7. Galena
GALENA
W aking came in slow pieces—like surfacing from underwater, each breath a struggle for clarity.
At first, I wasn’t sure where I was. The room was beautiful and filled with books.
Floor to ceiling like Beauty and the Beast style.
I’d been laid out on a gigantic sectional sofa that was soft against my skin, the expensive kind that whispered against my cheek.
I wasn’t in the storage unit, which wasn’t exactly comfortable, but I had grown accustomed to it and felt safe there.
Then memory returned.
I sat up too quickly, feeling disoriented.
Sunlight slanted through half-drawn curtains, casting stripes across a floor I didn’t recognize.
For a moment, I just breathed, trying to orient myself and decide if I was safe or in a different kind of danger.
The back of my head was tender, but nothing hurt or ached.
I still had my sneakers on. Maybe I could make this work and get out of here.
The voices reached me through the open door before my feet touched the floor.
Maybe I could escape and figure out how to get back to the storage unit to grab my stuff.
It had been stupid to stay in New York this long.
The longer I stayed, the higher the chance I’d get caught.
There was just that albatross hanging around my neck about the injustice of the whole situation.
I was scared, but still… even though I wanted to run, something inside me wanted them to pay for what happened to me and my mother.
I stood quietly, moving toward the muffled voices.
My feet sank into plush carpets spread over hardwood as I crept forward.
I recognized a woman’s voice first—sharp and protective, the way only someone who’s had to fight for her place can sound.
Then another voice. Deep. Measured. I hesitated, the conversation slipping through the air like smoke.
“You should’ve told her years ago,” a man said, his words brittle with emotion. “She needs to hear the truth, Maxim. I know you feel like shit about it, but … fuck. We handled this all wrong.”
A second man spoke, his voice was hoarse and worn down.
“She had a life. A good one. Maria had built a beautiful home for herself and Galena away from the bratva. I didn’t want to rip her away from that.
My father was a dick. You know that. Maria had escaped it.
She risked everything to give Galena a life away from all this.
Should I have dragged her from what she had? Away from her mother?”
“Give him a break, Ilias,” a woman chimed in.
There was the gurgle of a baby. That couldn’t be right.
If these men kidnapped me, would they have a baby here?
They were the same men who cornered me on the sidewalk, right?
They didn’t seem the baby type. They knew my mother and my real name, which was concerning, but at the same time, the way they were talking …
I leaned into the wall. It seemed like they knew her, or me. Like they were connected.
Looking around the room, it was nice—a home, uber plush.
Like ridiculously rich. Some kind of brownstone, if I had to guess, by the huge, nearly floor-to-ceiling, squared-off windows and the architecture of the room.
Nicer than anywhere else I’d ever been. I wasn’t sure if that eased my mind, though.
I inched out into the hallway that separated the library where I’d been and this space, carefully trying to keep my breathing even. “Maxim did what he thought was right for his sister.”
Sister? Who was his sister?
“You aren’t wrong about Maria needing to leave,” the other man admitted. “Alexei was trash. She did the right thing.”
The memory of that day in the alley was crystal clear, the guttural words they spat at my mother: “You’ll always be one of Alexei’s whores.”
There was a pounding in my ears, the rage hot in my belly, and without a thought to the consequences, I strode down the hallway.
My mother wasn’t perfect, but she loved me with a fire that illuminated every corner of my life.
Even when the world turned against her, the memory of her kept me above the wreckage and afloat.
It was the only thing that kept me going on some days.
My anger had driven me down the hallway, but I wasn’t ready for what I found when I arrived.
The two men who had entered the diner and later chased me through the street were sitting on a sofa, with a woman perched on the armrest. One of the men was holding a baby pressed against his chest, sleeping in a way that only children seem to find — deep and filled with happy dreams. The sight was so surprising that it startled me.
They didn’t seem like they had been chasing a strange woman down the sidewalk earlier that day, or as if they were guilty of anything. They appeared completely at ease.
“Oh, you’re awake. We were worried.” The woman stood with her hand raised toward the two men, who both looked in my direction.
