Chapter 15
Fifteen
LUKA
H ad my little sister ever been on time? I strolled through the open barn, eyeing the horses in their stables. She had added several since the last time I was home. Katya often texted pictures when she was deciding between her first and second picks. I couldn’t keep up with her decisions, though. She changed her mind at the last second. I patted a chestnut stallion while I waited for her to arrive.
The upgrades were noticeable. She had obviously taken my advice and used the Petrovs steak fortune to her advantage. There were two fully furnished apartments adjacent to the building that were new. I wondered why they had been built.
It had been years since I had spent any time at the stables. It was always Katya’s favorite place to escape. I assumed it still was. I continued my walk, leaving the horses behind. We used to run through the fields together as kids. Half the time I was chasing her with a frog or mouse I had found near the barn, the other half she was trying to catch up to me. I was older, faster, stronger. There were days I didn’t want my little sister on my heels or next to me. I’d outrun her and end up at one of the equipment buildings. I stopped outside the door and let it creak open when I turned the handle.
I spotted the tractor on the other side of the giant room. I couldn’t believe it was the same one. I ran my palm over the hood. I smiled at the small dent in the side. My grandfather had given me the wheel and I was over eager to prove how I could maneuver around tight spaces. My index finger rested in the groove. Childhood was simple. I barely recognized the life I lived now.
I wanted to cancel the meeting and track down Amara instead but as the head of the family, I couldn’t ignore Katya’s request. Not when she was so desperate to speak to me.
But my mind kept retracing the steps last night. Had I slipped up? Was it information she received on her call from Ciro? Whatever it was she had discovered, it was going to take a hell of a lot of planning to convince her to trust me again. Fuck me.
“You’re here? I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
I stepped back from the tractor at the sound of Katya’s voice. My sister strolled toward me in black riding boots.
“I’ve been here a while,” I answered. “Just looking around.”
“Sorry. I couldn’t get away from Andrey,” she explained.
“Oh?” I raised my eyebrows. “He could have joined us.” I still didn’t feel like I knew much about my brother-in-law. Over five years I’d only seen him a few times. He wasn’t interesting. He seemed to care about Katya. He was proud to be in the steakhouse business and whatever else the Petrovs ran on the side. We didn’t share much of a brotherly bond.
I also knew things had taken a new turn now that Katya was pregnant. We were about to be tied together for the rest of our lives. The Petrovs and the Novikovs. It was everything my father had wanted for her. For the family.
“No.” She shook her head. “I need to talk to you. Without him anywhere near here. He hates the stables. It’s safe here.” I didn’t like her tone.
Her call last night I had sounded urgent. She seemed frantic and impatient. I was distracted. I was more concerned about my date with Amara being interrupted. I tried to read Katya’s body language now. What was going on?
“Safe?” I questioned.
She twirled her hair. “Can we walk back together?”
“Sure. But I need to know what’s going on.” I led her out of the equipment building.
She pulled wide-brimmed sunglasses over her eyes. “Tell me about the vineyards. How are things at the champagne caves? Do you think things are running smoothly? What about the grapes?”
“They’re fine. It’s a good grape year.” I eyed her as she walked next to me. I cared less about the grapes and more about the training facility. I still had to address Roman’s request to leave the castle and meet with me in New Orleans.
“You loved Paris? Epernay? France? It was good there, wasn’t it?” she questioned. I sensed nervousness and excitement.
I groaned. She was hinting. Going in circles. Missing the mark. “Yes. You know I enjoyed the vineyards. I finally got used to living there. What does that have to do with wanting to see me? You said it was important.”
“It is. I want to know about the vineyards. I’m thinking I should go there.” She walked faster. I couldn’t believe I was trying to catch up to her.
We arrived at the stables. Katya seemed to instantly relax. She approached one of the stalls.
“Why don’t you tell me what the hell is going on?” I kept my voice low.
She looked left and then right. She stepped toward the same chestnut horse I had patted and pressed her forehead against the bridge of his nose. “Luka, I’ve done something.”
“Okay?”
Her eyes closed as if she was mustering the strength to tell me. I placed my hand on her shoulder.
“What is it? You’re scaring the shit out of me. Are you in trouble?”
She sighed, her hand resting on her stomach. “I need you to help me get out of here.”
“Get out of here? Is someone after Andrey? Did something go sideways? I can take care of that for you and him.” I squeezed her arm lightly. “Now that I’m back, I can add security detail for you. I have more resources than the Petrovs. You don’t have to worry about anything. You will be safe.”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t need a security detail.”
