28. Irina
28
IRINA
D isbelief.
That was the main thing that stuck with me all day. From the morning, when I learned that Igor knew I was no longer a virgin, into the afternoon when Viktor told me that he was an undercover Baranov spy, and then during the evening, when I tried to accept that Maxim just might be free.
Free.
It sounded like a pipe dream, and because of all the long years that I’d watched him suffer and all those years when Igor manipulated me against him, I needed more evidence to believe it could happen.
So many things had changed so quickly. But when I slowed down to think back through it all and analyze it, I couldn’t help my anger when I thought about how Viktor had duped me all along.
I fell asleep, crashing from the adrenaline rush of all the ups and downs since I woke up. Seeing that Viktor was still on the phone, pacing in another room, I made myself scarce and didn’t get in his way. Despite my anger at being played, I was grateful for his trying to swoop in and be my hero. Seeing him rush to my safety, and wanting to be Maxim’s hero, reiterated that he was a good man. That even though I should only view him through the filter of knowledge that he had to be the bad guy as a rival, he was a good man at heart.
I wanted to truly believe that he was my man. My hero. That he loved me so much that I could count on him to come through and save Maxim.
But he didn’t say it.
That four-letter word seemed so petty now. What did it matter if he said it out loud when he was acting out the depth of his emotion, risking war to save my brother and steal me from my father?
It was because he’d stopped himself from saying it, he caught himself from uttering an I-love-you, that it held so much meaning. As though he didn’t want to put himself out there.
He was already showing me so much more love than my father ever had. His Baranov brothers had listened to all I could share about how to find Maxim. He was allowing me to stay here instead of returning to my apartment.
I had to look at the bright side and hope.
After a long nap, I showered. He was still on the phone, but that didn’t alarm me. These things took time. My father had a lot of practice hiding Maxim. Yet, I put my faith and hope in my rivals.
As I peered in the kitchen for something to make to eat, someone knocked on the door.
Viktor covered his phone as he approached me from the bedroom and asked, “Can you get that?”
I raised my brows at his trust. He went right back into the bedroom and closed the door.
I opened the front door to one of the last people I expected to see again. I assumed a Baranov soldier would be there, but it was Eva.
“Oh.” I blinked in surprise. “I… I didn’t expect to see you here.”
She laughed lightly. “I didn’t expect to ever see any woman here, much less you.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Thanks?”
She smirked, passing me to enter. “Vik asked for food to be delivered, and I thought I’d see to it myself.”
“Thanks.” I closed and locked the door after her, bewildered by her showing up. Eva and I talked during a lab—once—when we were both at college, but that was the extent of our limited association. As peer Mafia princesses, we’d always known of each other, but we were far from close.
“That’s my line to you,” she quipped, taking containers of soups and salads out of the bag she’d brought. I helped her, lining things up and wondering what Vik would like first. “Thank you, Irina.” Eva looked at me sincerely. “For helping me escape that day.”
I nodded.
“That took a lot of guts. Only a brave and intelligent woman would defy the orders of her father like that.”
“Thanks.”
She gave me a dry look. “Okay. That’s three times now. You can’t be that much of a ditz if Viktor wants you.”
I furrowed my brow, sitting since she did. Following others’ lead wasn’t my preference, but this was so weird that I was taking it all as it came. “So his type is ditzy women?”
She snorted a laugh. “No. Vik’s never had a type, but he can’t stand idiots in general.” She pointed a carrot stick at me. “So if he’s so smitten over you that he’s got Lev starting a mission to retrieve Igor Petrov’s son, you can’t be an idiot.”
“I feel like an idiot about him,” I admitted, feeling free to do something like girl talk with her.
“Why, because he was undercover and wasn’t upfront that he was a Baranov?”
That, and how quickly and thoroughly I’d fallen for him. Love made me vulnerable.
“I’ve been trying to figure out how that worked, anyway.” I frowned at my bowl of soup. “My guards never reacted to his being my professor.”
“They wouldn’t have.” Eva shrugged. “Viktor’s always been behind the scenes, managing the whorehouses for the family. He used to be a more active soldier when he was younger, but my uncle thought he had good management skills and put him in supervision in an area where weaker men often got distracted.”
I mulled over that for a moment, unsure about how to accept that.
“And this awkward quiet you’re giving me now means…?”
