Chapter 28
Helena
It’s strange to think of Daniel’s house as my home.
It’s so strange to think that he kidnapped me and brought me here so recently, and now I feel more at ease here than I can remember feeling with anybody other than Abram. A homecare nurse who has a very no-nonsense attitude comes in to check on me twice a day before heading back to the main house. At least I assume that’s where she’s heading given that I can’t tell for sure from my view out of the window alone.
Physically I’m feeling much better. Just not quite better enough yet to ask what’s going to happen next.
I’m too busy enjoying the solid feel of Daniel’s chest under my cheek. He’s doing something on his phone that I don’t want to look up at and attempt to read. I don’t know if I’m allowed to, anyway. I’m happy enough to just sit here, enjoying the company for as long as he’s willing to allow it. For the first time in my life, I don’t feel like I need to be doing something to earn affection.
If I didn’t know better, I would say that Daniel seems to be relaxed too. Michael comes to visit the room a good deal to steal Daniel away for hushed conversations in the hallway, but he always returns quickly. I think he’s still worried for my health. I probably would be too if the positions were reversed.
As much as I want to ignore it and bask in this neutral happy place forever… I know that we can’t. Nothing like this is ever going to last. It’s not meant for people like me.
It’s been long enough.
“Daniel…” I ask softly as I trail my finger over his stomach. I trace the lines of muscle and shift direction when it meets a line of his tattoo. “When are we going to talk about it?”
His breathing slows for a moment.Where it used to be a comfortable, steady rhythm, it now feels too deep and forced. I know it came out of nowhere, but if we”re going to do this... if we”re going to give it a shot, we need to talk about it. We need to get everything out in the open so we can move ahead.
I push my thigh over his legs until I’m half on top of him and place both of my hands on his chest. I rest my chin on top of my hands and blink up at him. I never thought that it could be this peaceful attempting to communicate with somebody. I’ve never had the luxury of being blunt or saying exactly what I mean, so I can’t help but feel a little nervous posing such a direct question to him. A part of me expects him to throw my body off of him and tell me to mind my business, or something to that effect.
We’re past that, I hope.
Daniel reaches forward and brushes my hair back behind my ear. The blonde is starting to grow out now, and the dark brown of my roots is starting to peek through. I’m not sure if I’m going to correct it or not. Daniel hasn’t said what he prefers either way. I have to fight the urge to ask him every time I look in the mirror. Another part of being an honest version of myself is not always trying to fit my looks into what somebody else would prefer.
It’s really difficult.
“Do you really want to talk about that now?” Daniel asks softly. I can see the reluctance in his eyes.
“No,” I counter, ”But I think we have to… if you’re planning on keeping me.”
A mischievous glint overtakes the reluctance, and he sighs. His fingers push into my hair and ball into a fist behind my head, tilting it backward as he leans forward just enough to brush his lips against mine. “Nobody is going to take you from me, I promise you that.”
His words against my lips send a special sort of thrill all of the way down to my toes. It’s exactly what I wanted to hear, but it’s not enough to avoid the conversation entirely.
“I know… and as much as I love your fire, if keeping me gets you killed then it does neither of us any good,” I say as I watch Daniel’s eyes drag down my face to my exposed neck. I can’t allow myself to get distracted. Since the nurse cleared me for physical activity yesterday, Daniel has been trying his best to go slow with me, but I think his patience with himself is wearing rather thin.
“That’s for me to worry about,” Daniel says soothingly. At least, it’s supposed to be.
I frown. “That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”
“I don’t care about any of that,” Daniel insists.
I’m not convinced. “If you don’t, I do… there are a fair few people who would care a hell of a lot if something happened to you, you know.”
“Aw, careful now. I think that you’re bordering on pouting there, darling.”
“I just want to make sure that you’re going to live… and that keeping me here isn’t going to put an execution order out on your head,” I say with a hint of bitterness. If he’s not going to take this seriously, then I’m not sure that I want to be around him right now. I start to pull away from him, and Daniel’s hand falls from my hair. I push angrily off of his chest and get halfway up before he grabs my arms and pulls me back down again.
