, though.”
My face felt like it was numb.
“ That was our mistake. Your father died too quickly, and he wasn’t able to leave any of his fortune to Alexander like we’d intended for him to,” Chester explained. “ But it was okay, because Alexander found a way to funnel money from Castanon Enterprises on his own. Until that one indiscretion that sent him to jail.”
Indiscretion .
Raping a girl was an indiscretion?
What the hell was wrong with these two?
If what they were saying was true, they were the reason that my own father had assaulted me!
“ Alexander was set to get out in months, and he was going to give us everything,” Chester said, sounding delusional. “ Then your boyfriend took him out, and all of his money went to Natasha’s mother.”
I looked at Natasha , who was rolling her eyes.
“ Why not just wait for her to give it to you?” I wondered, my brain feeling a little bit too full as I tried to comprehend everything that they’d told me.
I was so confused.
I had no clue what the hell was going on.
It was like I’d come in the middle of a story, and was trying to play catch up.
“ Because my mother would rather donate it all to charity than ever share it with me.” She shrugged. “ My mom doesn’t like me too much.”
I couldn’t imagine why…