Chapter Thirty-Six
I stepped outside of the loft, then looked around for either Eli or Nolan.
I had received a text message from my father this morning, and it was one I felt compelled to take.
This was the dawning of a new day, or the first day of the rest of my life.
It was a fresh start, but to fully start anew, I needed to finally say goodbye to my past.
Nolan came into my sight line, and I ducked behind a pillar until he moved back out of view.
If he knew where I was headed, he would certainly tip off Kingston, who was sleeping peacefully in our bed.
To be honest, I wished I could be there with him myself, but my father had sounded almost frantic in his messages.
As I slipped my cell phone from the pocket of my hoodie, I pulled up the string of them.
DAD:
I’m hoping we can meet right away with haste. Please let me know.
DAD:
I’m not sure if you received my last message, but it’s urgent. I don’t know how much longer I have to see you. Respond to me straight away.
DAD:
Katya, please let me know that you’ve received this.
What is it, Papa? What’s going on?
DAD:
Thank heavens. I have to flee right away, and it won’t be safe enough for us to talk anymore. I need to see you right away.
You’re worrying me. Why don’t you come to my place?
DAD:
No, I can’t. You have to come to me. I’ll send you the coordinates.
I’ll have one of the men bring me.
DAD:
No, it’s much too dangerous to do that. I need you to slip in and out.
Is that really necessary? They’ll protect us both, Papa.
DAD:
No. You either see me alone, or I’ll leave now and we’ll never get a chance to see one another until death claims us both.
Okay, I’ll do it.
That had been my last message to him, and now I was debating whether to just defy my father and have Eli come with me anyway or come alone.
I was so close to stepping out of the shadows to do so, but there was no telling who my father was running from now.
It could be Aram, or maybe someone even worse.
Hell, it could be one of the Branningtons or an ally of theirs.
He was right. This would allow me closure to end my old life and start my new one with my husband, a new life to be started with the man I loved.
And a man who loved me back. Was our relationship perfect?
No, but most seldom ever were. Kingston Brannington wasn’t the type of man to throw words like ‘love’ out there freely, so he was genuine in them.
He’d also forgiven me for ending the life of his brother, and not just for the sake of peace, but because he believed me.
Every time he had looked at me with hate-filled eyes, it had been because of Princeton.
It had nothing to do with the Kotov blood running through me.
Nolan and Eli got into their SUV, and I suspected they were headed for breakfast. They probably assumed we were still in bed, and covering my dark hair with the gray hood of my sweatshirt, I waited for their taillights to disappear from view before I slipped out from my hiding place.
Without much time, I hurried away from the building, eventually ending up on the city streets where I would blend in with the other pedestrians and passersby.
My father had wanted me to meet him in an alleyway, which was odd, but not so much when I considered that he was on the run.
He couldn’t very well hang out at tourist traps or other public venues.
I reached the area, and when I saw the dark SUV parked there, I gave pause. It was only when the door opened and my father emerged from the backseat that I let out the breath I’d just sucked inside.
“Katya. Hurry! It’s not safe for you to be standing there.”
I quickly glanced over my shoulder, and while I seemed safer right where I was, I turned back to my father, who was frantically motioning me over to him.
Despite our arguments of late, I did love this man.
He’d made a foolish choice in using me as a wager in one of his twisted games, but I was willing to forgive him because it led me to Kingston.
And if my husband could forgive my past transgressions, I could forgive my own father’s as well.
I disappeared into the alley and hugged my father the moment we met.
Memories of him holding me through bad dreams and skinned knees as a child came rushing back, and I was now thankful that I had decided to come see him after all.
Our most recent encounters had been so different, but I felt a bit of nostalgia as he tightly embraced me.
“I want to talk to you. Let’s go inside here where we won’t be seen.”
“I don’t think that is a good idea. I’m sure my husband’s men?—”
“Which is exactly why we need to be discreet. I’ve raised you up in my image, and provided everything that you’ve ever needed. Are a few months with that Irish thug enough to make you forget who you are?”
“Of course not, Papa. I just think that...” When he looked at me with pleading eyes, I let out a sigh. “I only have a few minutes before they come looking for me.”
“That’s all that I’m asking for,” he replied.
I moved closer to the SUV, and something felt off about this whole thing.
I wanted to flee. In fact, every hair was standing up on my arm the closer I got to the vehicle.
My heart began to race, and I was tempted to tuck tail and run until my father put his hand on my back.
The act of comfort set me at ease, or at least enough to continue forward.
I moved to the door and before I could fully look inside, my father pushed me into the vehicle, and I landed face-first into someone’s lap.
Even as a disgraced Bratva Pakhan, my father had men of his own, so I didn’t think too much of it until I heard a voice that had once haunted my nightmares and made me scramble upward as fast as I could.