I collided against his chest roughly. I narrow my eyes up at him and set my lips into a firm line. It would probably be a hell of a lot more convincing if I was wearing more than his button-down right now.
“You’re not supposed to be taking on any added stress right now,” Daniel says seriously.
“To hell with that! Clearly, I’m tougher than I look. Tell me that you didn’t just try to trade your life for mine! We’ve been dancing around this for days now!”
Daniel deliberates for a moment and then sighs. “You’re a determined little thing, aren’t you?”
“I’m not going to dignify that with a response,” I bite back.
“I didn’t trade your life for mine, so put that worry to rest,” he says without letting go of my wrists, keeping them trapped between our two chests. “I’ve been hunting down some other leads, looking for leverage.”
Honestly, I didn’t think that he was even going to give me that much. I know how secretive this sort of thing can be with these mafia types that I’m so irresistibly drawn to.
“I have some very intelligent people working for me,” Daniel continues. “Now that we know a little bit more about what Lilian might have been doing in the time leading up to her death, as well as the ties that she met you through we’ve been able to piece together some additional information here and there.”
I bite down on my tongue and keep silent.
“Whoever it was that my sister was having an affair with had something to do with her death. The twins that work for me think that we might have had our information backward this entire time. They believe that she never wished to leave Alek, not really. I don’t know yet if the affair was voluntary or involuntary,” he trails off for a moment after that. I can’t imagine how uncomfortable that sort of implication must be for him.
Though the fact that there’s a possibility that my brother, however estranged, might not be a murderer is a relief. So much of one that I don’t know why he would have kept that from me.
“They are still working on figuring out if there was any footage or records that we can find to prove that she was unwilling to leave Alek, as well as who the man who actually killed her was,” Daniel finishes.
“I would like you to tell me… when you find out. I mean, I haven’t spoken with my brother in years, but if it’s not a murderer… then I want to know that,” I say softly. I don’t know why I’m so intimidated to ask questions or favors like this. I hope it’s something I can get over in time.
“What about…” I trail off. I don’t know if I will ever be able to say his name again out loud. I don’t think I want to. Speaking his name out of my lips feels like it would be a curse or a jinx that I would place on myself.
“Ah, yes, I wasn’t sure if that would be something you were ready to discuss yet,” Daniel amends, and he lets go of my wrists now that he’s certain I’m not going to try to go running off the bed again. “I guess the softest way to put it… is that he isn’t very happy at all with me right now.” Daniel chuckles softly and wraps his arms around me. His hands slide up underneath the white fabric of the shirt I’m wearing. He starts to trail up the small of my back with one hand as the other cups my ass firmly in his grip. “The New York Mafia is in a vulnerable spot right now. Even as I ready myself to officially take over… without the Volkovich alliance and the inevitable attack that he’s going to launch against me for slighting him… things are going to get interesting.”
I take a deep breath and nod. I know better than anyone that Nikolai isn”t capable of letting anything go, no matter how insignificant it may be. He”ll fight until he wins... or until he burns everything down trying.
“So, what does that mean then?” I ask, almost dreading the answer.
“You know as well as I do that there’s no point trying to hide from him. There’s a chance we could attempt to align ourselves with another Russian family in the attempt to liberate Alek from Nikolai, but that would be an outright attack. But it might be worth it for the power and ground that it will give us.”
I blink at him. “Wait… what?”
His smile shifts into something uncomfortable. “Volkovich has Alek… I don’t know how he got him, or where he found him but knowing what we know now—it is my intention to liberate him as well.”
“You can’t just drop something like that on me! How long have you known? You know what… I can’t…” I try to get off of him once more, but he holds me firmly in place.
“If you cannot keep yourself together, then you are not ready for this sort of information. At the time, I thought that Alek murdered my sister. I wanted him dead. I have every right to want my sister’s murderer dead. However, the choices were you… or him. Don’t expect me to apologize for the choice that I made,” Daniel says darkly.
It should bother me how badly I want him whenever he uses that tone of voice on me.
“These things take time. He’s still alive. He will remain that way so long as Nikolai thinks that I want to be the one to kill him myself. He will be used as leverage. You have to keep your wits about you.”