“But you just said?—”
Her eyes blinked open. The lashes were damp with the first tears. “I said I need your help to leave, not to stay and be locked in a prison. I can’t stay. I won’t stay. Now that Papa’s gone I can?—”
“You aren’t making any sense.”
She broke away from the stallion. “I don’t know if it’s going to be safe for the baby and me to be here once Andrey finds out, but regardless, I have to leave. I have to get out of here. I want to go to France and run the vineyards.”
I inhaled. “Tell me what he’s done.”
“Nothing,” she whispered. “He’s done absolutely nothing.”
“Shit, Katya. I’m starting to think he’s abusive or drinking until he passes out every night. Cheating on you.” I stared at her. It was the last sentence that made her flinch. “Is that it?” I tried to figure out how to talk to her about what would probably not be the last time Andrey cheated. It may not have even been the first.
“Stop, Luka. Just stop.” She threw her hands in the air and stormed away toward one of the apartment doors. She walked inside and I followed her.
I didn’t expect it to be decorated in soft blues and off-white antiques. There was art on the walls and two cases crammed full of books. I pivoted in the room. “Who lives here?”
“It’s mine.”
“What?”
“This is my place. My sanctuary. Can you believe my husband has never stepped foot in here? Never asked. Never noticed. I hate the Petrov house. I hate living with Andrey. I knew what was expected of me. Papa made that clear on the day of my wedding. I’ve done what I had to do to get out of bed in the morning every day for four years. Until…”
“Until what?”
“Until I met someone,” she whispered.
“What do you mean you met someone?” I barked at my sister.
Her shoulders straightened immediately. “I didn’t know it was possible, and it wasn’t like I was looking for him, or maybe I was. But he’s the one.”
“The one ?” I stared at her. “What are you talking about? You’re married to Andrey. There was a contract. Money was exchanged. Andrey is supposed to be the one.”
Her blue eyes hardened. “No,” she snapped. “I had no say in the contract. No say in Andrey. No say about the Petrovs. No say in the house. No say in my life.” Her voice kept rising. I closed the door to the apartment in case one of the stable hands was nearby.
I put my hands out to steady her. “I know all of that. I was there, remember?”
“And you did nothing while I was sold off to the most boring bland man in New Orleans!”
“That’s not true,” I argued. “I fought to get you out of it. I guess Papa didn’t tell you I had him in a chokehold on his desk.”
The information surprised her. “No. He never said anything.”
“He wouldn’t.” I finally exhaled. “Shit. You’ve met someone.” I shook my head. “Who’s the guy?”
“Tell me you aren’t going to go crazy. You have to promise,” she pleaded.
I clenched my jaw. “Tell me who it is.”
“He’s the best thing that has ever happened to me. Please, remember that. That’s the most important thing. He’s?—”
“Katya,” I growled.
“Fine. It’s Enzo Barone.”
I stared at my sister in disbelief. “Amara’s assistant?”
She nodded. “Yes.” She grabbed my arm. “You’re in charge now. You can fix this for me. You can get us to France. I’ll run the vineyard. He’s amazing with numbers. Really, really good. Amara has been training him, so you know he’s had the best?—”
“It’s his baby?” I interrupted her.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“And Andrey has no idea.”
She shook her head slowly. “None. He didn’t even realize the dates didn’t match up. He’s clueless. An idiot. He doesn’t pay any attention to me. Except now.” She looked down at her bump. “Except it’s only to tell me all the things I cannot do. I have to get out of here. I’m suffocating in that house.”
“Who has Enzo told?” I asked. I needed to get as much information assembled as possible.
“No one. He wouldn’t.”
I huffed. “You really don’t think Amara knows her right-hand man is sleeping with you? Come on. She’s smarter than that. How do you know he’s not working for her? This could be an orchestrated plan. How much information do you think he’s been able to take back to her? What access have you given him?”
I’d never seen that kind of pain on my sister’s face before.
“What happened to you?” she whispered.
I ran my hands through my hair. “You know how the organizations work. Nothing happens by accident. You expect me to believe that Enzo showed up in your life out of pure coincidence? As if it was fate? The person closest to Amara? The new queen of New Orleans. No way. I don’t buy it. Not for a fucking second.”
“I didn’t ask you to buy it,” she snarled. “I asked you to do what you’re supposed to do as the head of this family and get me out of this horrible marriage. You are the Pakhan.”
“Of all the things to ask me. This is the first favor you want?”
She didn’t recognize me, but I didn’t know who she was either. She wanted to upend every tradition we had been raised to follow. Breaking a contract between two families wasn’t something I’d seen.
“It’s a favor you would have asked for five years ago if you could have.”
