Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
DEMITRI
It seems we’ve fallen into this alternate life pattern. I’m living with Mia. Sleeping in her bed every night. We’ve had sex. Not frequently, and not always with an ending we’d both like, but she’s becoming more comfortable with me every day. She’s opening up to me, letting me see the side of her she doesn’t let out very often. What we haven’t done? Addressed I’m still here. Or what she and Aunt Linda are up to with their hushed phone calls and secret texts. Oh, I didn’t forget that she pulled Mia aside at the last meeting in Briar Mountain. Haven’t forgotten at all. Was hopeful that Mia would bring it up on her own, but she’s been quiet about it.
We also haven’t talked about how long this is supposed to go on. How long are we going to play pretend? Is it even still pretend? I don’t know anymore. And as much as I try to see past all of this, I think there’s only two ways this ends, and both of them are bad. Either my mystery sister finds me and kills me to take my money and take over, or Mia wakes up and realizes she can’t be with someone who has my history.
One thing that’s happened in the last couple of weeks of this waiting game we’re calling life? The friendship between Aiden and me has grown stronger. Out of everyone around me, he’s the only one who really knows what it feels like to walk away from The Family. Mine might have been Russian and his Irish, but the demands are the same. He’s on duty tonight, sitting in the corner of the bar, which we’ve dubbed the Anonymous Booth, and I’ve joined him. The downside is he’s facing the room and I’m facing away. Being seen, but not too much, just as requested.
“How did you do it?” I ask once we’ve settled in. “How did you walk away?”
“I didn’t give them a choice.” He shrugs. “I signed up for the Army. Even my family isn’t stupid enough to piss off Uncle Sam and the federal government.”
“They didn’t try to influence you to stay or make it difficult once you were in?”
“Nah. I mean, they treated me like shit after I swore in. It was too late to talk me out of it when I had to report to MEPS and ship out to boot camp pretty much immediately, but when I came home on leave, I almost think my father was proud of me for following my own road. Doesn’t mean he hasn’t tried to get me back a time or two.” He laughs, a smirk on his face. “Of course, I left the family that kills for fun and joined a team of elite weapons experts.”
“Killers with formal training?” I grin back at him.
“That’s when he really wanted me back. When he could use my skills to train the other men. I made sure I stayed in until I couldn’t anymore. And then I wasn’t worth shit to my father. I was just old, damaged goods.”
“Injured?”
“Yeah, took out my right side. At the time, I could barely lift a spoon to my mouth. Dear Old Daid declared me officially out. Guess it’s a good thing he never paid enough attention to know I was a better shot with my left.”
“Daid?”
“Da? Dad? Whatever the English word is.”
“You stay in touch?”
“I have a cousin who lets me know if what they’re doing is going to impact what I’m doing here. He calls with weddings, babies, and deaths. We don’t talk about the job. He’s next in line since I stepped away. Daid had six kids. I’m the oldest, and a son. Have a brother, but he’s basically useless.”
“I bet he hates that.”
“So much. What about you? What else have you learned?”
“I know Uncle Stanislav and my sister, Sonya, are both still in jail. No one has gone to visit them, everyone lying low. We know my uncle is back and working with my mystery half-sister, Katya. According to Aunt Linda, there’re more kids out there, but I haven’t started looking into them. Is it wrong that I don’t want to?”
“No. But I think you have to ask yourself why.”
“I don’t want anything to do with this name and family. I never did.”
“Demitri, did you take the money when your father died?”
His question takes me aback, but I nod.
“Then you’re still a part of it. You think there isn’t anyone in your family or in The Family that hasn’t already had an accountant look into you? To see if you’ve spent the money and where? They probably have alerts set up to notify them when a quarter goes out of the accounts.”
“Is that why they can’t find me and kill me? Because I haven’t touched the money?”
“Probably. Easier to follow what they really want than it is to have a manhunt in the hopes you’ll hand it over without a fight.”
I stare at him, my thoughts running wild. It’s been weeks of waiting for something to happen. Is this how to kick-start it? So I can finally put it all behind me and move on?
“What are you thinking?” he asks.
“I’m thinking we need to run this by Aunt Linda and hopefully put an end to all of it.”
“You ready to do that?”
“I can’t move forward until I do. I can’t know if this thing between Mia and me is real until the choice for me to be somewhere else is there.”
