Chapter Thirty-Five
In which it is time for yet another round of, Who Wants to Kill Liria this time?
Alexsey…
Turns out, no one is willing to leave us, so the entire family ends up at our place. Mother, Violet and Ava take Liria upstairs to get changed. Father and Dmitri sit at the dining table with me while Roman pours drinks.
"I know you want to be the one to beat this out of Marc," Dmitri says, "but let us handle this one for you. Nikandr's working on him now. Hell, even Andrey wanted a round."
"The fuck I will!" I snap. "That motherfucker organized a hit on my wife."
"Well to be fair, there were two hits," Roman groans, loosening his tie.
"Are we sure he didn't organize both?" Father asks.
"It's possible," I admit. "But the fucker's unhinged, and his eyes really lit up when he heard the car bomb go off. As much as this complicates our problem, I think he's telling the truth."
"Which means," Dmitri growls, "that there are two hits out on your wife."
"This is all because she's Krasniqi's daughter," I say bitterly.
"Dritan knew he'd be putting all the hatred everyone has for him, onto her.
He marries her off to me, and then disappears.
Everyone's obsessed with getting their revenge, even if it's on his proxy.
" Hearing the words come out of my mouth makes me nauseous with self-disgust. Isn't this exactly what I'd been doing to her? What the fuck is wrong with me?
"I think you're correct," Father says. "Dritan has always been one of the most cunning and vicious bastards in Eastern Europe. He always had an army of human body shields to put in front of him every time there would be backlash on his Fare."
"So, the question is…" I want to drop my head to the table with a thunk. I want to pound it against the surface three or four times. How could I have not been more aware of this? How could I have not seen the stress that Liria was enduring? "The question is, who hired the shooter?"
"It makes sense that it happened tonight," Roman says somberly. "It's one of the few public appearances she's made out with you. She would be a much easier target."
Father sighs, tapping his glass, "Making a list of the people who wouldn't be interested in getting revenge for Krasniqi's crimes would be much smaller than those who would be," he says.
"But we need to make a list of the most likely suspects immediately.
There's an extra layer to this problem. Are the murder attempts connected with the sabotage we've been fighting? "
We all quiet down as we hear the footsteps on the stairs and Liria comes down, my mother's arm around her, Ava and Violet hovering protectively behind them.
"Sit on the couch," Mother says soothingly, getting Liria settled with a blanket. "I'm going to make you a cup of tea."
"Liria hates tea," I say without thinking.
Mother glares at me. "She'll have the tea, Alexsey! It's very soothing!" Liria covers her mouth to hide a grin and I suspect that's why Mother played it this way.
I want to sit on the couch with my wife on my lap and my arms around her while we talk, but the presence of my entire family puts a damper on that. I settle next to her with my arm around her and put her hand on my thigh.
"Can you tell us if you've received other threats I don't know about?
" I ask quietly. "How did you know it was Marc tonight?
" She looks better out of her dress, wearing a warm sweater and a pair of leggings.
She prefers to walk around barefoot in the loft, but I notice with a smothered smile that one of my sisters-in-law forced fuzzy socks on her feet.
"He found me at our wedding announcement party," she says flatly, looking at her hands.
"What happened?" It comes out sharper than I meant, and I squeeze her hand in apology.
"I was just trying to catch my breath, and I went into a quiet room down the hall," she says. "He followed me in. He called me a sow and said that his father was dead because of my family and he was going to make me pay for it."
"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask sadly.
Her eyes meet mine and I'm heartbroken by the misery I see there.
"I told him that. I said I would go to you and tell you that he threatened me and he laughed.
He said, 'Who would Alexsey care about more, a valuable client or daughter of Dritan Krasniqi?
'" She looks down at the blanket, pleating it between her fingers. "I wasn't sure either."
There's a faint grunt of distress from Roman and Dmitri. It feels like a violation of everything we've been taught by our parents; to protect family, to watch over them. Even as unreasonably angry as I had been at my wife, I would have always protected her.
"So, when you saw him tonight," Ava says sadly, "of course the attack made sense."
"Where is he now?" Liria asks.
