Chapter 33
RORI
I leave my room, feeling rested, as well as confused as shit.
Alonzo is still sleeping, but that doesn’t really surprise me.
The man is a fucking rock once he’s relaxed, but it’s for the best. I’m not ready for the impending conversation.
Last night was heavy. Far too heavy considering what’s coming, but a part of me feels less weighed down than before.
And that is a problem. I can’t let anything distract me. There are too many things I have to get to work on this morning, and Alonzo being in my head, making me face emotions I don’t want to, is not what I need right now.
The house is still quiet, the only sounds some of the soldiers and staff moving through the hallways.
No one speaks, no one glances my way, but I know they’re all keenly aware of who, and what, I am.
Some of the women hunch themselves just enough, like they’re trying to protect themselves, while the soldiers stand taller, the grips on their guns tightening subtly, but enough I don’t miss it.
Hades is tight to my side, a deterrent for any of them thinking of getting too close.
I head for Mila’s room, wanting to check on her, and also talk to her without her uncle or father getting in the way.
When I reach her hallway, I see David and John standing directly outside her door, still alert.
They have to be exhausted, but neither of them flinches when they see me approach.
“Any problems?” I ask quietly.
“It’s been quiet,” John finally admits. “She’s a good kid, mostly keeps to herself.” His lips quirk in amusement. “Other than when her uncle or father talk to her. Then she turns into a sarcastic little princess.”
“Those assholes don’t know what the hell to do with her, either,” David adds with a snicker. “Sent both of them storming out of here last night fit to be tied, and threatening bodily harm to everyone in their path. Including us.”
“Men tend to do that when their children are threatened. She awake?”
“Haven’t heard. You sure you should talk to her without them here?” John asks.
I arch a brow, deciding not to take offense to that. “I’m not about to string her up by her ankles and start slicing to get information out of her.”
John and David wince and share a look. “Not what we meant. Zakhar said you weren’t to talk to her without one of them present.”
“And when have I ever followed rules? Will you feel better if I leave Hades out here with you to keep them under control if they show up?”
They give the dog a wary glance. “Nah, we’ll be good. You might need him more than us.”
“From her or them?” I ask, unable to keep my smile from spreading.
They shrug. Yeah, that’s what I thought. I open the door, and when I walk inside, Titus and Ivano are both in front of me instantly from their positions by the door, guns to my temples. I don’t move, pleased that they’re taking their positions seriously.
I’d give anything to see them do that to Ilya and Zakhar though. Those two will have coronaries. Hades lets out a sharp snarl, but I quiet him with a wave of my hand, and both men drop their guns. Neither apologize and step back into place.
“Unless you’re going to let me pet the dog, get the hell out so I can go back to sleep,” Mila groans loudly.
I look over to see her sitting up in bed, rubbing at her eyes, and with a wicked case of bedhead.
I barely suppress a laugh, but I wave Hades over to her.
He happily walks forward, nudging her hand for pets, and then climbs up into the bed with her when she invites him.
He lets out a low groan of contentment as he lies beside her, accepting all scratches and pats.
“You’re as big as Freya,” she groans, but it does nothing to dim the warm smile on her face.
“He’ll lay there forever as long as you do that,” I tell her with a smile. “I’m sorry to wake you, but I’m wondering if we can talk for a second.”
“Yeah, sure. I figured you’d be up here eventually and try to do it when ogre one and ogre two aren’t around to stop you.”
I snort out a laugh. “They can’t be that bad. They’re just protective.”
She gives me a bland stare. “My father threatened a Russian military bootcamp to keep me safe, and my uncle threatened to drug me and put trackers in my neck, scalp, and one more unknown location so he can find me at all times.”
I wince. “Damn, that’s next level. Alright, well, names are apt then.
” I sit on the end of the bed, leaning back against her large footboard.
I switch to French, since I know it’s a language that none of the Romanov men speak, but is one that Mila learned in school. “How likely is this room to be bugged?”
She grins wickedly, seemingly pleased at this little show of defiance.
“My father and uncle slipped in a few when they thought I wasn’t looking.
