Chapter Six
Sabrina.
“This is fucking ridiculous. We’re on day eight of this. There’s no fucking way he took my husband to a goddamn island. Maksim can’t stand flying. He’d vomit,” I spew angrily as if Kane would care.
“Sit down and have some tea,” my mother commands, green eyes flaring, probably the same as mine.
I sit. Angrily, obviously. How can I be of this world—my father’s world—and still understand nothing?
How did I not know the Ainsworths had three private islands?
Kronos, Raven’s very large black Doberman, comes to sit beside me and puts his head in my lap.
“Do we have eyes on Kane yet?” I ask Aleksi, petting Kronos’s head and then down his flank when he softly whines. He’s such a good boy.
Aleksi shakes his head. “I’ve tapped into the UK’s sky system with Fran’s help, but I haven’t seen him or his double since…” He can’t say the words. Since my husband was taken.
Don't break.
Parker rubs circles on my back, but there’s a string pulling me to look at Raven.
When my eyes connect with hers, there is a sharpness to them.
In her features. A weird part of me feels as though she’s planning and plotting right along with me.
She’s a bit more pale these days, having just gotten over her illness, but the stare she’s giving me, full of hatred—while not aimed at me—alarms me as much as it fuels me.
She crosses her legs and leans forward, one arm crossed over her torso, her other elbow diagonally on her thigh.
Long, dark chocolate and spider silk hair cascades over her shoulder, sleek and beautiful.
She rubs the pad of her thumb along the inside of her middle finger, flicking her caramel gaze to the maps of the homes we’ve raided and back to me.
But she’s… detached. Her pupils lose focus for a second, seeming to flicker, and her head tilts to the side, like she’s trying to figure it out for herself.
Her thumb stops between her knuckles, and she blinks.
What is she not telling me? Her eyes go to the ceiling and back to me with another blink.
She looks at the maps again. Blinks. Looks at me.
Blinks. She resumes rubbing her finger with her thumb.
The room has gone deathly silent. Jonas and Damon stare at her, smirks forming on their faces.
Maverick develops the same smirk but begins to run his thumb under his bottom lip.
Raven blinks at the maps. Back to me. A small, very unsettling smirk begins to ghost across her lips. The way she looks right now reminds me of something Sofia once called her—“a broken little doll…”
I turn my head to Parker. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine, babydoll. But you need to eat.”
I can’t handle food right now. The mere smell makes me sick. I shake my head at him. “I’ll eat later.”
“You keep saying that, but you haven’t eaten in days, babe.”
I’m about to spew venom. I’m about to aim my ire at the only other man I’ve ever loved, but Damon places a cup of tea before me.
Ginger. Honey. I take the mug and have a sip.
I doubt they’re feeding Maksim. How can I eat when they’re not feeding him?
How can I sleep when he’s not here to kiss me goodnight?
The cockwomble got me dependent on him to be able to sleep properly, and now I can't. I can’t say these things out loud because it makes it all the more real.
Don’t break.
I look over at Aleksi, looking confused and dejected, then at Raven, who looks back at the motherfucking maps.
And suddenly I understand. Pieces of a puzzle I’ve yet to solve come together, lying before me, connecting. I’m either losing my fucking mind or I’ve finally found it. My eyes snap up to my mother's gaze. “Mama… Is the Barclay Estate still staffed?”
Impeccable dark blonde brows arch, casually lifting a shoulder and letting it fall naturally with a shake of her head. “Not fully.”
I nod slowly and run my thumb along the rim of the mug and take another sip of the tea. “How long would it take you to get it ready?”
“For what?”
I stand, the madness in my mind spinning, laying claim to the wrinkles in my gray matter, stretching it to smooth it out, diving deeper as I reach out for Raven's hand. She stands and takes mine. “A lavish party, of course. We’ll have the drapes drawn, the ballroom cleared…”
“The ballroom?”
I spin Raven and pull her back to me, hand on her waist as we begin to waltz about the room. “We'll hire a string quartet. Rent a couple of tables.”
And one-two-three, one-two-three… spin. A little faster.
I crush her to me. Chest to chest we turn about the room, never losing stride.
She clamps down on my hand, and I clamp down on hers.
“Light the chandeliers…” Ohhh, this is funnn…
Raven begins to giggle. And I smile my pretty, pretty smile at her.
“Valet…” I begin to giggle as my thighs burn.
Crackles burrow in the bottom of my brain.
“It sounds like such a wonderful event you're planning, Mother.” I spin us again.
“The Matilda Barclay hosting a charity for beginning authors to meet and network with book influencers and socialites? Why, I think it's a grand idea.”
“Me?” Her voice rises into a questioning octave.
I whirl Raven one last time and dip her, all while maintaining eye contact with my mother, ignoring all the rest. Especially Parker's. “If we can't go to them… we'll have them come to us,” I practically purr.
“But… men wouldn't come to a gathering like that.”
I stand straight with Raven, who looks a little green from all the spinning, then look about the room. “Good thing the theme will be the best theme of all ages. A soiree fit for Syndicate matters.”
“Which is?”
I grin devilishly. “Casino Night. Everyone loves a good James Bond.”
Niko and the rest of Maksim's men smile rakishly back at me. “Alright, Boss Lady. That we can do. Let me call Johnny. See what he can help you cook up in such a short amount of time.”
“Thank you, Niko. Call the Capos. I need to sort a meeting. Have them here in the morning.” I nod to no one in particular as the pieces start coming together. “Mum, call all your friends. Let's get the fire started.” I want everything in its path to burn.
“Right. Er, Sabrina?” My mother nervously says my name.
Parker is smiling wickedly at me. The scar on his face making his dimple deepen. God, he’s wondrous to behold.