The pain was mine now. I pressed my lips together. “The circumstances were different between Amara and me. We weren’t married.” I didn’t need to relive the history to know it was nothing like this situation.
“You still aren’t.”
“That’s irrelevant.”
“Is it?” Katya posed. “If you were with her everything would be different.”
“I’m not with her.” I closed my eyes.
This wasn’t about my relationship with Amara. This was about my sister going off the deep end. “You haven’t thought about the consequences. We can’t afford to start a war with the Petrovs. There’s no other way this could play out if you try to leave Andrey. They aren’t going to let you leave.”
“I have thought about the consequences,” she argued. “I’ve thought what it would be like to raise this baby with the wrong man. To give it Andrey’s name. To have to lie to my child every day of its life about whose DNA runs through its veins. There are more consequences than what happens in the organizations. There used to be a time when you knew that. A time when you would have left the organization to be with Amara. You know what this feels like. You know what I’m feeling right now. Can’t you try to remember that feeling? You would have walked through fire for her. I know you would have.”
I raised my finger to stop Katya from continuing. I heard the crunch of straw under boots. There was someone outside the apartment. The footsteps stopped.
“Shh,” I warned her.
“It’s okay.” She smiled. “I’m expecting someone.” She stepped around me, unlocked the latch, and opened the door. “Hi.”
A man a few years younger than me stood in the doorway. He grinned at my sister before he nodded over her shoulder in my direction. He looked like someone who had just come from a work meeting. His suit was expensive, but not custom. He wasn’t from an organization family. He certainly wasn’t Russian.
“God, you look awful,” she fussed.
“Late night at the office.”
“I know it was really hard, but come here.” She reached on her tiptoes to hug him. As soon as they separated, Katya spun around. “Luka, this is Enzo.”
Shit.
“Katya talks about you all the time. It’s nice to finally put the man with the stories.” He stepped into the apartment, reaching to shake my hand. “How is it being back from France?” he asked with a casual attitude. Maybe this was what happened when a man graduated from Amara Amato’s mafia queen school. He became as fearless as she was.
I watched at how quickly they were drawn back together after I shook his hand. She fit against his arm. He wrapped it around her protectively. She seemed happy as if she was warm for the first time in a long time.
“I hear you want to take my sister out of New Orleans.” I waited for Enzo’s response. There was no reason to be subtle or pretend that my pregnant sister wasn’t standing between us. The vineyards were out of the question, only neither of them knew why.
He nodded. “Anywhere we have your blessing. I’ll take any assignment.”
I looked at Katya. “Why don’t you see if the horses are getting the training they need? I think I heard other voices. One of the trainers is probably around.”
“Luka,” she began to argue, but I quickly warned her with a glance. “All right. I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she relented. Her fingers fell away from Enzo’s hand.
Once she was gone, I knew I didn’t have much time with him. It was barely noon, but it felt like a good time for a drink. I searched the apartment for bourbon. There wasn’t anything in the bar cart other than vodka and gin. Both bottles were unopened. I cracked the vodka.
“Want one?” I offered Enzo.
“Sure. I have some time before I need to get back to the office.” He meant get back to Amara.
I poured the drinks and handed one to him. “Looks like we have a problem to solve.”
“That’s what I do every day.”
“For Amara you mean?” I eyed him.
“Mostly, yes. Whatever she wants to throw at me. It’s what I do best.”
I slung back the vodka. “My sister seems to think your boss doesn’t know anything about your relationship.”
“She doesn’t.” He gripped the glass. “My personal life is private. I don’t think she needs to know about my relationship with Katya. I don’t let it interfere with work. It’s part of Amara’s philosophy. Makes it easy to keep things separate.”
My father was an asshole, but he was good at judging people. He could sniff out a liar within five minutes of talking to them. A con or a thief even faster. I tried to tap into that Novikov intuition. I tried to size up Enzo. What I saw was a confident man. It would take more than five minutes to decide if he was sincere about my sister.
“Amara’s philosophy?” I questioned.
“Yes. She believes that work should strictly be about business. She doesn’t make exceptions to any of the rules she has in place.”
“I see.” I walked around the small apartment. I started to think about the opportunity I had been given. How badly did Enzo want to make a deal? How much was he willing to sacrifice for a life out of the country with my sister and their baby?
I pulled up a chair. “Why don’t you sit?” I motioned across from me.
Enzo took a seat.
It was a long shot. But this man knew her. He knew how she thought. What strategies she used. He knew her in a way I hadn’t begun to examine yet. I realized I might have a plan to get Amara back. Just maybe I was willing to start a war to make it happen.