"We have him." I say, trying to control my fury. She's felt it too many times from me and I don't want her to think it's directed at her.
She smiles bitterly, shrugging. "If you kill him, then someone else will want to kill me because he'll be dead because of me. Maybe if I just disappeared, this would all go away with me."
Violet is on her other side and she takes Liria's hand. "That's not how it works, sister," she says kindly. "You need to be protected, and there is no one more powerful than this family. You are right where you need to be."
"If the car bomb was Canton's responsibility," Mother's eyes turn steely as she looks at all of us. "Then who was responsible for the shooter?"
"They got out before we could even get a sign of them," I say regretfully. "That's the next threat to tackle."
"I've already called Kolya, he handles our dark tech," Roman says. "He's running through the dark web, looking for contracts that might've been issued on you."
"Speaking for us all, I am sorry that you have endured this fear by yourself," Father says in the gentlest tone I think I've ever heard from him.
"When you married into our family, you were no longer an enemy, no matter who your father was.
You never should have felt unsafe." His gaze travels over the rest of us and for a moment, I feel like I'm 16 again and I've disappointed him.
"We will put our considerable resources to bear to make sure anyone who thinks they could move against you is eliminated as a very painful, public example. "
Liria may not have been raised in our world, but she's experienced enough to know what a compassionate gesture this is and she summons up a smile for my father. "You're very kind, sir, thank you very much."
He pats her hand. "Call me Maksim."
What has taken over my father's body and compelling him to act so soft and benevolent?
Violet speaks up, "I really think that Liria and Alexsey need some alone time." She looks pointedly at Liria. "I know they have a lot to talk about." Something passes between them and I can't get my family out the door fast enough.
"Now that my mother is gone, would you like something stronger in that tea?"
She bursts into slightly hysterical giggles. "That's okay. Maybe my ice cream."
Laughing, I head over to the kitchen and open the freezer. "Which flavor?" I call out.
"Whichever one you can bring back to me the quickest," she calls back and I dig through the stack for her favorite almond caramel flavor.
"So, what was that between you and Violet?" I ask. "You two looked like you were having a conversation the rest of us couldn't hear."
"I'm scared," she says sadly. "I wanted to be happy and excited when I told you and now it feels like one more thing to be terrified about." She hesitates, then her chin goes up. "I'm still happy. I'm happy and I'm really hoping you will be, too."
"What?" I lift her, the blanket, and her pint of ice cream onto my lap. "Tell me."
"I'm pregnant," she says, forcing the two words out as if it's a huge relief, a weight that she's been carrying and my mouth drops open, staring at her like a fool.
"You're pregnant," I repeat. "But you're on birth control."
"All methods of birth control have a failure rate," she says, flushing a bright pink.
"I won't give you the details of the conversation I had with Violet.
Let's just say maybe the contraceptive ring was not the wisest choice for me.
" She starts laughing, covering her mouth, looking at me, and then laughing again.
I smile, confused, but at least she's laughing and happy right now, so I let it go. I'll make her explain later.
Her smile fades. "Are you angry? About the baby?"
"Angry?" I stare at her. "Iisus Khristos, no!
This is…" There's so many emotions pushing through right now, trying to make themselves known.
Elation, excitement, cautious hope, and the same crippling fear she has about protecting our baby.
Overriding them all, though, is pure, gleaming joy.
"We're going to have a baby?" I repeat stupidly.
My grin is huge and I can't stop laughing.
I kiss her startled face and kiss her again.
"You're really pregnant? How far along?"
"I have to find an OB/GYN and get a better test," she says, a cautious smile creeping over her face too, now that she sees my obvious elation. "Probably only a couple of months."
"That's why you didn't drink the champagne tonight," I nod. "This is… This is the best of all things, a baby!"
"It's really soon," she says apologetically. "I mean, neither of us was expecting this."
"A child with you? A child as smart and gifted as their mother."
"As brash and talented as their father," she smiles back.
"This child will be so welcome and beloved," I promise, kissing her again on the forehead, and the tip of her nose, her cheekbones and her lips again. "Thank you, moya lyubov'. Thank you for forgiving me enough to want my baby."