Chapter 18
18
Anya
A larmed by the event that landed me in the clinic in the first place, the guys send Breonna home and then take me back to the lodge, making sure we’re not followed on the way up there. But not before they debrief Breonna about what happened after I ran from Leo.
“What did she say?” I ask as soon as I’m back in the living room by the fireplace, wrapped up in a warm blanket.
“She didn’t stick around,” Nico says.
Chance and Booker exchange glances and settle on the sofa, their eyes constantly searching my face. I find a sense of safety when they’re around. I should’ve never left their side.
“She didn’t?” I mumble, lowering my gaze.
“No, Breonna says she told the guy to leave you alone, and then she bolted right after you. When she couldn’t find you, she tried calling,” Nico replies.
Only now do I think of checking my phone. Indeed, plenty of missed calls and text messages are waiting.
“I just saw him—” I say, but Booker cuts me off.
“Leo Sokolov.”
“Yes,” I reply, “just outside the coffee shop. We were careful, I promise. I checked the mirrors like you taught me. He showed up out of nowhere. I don’t know if it was luck or if he was following us from somewhere.”
Chance frowns. “But you’re sure it was him.”
“Retrograde amnesia or not, neither my body nor my mind ever truly forgot that man. The dread he inspires is real. Running was completely instinctive.”
“It was a good move,” Nico says. “I’m sorry to say this means we can’t let you go out on your own anymore. In fact, I think we need to keep you here, away from the town, at least until we figure out where Leo is holed up and what his strategy is.”
“We all know what his strategy is,” Chance scoffs. “He’s going to come for Anya.”
“I feel so stupid,” I grumble and press my fingers to my temples, trying to relieve some of the pressure building up since I regained consciousness at the clinic. So much for stress management.
Booker shakes his head. “Don’t. It’s not your fault. Leo is a resourceful man, way more capable than Max. It was always a question of when, not if, with him.”
“What am I going to do?” I wonder aloud.
“For now, you’re going to rest,” Nico says, then plants a kiss on my forehead. I welcome the sweet heat of his lips as it spreads through my skull. “Take it easy. We’ll handle everything else. But as long as we’re upright and drawing breath, you will always be safe.”
It only makes sense that I tell them the truth now. There’s no point in hiding anymore. Not after everything they’ve done, everything they’re still doing for me.
“I know what caused the fainting spell,” I say with a trembling voice. “I’ve known for a bit now.”
Three pairs of wild green eyes find mine.
“What happened?” Chance asks me.
I exhale sharply. “I’m pregnant,”
Heavy silence falls over the room, so heavy, I can feel my shoulders caving in under the pressure as I try to read their faces, to understand their reaction. I can’t get a thing from their expressions. I don’t like this heavy silence at all.
“I had symptoms, but I wasn’t sure until I took a test a couple of weeks ago,” I add.
“You’ve known for two weeks” Booker gasps.
I try to explain. “I would’ve said something sooner, but I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about it, what you’d say or do. I’m so confused already, what with my memory lapses, my Russian mob situation… it was too much. I thought I could just push it down to the bottom of the pile and deal with it later. But I can’t hide it any longer after what happened today.”
Nico kneels in front of me. “How are you feeling?”
“Good, and I’m going to feel better,” I say. “Doc Rollins prescribed some supplements and prenatal vitamins for me to take, but other than that, I’m good.”
“And the baby’s good, too,” he concludes, his gaze dropping to my belly.
“Yes.” I shudder under the blanket. “I didn’t want you guys to think I’m trying to… I don’t know, tie you down with a baby you might not want, or you might not be ready for—”
“Are you freakin’ kidding me?” Chance bursts out and stands up. I’m not sure if he’s angry or happy until he lets out a chuckle before he rushes to my side. “We’re going to be fathers! A baby is always a cause for joy, regardless of the circumstances.”
I give him a doubtful look. “Seriously?”
“Life!” he says, then gently places a hand on my lower belly. I can feel his touch through the plush blanket. “You’re growing a life in there, our blood. It’s wonderful news, Anya. I’m just sorry we’re learning this in the middle of a literal nightmare. But you, the baby… You’re the most important things to us.”
“I am?”
Booker scoffs and joins his brothers. “Anya, we’re in love with you. That much, you must’ve figured out by now.”
“I’d hoped so,” I admit. “I just… I just wasn’t sure where we stood. What you’d want from me in the long term.”
Booker kisses me, deeply, fiercely. And I feel every word he’s about to say before he even says it as I lose myself in the emerald pools of his eyes. “Anya, fate brought us back together. We thought you were gone forever and it pained us, thinking about what could’ve been. We have you here with us now. There’s no way you’re getting away from us ever again.”
“I will destroy anyone and anything that gets between us,” Chance says.
I believe him. Despite his jovial nature, I know he’s capable of terrible things to protect me. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, and it only makes me desire him more. I throw my arms around his neck and pull him in for a kiss.
“You’re not alone anymore,” he tells me as Nico lovingly strokes the back of my head.
“We’ve got you,” Nico says. “You and our baby.”
“Our baby,” I giggle as they let me sink back into my chair. “Sounds kind of weird.”
“It’s our baby. Doesn’t even matter who’s genetically responsible,” he replies. “We could do a test at some point, but only if you deem it necessary. We don’t really care.”
