Chapter 7
The drive to Fort Worth from Houston is just long enough to allow my mind to wander.
Horus is at my house, keeping things safe. It’s about the only reason that I feel comfortable enough to make drives like this. I don’t like being this far away from Liz. Something about not being able to get to her in the moment of her need is deeply unsettling for me. It almost sparks anxiety. But Horus won’t let anything happen to her. I know that he won’t let anything happen to her. I just have to keep repeating that to myself.
I also don’t like the fact that spending so many hours in the car means that my mind has abundant time to wander into places that it’s shouldn’t. I haven’t met Alek in person yet. We’ve been exchanging emails and speaking on the phone but this will be a whole new experience. I’ve stepped into a life that I don’t recognize.
All of these lethal and powerful figures? Now I’m supposed to be on a first name basis with mobsters? It’s thrilling and terrifying all at the same time.
The most important thing that needs to come out of this is the fact that Alek and Anya are going to have to give their permission for Henry to testify in court. There’s not going to be any way around this. If they don’t like the story that I’m going to have them spin, then none of this works and everything falls apart. I wonder how deep their word is going to run as soon as they have the divorce papers in their hands. Surely my protection isn’t going to be contingent upon getting Nikolai out of prison. I haven’t even bothered asking them what happens to Volkovich after I win his case anyway.
They all will have to testify. They are going to have to agree to it.
Horus dropped the bomb on me this morning over breakfast that Henry was Nikolai’s biological child. I haven’t allowed myself the time or energy to think about what that means. I don’t want to get personally involved but I feel like it’s going to change things for me. Or will it?
I will figure it out one way or another.
I turn the radio up higher as I finish the last thirty minutes of my long drive. It’s going to be a hell of an evening and I can’t let my own overthinking get the best of me. I have to use the fact that Nikolai is Henry’s is biological father to our advantage somehow. I simply must. There’s got to be something in there that I can use to make the child abduction charges drop.
The estate that I drive up to looks brand spanking new. I can see that there’s another house a little bit further down the complex. That one must belong to Daniel and Helena. They have been more reluctant to speak to me about all of this. I don’t know yet if I’m going to testimony for me or not.
I put the car into park and take a moment to fully admire the fine mansion that I’m parked in front of. Sprawling and massive, it’s hard to take in the whole picture while standing up so close to it. I move slowly to the front door. I won’t allow myself to be intimidated by them just because they have more money than me. I have a skill set that they need.
Hell, maybe I should have raised my rates for them.
I lift a hand to knock on the front door, but it swings open before I have a chance. A stunning exotic looking woman opens the door. She’s comfortable in a soft sweater and leggings. But even through the lush fabric I can see the soft swell of a baby bump. The ring on her finger catches the sunlight and it is almost nearly as dazzling as the smile that she gives me. It’s impossible not to like her right away.
“You made it!” Anya greets me and I smile.
“You must be Anya!” I hold out a hand to greet her, but she hugs me instead. Just as I guessed, I can feel her baby bump when she hugs me.
“Come in, come in!” She steps back and gestures me inside. “I was just making a snack. Would you like something to eat? I’m sure that you’re hungry after your long trip!”
I follow her inside and she starts to lead me and points to where I can leave my shoes. It feels weird to slip out of my heels, like I’m shedding a piece of my armor. But it’s their house and I don’t want to offend them. Instead, I leave them behind and follow her toward the kitchen. Before we can get there, Alek comes jogging down the stairs, comfortable in his sweatpants and bare feet. It feels like I’m horribly overdressed. This man is the one who took down Nikolai’s Bratva? He’s the one who took over the whole thing? He looks so… normal.
That’s what I get for stereotyping I suppose.
“Henry’s calling for you.” Alek comes down and kisses Anya on the cheek. The way that he looks at her is filled with such admiration that it almost feels intrusive to watch. He pauses to place a hand on her belly, splaying his fingers over the rounded skin and Anya lights up under his touch. “I think he needs help with his project. He said I don’t know what he is supposed to do.”
