Chapter 15 #2
“Everything is fine,” I manage, though my too-bright smile feels more panicked than cheerful.
My father grunts and shuffles off, back into the recesses of the house.
“You ready?” Vasya asks, his gaze trailing after my father as he comes down the steps to me.
“Almost. I just want to check on Marco, and then we can go.” I push an escaped strand of hair behind my ear, my heart hammering wildly in my chest.
I’m still not quite calm by the time Vasya lets me back into the car.
“Thanks for helping with Katie’s homework,” I say as his big black Rover eases away from the curb.
Vasya shrugs. “She’s a good kid. I always wanted a younger sibling anyway. Nice to spend time with one.”
“You don’t have any brothers or sisters?” I ask.
“No. Only me.”
The leather steering wheel creaks as Vasya’s hands tighten around it, but his mild expression doesn’t change.
“I thought you and Evgeny were like brothers?”
It takes Vasya a moment to reply. “We are. He’s the closest I’ve come, anyway. But he was always the heir, and me? Well, I’m whatever he needs me to be.”
The words clash with the easy smile Vasya gives me when I’m unsure how to respond. Silence falls as the car stops at a light.
“Look, Eva.” Vasya licks his lips, his hand tightening on the steering wheel again. “I don’t know what’s going on between you and Evgeny, but I’m telling you, as someone who knows him better than most, don’t let it happen.”
He doesn’t look at me as he says it.
“You can’t save him, Eva. He’s not some nesting doll with a good soul deep inside. Whatever you think, he’s the pakhan of the Kucherov Bratva. That is who he is. The Bratva will always come before anything else, and he’ll do anything to protect it.”
When he looks at me, his blue eyes are burning.
“Anything.”
I swallow, my mouth suddenly dry and my father’s warnings ringing in my ears.
“Nothing is going on, and I’m not trying to save anyone but my family,” I force myself to reply. “I’m there until he lets me go, and that’s it. I’m doing this to protect my family.”
Vasya doesn’t look convinced by my words. I’m not entirely convinced, either.
“He’s warming up to you. Keep him going until he lets you go and then leave. Run as far and as fast as you can. Move if you have to. But just get out. He’s dangerous. Far more dangerous than you think he is.”
I want to cover my ears, ignore the words, ignore the warning bells going crazy in my head and my gut.
The light turns green, and silence falls again as the car starts forward.
“Thanks for coming with me today,” I say after a few minutes, hoping to change the subject. “I know the chaos wasn’t exactly what you expected.”
I expect a laugh and some sort of playful reply. But Vasya only huffs. “You think I had a choice? When Evgeny gives an order, he expects it to be followed.”
He certainly does, I think, then brush at my cheek to cool the heat collecting there at the thought. I would have done anything he asked last night just to keep his hands on me.
“It must feel good that he trusts you to keep an eye on me,” I say, looking for another subject to focus on. Any other subject.
“Oh, this isn’t about his trust in me. No, he’s punishing me.”
I blink. “Punishing you? For what?”
Vasya’s gaze flicks from the road to me, lingering momentarily before dancing away again. “I said some things I shouldn’t have said. Showed some interest in something he’s already claimed, apparently.”
“Evgeny wouldn’t—”
I know the words are wrong as soon as they’re out of my mouth, and Vasya’s reaction is swift and vicious.
“He would,” he snarls, and I involuntarily lean away from him, wishing I had more space than just the Rover’s center console between us. “You’ve known him only for a short time. Don’t think what you’ve seen is the real Evgeny. You don’t know what he’s like.”
The promise and the fury in his hissed words and in his eyes send chills crawling over my skin.
Then Vasya blinks as though waking from a dream, takes a deep breath, and visibly forces himself to relax.
“Sorry.” He sounds weary, and I can still hear a tightness in his voice.
Vasya flashes me one of his puckish grins as though nothing happened, and I attempt to smile back. I’m afraid it’s strained, though. I feel whiplashed by the sudden changes in the man’s moods.
We lapse into silence as Vasya navigates the boxy Rover through the traffic and merges onto the freeway.
I’m still not quite sure what happened, but I keep my attention on the window, on the buildings beyond the multiple lanes of traffic.
Evgeny is moody and often annoyed. Jordan is always angry.
My father is grumpy. But Vasya? I’ve just seen a glimpse of something darker under his bright, funny exterior, and I’m not sure what to think.
Everyone has two sides, light and dark. But I can still feel a chill from what I glimpsed in Vasya’s eyes.
The chill is still there when we get back to the estate, and I feel an odd sense of relief when I see Evgeny sitting at the kitchen island, working at a laptop.
His eyes rise to mine when I enter the kitchen. But instead of a cold look, I see… relief?
“I have returned her to you, safe and sound.”
I jump when Vasya comes up behind me, turning my head just in time to see his extravagant and mocking bow toward Evgeny, whose lips thin into an annoyed line.
“See ya, Eva,” Vasya says, throwing a wave over his shoulder as he ambles away, one hand in his pocket, as though nothing at all happened in the car.
“Was everything all right at your home? Is your family well?”
Evgeny’s question pulls me out of my thoughts. It takes me a moment to realize what he’s asking, and another to reply, because I’m surprised he asked at all.
“Uh, kind of. There’s still a lot to deal with. Thanks for letting me go, though. I appreciate it.” It’s an honest show of gratitude, and Evgeny nods.
“You may go when you have need, as long as you return. And as long as someone accompanies you. And as long as I have what I need from you. You just have to ask.”
He turns back to his laptop and begins typing again, obviously dismissing me.
But not before a final flick of his green-eyed gaze that lingers on me. And I might have imagined it, but I swear I see his shoulders relax.
And, despite the warnings from Vasya and my father, so do mine.