11. Eleven
Eleven
Luka
Her kiss was still on my lips. Her voice in my ear. I had to clear my head.
I checked my phone again before walking into the Petrovs’ restaurant. I didn’t want to be glued to it over dinner, but the fact that it had remained silent all afternoon was starting to make the uneasiness in my chest expand. Who had Enzo? What kind of a sick game were they playing?
I wasn’t about to give in to my sister’s worry, but her instincts weren’t off. That was hard for me to admit.
“Luka, what a surprise.” Inna Petrov air brushed a kiss on each cheek before turning to my sister. “Katya, you never bring anyone to dinner. This is a treat.” She greeted us outside in the restaurant’s portico. A valet had taken my car. The archway was covered in ivy and long ferns dangled around us.
“I hope you don’t mind, Inna.” I took her hand. “Katya mentioned she was meeting everyone, and I thought I’d tag along. It’s nice to see family.”
“It’s always nice to see family.” She beamed. “Where is Anna? You could have brought her with you.” She looked past my shoulder as if my mother would magically pop out of a row of hedges.
My inward resistance to going anywhere with my mother wasn’t something I was going to share with Katya’s in-laws. “She has other plans tonight. Maybe next time.” I bit my tongue. She was likely on her second bottle of wine, wandering the house, yelling at my father’s portraits, and barking at the house staff.
Katya’s nervous laughter was almost too telling. I gave her a gentle poke in the back to put her in check. We needed steady actions.
“That’s too bad. I’m sure it’s hard to be alone now. I really can’t imagine. You should bring her, dear. I can’t imagine how she spends her time without your father around.” She turned to her own husband. “Look, Luka came to dinner with Katya.”
“I see that.” I shook Vasha’s hand. He had a good strong grip beneath fat knuckles. I regarded the large gold ring on his hand. The Petrov crest was formed from diamonds. It sparkled when it caught the light from a nearby gaslight.
“Thanks for having me.” I looked around. The steakhouse was crowded with diners. I saw business meetings underway. Dates. A birthday dinner as we were guided through the tables and into a private dining room. Andrey was inside. He barely noticed when Katya sat next to him. From what Katya said, it was normal for her husband to ignore her.
The rest of the family gathered. A server opened several bottles of wine and placed them on the table.
I’d spent Sundays as a child squirming against wooden backed pews, meant to keep my spine straight. My mother tossed warning looks while my father checked his watch in between the priest’s movements on the alter. I’d inhaled the smokey incense and lit candles after mass. It always seemed meaningless. An exercise in building tolerance for the ceremony. As I sat watching Vasha Petrov, I flashed back to those moments, kneeling behind a pew, complaining about my knees and my father’s growl on my neck to endure. To shut up and listen.
“I think we should toast the evening.” Vasha raised his full glass in the air.
My sister had already been given a glass of sparkling cider. She joined her father-in-law by raising her glass.
“What’s the occasion?” I asked. I wondered if this was it. If this was in fact a celebration of taking down their son’s competition. I couldn’t believe they would be blatant enough to brag about it at dinner. Katya would be humiliated.
“That you are home. Back in New Orleans as head of your family where you belong as Pahkan. Also, a toast to your father. May he rest in peace. To Dmitry.” Louis bowed his head. I had to acknowledge the gesture as much as it made my stomach turn. “And to our grandchild.” He grinned broadly at Katya. “The seasons of life continue to bring us blessings. We are anxious for that baby to arrive.”
“That’s a beautiful toast,” Inna echoed. I wondered how Katya sat through these dinners. No wonder she wanted me to tag along.
“Don’t be too anxious,” Katya bit her lip. “I still have three months to go.” Her hand moved to the swell of her belly. I didn’t know how to get her away from the family and back with Enzo. Everything was riding on the birth of this child, and it wasn’t even a Petrov.
“Oh, I remember how sick I was when I was pregnant with Andrey,” Inna chimed in. “You’ve been lucky.”
“You have no idea what I have to deal with,” Andrey grumbled.
I shot my brother-in-law a warning stare. I was in their domain, but I wasn’t going to tolerate his disrespect. Andrey’s eyes cut to his plate and the last bites of steak he had to eat. The bastard was in over his head in every aspect of his life. He just didn’t know it.
The longer the meal continued, the more the family prattled on about the upcoming baby shower, what Inna thought they should do to the nursery, and Vasha’s list of baby names.
My stomach clenched. There was nothing here. Not a twitch. Not a hair out of place. The only ones struggling to get through the evening were Katya and me. Andrey seemed bored and uninterested. He hadn’t bothered to acknowledge the toast. The Petrovs did not seem likely suspects to have pulled off a major kidnapping today. Vasha wouldn’t be able to hide the thrill of such a coup. This was a family dinner. Dull, plain, and as ordinary as any dinner I’d attended.
I had to get out of this dining room and back to Amara at the cabin.
I leaned over to whisper to Katya. “I think you’ve got this. I need to get going. More important calls to follow up on.”
She nodded. “Will you call me?”
I didn’t think it was a good idea. “If I hear anything.”
Her eyes began to mist. I didn’t want her to fall apart now. She couldn’t. She had done her best for Enzo tonight. “No matter what time it is,” she urged.
I squeezed her fingers and kissed her on the forehead. “No matter what time.” I stood to face the Petrovs. “Vasha and Inna, thank you for letting me drop in like this. Unfortunately, I have some business to attend to tonight.” I dropped the linen napkin on the table.
“But Luka, it’s early. We’ll open another bottle of wine,” Inna pleaded. “Stay. You should try the cheesecake. It’s the best in New Orleans, dear.”
“Thank you.” I took her hand, kissing the top of it. “I will come back another time. Maybe bring Mother. I know she misses seeing everyone.”
“That would be nice. She needs her family now more than ever. It must be so, so hard. I’d love to see her and talk. We are about to be grandmothers together.” I wondered how often Inna lied to people. She was part of the old family regime. She had grown up watching her mother do the same thing. Tell the same stories.
I shook Vasha’s hand and patted Andrey on the back. “Get some sleep, man,” I suggested. “I hear that gets harder with a baby.”
“Don’t scare him,” Katya teased. She had immediately snapped back to her beguiling self. Andrey perked up.
“Good night, all.” I made my way out of the private room and through the main dining room. The valet brought my car around and I checked my phone for messages. It was unnecessary, but I listened for voicemails just in case one of them didn’t pop up as a notice on my phone.
Of course, there was nothing from Amara. I sent a text to her just in case it would go through, but it seemed as pointless as the entire dinner. I’d left her alone, and for what?
My dinner with the Petrovs had eaten up precious time. An errand to garner information about Enzo had become more about family politics than the kidnapping. It was an error I wouldn’t repeat. I couldn’t afford to waste that kind of time again. I wouldn’t. Not when she needed me.