Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
Chloe
“Let me get this straight, these Vozhokari people want your super sperm?” I asked.
Lucy burst out laughing.
Kolya scowled.
We were in the mansion's basement. Three whiteboards surrounded a U-shaped desk, and on the center board, the word “VOZHOKARI” was written as a heading.
Plastered underneath it were pictures of Kolya, Sebastian, and a few others with the last name Petrov.
Flowcharts with scribbles of family history and cloud symbols of other related organizations like the Zahkarovs surrounded the pictures.
Kolya and Lucy ripped the Band-Aid off and told me about the assassin organization where the Petrovs got their start.
This was how I understood it. Petrovs had a bloodline in the Vozhokari.
Because of the exceptional assassins they produced, Russian organized crime as a whole enticed the Petrov clan to split from the Vozhokari, but a condition of the divestment was that a blue-eyed Petrov would provide Vozhokari with its genes via copulation with one of their chosen vessels to breed the next assassin.
It was an archaic custom that the Zahkarovs of the last fifty years didn’t take seriously, except their disgraced brigadier, Grigori Petrov. Kolya’s cousin didn’t have the required shade of blue eyes. The Zahkarov bratva was a step removed from the custom because they were based in the US.
The Petrov clan, who remained in Russia, further splintered into different groups to serve different factions of the Russian mob.
Most recently, Dimitri, another one of Kolya’s cousins and the one whose text I saw, had taken part in a failed breeding.
I was still trying to wrap my mind around the careful curation of bloodlines, but after I’d been exposed to Marriage Ink, the revelation went down easier.
A kidnapping ring targeting my son doubled my anxiety, but adding a shadow organization tripled my trepidation.
“Do you think they want Sebastian?”
Kolya nodded. “We’re not sure where Marena comes in. Either they’re working together, or they’re separate entities.”
“I can’t believe it.” Fuck my life, but I wasn’t regretting Sebastian.
My gaze fell on him, sleeping peacefully in the car seat carrier.
Fierce protectiveness flowed through my veins and hardened my resolve. I glanced at Kolya. “How do I protect my son?”
“Our son,” Kolya reiterated calmly. “He’s in danger because of me, so I’m responsible for his protection. Yours too.”
Our eyes locked. His eyes, so like my son’s beautiful ones, were burning right through me. He was assuming all the blame, but deep inside, I couldn’t find any resentment or anger to pin on Kolya. I couldn’t hate the man simply because he made up half my son’s DNA.
His warmth washed over my body as he erased the gap between us. His face lowered to mine. His breath, a whisper across my cheek.
“Chloe, I’m sorry.”
A resigned smile pulled at my mouth. “I don’t blame you for being Sebastian’s father.” I backed up a step before I did the opposite and stepped forward to hug him. To be able to think clearly, I needed space from him because it was so easy to just give in and have him take over.
“I’m overwhelmed by all this.” I waved at the whiteboard. “Do we have any lead at all on the Vozhokari since Marena seems to have fallen off the face of the planet?”
The grimness on Kolya’s face ratcheted up my anxiety. “What?”
“There’s something else I need to tell you.”
Here we go. I wanted answers, didn’t I? “Do I need to sit down for this?”
“Probably.”
“I was kidding.” Oh my God. What else could he tell me that was more fucked up than this? My mind was already having a hard time processing the existence of the Vozhokari and its ancient practices.
“If it’s what I think Kolya wants to tell you, then we could move to the sitting area,” Lucy broke in. “It’s cozier, less intimidating.”
She led us to a collection of leather couches against an exposed brick wall. On it was a framed The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh or what looked like it. It wasn’t a painting. And as I moved closer, I realized it was a jigsaw puzzle.
“Did you do this?” I asked.
“Kirill and I did,” Lucy said with what I could describe as a suppressed, giddy smile. Like she was tickled by the thought.
“Yeah, I couldn’t believe Kirill had the patience for it,” Kolya said with a hint of sardonic humor.
He carried the car seat carrier and set it on the coffee table.