I shake my head slowly. “Well, neither do I. I care more about us surviving what comes next, which brings me to another, much bigger issue.”
The Hayes brothers sit back down on the sofa, their gentle gazes scanning me from head to toe as I gather the nerve to share the memories I recently retrieved. It was about something I couldn’t quite put together until I woke up at the clinic after having faced my worst fear.
“It’s about Leo Sokolov, about what started all of this,” I say.
“It was a territorial dispute,” Nico replies. “Aleks said that much.”
I sigh deeply. “Aleks didn’t tell you everything. I don’t know if he was just ashamed or what, but he didn’t tell you everything.”
Chance’s brow furrows. “Ashamed? Of what?”
“When I was ten, our father brokered a peace between our two families. I can’t remember much about that day, except when they came out of that meeting, my brother was furious when our father introduced me to Leo. I was supposed to marry him once I came of age.”
The blood drains from their faces. The shame I’m feeling isn’t really mine. I never had a say in any of this.
“What?” Chance exhales deeply.
“I was promised to Leo, a marriage that would unite the families and keep the peace,” I reply. “I couldn’t tell anyone about it.”
“Your father probably wanted to protect the engagement from some other interfering third party,” Nico grumbles. “And it sounds like Aleks hated the idea. The Bratva was pretty fractured and shaky at the time. Some of the smaller families were turning against one another. Two big ones, like the Sokolovs and the Asimovs, coming together in marriage would’ve caused some of the smaller sharks to make a violent play.”
“I remember Aleks telling me that,” I say. “I never wanted it. I became more and more miserable about the whole arrangement over the years as I approached adulthood, and their business relationship kept souring, anyway.”
Booker runs a hand through his dark wavy hair. “Then what led to Dalton? If you were Leo’s betrothed, why would he want you dead?”
“Aleks convinced our father to break off the engagement,” I say. “He offered Leo thirty percent of our business territory instead. And Leo said yes, though we should have known he’d betray us.”
“You never told us anything about this,” Nico says.
I can only shrug in response. “Honestly, I’m not sure why I kept quiet. Either Aleks made me promise, or I was just as embarrassed or afraid. Either way, I tried everything over the years to get out of it. Running away. Rebelling. That didn’t work. My mother once kept me locked in my room for weeks… you and Aleks were overseas. I think that’s why he got discharged and came back.” I tremble as I keep piecing my memories together, surprised by how smoothly they are coming now. “He was determined to get me out of that wretched deal, one way or another.”
“Your mother was always a rigid traditionalist,” Chance scoffs. “And your father… don’t even get me started.”
“They weren’t the best parents, I’ll admit.” I sigh deeply. “But they never would’ve married me off to the guy if they’d known what a fucking monster he really was. It wasn’t until Dalton that they all realized, and then it was too late.”
Flashbacks flood my brain, forcing me to clamp my eyes shut as I struggle to calibrate my breathing. My head hurts again, though I’m not forcing these memories to come back. They’re returning on their own, as violent as the moments I lived through.
The fear.
The horror.
The look of death in the eyes of those I loved most.
My mother, lifeless in a pool of her own blood. My father’s head. Barely anything left of it. My brother…
“Oh, God,” I burst into tears. “I’ve caused all this. I should’ve just married that bastard.”
“No!” Nico steps in and scoops me into his arms, then pulls me into his lap. I lay soft in his embrace, comforted by his body heat, while his brothers gently hold and caress me. I shudder and let it all out, sobbing relentlessly as they pull me close. “No, Anya, you deserved to make your own choice, and Aleks fought hard for your freedom. It came at a cost, but your brother died a hero.”
“You had no business marrying Leo Sokolov,” Chance adds. “He probably would’ve gotten rid of your family either way. By marrying you, he would’ve had easier access to your fortune—legally speaking. But Dalton worked just as well. It was messier, though he still got what he wanted.”
“Not really,” Booker chimes in.
I look up at him. “What do you mean?”
“From what we’ve learned, Leo doesn’t have complete and indisputable control over the Asimov territories and assets,” he says. “You’re still alive. Your grandmother is still alive.”
“My grandmother,” I mumble.
Instantly, I’m back in that dark room, being told to keep away from the windows or they might see us. The old woman with eyes like mine. She embodied safety and kindness, sturdiness, resilience, the kind of resilience I wasn’t sure I had myself.
“And possibly a few others,” Nico adds. “On top of that, Leo hasn’t been able to kill all of your father’s lieutenants and enforcers. Dozens are still hiding, very much alive, presumably waiting for someone to come back and take charge of the family.”
“The fact that he didn’t just kill you as soon as he saw you outside the coffee shop speaks volumes as well,” Chance says.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
Chance nods slowly, the shadow of a smile stretching across his lips. “Of course. It all makes sense now: what Max said to you before he tried to kill you, and Leo’s behavior from earlier. Yes.”
“Yes what?” I’m in their arms, but on the edge of my seat.
He runs his fingers through my hair. “Leo might need you alive to cement his hold over the Asimov enterprises. It tracks with the rumors we’ve been getting out of New York.”
Wait until Leo finds out I’m pregnant. And certainly not willing to marry him after everything he did.
It feels like my original nightmare has just warped into something else. At least I know I’m not alone. The Hayes brothers have a firm grip on my body and my soul.
But I’ve seen firsthand what the Sokolovs are capable of.