Chapter 30
Thirty
Luka
Neither of us got any sleep that night. I twisted my arm around Amara, holding her close to me under the sheet. I needed her warmth. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Enzo. I opened them and would hear Katya crying.
Watching Katya suffer gutted me. She had shut me out, turning to Amara instead. Amara convinced me the only thing I could do to help her now was to talk to Vasha Petrov tomorrow. If that brought my sister peace. I would do it. She deserved more than to be tolerated. It wasn’t that I didn’t see how she was treated, or I didn’t know that it had started the day our father signed her engagement contract. She wanted action faster than I was willing to act. It was hard to push past my old habits. Strategies. Plans. Control.
Watching Enzo die taught me I had no fucking control. He was right there, and he died anyway. Right next to me. I pushed up on the side of the bed and swung my legs to the side. My feet hit the cold floor.
He had died without telling Katya goodbye. Without meeting his son. He had died without a clear conscious. Without apologies. Without forgiveness. Fuck.
Amara wanted to go public about us, but she didn’t know I harbored the biggest lie of all. The darkest secret.
“Hey, are you okay?” Amara stretched across the bed, slipping her arms around my chest. She kissed my shoulder. Her hair brushed against my back like a cascading curtain.
“I keep playing it over and over. We could have gotten him out.” I shook my head.
“You, the Bratva, and Ciro found him. What happened after that was out of your hands. You were all ambushed.” She guided my jaw to pivot in her direction. I still hadn’t shaved. I would have to correct that before I spoke to Vasha. “It wasn’t your fault.” She nuzzled into the side of my neck. “It wasn’t. I know it wasn’t.”
“Will Katya ever forgive me?”
“She will, and I don’t believe for a minute that she blames you. She has to grieve. And we have to get her through it. She can stay here as long as she needs to.”
“I should move her to my apartments.”
“Maybe we should let her decide where she wants to live,” she suggested.
I exhaled, dropping Amara’s hands from my body. I needed air. I didn’t want to talk about what was ahead for my sister. I could only see a bleak and ugly future. She deserved the opposite. She’d always been the light and happiness in our home growing up. I could barely stand to think about how wounded she was with Enzo’s death.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“I think I’ll read over the files on the merger,” I lied. The guilt suffocated me.
“You’re going to work?” She stared at me.
“I have to do something I can’t sleep. I’ll be downstairs.” I left her bed. I realized how cold everything suddenly was, but I deserved it tonight. Wherever Enzo was, he’d never feel warmth again. I wasn’t ready to accept that. I walked out of Amara’s room, doubting my every step down to the first floor.
* * *
I fell asleep in a leather chair in the library. When I awakened the sun was up and my neck hurt like hell. I rubbed the side of my shoulder to try to work the knot out. I ran upstairs to Amara’s apartment, but she was gone.
“Where is she?” I asked Katya when I found her in the kitchen.
“She went to the police station. Ciro took her,” she explained.
I slammed my hand on the counter. “I told her I didn’t want her to go alone.”
“It’s something she has to do on her own. Can you imagine if you walked in to speak with the investigators with her? Bad idea.”
“How are you this morning? I asked. Her eyes were puffy. There was a piece of toast on her plate she hadn’t touched.
“I’m not anything,” she answered. “Nothing.”
My elbows leaned into the granite countertops. “Have you reached out to our mother?” I asked. “Have you heard from her?”
“No. I don’t want to talk to her.” The light in Katya’s eyes had been extinguished. I wondered how long it would take to come back, if it ever would.
I remembered how only a few days ago Katya had a weird hunch about Anna. She was so disturbed by it I had driven to the Novikov compound when I was arrested. I hadn’t heard from her either. Her silence was a sign something was off. She hadn’t reached out when I was in jail or since my bail hearing. She was usually more careful appearances than that.
“I need to shower. I’m going to see Vasha.”
Katya stared at me. “You are?”
“Yes. I gave you my word last night I would fight for you. You deserve your freedom. I’m sorry I didn’t fight harder for you to have it before now.”
She stepped off the stool and rounded the island, pulling me into a hug. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I’m sorry it took this long.” The truth was I should have intervened the minute I knew the baby was Enzo’s. His murder had etched a scar on my soul. I would spend my life trying to right this wrong for Katya.