“You that hung up on her, huh?”
“More than you know. I’ve been a doomed man for four years.” I grin as I say the words, knowing Aiden will understand.
“Don’t sound so chipper about it.” He grins back.
“I don’t see you with a girl on your arm.”
“Don’t push it, friend. I might not be in his favor right now, but my father is still alive and still seeking some type of retribution for what I did, even if he’s slow to act on it. I feel like he’s got something up his sleeve. I can’t put anyone in that path.”
“But there is a person?”
“Let’s say there’s the idea of a person. One that I know my family would never approve of, which makes it even more difficult.”
“So her last name isn’t O’Connell or O’Driscoll or O’Malley?”
“Nope. It’s not Murphy, Kelly, or Walsh either.”
“Fuck. That sucks.”
“Almost as much as a mysterious half-sibling out to kill me for the family money.”
Both of us laugh at that, knowing full well that Aiden could be right here in my shoes at any time.
“Call Aunt Linda. Tell her what you’re thinking with the accounts. We’ve got your back.” He smiles, a genuine smile of camaraderie. In our former lives, we would have been on opposite sides of the battle lines. In this life, we can share a beer and laugh together. I’ll take this life, always.
“You want to do what?” Aunt Linda asks two days later.
“I want to use the money in the trust accounts.”
“Are you insane? Have you seriously lost your mind since I talked to you last?”
“No. But I will if this limbo we’re all living in continues much longer.”
“What are you bitching about? You’re stuck with your girl. How hard can that be?”
I roll my eyes. “Linda, did you ever stop and think that maybe I don’t want to be ‘stuck’ with my girllike this? This isn’t exactly the makings of a solid relationship, you know. I can’t take her out, I can’t woo her.”
“Woo? What century are you living in? And it’s Aunt Linda.”
Every single time I talk to this woman, I end the call with a headache from rolling my eyes. “ Aunt Linda, this isn’t the way I wanted to be with Mia. It’s not right. She needs her space to figure out things, and I feel like I’m doing nothing but interfering with her life, not becoming part of it.”
And it’s true, since I’ve been staying at Mia’s, I’ve noticed as much as she’s been opening up to me, she’s also closing herself off in other ways. I always feel like I’m underfoot, always in the way. I’m interrupting her life, and not for the better. And she’s been nothing but wonderful about it, but I can tell. The bags under her eyes, even with the solid sleep, have been getting darker. The stress lines on her forehead are standing out more, and I swear she’s had more headaches recently than I have.
“Demitri, are you using protection with Mia?” Aunt Linda’s sudden question throws me off.
“Am I what?”
“Are you using protection? Now would not be a good time to have an accident.”
“Have you been peeking at our shopping lists?” I demand.
“Don’t have to. I’m asking.”
“Mia’s on birth control, a conversation I had with her years ago.”
“Hmm.”
“Woman, you don’t get to interfere with that side of our lives. Understand? I love you for what you’ve done for me, but that’s crossing a line.”
“Fine. Just be safe.”
“We’ve both been tested. Clean bills of health for both of us, and Mia has an IUD. Like I said, we had this conversation when we needed to and established what was what in our own lives.”
“Okay, okay, back to the topic. I don’t like it, but I understand it.”
“You don’t have to like it. I just need your support to do it.”
“And you think this will work? This will bring them out?”
“If anything, it will tell us one way or the other, right?”
“Let’s get together with Joker and Nate tomorrow and figure it all out so they can track everything as well.”
“Sounds good.”
“Demitri, I’m sorry if you thought I was overstepping. I think of you as one of my kids, and I just want you to stay safe until the danger is gone, okay?”
“Thanks, Aunt Linda.”
I hang up the phone and look over to see Mia standing at the door, sucking her lips in, trying not to laugh.
“What?” I groan, already knowing.
“Was she really asking you about our birth control?” She giggles.
“Have you met the woman?” I ask in exasperation, throwing my hands up. “What are you going to do?”
“She cares about you.”
“I know. And I her. But I wouldn’t have had that conversation with my mom, either.”
“Still funny.” She shrugs.
“I’ll show you funny,” I growl as I jump from the couch and chase her through the living room and into the kitchen.
These glimpses of Mia are what I crave, what I need to survive. I only hope if I do this with the money, if I pull out the rats, we get to have more.