Chapter 21 Ruslan
RUSLAN
“How do you know her?” I place my hands on the back of Ivy’s chair and lean over her shoulder, studying the picture on the screen. Thanks to Raven’s incredible skills, it didn’t take long for her to find a better angle on the woman Ivy’s father was sleeping with.
Valentina sits across from us on the other side of the table, running one elegant finger along the edge of the lace placemat under the flowers Cassian set up earlier.
“I’ve never met her but I remember her picture.
Kraven’s son, Alexei, was infatuated with her.
A few years ago, he sent out wedding invitations and there was a guy I was seeing who got one.
He was a member of an Italian family, and he actually thought it was a threat because, if I remember correctly, he didn’t even know her.
But Alexei, for some reason, wanted every Italian family in the city to know he was marrying her. ”
“Hold on, you dated?” I glance away from the screen and smirk at her.
Valentina narrows her eyes. “Yes, I’m not a prude.”
“And yet you look down your nose at me.”
She glances briefly at Ivy. “I never brought my dates home.”
“Maybe you should have. Having dick on tap surely would lighten you up.”
“Ruslan!” Ivy suddenly elbows me hard in the gut, and I double over with a grunt while Valentina laughs. “Don’t be rude.”
“Ouch,” I groan softly, rubbing my abdomen. “Sorry.”
“Wow.” Valentina smirks. “Did I really just hear that word come from you?”
“Like I said, having someone close by lightens you up.”
“Mmhmm.” She rolls her eyes and sighs. “Anyway, the wedding never happened. I thought he dumped her during some drug-fueled rampage, but I don’t know the details. What I do remember is Kraven came down hard on Alexei. Sent him away for a while.”
“Prison?”
She shakes her head. “Rehab, I think. But I don’t know if that actually worked. This was years ago.”
“I can’t believe this,” Ivy says after a soft sigh. She leans back in her chair, and I move my hand from the wood to her shoulder. “She’s beautiful. I never would have thought she was my father’s type.”
“You thought your parents were in love,” I say as I sit next to her. “Something like this never would have crossed your mind.”
“She looks like she belongs in a magazine,” Ivy murmurs, turning to face me. “Do you think she did it? She hurt my mom because she was jealous and then killed my dad because he wouldn’t leave her?”
“It’s a possibility, but…”
“But,” Valentina cuts in. “What happened to your parents speaks more to rage than jealousy. Not that the two of those aren’t linked, but your father’s death was slow.
That typically suggests an attempt to draw information.
Harming your mother could have been a tool to get that information until he succumbed to his injuries.
Women are dangerous, but sexual violence isn’t really a tool we use. ”
“Information?” Ivy’s jaw tics back and forth and she groans softly. “None of this makes any sense to me. You’re saying Mom was hurt and Dad was killed for information, but what has that got to do with me and the plane? And why are people still trying to hurt me?”
“Ivy.” Without thinking, I reach for her hand and cover her knuckles with my palm. “These are just theories. We need to look deeper, so it’s important not to get attached to any one reason.”
“Getting attached is dangerous,” Valentina remarks, and when our eyes meet, I get the distinct feeling she isn’t talking about the same thing I am.
“I’m not attached, I’m just…” Ivy pulls away from me and stands, pacing away from the table while twisting her fingers together.
“I’m trying really hard not to cry or hate my dad for having an affair because it really sounds like he was getting involved in things that got him killed and Mom…
” A bubble of emotion clouds her voice so Ivy falls silent, her gaze down as she paces.
I glance at the woman on the screen. She’s thin, tanned, and beautiful, with miles of long, brunette hair. Is she the key, or have we simply unearthed something unrelated that’s destroyed Ivy’s view of her father?
“So we know Camden was sleeping with this woman. We also knew a few years ago, she was engaged to Alexei, but he dumped her because he was an addict?”
“Exactly.” Valentina tucks some of her hair behind her ear. “Alexei’s always been determined to make Daddy proud so I can’t imagine Kraven letting him marry someone from a nobody family. The Russians take matrimony as seriously as a business deal. It’s never for love.”
Something starts to connect in my mind, like I’m on the cusp of grasping something like a memory just out of reach. “Kraven’s been lying to me. Again. There’s no way this is just some coincidence.”