She drew in a long breath. “I’m staying here today.”
I kissed her on the forehead. “Amara said you can stay as long as you want. We’ll talk about it when I get back.”
By the time I pulled into the Petrovs’s driveway I had worked up a plan on how I would purchase my sister’s independence. It was thrown together more hastily than I would have liked, but the match had been lit.
The housekeeper showed me into Vasha’s office. I waited for the old man.
He appeared a few minutes later.
“Luka, this is an early morning visit,” he remarked.
“Yes, Vasha.” We shook hands quickly. “Sorry to interrupt your morning schedule.”
“No. You’re family.” He took a seat behind his desk. Louis had large animal heads scattered on the walls. There was an award hanging over the mantle that the steakhouse received in 2016.
“Since we’re family, I thought I could come to you with this family matter.”
“Of course, you can come to me with anything. Without your father, I’m sure you’re looking for a mentor. A man to help you with the Novikov organization. I’m always here for you, morning or night, son.”
I put my hand up. “I’m going to have to stop you right there. This is about Katya. Not about a mentorship.” I would let the insult pass, but only because I was about to shame him in one of the most embarrassing ways.
He huffed. “I know all about her little fit. She and Andrey had a thing. She’s pregnant. Overemotional. It will blow over.”
“No, Vasha. It’s not going to blow over. It wasn’t a little fit. I’m here to offer you whatever you want to start the divorce.”
He leaned back in his seat. “Son, there’s not going to be a divorce. There’s a baby on the way. My grandchild. A Petrov.”
I leaned closer. “Listen to me. My sister is not stepping foot in this house again.” I pressed my finger into the wood grain of the desk. “You either accept my offer to buy you out of the contract my father signed, or she will leave, and you will have nothing.”
“You can’t do that. She’s carrying a Petrov heir.”
“I can. She hates it here. She hates Andrey. She hates this house. The way you’ve treated her. The way you look right through her. So I can fucking take my sister out of here if it’s what’s best for her. My father wasn’t a strong enough man to break with tradition, but I am. You will soon learn, Vasha that you don’t want to go up against me.”
I stood tall in front of him, adjusting my cufflinks in the process.
“When the other families hear about this…”
“They will,” I promised him. “By the end of today, they’ll know that things are changing in New Orleans. For the better.”
He laughed. “You’re going up against her, then?”
“By her, are you referring to Amara Amato?”
“Who else?”
I grinned. “I think I have that handled. Thank you, Vasha. My offer has been withdrawn. Tell your son to sign the divorce papers without contest.”
“He’ll never give up custody of that baby. Your sister won’t be raising the child.”
I grinned, happier than I should have been to deliver the blow. “Turns out, the baby isn’t his, Vasha. There’s not an ounce of Petrov blood running through its veins. Andrey doesn’t have a claim to custody.”
I began to walk out of the office when Inna sashayed in with a cup of coffee. “Good morning, Luka. I didn’t know you were here.” She reached up to kiss me on the cheek.
“I was just leaving, Inna.”
Her eyes darted to her husband. She sensed the tension in the room. Vasha had turned from a shade of pink to a sallow yellow.
“I was surprised to see your mother out last night,” she mentioned Anna casually.
“Oh?” Maybe it explained why neither Katya nor I had heard from her. She had been out boozing with her wine club.
“We all want her to move on, but I’m sure it’s hard to see her with another man so soon. And in public. But you know, we all have to find solace in places.” Her tone dripped with disdain.
I inhaled. I didn’t want to take the bait. But damn it, I needed the information. “Where was this, Inna? I didn’t realize she was seeing anyone.”
Her eyes widened. “Well, I’m not the only one who saw them eating at the Vieux Carre.”
My stomach plummeted to my knees. “You were at the Vieux Carre? Interesting.”
“But the Lieutenant Governor? I’ve never been into politics. Your mother just needs a companion. An intelligent man like Dmitry is hard to replace. I believe her new friend is just that—a companion. I’m sure that’s all it is.”
“I’m sure you’re right.” I leaned down and pecked her on the cheek. “You both have a good day.”
I walked out, jumped into my car, and drove to the Novikov compound.