She looked surprisingly normal next to them in her torn jeans and T-shirt.
“I’m Cora. This is Maxim.” She waved at the man holding the baby.
“And our son Vasily. Sorry you had such a scare.” She rolled her eyes at Maxim.
“These two.” She shrugged as if to say, ‘what can you do,’ then added, “You fainted on the street.” She spoke more quickly when she saw the anger flare in my eyes.
“Which is their fault because they scared you. They shouldn’t have chased you. ”
She looked nice and normal. Sort of. She seemed out of place in this setting with her bare feet and a t-shirt featuring a cartoon zombie horde chasing after someone. This was especially off-balance compared to the luxury of the brownstone and the two men beside her.
Reminding myself that they were talking about my mother, I took a step forward, my hand trailing against the wall as my eyes met those of the other man. He was the bigger of the two, bulkier, although they were both frighteningly large.
“That’s Ilias,” Cora said casually, seeing where I was looking. “You’re safe here, Galena. Maxim is your half-brother. We’ve been looking for you.”
“What?” The conversation they’d been having rolled over me, and spots appeared before my eyes as I fought the rising anxiety. “What do you mean?”
I brought back my urge to find my mad while trying to remind myself of my 3-3-3 method.
I needed to calm down. The last thing I needed was to lose consciousness around these people.
Three things I could see: the baby with his sweaty hair, the zombie shirt, and the huge windows that showed the city streets beyond the glass.
Three things I could feel: I dug my nails into my palm, letting them sting; the carpet under my feet, wallpaper under my other hand.
“I’m your brother,” Maxim said. He didn’t move from the couch, thank goodness. “I’m only looking for you so I can help. To protect you.”
“You’re my brother?” Staring at him, I tried to imagine that I was related to him.
No way was I related to him. That was crazy.
He was relaxed against the sofa, with his son in his arms, the little boy’s hair forming gentle curls against his sweaty forehead.
Even from here, I could see the mink-like lashes resting on his plump cheeks.
My words seemed to be stuck in my throat somewhere.
“Yes. Your brother.” His words were careful and measured. “Our father wasn’t a good man. He was cruel and did bad things. Your mother did the only thing she could to protect you, and took you away when you were little.”
“Alexei. That was his name?” I tried to balance out the knowledge, but I couldn’t do it.
“He was my father?” The other man, Ilias, had shifted forward almost imperceptibly, his hands clasped together in front of him.
Huge hands that could crush me like I was a bug.
Anxiety was rising like steam inside me as I looked at the two of them.
The next thing was to move three parts of my body. I wiggled my toes, bit my lip, and closed my eyes once while my heartbeat pounded in my ears loudly like a drumbeat. Feeling more centered, I focused again on the people across from me.
“Yes. That was his name. Alexei Volkov. Like your brother said, he was an evil man, and your mother did the only thing she could by taking you away for a different life.” He paused as he watched me carefully.
“We come from a world of dangerous people. We won’t deceive you about who we are, and we will never harm you.
Ever .” His words matched what I wanted to hear, but it was the intensity behind them that resonated.
Cora nodded in agreement. “They aren’t lying to you. I swear on my life. On Vasily’s life. You can trust them.”
I felt okay now. The anxiety was fading away as I watched the giant, Ilias, feeling both uncomfortable and comforted by his words.
They were believable, and I sensed truth in them.
The thought of him protecting me was tantalizing, but men were notorious liars.
Every woman knew that. Cora? Her throwing her words in.
Well, that meant something. I wasn’t sure how much.
“ Zayka . Even if that’s true, you shouldn’t swear on such things,” Maxim said gently, glancing at the woman while softly patting the baby’s back.
It was hard to believe he was my brother, the tattooed man with the icy eyes who looked so dangerous.
“But my wife is right, Galena. I’m sorry that your mother died.
Maybe I did the wrong thing by not coming to you sooner and giving you the choice to know me, but you seemed happy.
” The last was said almost wistfully as if he were looking through a window into my past life.