“And yet it might be,” Valentina warns. “Camden having an affair hardly links to the drug-filled plane or the deal between the Russians and the Italians. Other than her” —she points to the laptop— “there’s nothing linking him to anyone else.”
“So maybe Kraven’s right and it’s been the Italians all along?”
Valentina shrugs. “We don’t have enough to piece this together.
Think about it. Alexei lives to make his father proud, and Nico is in hell since the cops and the media are crawling all over his airline.
This deal benefited both families while bringing the war to an end, so for one of them to fuck it up?
They’re taking a huge hit either way. Maybe…
” She purses her lips. “Maybe we’re looking in the wrong place. ”
“What are you thinking?”
Our eyes lock. “We’ve been so focused on which of them stood to gain the most from this that we haven’t considered a third party.
Someone who is maybe benefiting from these families killing one another.
After all.” Valentina’s eyes glint suddenly.
“A third party wouldn’t think twice about kidnapping you or shooting Cassian if they were certain we would blame someone else. ”
“You think we’re being played?”
Valentina nods and groans. “If Bradley were here, he’d know. He always sees the big picture so easily.”
“When is he due back?”
She shrugs and pulls her phone from her pocket. “I’m going to call him.” Rising, she glances at Ivy and then back at me. “Be careful,” she murmurs, then she steps out of the room with her phone pressed to her ear.
“Ivy?”
She’s paced to the window and stands there, gazing out at the city while shifting her weight from foot to foot. She doesn’t speak, nor does she move until I approach and stand beside her.
“Affairs are normal, right?” she murmurs. “I keep thinking how ordinary it is compared to everything else that’s happened. Home invasions as well. What if…” Her eyes close. When they reopen, she turns to look at me. “What if there is no link?”
Something heavy curls in my chest, like something has sat down directly on my heart. “What do you mean?”
“Listening to you two is so alien. All the things you’re talking about, everything that’s happened to me. What if my parents are just victims of some random psychopath?”
“Well…” I suck in a deep breath, fighting to ease the tightness, but it doesn’t shift. “If they are, that psychopath is still out there and deserves to be behind bars.”
“If…” Her lower lip twists into her mouth and a question hangs thick in the air.
She’s on the cusp of asking it but something makes her change her mind.
Her eyelids flicker in a half-blink and she drops her gaze away from me.
“I feel like everything I need to know, everything we both need to know, is locked inside my mom. If I could just talk to her. Do you think I can go and see her?”
Last I called, there was no change in her mother’s condition, but something like that can’t be believed with just words.
“She’s not awake,” I reply gently.
Ivy wraps her arms around herself. “I know, but I want to see her. I want to talk to her doctor. I need to do something that makes me feel useful. Please?” She glances back up at me, and the pain in her eyes spears into my chest. Last night, there was nothing but lust and desire in her gorgeous eyes.
Today, it’s all been swallowed under the weight of her life.
“Sure. We can go.”
Against my better judgment, we arrive at the hospital a couple of hours later, accompanied by a full security team.
There won’t be a repeat of last time. Ivy walks quickly next to me, her stature rigid like a statue and her lips constantly pursed as she chews her lower lip so much it becomes a vibrant crimson.
The growing urge to comfort her almost strangles me from the inside, but each time I’m about to reach out for her, something stops me.
How can I fuck her like she’s the only woman in the world, yet hesitate at holding her hand or asking her how she’s feeling?
I’m so caught up in my thoughts that she manages to get a few steps ahead of me as we hurry down the hallway and the moment a man approaches her, anger swells in my chest. It spreads through me when the man places a hand on her shoulder and my gut twists.
“Hey!” I bark, catching up to them in three strides. “Back off!” My hand slams into his chest just as Ivy squeals in alarm.
“Ruslan! He’s the doctor! Stop!” Ivy grabs my arm just above my elbow and tries to pull me backward.
“The doctor?” I quickly scan the man as he stumbles back against the wall with a grunt, his eyes wide in alarm. Without a white coat, it’s difficult to tell who he is until I spot his I.D. badge attached to his belt. “Where’s the white coat, huh?”
“I’m so sorry!” Ivy pushes past me to help the doctor up, her actions only fueling the anger deep inside me.
“It’s quite alright,” the doctor says, brushing Ivy’s hand away. “It happens all the time.”
“Really?” Ivy squints up at him, brushing his sleeve with her hand.