Unlike the clinical area of the whiteboards with the fluorescent task lighting, this adjacent sitting area was more inviting courtesy of the pin lights bathing the space with an orange radiance. “Must be quite an incentive.”
I snorted.
Lucy’s face pinkened. Or maybe it was the lighting.
I settled into the couch and checked on Sebastian.
He’d become more accustomed to frequent changes of surroundings and usually slept through people talking or light laughter.
It had been a blessing. We still hadn’t determined what we were going to do this evening.
I was a tad spaced out, but given what I’d been through, I felt fine. I’m sure all the IV infusions helped.
The voices were nonexistent. I hadn’t felt more like myself in a long time, since the announcement of Theo and Aralina’s engagement. Since before Marena gave me that last batch of tea.
I trusted that witch.
I replayed every interaction I had with her.
The subtle gaslighting? She made sure not to be too obvious, but I remembered my irritation when Theo had delivered the invitations.
That had been before I started ingesting the tea again, and it gave me confidence that my erratic behavior was because of the psychosis-inducing substances.
“I don’t think Theo and Marena are working together,” I said.
“Honestly, I don’t see that either,” Lucy said. “I trust my instincts with him. He’s a shrewd businessman, but he wouldn’t harm family.”
“His ex-wife says otherwise,” Kolya said.
“I’m just eliminating the possibility that he is working with Marena,” I said. “I remembered that day Theo handed me the invitation to the wedding. Marena dropped a hint that it wasn’t because I was important to him, but it made good publicity by going to the shelter with Gage.”
“Ohh.” Lucy’s eyes widened. “She’s a sneaky one.”
“I know. I don’t know why Dora and I hadn’t picked up on it sooner.”
“This fucking bugs the hell out of me,” Kolya said. “She’s been doing the job for a while, and with the level she pulled this off, she must have had psychological training too. Which means we’re not dealing with a ragtag kidnapping ring.”
Lucy nodded. “Ilya is doing some digging for me. We couldn’t verify any information beyond five years.”
“Yeah, Ilya told me,” Kolya muttered. “He’s going to actually fly out and check school records from the high school in Gainesville, Texas. They’re easier to gain access to.”
Realization dawned on me. “The yearbook.”
“Yep,” Lucy said. “They might have altered online information, but the paper archives would take more elaborate scheming.”
“Wait, weren’t you supposed to tell me something?” I asked Kolya. “Sorry for the sidetrack.”
“No, that’s fine.” Kolya sat on the coffee table so he was facing me. The action itself made me wary and gave me another dose of anxiety.
“What?” I asked. “Just tell me.”
“That night of the storm when your mother thought assassins were after you?”
By the look on Kolya’s face, I could already discern the truth. “She was right,” I croaked, and there was no question in my tone.
He nodded. “Yes. And I was there.”
“What?” I whispered. Even when I was sitting, a wave of dizziness ran through me and I felt like falling.
“I wasn’t the assassin,” he added urgently when he decoded the conclusion in my head.
“Shit.” A whoosh of relief escaped me, but it left my limbs rubbery and my lips tingling with the return of blood to my head. “You should have led with that, Kolya.” My voice had risen thinly. Sebastian stirred.
“Sorry,” he mumbled. “I was there. Duncan tipped off Ivan, and Ivan directed me to intervene.”
“So you did?” Flashes of that night returned. My mom yelling, cursing Esther for not leaving us alone.
“It was Esther,” I whispered.
Kolya nodded. “Yes. She knew about the Vozhokari assassins, and there is a boatload of information about how she knew about them. Two Vozhokari assassins on motorcycles. I killed one; the other crashed into a quarry and the bike exploded but there was no body.”
“You were there.” I was still chewing over this information in disbelief. How my connection to Kolya spanned years without being aware of it.
“I was.” His jaw clenched. He regarded me for a beat or two. “There’s something else I need to come clean about.”
“Wow, is this true confessions time?” Lucy teased. “Should I be here? Is it something I already know?”
“Probably not. And it has to do with Anya,” Kolya told Lucy.
Her eyes narrowed. “What?”