“Taguhi,” Aram said as he smiled down at me.
“I’m not your queen,” I snapped at him, only to be met with a chuckle or two.
“Then perhaps you’ll be my porrnik instead. Ahh, yes, I like the sound of you being my whore.”
“Papa, what’s going on?” I said as I tried to turn toward the man now blocking my way to escape. The door slammed closed as he got inside the vehicle, and I knew I was now trapped.
“You’ll fulfill the terms of the wager I’d made with him as you fulfill your duties to the Kotov name. You’ve evaded your obligations and disgraced your entire bloodline, but you have a chance to make amends for that now. And you will.”
“Noooo,” I cried out. “If it’s money, I’ll get you whatever it is that you owe him if you’ll only set me free.”
“What I want cannot be purchased with your fool’s gold. I want your service...Your submission...Your body...And your womb... I’ll take you as my wife and you’ll produce heirs for me as you live the rest of your existence under my order.”
It was crazy how Kingston and Aram had both wanted the same things from me.
If I were one of those women who believed my value and worth rested in the opinions of the man I was with, I would consider myself nothing more than a pretty face and baby-making receptacle for powerful and dangerous men.
The difference in the two wants from these men was that Kingston made me feel like I had a choice, even if, in hindsight, I never actually did.
Tears sprang to my eyes, but I refused to let the goodwill formed with Kingston the night before be overshadowed by the beginning of our relationship.
So much had changed since then. I had changed, and that was all that mattered.
The old me would be cat-scratching her way out of this vehicle, where I would likely be overpowered, then debilitated.
No, I had to keep calm until such time came when I could fight on more equal footing.
It was extremely hard to do when I felt as if I might crawl out of my skin, being sandwiched between two men I now wanted to see dead.
I looked over at Boris Kotov, a man I would no longer consider my father.
If he was ever truly one to me, he would’ve never put me in such an impossible situation.
He was a crook and a loser. A bastard who’d pawned off his only daughter to a family rival to further his own wealth.
He hadn’t loved me when he stole my life and right to choose away from me.
And he was certainly no father now as he’d deceived me yet again.
“I hate you,” I said to him.
While once upon a time, I would’ve expected to see a glimmer of regret in those piercing green eyes of his, there was nothing like that to be found in them now.
He smirked at my words instead of being saddened by them.
“Your mother...Her sister...Their mothers...All whores, exactly like you’re going to be.
You’d always wanted to work alongside me so you could become powerful enough one day to have me taken out, but I’ve thwarted your every attempt.
You will help me and the Kotov name, but not by handling family business.
You’ll do it by spreading those long legs of yours, which is the only thing the women in our family have ever been good for. ”
I’d always suspected that he’d hated me, but listening to my father categorize all Kotov women as whores, including me, still hurt. It was like a knife to the chest, and a different kind than that which Kingston had removed from my heart the night before.
Oh God. Kingston! He’d have to be up by now and realize I was gone.
If this had been even two days ago, he might’ve been relieved over it.
He wouldn’t be now. He would find me because he loved me.
Kingston had said it each time he’d taken me the night before, and even after, as I had laid satiated in his arms.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked Aram as I didn’t even dignify what my father had just said with a response.
The man might’ve helped me after the Princeton situation, but he’d only done so because he had needed me.
He was now just as dead to me as the boy that I’d accidentally run down in the streets that fateful night. “Answer me!”
Aram reached out to touch me, and I inwardly cringed as he pulled the hood down to reveal my entire face. My long hair fell over my shoulders and down my back as he stroked my cheek.
“You demand nothing of me,” he said moments before he dropped his hand lower.
The moment he wrapped it around my neck, I gulped.
“I’ll share our destination, though. Or at least the end one.
We’re going home to Yerevan, but first, I’m taking you to a place where you’ll be tested to make sure you’re not already with child.
I’ll not raise a Brannington bastard as my own. ”
This was sick and demented, and in this moment, miscarrying was now for the best. Whatever testing methods he planned on using might’ve shown what those drugstore pee stick tests of mine never had.
Still, I had to know what would happen, even though I knew the child I’d created with Kingston was gone.
“And if I am?”
“You and your father will both be killed,” Aram said before releasing my throat from his hand. I quickly leaned back against the seat, only to be met with the palm of Aram’s hand as he struck me across the cheek. “Now, cease with the questions or else I’ll sew those misbehaving lips of yours up.”
I had no idea how he intended to do that, but I knew that he would.
Closing my eyes, I prayed Kingston would find me.
My hand fell to my waist, and when it did, I felt my cell phone in the pocket.
My husband had insisted on putting tracking devices on any electronic devices we had, and I now hoped and prayed that they truly worked.
Since we weren’t headed straight to the airfield, I might stand a chance of getting found before it was too late.