Chapter 31
Chapter
Thirty-One
Kirill
The phone blasted me awake. I immediately reached for Lucy. She wasn’t there. Kolya’s ringtone wouldn’t shut up, so I snatched the phone and answered.
“This better be—”
“Shut up and listen,” Kolya cut me off.
My heart pounded, and I came fully awake. Early-morning phone calls were never good.
“You need to come back,” he said.
I exhaled an irritated breath. “If this is not an emergency, then I don’t know why you couldn’t have waited another hour to call me.”
“I waited five fucking hours. I’m not going to spiral alone in this one.”
“No one is dead?” I asked carefully.
“No.”
“In the hospital in critical condition?”
“No, but someone should be.”
“Okay, what now? Anya causing you problems?”
“Anya is not my business, she’s yours.”
“The fuck she is.”
Silence.
I stretched and rolled out of bed. After two nights of sleeping in front of the fireplace, my wife was ready for the comfort of the bed.
As for me, I could sleep on all hard surfaces, but the hearth was like a fucking furnace and too hot for me, especially since I wanted to be plastered to my wife while I slept. Lucy complained I was too sweaty.
So we returned to the bed.
“Tell me why you called and couldn’t wait.”
“Jeremiah King visited Ivan and Irina late last night.”
A chill crawled up my spine. “Don’t tell me he’s interested in Aralina.”
“Bingo.”
“Over my dead body.” I stalked around the room.
“So, you’ll come back, then?”
“Yes. Where are you?”
“At my condo.”
“Go over there and show up for breakfast. You’re like family. They won’t think anything of it. Irina won’t turn you away. I want you to stick to Aralina, you got me?”
“Are those your orders?”
“It sure fucking is. We’re returning today.”
“Thank fuck.”
I ended the call and started cursing my father.
Though it was a projected move, I didn’t think he would act on it so quickly.
I entered the bathroom and threw water on my face and gargled mouthwash to shake off the remnants of sleep.
I expected to see Lucy sitting on the barstool in the kitchen.
I didn’t start the fire until it was afternoon, and since we returned to the bedroom, I let it die out before bedtime, but she was nowhere in sight.
“Lucy?” I called. But the aroma of coffee was all over the cabin.
She must be sitting out on the porch swing again, as was her ritual.
She liked the sunrise with coffee and the sunset with hot chocolate.
I peeked through the blinds. She wasn’t on the porch swing because directly in my line of sight, she was talking to a snowshoe hare.
It was a big one. My wife, apparently, aspired to be Snow White.
Shaking my head, I turned toward the thermos of coffee to pour myself a mug and thought of how to tell her that our extended vacation had come to an end.
Instead of just the weekend, it was currently Thursday.
Kolya and the other brigadiers were grumbling about my unexpected vacation. I’d been indulging my wife too much.
A loud squeal had me slamming my mug on the counter and grabbing the rifle by the door. I yanked the door open, and my heart slammed into my throat.
A bear.
It had to be a fucking bear.
Lucy was down on her ass in the snow, and the bear was fifteen feet away. The rabbit was long gone.
I cocked the rifle.
“Kirill.” Her terrified whisper stretched between us in the cold, tense silence.
Dumbest thing you did in your teens?
Run from a bear.
But black bears differed from the Siberian grizzlies. They were less likely to be aggressive. Just curious or hungry because hibernation season was upon us and the snow covered its food sources.
Lucy pushed up gingerly. The bear didn’t move. It was aware I’d joined the fucking chat.
She backed away, inching toward me. I was steadily heading in her direction with the bear trained in my sights.
“Don’t shoot,” Lucy said.
I exhaled heavily as a measure of relief loosened my lungs. We had now exchanged positions. There was no way the bear could get to her except through me. I would never let that happen.
“In the cabin. Now.”
“Kirill, don’t kill it.”
“Now!” I whispered harshly.
I had the bear’s attention. In another lifetime, I’d been in this situation before, terrified shitless.
“Go,” I told the bear. “You’re not about to make me a monster in front of my wife.
“Go!” I repeated, spreading my arms to make me bigger, and stomped a foot as I roared at it.
That seemed to have shocked the bear out of its stillness. It scampered back to the woods.
Lucy was waiting for me in the kitchen. “I don’t think it wanted to hurt me.”
I didn’t say anything. If Kolya hadn’t woken me up, what would have happened? Blood-streaked snow flashed through my head.