“Yes, Mama?”
“Are you alright?”
“Perfect, Mum.” I giggle. “In fact… is there still ziti left? I'm feeling all sorts of famished.”
Later on that evening, once Mum has gone to bed and Parker can’t sleep, we decide to go downstairs for a bit of chamomile.
I know Parker hates hot tea, but… I don't know what else will help with his nerves. If he’s not speaking to Aleksi, the capos, or one of Raven’s men, he's constantly pacing, and he’s worrying me.
We find Aleksi alone pondering over the maps again.
His eyes are continuously scanning and skimming. I doubt he’s slept more than I have.
I’ve come to have a deep appreciation for the giant. He’s young, but his intelligence is astounding. I put water in the kettle that is now a permanent fixture on his stove and turn it on. When I turn to face him, he hasn’t moved. “Aleksi?”
“Yeah?” He finally drags his gaze away from the maps and faces me, brown eyes tired and baggy. “Hmm?”
I take a seat beside Parker at the table and motion for Aleksi to sit down.
When he does, he sighs heavily, pulls his hair out of the bun on his head, and runs a finger through his luxurious blonde locks, which curtain forward when he shifts to put his forearms on the table.
I make a mental note to ask what conditioner he uses later.
Brown eyes peer over at me. “Are you alright?”
He dips his chin just as the kettle whistles. I get up and make three cups instead of two, add honey, and set them on the table. “Thanks.”
“How long since you’ve slept?”
He lifts a shoulder and lets it drop, blowing on the tea. He stays quiet for a few moments. “You know my mom died when I was ten and living in Moscow?”
My fingers lay flat on the table. “I know that part, yes. My husband didn’t tell me much, but he did say your mother had passed away when you were young and your father was… not around.”
He scoffs. “That’s a fuckin’ understatement. My dad’s dead for fucking my mom up one too many times in front of me. I’m the one that called Sasha that night. He made the calls, and my dad was never seen again”
“I’m sorry you had to witness that.”
Aleksi stares at me, unblinking, for a few beats. “You learn who you want to be from your parents. I learned I don’t want to be anything like my father. I was seven when that happened, and I don’t regret it.”
I hum.
“When my mom was diagnosed, it was too late to do anything,” he says sadly.
“When she died, Sasha went and picked me up; Maksim went with him. Which, you know, back then, he was still under Aristide's thumb. He wasn’t Capo Dei Capi or Pakhan yet.” He takes a sip of the tea and sits back.
“A few weeks after living in New York, I got lost coming home from school one day. Sasha wasn’t…
he wasn’t the best at remembering me sometimes.
I was a really quiet kid, too. Sometimes I think I was too quiet.
I don’t hold it against him. I kinda fucked up his bachelor routine, plus, with still having to do things for Ari at all hours of the night, sometimes my uncle fell asleep at the wrong times.
So I took it upon myself to walk home. But English…
was hard. The letters were different, and…
” he trails off, but his eyes connect with mine again.
“While I was walking home, it started raining. That coupled with the fact that I couldn’t read the street signs, was a bad combination.
The good thing is that while I was passing this big building, I did recognize the word library from school. So I went in there.”
Parker and I stay quiet.
“Maksim found me. He had gone to the school to pick me up because Sasha got caught up dealing with someone, and when Maks couldn’t find me, he freaked out.
Called Niko. It was a whole thing. When he found me, I was looking at pictures in a book.
I didn’t know what it was saying, but I got the gist of it because of the pictures.
The Giving Tree. When he found me, he didn’t scold me.
Didn’t make me feel terrible about myself for being stupid and not picking up the language as fast as other kids probably can.
I mean, the motherfucker’s been trilingual since he was in the crib. ”
He sighs. “Instead, Maks sat with me for an hour a day. He not only taught me how to read and helped with homework, but he also bought me a map of New York.” Aleksi grins a dashing grin at the memory.
“He’d take me for a ride and ask me where to go and how to get there.
After my first year here, I knew every street, every city better than the back of my hand.
And then as soon as I could join, Maks had me in one of the boxing clubs, teaching me everything he knew there, too.
I was twelve when he bought me my first computer for schoolwork.
Then all the electronic shit kids probably shouldn’t have.
He didn’t have to do any of that. You know?
I don’t know what he saw in me; he probably recognized a sad kid missing his mom and did what he could to help me keep my mind off of…
all of it. Maks isn’t just my boss, Duchess.
He’s my brother. So no, I can't sleep. Not until we find him. So don’t ask me to. ”
Seems we’re in the same boat, Aleksi and I. I purse my lips while swallowing a sip, not letting the tears form nor fall, set my mug back down, and give him a curt nod. “Then if you won’t sleep, I may have another side quest for you.”
His brow quirks up in interest. “Oh?”
I tap my fingernails along the table. “Something Maksim said to me when we were first married has been rattling through my mind for a while now. He asked me why my father had to make this agreement, why he was so low on the totem pole, why he could never repay his debts.” I pause only to look back at him.
“And so I want to know why. Not because I regret my marriage, but I want to know why my father couldn't pay off his debts.”
“You want me to look into your father for you?”
“I want to know everything that may be useful later. From his account balances to his real net worth. Too many times over the years I had to lend him money, which was never paid back, and I never gave it a second thought because he was my father and I was being a dutiful daughter. I do not have the smarts to go about this, but you do. So, if you can dig deep for me, I would really appreciate it.”
He dips his chin. “You got it, Duchess.”
I pick up my mug again and stir the little teaspoon in it. “And Aleksi?”
“Yes?”
“Only my husband may call me that.”
He chuckles. “You got it, Boss Lady.”