I left them, but there’s one in my bookcase, on the top of the old doll my mother gave me.
I hate that thing, it’s so creepy, but I can’t get rid of it since it was hers.
The other one is on the top of the sliding window by the window seat.
I think they might have put one on the posts of my bed, but I didn’t bother getting close to look. ”
“The rest of the room?”
“Searched as soon as the hot Italian guys showed up. They found a few, destroyed them, but I don’t know if they’ve searched while I was asleep. Also, it was creepy as shit to have to sleep knowing they were hiding in the shadows.”
“Better that than someone sneaking in while you were sleeping. We’ll leave the bugs for now.
They’ll let your family feel they have some form of control while we’re talking.
Keep in French so you can tell me what I need to know without worrying about them.
” She nods. “How long ago were you contacted by your friend who said you needed to come home?”
“Two weeks ago. Told me to be careful and get a plan going.”
Two weeks? That fucking long? Even for Tatiana that seems excessive. But two weeks would be about the time when I called her the first time to warn her about the De Lucas motives. How long has she been planning this?
“How did they get a hold of you?”
“I got a letter that I thought was from my father, and it was in his handwriting, but there was a slip of paper just inside the letter with instructions. The handwriting was different, so I knew it wasn’t him.”
“What did you do with the letter?”
“Burned it. We had fireplaces in our rooms, and it was cool at night, so it wasn’t out of place.”
Smart. Damn, she’s going to give her father and uncle a run for their money when she’s of age.
“And this friend, they told you to be ready and you need to come home? That it was safer here?”
She nods. “They also said that my safety at the school was compromised, but not to tell anyone yet. They were going to keep me safe. I never saw anyone or anything but nothing happened, so I figured that was their doing.”
I’m still not figuring out Tatiana’s link to this girl.
If it was her at all. There’s something off about this.
Tatiana doesn’t give a shit about kids in a traditional sense.
As far as I know she won’t touch any contracts that include them.
The only thing that makes sense is that Timur or my father ordered her to kill Mila and she refused.
And for that she’s now created this entire plan to get back at them for it.
Still, that doesn’t feel wholly right.
“Your friend, when they picked you up, did you recognize them?”
Now she grins. A wide, gleeful grin that makes me blink at her in surprise.
“It wasn’t them who picked me up specifically.
They sent someone else. My father. They told the school he was there to pick me up for a family emergency.
They never so much as questioned. The guy looked, walked, and talked just like him. ”
A shiver races down my spine. Tatiana is very fucking good, but I don’t know that she could pull off a disguise as good as Zakhar’s.
If that’s so, she’s had help, but who? Or am I completely wrong and Tatiana isn’t the one who contacted Mila at all, and it was someone else? Someone working for my father?
“This man who looked like your father, what name did he tell you to call him?”
She shook her head. “He didn’t. He told me he was going to take me out of sight of the cameras, and I was to put on a blindfold and put headphones over my ears.
I had to be kept concealed. I was a little scared, but then he gave me a note from my friend that told me it would be alright and to trust him. ”
“This friend of yours, how long have you known them?”
She sobers, her eyes taking on a tumultuous glint.
My gut sinks. “Since I was fourteen. They saved me. Since then, they’ve kept in contact with me every so often to let me know they’re looking out for me.
I know the handwriting, and I know to never say anything about them.
Not until now. They told me to tell you.
And my father and uncle, but they weren’t the main ones to know about it. It was you.”
None of this is making sense. Tatiana would never spend this much time looking out for a kid. And she’s not in the business of rescuing anyone. Whoever this friend is, it’s not Tatiana. And that means there’s another person out there that knows who I am, what I do, and has me in their crosshairs.
Motherfucker.
“Did they say how they know me?”
She shakes her head. “They wouldn’t give me any more information.
When I was on the plane, I was alone. No cabin crew or anything, and it was a small private plane.
Only two seats, and a tiny pullout bed that I slept on.
When we landed, I got a message over the intercom to put the headphones and blindfold back on, and then I was carried off the plane and into the car.
I was brought home, and I took off the blindfold and headset just before we came down our road when they tapped my leg. ”