“Such a fun phase he’s in right now.” Anya giggles.
“We can always send him back over the hill. Let Daniel deal with it.” Alek teases her.
The only reason I get the inside joke is because I have been doing my homework, studying the papers Alek sent me when he hired me to get Nikolai out of prison. We also had endless phone calls so he could help me better understand how all these people came together. And why Alek, a mob boss, was ultimately paying me a fortune and offering me 24/7 security to get his mortal enemy out of prison, despite Nikolai having tortured him for months.
Anya, who was Nikolai’s wife at the time, had saved and helped free Alek from the basement of their home, getting herself locked up and hurt too, and had fallen in love with him in the process. Nikolai had been a very controlling husband. Alek is doing all this because it is the only way he and Anya can convince Nikolai to sign the divorce papers, so that they can get married.
Anya had originally been kidnapped by Nikolai when he had found out that her father was responsible for hiring a woman, Helena, to spy on his Bratva’s business, leading to the murder of his father. During Anya’s long imprisonment, they had fallen in love. He had freed her, and they had then gotten married. But he remained obsessed with what Helena had done to him and his father and wanted to find her and kill her.
Henry’s mother was Lilian, Daniel’s sister. They were the children of a Cosa Nostra boss in New York who was forging an alliance with Nikolai’s Bratva because of his weakened position. The one condition Nikolai had set was that Daniel kill his ex-fiancée, Helena. When she had infiltrated his business, Nikolai had fallen for her and gotten engaged to her. She had killed his father to avenge the death of her own parents, so Nikolai had had her pushed off a building, but she had miraculously survived, changed her name and gone into hiding. Nikolai found her.
In the meantime, Lilian had been seeing Nikolai on and off, whilst also dating Alek. When Lilian had gotten pregnant and then died shortly after giving birth, Daniel had thought Alek, who worked for Nikolai, had killed Lillian because she had gotten pregnant by another man. Daniel had become Henry’s sole caretaker. It much later turned out that Nikolai was Henry’s father and had had Lilian killed. But at the time Daniel had been asked to kill Helena, he had been happy to comply because he had found out that Alek was none other than her half-brother of Helena from their mother’s side. He had left home when she was still young because he did not get along with the man he thought was both of their father. Daniel and Helena, however, ended up falling in love. He no longer wanted to kill her and decided to help her save Alek, who had been kidnapped by Nikolai because he had discovered that he knew that Henry was his child.
I am brought back from this soap opera of a story to the present by the sound of Anya giggling as Alek tickles her side.
Anya rolls her eyes and pushes Alek playfully before heading up the stairs. Only then does Alek seem to notice me. “Thanks for driving all this way.” He holds out his hand to shake and I take it. He covers our joined hands with the other one of his and shakes it firmly. “It means a lot that you’ve put in so much work as it is.”
“Just doing my job.”
Alek smirks. “Just another day at the office? Though, I don’t think that there is ever anything that is routine about dealing with Volkovich.”
“It’s a steep learning curve, I won’t deny that.” I answer evenly.
“You said that you had some news about the case?” Alek gestures me toward the kitchen. We pass room after impressive room and I can see elements of both of them in every bit of their house. We turn into the kitchen and he moves to take over the snack that Anya had been making on the counter. It is all very mundane, in the best possible way. It is a glimpse into what I had thought my life was going to be, but never became. A functional, happy relationship and a well-adjusted child. I’ve been incredibly fortunate that Liz doesn’t seemed to show any signs of trauma from leaving her father, but there’s no way to know for sure until she gets older.
Then again, having heard what Henry went through in his short life, losing his mother, being brought up by his uncle, being kidnapped by his biological father and then acquiring another set of quasi parents, somehow gave me hope. If he did it, despite his dysfunctional family, then Liz can do it. If Helena and Daniel and then Anya and Alek were able to defy all odds and find one another, then perhaps there’s the possibility of a happy ending for me as well.
Nikolai’s face comes to mind, unbidden.
I can only imagine the shape that he’s going to be in when I see him next.