“No, but…” The doctor glances up at me and when he catches my eye, I narrow them. “Tensions run high in hospitals.”
“That’s no excuse,” Ivy gasps. “I’m really sorry, he’s just protective. And an idiot.” She throws a glare at me over her shoulder as she speaks. “Just ignore him. You were saying something about my mother?”
“Yes.” He clears his throat and steps to the side, smart enough to put Ivy between the two of us.
“As I was saying, I’m sorry but there’s been no change in your mother’s condition.
Initially, we kept her in a medically induced coma in order to treat her and allow her time to recover, but after weaning her off the medication, she hasn’t shown any signs of waking up. ”
“What… what does that mean?” Ivy’s voice is strained and just like that, my anger melts away.
The urge to comfort her rises like a tidal wave but as I step forward, Ivy steps closer to the doctor, pleading.
“Please, tell me what that means.”
“It means that your mother needs to wake up on her own. There’s nothing medically keeping her unconscious any longer. Some of her injuries are still severe and they are healing, but you need to prepare yourself for the chance that she may never wake up.”
“Ever? Can’t you… Can’t you give her adrenaline or something? Drugs that will force her awake? Can’t you just do that?”
“I’m sorry, but we can’t do that, Ivy. Anything we do give her could tip the scales we can’t see.”
“What about a scan or a test or something? There must be something you can do to wake her up and make her better! I don’t understand.”
“I’m sorry. Unfortunately, in cases of deep trauma like your mother has suffered, the body and mind can fall so deep into themselves that they simply don’t wake up.”
Ivy slowly turns to me, her eyes shining with utter despair.
“That’s enough,” I snap at the doctor, stepping forward and sliding my arm around Ivy’s shoulders. “You’ve said enough.”
The doctor dips his head and seems grateful for the conversation to end. He turns and hurries down the hallway, occasionally glancing back.
Ivy trembles like a leaf under my grip and she lifts one hand to my shirt, gripping tightly. “This isn’t real,” she murmurs. “This can’t be real.”
“Come on,” I say as gently as I can. “Seeing her might make you feel better.”
She nods slowly, hastily wiping away her tears. “Okay.”
Together, we walk down the hallway but just as we reach her mother’s room, someone exits in such a flurry that all three of us crash into one another.
“Ow!” Ivy takes the full brunt of the person’s hasty exit and falls back into me, her heel coming down hard on my foot which makes me grunt in pain as I steady the two of us.
The stranger stumbles, her foot catching on Ivy’s ankle, which draws another squeal of pain from her.
“I’m so sorry!” The stranger, a woman, gasps as she trips up and crashes hard down onto her hands and knees.
The slap of her palms landing on the linoleum echoes through the hallway.
Just beyond her, through the door to Ivy’s mother’s room, I glimpse a large bouquet of flowers sitting at her bedside.
“Ow,” Ivy groans, regaining her balance. “Oh, my God, are you okay?” She immediately reaches for the woman on the floor, but as she makes contact with the stranger’s arm to help her up, the stranger waves her off quickly.
“I’m fine. I’m fine!” She keeps her head low as she climbs to her feet.
“I’m sorry again,” Ivy gasps. “I never expected Mom to have visitors.”
“I was just leaving!”
“Hold on—” Instinctually, I reach for the woman’s arm and grab her elbow, bunching the fabric of her coat around my wrist as she tries to hurry down the corridor without even looking at us. “Why are you in such a hurry? Are you a family friend?”
“Let go,” the woman gasps, jerking her arm out of my grip. “Let go!”
As I release her, she stumbles over herself with her sudden freedom and her head lifts. The jolt dislodges the massive dark glasses covering her face and we finally get to see her.
“You?” The sudden heat of anger in Ivy’s voice catches me off guard and before I can stop her, Ivy flies at the woman with both hands outstretched. “Why are you here? How dare you even come here!”
I recognize the woman just as Ivy collides with her and shoves her into the wall. It’s the woman from the footage of Camden’s date.
The woman he was sleeping with.
“I’m sorry,” the woman gasps, trying to wrestle out of Ivy’s grip. “I was just leaving!”
“No,” I say, stepping up behind Ivy, and as the woman slips out of Ivy’s grasp, I’m right there to slip my arm around her waist and haul her backward. “You’re not going anywhere until we’ve had a nice little chat.”