I glance down at him. “That’s going to be very hard to do if you keep holding me like this,” I whisper and allow myself to flatten the rest of the way into his chest. We sink slightly into the plush pillows, and Daniel smirks.
“I always have a plan,” he says reassuringly and kisses the tip of my nose. “However, getting you recovered fully is the top priority at the moment. I already have the plans in mind. This is what I’m good at, don’t you worry,” he says before kissing me softly. “Once you’re fully recovered, I plan to claim you fully in every way that our imaginations can dream up.”
“You have plans for that too, don’t you?” I tease playfully. It’s easier like this. It’s easier to just sink into him and let him do what he wants. For the first time in my life, I feel like I’m free to give him control without needing to have a backup plan or an exit strategy.
“Of course.” He grins and kisses me again. His arms band tighter around my waist and I wrap my arms around his head, surrendering to his kiss. For a moment, I forget all the rest. Just a couple of days ago I thought that I was a dead woman walking, and now the future is wholly unclear and undetermined. But, for the first time in my life I’m not worried about where it’s going to go.
“Am I to take this as you agreeing to being mine, Helena?” Daniel pulls back and whispers.
I pretend to deliberate for a moment. It’s actually the easiest choice that I can remember making. “Hmm, I guess so.” I grin and laugh as Daniel shifts us. He flips us over on the bed so that he’s on top of me, pinning me down. His comforting weight settles over me as my thighs lift partly to accommodate him. My knees lift on either side, my feet hooking around his calves to pull him closer—only to be interrupted.
A pebble is thrown against the window. Then again, and again.
Daniel’s forehead drops into my shoulder as he heaves a long-suffering sigh before dragging himself off of me. He crosses to the window to see who it is and peeks out of the curtain. I can tell exactly who it is by the face he makes.
“Henry?” I ask, knowing the answer.
Daniel nods. “He’s motioning rather fervently that we should go out and join him.” Daniel closes the curtain and glances back at me. “Are you feeling up for a different sort of game instead?”
“Of course,” I push myself up onto my elbows as Daniel disappears into the closet. He returns with a dress for me while putting on a shirt for himself. With a wink, he hands me itand pulls on a pair of pants. I don”t know when he had time to order me more appropriate clothing than what was in there before, and I don”t care. This is a lot more my style.
Daniel and I walk hand in hand outside. As I step barefoot into the perfectly manicured grass, the warm sunlight feels wonderful on my skin. Henry rushes up to me and tightly embraces me. I don”t notice he has more company than usual until he”s pulling away from me. Daniel stiffens as he looks over at a man in a wheelchair being pushed by the same woman who has been checking on me every day.
“Helena, this is my father, Joshua Colombo,” Daniel says in a tightly controlled voice.
I’m not sure that his father is fully aware of where he is, but I smile brightly anyway. “Nice to meet you, sir.” I don’t want to seem rude by trying to hold out my hand to shake. His lip curls slightly, and the oxygen tube in his nose shifts in a way that almost looks like it’s going to fall.
“Be nice, sir,” the woman behind him says firmly.
“This is the woman you’ve been fussing over?” Joshua says to his son. His voice is cold and cutting, but Henry doesn’t seem the slightest bit phased by it.
“She is,” Daniel says simply and slides his hands into his pockets.
Joshua turns a critical eye to me once more. “Soft, too soft,” he remarks.
Daniel scoffs loudly. “Wrong again,” he says simply with a smile.
Joshua motions with his fingers to be brought forward and the nurse pushes him with a sigh.
“He doesn’t mean anything by it. You just have to—” she tries to explain his behavior away, but he motions with the same hand to have her stop speaking, so she does.
Joshua turns his head this way and that and finally grunts in what I have to say is approval. “Well, if Henry likes her… she must not be too bad,” he finally says. I have a feeling that’s about the closest thing to a compliment that Mr. Colombo has ever given.
“I don’t just like her!” Henry interjects. “She’s my favorite!”
I grin and hug Henry again. I start to speak, but Daniel beats me to it.
“Would you like to keep her, Henry?” he says, and I glance up at him curiously, not sure what he means by that.
“Yeah! Of course!” Henry says happily.
“Good,” Daniel locks eyes with me and grins. “Because she’s agreed to be your new mom.”