12. Ben
12
BEN
T he day after I encountered Sonya at that strip club, I finally got close to the Baranovs again. With Oleg in the hospital still, his closest confidantes would be there too. It wasn’t easy to merely ask for permission to come up to that floor and into his private room. They’d insisted on layers of security while their leader was vulnerable.
That didn’t stop me, though. Another disguise, this one as a member of the janitorial staff, got me into Oleg’s room.
Once more, I was privy to spying on them and listening in.
I couldn’t shake the possibility that Sonya was reluctant to return to her family. Details were missing, but I didn’t want to dismiss the idea that I’d be doing my flaky lover a disservice to bring her home.
Lev and Vik sat at the table in the room. While I did intend to talk to them, observing and listening to them first seemed wiser.
They weren’t alone.
Oleg slept on, still and linked to tubes and wires on the bed. Near the table where Lev and Vik sat, women joined them. Rurik paced near the windows as his wife shook her head at him.
“Rurik, I swear I saw her.”
Rurik glanced back at her. “You’ve never seen her before.”
Kelly shook her head, frowning at Eva, who sat on Lev’s lap. She stared at Oleg sleeping, a worried expression etched on her face.
“I know that,” Kelly replied, “but based on knowing what Eva looks like, I swear it was Sonya.”
Yes! Elation filled me that they were talking about her. I’d snuck in here at the right time.
“She was at the restaurant, asking why Irina was there. She kept calling out for Eva after she walked away from the table to go to the restroom,” Kelly insisted.
“At Mancy’s?” Lev asked, glancing at Eva.
She nodded. “Yes. We had lunch there.”
And Mancy’s was right next to that strip club. Things were piecing together little by little. Sonya must have been running from the restaurant and cut through the strip club.
“But it couldn’t have been Sonya, Kel.” Eva winced, skeptical as she looked at her new cousin-in-law. “Sonya ran away because she didn’t want a life in the Mafia.”
Whoa. Is that true?
So far, I’d gotten the impression that some people had forgotten that Sonya existed. Some seemed to believe she was dead. Now, I grappled with the idea that some predicted she could’ve run on her own.
Which is it?
Because if I intended to see Sonya again and keep her in my life for more than intermittent quickies when we crossed paths, I’d need to know.
“She didn’t run away,” Rurik argued. “She was kidnapped. You know this.”
Eva crossed her arms. “That’s what we were led to believe.”
“But your mother disappeared with her,” Lev reminded her.
“Yes. My mother wanted out of the Mafia life too.” Eva stood, apparently too upset to sit still. “My mother was sick of my father being unloyal to her. She left after he knocked up Igor’s wife and had that boy. My mother wanted out, and she took Sonya with her. Leaving me stuck here.”
“Stuck?” Lev asked gently with a small smile. “You feel stuck in a horrible life here?”
She sighed, sitting on his lap again. “Well, not anymore. Now that I’ve got you…”
“But that’s not all,” Kelly said, interrupting the lovey-dovey couple. “It was Sonya. She called Eva her sister, ergo, she had to be Sonya. And she was pregnant.”
I froze.
I couldn’t move with that news.
Pregnant?
I furrowed my brow and zoned out, staring at the floor.
She’s pregnant?
I would’ve known. I’d fucked her. I’d touched her. We’d been together for too short of a time in that little room, but dammit, I would’ve noticed that . As I thought back to that hot, brief tryst, I realized how I might not have been aware.
It had been dimly lit. She’d kept herself turned away from me. I’d taken her from behind.
Oh, shit…
My pulse raced as I connected another thought to this bombshell.
“It wasn’t that obvious,” Kelly said, her voice almost sounding like it was far away with the rush of blood roaring in my ears, “but I saw her bump. She’s pregnant.”
Stunned, I tried to talk myself out of the assumption that rocked my world.
If Sonya was pregnant, it could be my baby. I could’ve knocked her up that one night upstate.
“Goddammit.” Lev’s voice sounded too close. As I registered his growl, he smacked the broom out of my hands. So shocked and distracted by what Kelly had shared with them, I ceased moving, just standing there. Lev was sharp enough to notice. I had to have looked like I was listening, not working, and I hated that I’d dropped my guard like that.
“Fucking Warner.” He scowled. “Sneaking in to spy on us again? What the fuck?”
I shrugged, shuttering the shock on my face. “Like I told you before, you’re a hard man to get ahold of.”
He scowled, raking his gaze over my janitor uniform. “If you intend to speak with me, sneaking in and spying to get close isn’t a smart way to do it.”
I smiled. “What can I say? I’m good at what I do.”
“Don’t get smug about it.” He crossed his arms. “I’m not fond of anyone who tries to sneak close and listen to private conversations.”
“It’s not that private. You’ve already explained that you’d like to hire me to find Sonya?—”
“ After the hit on O’Malley,” Lev reminded me. “Seriously. You try to spy on us again, I’ll kill you myself.”
“Then be more forthcoming with information so that I don’t have to feel like you’re leaving me in the dark.”
He scrunched his face, madder yet. “Are you kidding me? What the…” He huffed and shook his head, exasperated. “You’re an independent contractor, Warner. You’re not privileged to have more information that’s intended only for family.”
Well, guess what. I might be family already. If Sonya was carrying my baby, then I was affiliated with the Baranovs by blood in an indirect way.
That was an avenue of leverage I didn’t want to reveal yet. Not until I knew whether Sonya was pregnant. And if I was the father. Only then would I consider what it could mean to be connected to the Baranovs. At the moment, though, the idea didn’t piss me off. I’d much rather ally with them than the Petrovs or Ilyins, if I were going to ally with anyone.
“I wanted to get ahold of you to discuss the O’Malley hit,” I said instead, changing the topic from Sonya, now that I could personally have higher stakes in her return.
“Then stop fucking spying,” Lev warned. “You want to talk to me, then be upfront and come talk to me.”
“Sure, because you make yourself accessible.”
Vik frowned at me. “If you have to sneak in to get close, why snoop while you’re at it?”
“Because I haven’t gotten as good as I am without understanding and respecting the value and wealth of intel.”
“So you’ll turn on us?” Lev accused, advancing toward me with his fist reared back to punch me.
“No.” That wouldn’t make sense if my child might be one of you… The notion that I could have a child threatened to stun me all over again. I hadn’t had enough time to come to terms with this, and I refused to get ahead of myself or let my hopes get up too high until I found Sonya and spoke with her once and for all.
“Again,” I said, determined to change the topic, “I intended to get ahold of you and give you an update about the O’Malley hit.”
Behind Lev, Kelly winced and folded into Rurik’s arms for a hug.
“What is it?” Lev demanded.
“I followed Eric Benson and O’Malley to a strip club yesterday.” I glanced at Kelly. “The one next to Mancy’s, in fact. And someone else took a shot at them there.”
Vik nodded and crossed his arms. “Yeah. We heard about that already.”
“While I’m pissed that the fuckers didn’t die, I’m not surprised someone else wants them dead,” Lev said.
Nor was I. Corrupt politicians were asking for it. If they wanted to play stupid, dangerous games, they’d get what they had coming sooner or later. Eric and O’Malley likely had plenty of enemies.
“I’ll keep at it,” I promised him.
But I’m going to keep on looking for Sonya, too.
She’d become my priority, and I didn’t care whether these Baranovs approved of that change of plans or not.