Chapter 14 #2
He still is with the way he’s touching me, clutching the back of my neck. It’s not even tender, but rough. Possessive.
I gave him that ring, and I made him mine, but he did the same. With his body, with the way he commanded me, the way he marked me.
“Do you want to tell them?” Georgiy says. “We can find them another way.”
“I do. I wanna help.”
Georgiy’s fingers tighten against me, and I sigh happily.
“It’s Ara,” I finally say, meeting my boss’s gaze.
He blinks and then cocks his head.
“You’re sure?”
“Of course he fucking is,” Georgiy bites out, but I shake my head, telling him it’s okay.
“I am. It’s Ara. I think it’s somehow connected with Samvel and Emma. Those names triggered it.”
He’s silent for a while and then nods. “I’ll tell Lex and Diablo. See if that helps in narrowing it down. Fuck, this is giving me a migraine.”
“Oh, let me…” I begin, moving toward him, but Georgiy stops me.
“Do not touch him,” he growls.
That makes my heart skip a beat. “You mean it?”
“I do. You touch no one else but me.”
“But hugs?”
“Those don’t count.”
I grin at him and then bite my bottom lip, peering up at my man.
“Take it somewhere else,” Anthony grumbles. “Unlike you, I don’t want to watch.”
Georgiy leads me out of Anthony’s office and toward the kitchen, where I can smell food cooking.
“You need to eat.”
“Are you going to micromanage me now?” I ask, but he says nothing, just continues leading me forward. “You can micromanage my dick too.”
“I will.”
That makes me giggle, and when we arrive in the kitchen, Agatha stops what she’s doing and eyes us.
“Seems he’s made you happy now, bug?” she asks, and I nod.
“He’s mine now.”
“Fine,” she huffs. “You can live, Mr. Sokolov. And also, have some of my banana bread.”
“I don’t like bananas or bread.”
“Then maybe you should die,” she spits.
I bound over to her and squeeze her, leaving Georgiy to inspect the plate of food that Teddy set before him.
“How do I know this isn’t poisoned?”
“Because Bane’s happy with you,” Agatha replies curtly. “Hurt him again and you won’t know what hit you. I have herbs in my garden that are illegal.”
He picks up his fork and opens his mouth to say something, but then looks at me, and his lips snap shut.
“I won’t hurt him.”
“You better not. Now eat your eggs and behave. I won’t have anyone disrespecting me by not eating what I’ve prepared.”
Georgiy holds his fork like he’s planning to stab someone with it. But he won’t. He knows how much everyone here means to me.
I chat happily with Agatha and Teddy, telling them about what I’ve discovered about myself. The more I talk about it, the less it hurts.
Agatha bursts into tears when I tell her my name and pulls me into a rough hug.
“Oh, sweet boy,” she coos. “Of course you have a name.”
That makes me tear up, the thought of having a past, of having some kind of connection to someone or something. Not that I know who or what, but still, I mattered enough to have one.
And this is verified when Anthony storms into the kitchen a while later.
“Diablo found something.”
“What?” I ask, sitting up in my chair, my stomach roiling slightly from nerves.
“You were right. You are connected. Somehow.”
I swallow the scone in my mouth, and it sticks to the inside of my throat. Fuck. I knew it. Does that mean they won’t want me anymore because of my ties to someone bad? Because maybe we’re related.
“What did you find?” Georgiy asks, reading my mind. He must sense the nerves rolling off me at the moment.
“As we know, Henry was an alias. But it was a good one. It lined up very well with Samvel and who he appears to be. It’s why we didn’t realize at the time that it was fake.
Whoever is behind these aliases is doing a damn good job.
” Anthony rubs a hand down his face. “And we weren’t able to find much on a Samvel, Emma, or Ara in any legal adoption databases here in the U.S.
, but when Diablo went into an Armenian adoption site, he was able to get a hit on the names Samvel and Emma, as siblings adopted out at the same time. ”
I sit up in my chair.
“Wait, what about me? Was I adopted, too?”
Georgiy’s hand lands on the back of my neck and squeezes roughly. It centers me, grounds me. It will be okay. It has to be.
“We don’t know. We don’t have any proof of that.”
“So, they don’t have any information about my…” I breathe in shakily. “Parents?”
“Not yet. Diablo is still working on it. But the site does list the woman who adopted Samvel and Emma. And we have all her information and location.”
My body grows cold, and Georgiy stands up abruptly, stepping near me.
“Her name is Sue Mitchell. She lives in a small town in Alabama.”
“Sue Mitchell?” I roll that name across my tongue. It doesn’t sound familiar. Doesn’t even ring a bell.
“I plan on taking a trip out there—” Anthony begins, but Georgiy cuts him off.
“No, Bane and I will go. Together.”
Anthony eyes him and then me. “Is that what Bane wants?”
Is it? I sit with that a moment, and then nod. Yeah, I do want to go. I want to see this person firsthand. I need to find out how I’m connected to Henry. I want answers.
“Fine, you two can go. I expect full reports as soon as you can. I want to know everything.”
“We’ll take care of it,” Georgiy says.
I peer up at Anthony, and he meets my stare, clearly sensing my unease.
“I feel like…I don’t know, like I’m connected to all this in some way,” I say.
“I don’t blame you,” Anthony says. “Whatever happened in your history. I don’t care.”
It hurts my chest, a pain spreading up to my heart and into my shoulders. I’m tense, upset. My eyes sting, everything turning blurry.
“Come here,” Anthony says gruffly, and I hesitate, but then move, feeling Georgiy’s hand slip from my neck as I do.
I stop in front of Anthony, and he forces me to look at him.
“You know this is not your fault, right?”
“I don’t.”
“It’s not. None of it.”
“It is, though.”
“It’s not.”
I huff at how stubborn he is, and Anthony’s lips twitch.
“Tatum told me he’d do it all over again if it meant having you in his life.”
I gasp at that, my eyes watering even more. Oh Satan, he’s going to make me sob if he keeps this up.
“He meant it. So do I. You’re ours. No matter what,” he says roughly.
It makes me sniffle loudly, and before I know it, I’m wrapped in his arms, squeezed tightly.
“You don’t need to worry about this, about us. You’re part of the Costellos. You’ll always have a place here.”
I rub my face against his shirt, wetting it with my tears, only backing away when Georgiy growls slightly. Then I move to him, letting his strong arms engulf me.
I peer over at Agatha and see her swiping at her eyes. Teddy is too, the two of them clearly emotional at the display of affection from Anthony.
“You come back now,” Agatha says, her voice wobbly. “You come back home after this. And take your vitamins with you.”
She turns her gaze to Georgiy. “Make sure he takes them every morning and make sure he eats, period.”
“I will.”
She hands him my pill box and then pulls me in for another hug. I can smell her—flour, salt, and vanilla, like a scone.
“You take care of yourself. You fight like hell, and I left you a little something in your pocket.”
I fiddle with it and pull out a vial.
“Is this what I think it is?”
Her eyes sparkle. “Yes. Use it if you need it.”
I clasp it in my hand and kiss her cheek.
“I will use it for the biggest monsters.”
“Good boy.”
I turn back to Georgiy, who is watching all of this, his eyes full of approval. Then he turns to Anthony, seriousness in his gaze.
“Will you have transportation ready?”
“Yes, give me an hour to arrange it.”