Chapter 31
CHAPTER
THIRTY-ONE
Maxim
Home was welcome after days upon days of tracking, searching.
I’d been gone over a month.
I felt the weight of all that time away. It rested in my back and shoulders.
It dwelled in my hands.
Upon entering my house, I shut the door and was immediately accosted by a hound.
Polly.
I lowered to her level and rubbed her behind the ears. It seemed the pup missed me. I also noticed she’d been allowed to wander freely in the house while I’d been gone.
Not minding that, I smiled at her. “Where’s your mother?”
Sia had become her mom since she’d been here. Really, Polly had become our dog child.
I laughed at that thought, and of course, Polly didn’t answer. She scampered away, and in her absence, I unbuttoned my shirt, winding down. I glanced around. “Sia?”
I had no idea why I called her randomly. I hoped she was nearby in the house I supposed.
I was desperate for her.
I’d kept her at arm’s length for the past month. This was mostly for her protection. I turned into someone else when I was on a job, and I didn’t want her to see that.
I felt so heavy from the person I’d been for the past few weeks. I just wanted to forget that person. I wanted a warm bath and Sia in my arms.
Having not heard Sia’s voice, I asked about her as I passed various staff. No one had seen her recently, and I ended up checking her bedroom.
I cracked open her door but found nothing but a made bed. I headed to my room in the off chance she’d be there, but when she wasn’t, I called Val.
“ Welcome home, Boss ,” Val signed through my phone screen. She appeared to be in the gardens, and I assumed she was patrolling my property. Her head tilted. “ Your trip was successful then ?”
She already knew the details. I kept her in the know about everything as things happened.
“ You already know how everything went ,” I signed back. I figured she was just making conversation or something. In any sense, I wasn’t trying to make small talk right now. My eyes narrowed. “ I’m looking for Sia. Have you seen her ?”
I tried to make what I said sound casual. I instructed Val to keep an eye on Sia, but I told her to do that with everything around the house and my businesses. I wasn’t at the point where people needed to know about Sia and me. I wasn’t until I told Lettie, which I obviously hadn’t had time to do since I’d been away.
A lot of things had been put on the back burner due to this job. It hadn’t even turned out exactly how my father wanted. My mark had been tipped off and ultimately had gotten away. I informed Natan of those details, and he already had people trying to track the kid down. They’d find him, and once they did, I’d be ready to complete my mission.
I’d make myself.
The last month had been long and hard, and even though I hadn’t been able to complete one mission, I’d been able to succeed in another. It took me weeks to find someone else, but I had. I’d been looking for another mark. One that had evaded me once before but I hadn’t allowed that to happen again. I took care of what needed to be done this time, and because I did, I could rest easy tonight.
Everyone in my life could.
I didn’t normally leave open loose ends, and the Bratva never did. I had one that haunted me for a long time, but now, I’d made amends. I hadn’t been weak this last month. I finally did what I needed to do. I buried that error from my past figuratively and literally.
Val was signing with someone else, someone who called for her attention in the background. I called her name, waving through the line, and she nodded. She checked her Apple Watch. “It’s Monday, right?”
“Correct.” I was in my office now and sat down. “ Where is she? ”
“At class I believe.”
I sat up. “What are you talking about?”
My head of security was still distracted. Someone else was talking to her now, but when I barked out a grunt, they both stopped signing. The gardener Val spoke with scampered away, and Val faced me. “I mean, she’s at class, Maxim.”
“I know what you said, but Sia isn’t in school so she can’t have a class.”
“She wasn’t in school, but she is now, so she does.”
What the fuck?
Val’s brow lifted before she signed, “You didn’t know?”
“ No, I didn’t fucking know,” I grunted. “ Where is she going to school? ”
“Prairie Hill.”
Hearing the name of the local community college, my head cocked. “ Since when? ”
“For a while now,” Val signed. “ You haven’t talked to her? ”
Not as much as I would have liked and especially not toward the end of my mission. I couldn’t have the distraction, and again, I hadn’t wanted her to see me when I allowed my demons to take over. I became the monster within.
This was necessary but not something I needed her to see. I lost control sometimes, which was why I didn’t do jobs anymore. I got off on the bloodlust and who I had to become to be the executioner. Avenging my father and what happened to our family had been priority.
“Who’s with her?” I asked. I wasn’t happy Sia was away from me and the house, but I suppose I understood. I’d been gone a long time and hadn’t expected her to be twiddling her fingers when I came back. Even still, her being gone didn’t sit well.
Especially when Val said what she did next.
“I had Gleb take her to class, but he returned to Peters & Burg,” Val signed. “He’ll come back and get her when she’s done ? —”
“You mean to tell me she’s at school by her-fucking-self without a chaperone?” I hadn’t even bothered signing. I was up and out of my chair, and Val was waving at the screen.
“She is. Gleb used to wait for her, but she said that wasn’t necessary.”
Sia said like she had a fucking choice. I pointed a finger at the phone. “You were supposed to have someone watching her at all times. She doesn’t get a fucking choice!”
I realized how I sounded, protective and crazy. Especially when Sia was just supposed to be a member of my staff.
I didn’t care, and I’d address this shit after I went and got her. I was already grabbing my keys, and Val was still signing.
“Sia is cool on her own, Boss. I’ve been working with her and believe me when I say she knows how to hold her own.”
I wasn’t listening to what she had to say, too enraged, too betrayed. I specifically asked Val to protect her. I passed off the urgency of my need for that before. Sia had been attacked so that had been easy. Now, I just looked fucking crazy, but again, I didn’t care.
“Just tell me where she is. Her class schedule or whatever,” I signed, already outside. I opened my car. “And we’ll have words about this. I specifically gave you instructions regarding her protection, and this wasn’t it.”
“I’m aware but you already handled the brother who attacked her, Boss, and word through the grapevine is Natan settled any kind of tensions that may have resulted from that. Your house is fine. That includes Sia.”
I was aware of that too. Of course, I was. My adoptive father put out a veil of protection over me and mine after what happened at my home. He calmed the storm, but any logic of that was gone at the present.
I didn’t think clearly when it came to Sia, which was why I forced her out of my mind for the past month. It wasn’t just because I didn’t want her to see my demons. The fact of the matter was I had a semblance of control over them when she wasn’t in my head.
But I had zero control when she was.