“I do. I think that the best chance for getting Nikolai released of all charges is to have Henry testify. Getting the victim himself to negate the claims of abduction will to be the best possible way to convince the judge.”
“No.” Alek says instantly. He doesn’t even bother looking up from the sandwiches that he was making. “He’s not going to be involved in this. Nikolai might have convinced me to help him in the first place by hiring you, but that’s crossing a line.”
My mouth goes dry. I wasn’t expecting for him to get so angry over such a simple suggestion. I flounder for a moment, just a moment before I catch my composure.
“It would be the fastest way to get him out. I can come up with other options, but they will take more time. I will have to deep dive into the past and I don’t truly think that Nikolai has the luxury of time in there.”
Alek stabs his knife into the cutting board, and I flinch. I just hope that he didn’t see it. I swallow back my knee jerk reactions and force myself to stand tall.
Mercifully, Anya comes jogging back down the stairs. “Henry says that he wants a snack, so I thought I could bring him something while he studies. Is that finished?”
Anya points to the sandwich that Alek was making. He slaps it on a plate and slides it across the counter toward her.
“Whoa, what did I miss here?” Anya asks, and Alek tells her my plan. She pales a little but doesn’t outright refuse in the way that Alek did.
“He will want to help.”
“He’s not going to be involved.” Alek repeats firmly.
“That’s not how this works. You don’t just get to make a choice and then expect everybody to blindly go with it. You promised.” Anya says the last part smaller than the other words. Something meant only for Alek, and I don’t bother questioning it.
“It will simply expedite things. There are plenty of precautions that we can put into place to ensure that Henry doesn’t have to be alone with him at all. They don’t even have to be in the same room apart from the testimony itself. It will be safe. But, for my plan to work, the judge will have to think that everybody is exactly on the same page.” I speak with a calmness that I don’t really feel. I wish that I did. Fake it till you make it.
Anya turns to me and her hands drop down to her stomach. Alek starts gathering other things to add to the snack for Henry - cookies from the panty and some sliced pickle from the fridge. He moves with erratic, jumpy movements that have me on edge. But Anya doesn’t seem to fear him whatsoever. Which helps me relax a little bit.
I hope I’m not jumpy like this my whole life. Every time I have a reaction that I can’t stop, it feels like Billy is still winning. I don’t want to live my life like that.
Anya holds a hand up to Alek as if telling him to calm down. He does, mostly.
“If he does this... If this actually happens and Henry agrees to do this… will it be over?” Anya holds my gaze as she asks and I can see that there’s something we have in common. We both need to let go of our pasts. We both desperately need to be free from our ex’s so that we can move forward. There’s a sadness there in her gaze that I can’t bring myself to question.
“Yes. This will work.” I repeat, confident in my decision.
Anya turns to her fiancé and places a hand on his chest. He grabs hold of her wrist and starts to pull it away, but she stops him. I almost want to look away from the silent conversation that they are having together. Finally, Alek allows Anya to touch his chest and she taps her fingers against his stern four times in the mimic of a heartbeat. I wonder what that must mean for them. But, whatever it means, it’s enough to have Alek’s shoulders drooping. Some of the lines of tension in his body starts to fade.
“This could be it.” Anya says softly. “You chose her for a reason. You said that Kate is the best at what she does and if this is what it takes to be free of that monster, then we need to do it. We owe it to Henry and ourselves.”
I try not to flinch when she says ‘monster’.
Just a few hours ago that same monster had had his tongue in my mouth. I had been very seriously considering fucking him right there in the visitation room. He hasn’t exactly been a gentleman, but he hasn’t been a monster to me. I wonder if their opinion of him would change at all if they saw him in the state that he is in. Perhaps not. Either way, they have a much longer history with him than I do. I want to know more.
Anya lowers her hand from Alek’s chest, but she doesn’t pull her eyes from him for a long moment. “We’ll do it.”
Alek’s fists ball at his side and I can hear his knuckles crack. But he gives in. “Anything to finally be rid of him.”