“Kirill doesn’t know this either.”
His attention turned back to me, and I could tell he was struggling with how to tell me, but I had a feeling I already knew. Because I never accepted his explanation about our weekend. It was too much of a coincidence.
“You sought me out that weekend,” I said.
“That weekend fling?” Lucy asked.
Both Kolya and I ignored her, locked in the memories of those days.
Kolya’s throat bobbed. “Anya knew about the trust documents. She sent me there—”
Tears stung my eyes. “To seduce me.” A small sob snagged in my throat. Lucy quietly handed me a box of tissues and mumbled something about giving us privacy.
“Chloe…that wasn’t my intention when I got there.
I was simply checking out Anya’s fears about your threat to the bratva.
” Because of the clause in the trust documents that suggested a marriage between a King and Zahkarov.
Kirill hadn’t married Lucy yet, and Anya was afraid that Kirill would marry me.
“You couldn’t kill me otherwise Ivan would have your head.” I dabbed my eyes.
He clutched my shoulders, but I twisted out of his hold and stood. “Don’t touch me.”
I backed away, drawing out every ounce of contempt I could muster. But I was grasping to hold on to my anger because I’d always known Kolya being there couldn’t be a coincidence. Deep down I knew he sought me out, but my mind was protecting myself from being anointed disposable. “I was a mark.”
“I was attracted to you.”
“Bullshit. I asked you once to tell me the truth, and you continued to lie.”
“I. Was. Attracted. To. You.” He made to grab my shoulders again, but I held up my hands in warning. “Don’t touch me!” My chin tipped up mulishly. “Well, it’s a good thing, then, that it was tolerable for you to fuck me.”
Kolya scraped his face. “You get I didn’t need to confess to you, right? Everyone who knew why I was there are dead. Anya and Grigori. I didn’t need to confess this. I could have just kept you in the dark.”
“Maybe you should have.”
“Is that what you prefer?” he shot back.
Oh, he wasn’t going to put this back on me. “Why confess now?”
“Because I don’t want to lie to you!” he roared. “I want us to have a fresh start.”
“A fresh start for what?” I had a notion of what he was alluding to, but did he really think, after all that happened to us and who he was, there was a future? And it annoyed the hell out of me how he was acting as if there was.
“No lies between us. No secrets. I want us to be more, Chloshka.”
Well, that was rich. He wasn’t the one the Vozhokari wanted to annihilate.
“More? Can you even offer to be more when you’re promised to another.”
His eyes flashed. “I told you it’s not like that.”
“No, just that you have a bounty on your sperm.” I cracked up laughing.
I laughed so hard that I was hysterical.
The absolute clusterfuck facing my relationship with Kolya.
It wasn’t enough that I carried the stigma of being a daughter from an affair.
I went on to have a child with an assassin who once belonged to an organization who thought they had the right to his firstborn son.
Well, not if I had a choice.
I would embrace my King legacy and the power behind the name to protect my son.
I was bent over, trying to catch my breath when I saw Sebastian open his eyes. He must have awakened from all the raised voices.
I straightened and limped past Kolya, cursing my slightly sprained ankle, to pick Sebastian up. He giggled and clasped my cheeks. He was such a cheerful boy nowadays. He was loved.
Kolya moved beside us. “I want my family.”
“But it appears you can’t have one.”
“Who says I can’t?”
Something was bugging me and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t asked earlier.
Rocking Sebastian in my arms while still keeping enough space between me and Kolya so I didn’t make a fool of myself and simply surrender to the comfort of his broad shoulders and muscular frame, I asked, “So…who are your parents, Nikolai?”
His jaw hardened, eyes flinching from mine.
“Or is it something you can’t talk about again? You know everything about me. You say no more secrets. So tell me. What happened to your parents? Are they alive? Dead? In hiding?”
The bubbling anxiety in my throat peaked again when I saw the fleeting defeat in his eyes before his face hardened to stone. I was so fucking exhausted, but again, I braced myself for another revelation.
“They’re dead. The Vozhokari killed them.”
And with that confession, he turned on his heel and left the basement.