Chapter 21 Emil
EMIL
Waking up to a nightmare should’ve made me feel vulnerable.
It didn’t.
Because this was Sadie, the one woman who saw me as a man, not just a monster who killed, I was comforted and soothed. Supported. She didn’t do anything but hold me and listen, and that was what I’d been missing for so long.
Missing her was an acute pain.
But it was her understanding. Her lack of judgment.
That was what had me watching her sleep in the next morning. Marveling at how she could accept me for the dark soul I was, I sighed and wondered how I could make sure she stayed safe, no matter what.
My phone rang, pulling me from the peaceful quiet as I let her rest a little longer. Seeing that it was my father calling, I got up and headed into the lounge.
After I closed the bedroom door behind me, I once more appreciated that this property wasn’t as desolate as I thought it might be. Sadie deserved better, but this was a huge step up from the bare bones of a safe house I’d held her at before.
“Hello, Father,” I answered as I sat down on the brown couch. It was ugly, but it was cleaner than I thought it was at first.
“Son, I’d like to run this riddle past you and see what you make of it.”
I tensed, nervous that with him back home now, he’d be aware of Sadie trespassing at that house. “Okay.”
“Some of the men reported that the Riveras and Vipers are spreading rumors about this new Dubinin heir they would like to get their hands on.”
I grimaced.
“Now, of course, they’d be interested in the fact that Gabriella’s pregnant again. But we’ve hidden her pregnancy in public so far.”
“Uh-huh.” I cleared my throat.
“But then one of the spies made it sound like they weren’t talking about my next child to welcome into this world.”
I rubbed my jaw. “So, Raisa and Ivan are expecting again?” It was a weak guess. And a lie.
“No.”
I blew out a deep breath, hating that I’d need to tell him all of this before Sadie and I spoke about how we’d approach this.
“It seems to me that our enemies are under the impression that you will have an heir soon.” He grunted. “Now how could that be?” he asked in a mocking yet severe tone that suggested I reconsider lying or hedging.
“It could be that I am—”
“Hiding,” he finished for me. “From the house’s footage, you let that cat out—”
“Oh, fuck. Mellow.”
“He’s here.”
I blew out a deep breath. Whoops. I hadn’t even thought about that cat when I saw Sadie. I didn’t want to think about that being a hint of what kind of a parent I’d be. If I couldn’t look after a kitten, how would it be with a baby?
I rolled my eyes. I’d burn down the world to keep my child safe. I was being silly.
“You left with a guest—who didn’t actually enter the house with any guards witnessing it—and now you’re hiding.” He sighed. “Emil, I trust you. I will always trust you. I try not to dominate how you live your life and how you do your job. But you'd better start answering me now.”
I nodded even though he couldn’t see. It was my fault that Sadie and I hadn’t talked about what to do. We’d been fucking or discussing her pregnancy, nothing more.
Plus, my late-night reveal of how twisted I am after killing so many people.
“You need to start explaining to me, right the fuck now, why word is spreading among the Italians and Cartel that a certain FBI agent is hiding with you.”
Goddammit! How can anyone know? I had to move Sadie to a safer location immediately if anyone knew we were here.
“About how this agent is carrying your child,” he continued, not raising his voice but adding more wrath. “And how she has classified intel about our family. About this new club of leaders who plan to shift power globally with the black market and more.”
I furrowed my brow, hating how so many others could be aware of all these details about Sadie. No wonder she’d come to find me. She had targets on her back no matter which way she looked.
“What about how her agency fired her and might have set her up to have her killed?” I asked.
“Emil!” He cursed under his breath. “What are you thinking?”
I wasn’t. Where Sadie was concerned, I could only be pulled along in an intense pull to want her. To matter to her. To keep her.
“You slept with an agent assigned to capture you?”
I opened and closed my mouth, hating how I felt like a child, being reprimanded like this.
“If this woman knows about any of our operations, she is a risk we can’t allow.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“But more so, if she’s carrying your child, these Rivara and Viper fuckers are going to use her as their next attempt to get one of our own.”
There was no point denying that I was with Sadie and that we’d formed a relationship of some sort. “I’m aware of these complications.”
“Complications?” he barked. “This isn’t a complication. This is a concern. A grave and serious concern of mine that my son is falling in bed with the enemy.”
“She’s not.”
He huffed a mean laugh. “She’s not the enemy? Why? Just because they fired her so she’s now up for dibs to be with you?”
“No. Because she’s not like that. She’s not—”
“Emil! Listen to yourself.”
“I am.” I stood up, feeling too vulnerable sitting down. “And I won’t change my stance on this. Sadie isn’t my enemy.”
She couldn’t be, not when I was half-convinced I could love her.
“She isn’t an enemy of the family,” I added.
“Oh, really? Why? Because she’s too fun to fuck, she can’t be a problem for us?”
“No!” I paced. “No. I know it sounds bad. It looks bad. But I swear on all my life, she is not the enemy. Not in this.”
“Then bring her in.”
I stopped short, wincing.
“Bring her back to this house she dared to fucking trespass at, Son.”
Shaking my head slowly, I tried to summon the courage to defy him for the first time. My father, my boss.
“Bring her in if she can be trusted.”
“I can’t.”
He cursed under his breath again.
“I can’t. Not yet.”
“Why?” he roared.
“We need to talk first. We need to discuss how to handle our future, and I am committed to making this work.”
“Making it work,” he repeated, taunting me. “Sure. You want to play house and daydream about keeping this agent as your woman.”
“We will make this work. I’m not leaving her again.”
“Bring her to me.”
“Not yet,” I repeated, taking extreme care not to raise my voice at him. I had to stay cool. I had to convince him that I was thinking with my head and being logical, not impassioned and thinking with my dick.
“I need to trust that you won’t hurt her,” I added. “But I do agree with you. We need to talk to you.”
“No. Emil… No. I trust you, but I can’t take your word that I should trust an agent.”
“You can. And you will. Let her help us. Let her choose the family just as she’s chosen me.” That was the beauty of what was changing my life at warp-speed.
Sadie chose me. She chose to hide the fact that I’d kidnapped her. She spared me more trouble. She chose me by wanting to keep and protect our baby. She chose me when she pushed me down to safety in gunfire, and she chose me when she held me and listened to me last night.
She was mine, as much as I was hers.
My father had to respect that.
“Will she?” he asked, direct and blunt about it.
“What?”
“Will she help us?” he asked again. “Are you that confident that she isn’t tricking you and playing you for a fool? That sure she will side with us and betray her career?”
“Yes.”
He didn’t speak for a long moment. I waited, nervous and impatient.
“This woman cares enough for you that she would truly turn traitor to her superiors?”
She didn’t have any superiors anymore. They’d fired her after they failed to have her killed.
I couldn’t answer with full conviction that Sadie cared about me that deeply. In the heat of the moment, she could very well be motivated by lust and desire, that deep physical bond we both felt.
“I will ask her to come home with me and speak with you,” I said instead, hating that I was stuck in a guessing game about how she really felt about me.
“Ask your lover if she’ll help our family,” he ordered. “Don’t keep me waiting,” he growled before disconnecting the call.
I held my phone and stared at it for a long moment.
“Huh,” I whispered to myself as I rolled my eyes. “That went well.”