I lowered the rifle, stalked toward Lucy, and swallowed her in my arms. I wasn’t sure which of us was shaking.
“The dumbest thing I’ve ever done is run from a bear,” I breathed my confession into her ear.
“I was thirteen, old enough to know better. Black bears, you can scare them. Grizzlies have prey drive, and one swipe from them could be deadly. You felt the scars on my back.”
“That was from a bear?”
I nodded. “Fortunately, I was in a hunting party and someone shot it. We’d been hunting it because it broke into a house and killed a man and injured others.
” The need to explain the situation was something new, and it could only be because I didn’t want Lucy thinking an innocent animal was killed because of my stupidity.
I understood my wife’s compassion for innocent things, and that was why she didn’t want me shooting the bear.
I was ninety-nine percent certain I wouldn’t have.
But for a heart-stopping second, I imagined a life without Lucy.
That the bear would kill her as karma for the one killed because of me.
I tightened my arms around her. But I would kill Karma first before it could hurt my wife.
“Oh God, that was wild,” Lucy whispered. “I’m sorry for heading out there by myself. I don’t think I could’ve forgiven myself if you’d had to kill the bear to save my stupid ass.”
I didn’t even think of blaming Lucy, and she was taking ownership of her lack of prudence. “It was an unfortunate incident, that’s all. I won’t say it’s rare since we don’t live here, but be more careful next time.”
She moved her head in an affirmative. “It’s been a cozy couple of days, but I’m having cabin fever.”
“About that…” I waited for her to give me her eyes. “We need to return. The Kings made their move.”
We reached my parents’ house in the afternoon.
Who knew packing up the cabin would take forever?
I told Lucy I could just send someone to do the housekeeping, but she insisted on laundering the bedding for the next use.
Then there was the unfinished puzzle. There was a fourth to go, but in our haste to transfer it to the SUV, it fell apart.
Reluctantly, Lucy agreed to leave it behind because we were running late, and we’d have to count the puzzle pieces to make sure we didn’t miss one.
Admittedly, I was impatient to return. By the time we reached the gates of Ivan and Irina’s house, Lucy had become an expert on framing a jigsaw puzzle, and I let her drone on about parchment paper and types of glue to use.
She must have sensed that I wasn’t paying attention. “It’s going to be fine.”
“Hmm?” I grunted.
“Aralina,” she said. “She told me Ivan said he wasn’t going to force her to marry.”
“I know,” I said. “I was there another morning when he said that, but until I have a handle on what’s going on—” I broke off and cursed. King’s sleek Mercedes was in the driveway. I called Kolya.
“Why didn’t you tell me he had arrived?”
“Oh, you’re here?” he drawled.
I exploded into a string of profanities that caused Lucy to give me a sharp look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I expected you three hours ago,” he said.
Fucking Kolya.
“That’s my fault,” Lucy piped in.
“King just arrived. Irina is showing him to the parlor room. Can you take over? I’m not in the mood for tea.”
“You think I am?”
I ended the call and pulled up in front of the entrance. I’d left the trailer at the cabin so it wouldn’t slow us down.
Sato was already there by my wife’s side and opened her door. “Lucy, good vacation?”
“Surprisingly, I enjoyed it.”
“Boss.” His mouth quirked at my unusual attire of flannel shirt, faded denim, and scuffed workman boots. There was no time to go home and change. Lucy dressed similarly, but she made it look fashionably chic, like she stepped out of a Russian ladies’ magazine, winter edition.
Irina met us in the foyer. Her smile was tight. “Kirill. Lucy.”
Lucy gave my mother a warmer greeting than I was in the mood for.
It was as though the second our SUV crossed into Manhattan, the ruthlessness of my position as the bratva’s pakhan had edged out all the warm emotions the past few days built up inside of me.
Was I destined to become this cold motherfucker?
I wasn’t sure what our new normal would be, but I couldn’t help thinking that King made his move because of my preoccupation with my wife.
Then my eyes fell on Lucy. Her questioning gaze calmed the icy rage inside me. No, I would not regret building a foundation of trust with my wife. She was worth it. Now to find out what King’s bullshit was all about.
My mother split a look between us, and the joyous expression that came over her face almost made me roll my eyes. So, my wife had me wrapped around her finger. Her presence would at least save me from shooting King on sight.
We entered the parlor room where the fucker was already in courtship mode with my sister. It was like I’d entered the Victorian era. Ivan was sitting there with a drink in his hand. At least the men were having vodka.