I searched for the right words. “Well, I was a virgin when I met him, and I can imagine all that he’s seen and done and…”
She smiled. “He supervised those places, Irina, not frequented them. I doubt you have worries there. If a man is willing to risk war for a woman, that’s saying something.” She resumed eating her lunch. “Viktor was also out of the country for a while, going off on a wild goose chase, so no one around here would’ve seen him out and about. Viktor just made the most sense to go undercover, and it worked well, since the Petrov and Ilyin guards didn’t react to his being on campus.”
“Do you miss it?” I asked her. “Going to school?”
She shrugged but ended that with a shake of her head. “No. I did, but Lev and I will get married this summer. And I hope we can start a family as soon as possible.”
“Lucky you.”
She raised her brows at me, and I regretted how snarky I sounded.
“Maybe you’ll beat us there.”
“Yeah, right.”
She set her fork down. “Do you doubt how serious Viktor is about you?”
“No. But I doubt your uncle will actually approve of any Baranov taking Maxim from my father.”
She opened and closed her mouth. “My uncle is a wise, careful, and considerate man.”
“For those in his family,” I corrected.
“True. And that includes Viktor. If Viktor insists on having you as his woman, then my uncle will need to appreciate that.”
“A marriage with an enemy?”
Her responding smile was slow but sure. “I think he might have opened his mind about how to perceive you when you helped me escape. Besides, it can happen. Maria, Oleg’s wife, was a former rival’s daughter. He only married her to thwart a bigger alliance. And they’re hardly together. She officially moved in with a retired soldier months ago.” She rolled her eyes. “She and Oleg are legally married but can’t stand each other, so they live apart.”
I suspected she was being conversational to preoccupy me from the scarier things on my mind. “I’m not going to let you get my hopes up where Max is concerned.”
“Don’t. It’s never smart to get your hopes up too high.”
I liked her no-nonsense attitude. But I’d remain guarded until my brother was safe and sound. “And if Viktor and I can ever be together, it won’t be as a Petrov marrying into the Baranov Family. I’m a package deal with Maxim.”
“Tell me about him. Lev mentioned that he’s deaf. One of our housemaids has a granddaughter living there. She’s also deaf.”
“Maxim has never met another deaf child.” I signed it to her. “I read up and taught myself ASL to teach him.”
“Impressive,” she said and signed. “Laura, the girl at the house, is teaching several of us ASL too.”
She loosened me up, talking about Maxim. I shared more about him, detailing our love of books and how he wanted to be an artist and an engineer when he grew up.
After I told her more about Maxim, she asked about Kelly, and I hated that I had to admit I didn’t have much to tell her. “I tried to engage her in small talk, but she was aloof.”
“That sounds like her. She really started to pull away from me when Lev and I got more serious. Rurik still checks on her.” She paused. “You know the one I’m talking about, right?”
I nodded. “Rurik is still there, just kind of keeping an eye out on things.”
She arched a brow. “Just like you were?”
“Nice try. I’m not telling anyone about what I was supposed to spy on. Not until Maxim is here.”
She held her hands up in a truce. “Fair enough.”
Fair? I was shocked she’d say that. I was holding out on information until I got my way. That was the basis of negotiations. But from her perspective, I was asking them to give in before I did. It was a savage tactic that I hoped wouldn’t backfire.
“I know my uncle will appreciate anything you can tell him.”
I slumped forward, resting my chin in my hands. “It’s not exactly anything huge. Even I was limited to what I could know. Because I’m just the ‘worthless daughter’.”
She rolled her eyes, commiserating. “Still, you have insider eyes on what Igor is up to. It will help us.”
“I’m sure you can already assume a lot.”
“That he’s trying to take over. That he’s not above using the Ilyins. Or us. Or…” She shrugged.
“I would be proud to help bring him down. I’ve dreamed of getting out from under my father since I was a child. After Maxim was born and my mother passed away from his childbirth, he started using me. To listen in on conversations. To drop trackers. To implant listening devices and recorders. All kinds of spying, all to have him make good on his promise to ‘let’ Maxim live.”
“What an asshole.” Eva scowled. “My father is just a drunk. A fool. Oleg is my uncle, but he’s always been more of a father to me than Boris. I’m grateful to have had one father in my life.”
“Like I said, lucky you.”
“Maybe your luck is turning around now.”
I hoped so. I truly hoped that Viktor could fight for me, for us, and we could all have a better life than before.