Chapter 18
When is too late to have a baby shower? Because Mom didn’t have one with me, and I’m in need of some new clothes.
— Dima to Shasha
SHASHA
“What’s with that stupid look on your face?” Dima asked.
I looked up to find him standing in my open office doorway, staring at me like he’d never seen me before.
And maybe he hadn’t seen this particular side of me before.
Because I was, indeed, smiling.
I’d also made the decision to take the step forward with Brecken into a relationship that could very likely get her killed.
I was so going to hell.
“You mean the smile?” My sister pushed past him into my office.
“Yes, the smile.” Dima turned to Milena. “Why do you have to be so pushy?”
“Why do you have to take up so much space?” she asked.
“He’s put on twenty pounds since we last saw him,” Nastya said as she came into the room in sweatpants, an oversized hoodie that was mine, and UGG boots.
“You look so basic right now,” Dima teased.
“Fuck you.” She winced. “It’s cold. I don’t do well in the cold, okay?”
“Okay.” Dima rolled his eyes. “But just sayin’, it’s fifty degrees. That’s not even that cold.”
“Cold enough that my toes and fingers are icicles,” she countered.
“Why are you all in my office?” I asked after a while.
“We saw you smiling in here all by yourself, and we wanted to know why,” Milena offered. “But Artur already told us it was because of a girl.”
My brows rose. “He did, did he?”
“I told them that they needed to mind their own business, actually,” Artur said. “Do you want me to come back?”
I shook my head and gestured him inside. “What did you find?”
He came farther into the room and tossed some photos down onto the desk.
I narrowed my eyes at them.
“Is that Cayden?” I wondered.
“Sure is,” he said. “And he’s beat to shit and back. But that’s not why I’m showing you this particular photo.” He pulled a folded photo out of his pocket and unfolded it before placing it on my desk. “This is the dude you told us to keep a watch on a couple of weeks ago. Remember?”
The man that’d terrorized his wife to a point where she felt like she needed to give up her child to protect it by handing it over to a dangerous criminal.
“Fuck.” I leaned forward and took it all in. “It’s him?”
“It is,” Artur confirmed. “He’s been awfully quiet lately. Lying low because of the police questioning him. But he must deem it safe to come out of hiding, because there he is.”
“Do you think he’s on to us having his child?” I asked.
“Yes,” Artur said. “I think he knows. My best guess is he was trying to get information out of Cayden about you since your security is so good he wasn’t able to get close.”
“Fuck,” I sighed. “You have Cayden?”
“He’s in the upstairs bathroom getting cleaned up. Alexi escorted him in about two minutes ago,” he answered.
I nodded. “Thank you, Artur.”
“No problem,” he left without another word, clearly understanding the dismissal.
“Someone found out that you had the baby?” Nastya asked.
“Looks like it,” I said. “Honestly, I kind of expected him to try me before now.”
“How did he get to Cayden, though?” Dima asked, brows creased. “Cayden has just as much, if not more, protection than you do.”
“Right place, right time?” I guessed. “I don’t know. I’ll ask him in a bit.”
“Okay then.” Milena leaned forward. “Tell us about Brecken.”
I felt my eyelid twitch. “Milena.”
“Come on,” she begged. “I like her a lot. I know that’s who it is.”
“I don’t think now’s the best time to bring someone into my life after what I just heard from Artur,” I admitted. “So it’s likely not going anywhere.”
“Or.” Dima crossed his arm over his much larger than it used to be chest. “This guy could target her. What’s his name, by the way?”
“Gabriel Stone,” I heard answered from the hallway. “And yes, he’s very much aware of her. Though, I don’t think, in any correlation to Shasha. He knew they were friends, and he thinks that if he can get her alone, then he’ll find out where his baby is.”
I glanced behind Dima to see Cayden coming into the room.
“Thanks for finding me,” he grumbled. “And now I have to go back home and clean house.”
“What happened?”
Cayden glanced at me, then looked away. “A fuck up on my part that I’ll be fixing as soon as I get home.” He paused. “The guy, Gabriel Stone, came to me hoping that I’d help him get to you. When I refused, he left. But not before saying he’d be leaving me an incentive package. I didn’t know what he meant until you called and said your men were missing. When I found out about the men, I went to investigate and found out I have a few rats that were willing to be bought. When I went about dealing with them, that’s when I let you know there were issues to be dealt with. As soon as I was off that phone call with you, two of my own guards assumed that I’d just warned you and decided to act then instead of their predetermined time with Stone. They stunned me and I woke up in that old cruise ship.”
“Awesome,” I drawled. “How many rats do you have, Cayden?”
His eyes went dark. “More than I should.”
“Are you staying the night?” he asked.
“No,” he said. “That’s all I have to share right now.” He paused. “But can I borrow a few guns?”
I nodded. “Find Alexi.”
Cayden left without a goodbye, leaving me with three very curious pairs of eyes staring at me.
“You helped her, and now you’re on some psychopath’s hit list?” Dima guessed.
“The guy’s a real piece of work,” I admitted. “We damn well know that he was responsible for running her down. I think, at first, he wasn’t aware that she wasn’t pregnant anymore. But eventually he found out after the autopsy. At least, I assume. He must’ve put two and two together with me living on this block and her missing a baby. It’s not like I keep it a secret on where I live.”
“Maybe you should have,” he grumbled.
“If they know where I live, they won’t come looking for y’all,” I pointed out. “He’ll just assume that we’re all together.”
“We’ll be on the same block soon,” Milena pointed out. “I mean, that is the point of all the stupidly secure houses you are building, correct?”
“Maybe I need to rethink having you so close,” I grumbled.
“Just put an electric fence around everything,” Dima drawled. “That’s how the Air Force keeps us in and everyone else out.”
Dima had joined the Air Force after he’d graduated from college with his bachelor’s degree in criminology and psychology. He’d been away at boot camp and then advanced training after that, for the last year and a half. We’d gone up to see him, but this was the first time he’d been home in all that time.
And he had gotten big, Milena was right.
He’d put on a lot of muscle, finally growing out of his young man body into his actual body that put him in ‘full grown man’ territory.
“You can’t put a fence around the lake.” I snorted. “But we will eventually have a gated subdivision type thing going on once all of the construction is finished.”
“What are you going to do about this man?” Nastya asked. “Catya is so happy with Cassius and Faina.”
Faina and Cassius had named their new charge Catya, after Polina’s mother.
“They’ll continue to be happy with her,” I said as I stood up. “As for the rest…I don’t know. But I’ll figure it out.”
“And the girl that you’re hiding?” Dima asked, eyes alight. “What are you going to do about her?”
I thought about that for a long moment before saying, “I’ll bring her to dinner Sunday night. Try not to ruin it for me, though. Maybe learn some manners between now and Sunday.”
There was snickering as I left, my destination a certain someone’s school.
It was time to bring Brecken into my life, bad decision or not.
Because no other path was going to work anymore. Not after learning that she’d been targeted by a madman.