Chapter 27
I’m done. Done with taking orders from men who don’t have my welfare at heart. Fuck that shit. The only people I can seem to trust these days are the people on my payroll. It sucks that it’s come to this, but I will not blindly follow orders from a man who says he doesn’t want a relationship with his own daughter.
I look at the bags stacked by the door. I inhale deeply, willing myself to be calm after hearing gunfire on the other end of the line. “What have we packed?”
Nona picks up a list and starts counting off everything she’s prepared. “Passports. Money. Phones. Nadia’s asthma medication. Clothes. Cards from your Japanese bank account. Harder to trace.”
I smile at Nona. Always five steps ahead, whether she’s making dinner or packing to go on the run. God knows, she’d be the CEO of something if she hadn’t had to flee a war when her kids were young.
“Okay. Let me call the security guys from the last tour. I need someone I can count on,” I say.
I stroll into the bedroom and pick up the phone. Nadia’s making a video in her room as she chatters to her dolls. One minute she wants black contacts and the next she’s playing with a dollhouse and wanting me to rock her to sleep.
Taking a deep breath, I dial Double Canopy, the ex-military guys who ran security for my last tour. Dex served with my dad in Okinawa before he set up his own gig. If I trust anyone’s advice, it’s his.
“Double Canopy,” the deep voice booms down the line.
The tightness in my shoulders softens when I hear his voice, and I’m centered once again. Even if he can’t run security for us right now, he’ll know what to do.
“Dex. Thank god you answered. I’m in a pickle.”
“How serious? Cornichon or cucumber?”
I snort. I don’t want to start thinking about penis-shaped vegetables. “Well, it’s a kind of Russian pickle. Remember I told you about Nadia’s father?”
“What? You found him?”
“Stumbled across him, more like. I was out with Stevie at some club in Brooklyn and after ten years of searching, there he was. Suffice to say, he wasn’t pleased to see me.”
I laugh bitterly as I run through the last twenty-four hours. The burner phones. The instruction to go down to the deli and find the man with the spider tattoo. I skip the part where he pressed his lips to my forehead and I could taste how it had been between us.
Dex is wheezing with laughter now. “Seriously? He asked you to go to a deli and meet a man with a spider tattoo? That sounds like one of those movies where you’re shouting at the screen, ‘You idiots are too stupid to live!’” His voice levels off now, and he sounds more serious as he says, “I really shouldn’t need to tell you this. You do not leave to go to a second location with a man you don’t know.”
“Right, Dex.” I smile, imagining his face right now. “Nona has packed go-bags. but I honestly don’t know what I’m dealing with here. I don’t know who knows about our connection to this man, and I don’t know what kind of trouble he’s in or might bring to my door. What are my next steps?”
“For starters, don’t get in a car with a strange man. And don’t accept any candy from strangers either.” He chuckles again. “Sorry, this is serious. Do you have proper wheels and gas?”
“Yeah, I’ve got the SUV. Where should I go? I’m scared, Dex.” I hear my voice shake, but I swallow the tears down. I don’t add that I’m heartbroken too. Scared is bad enough.
“Head upstate to your place. Nadia will be far less freaked out. Change the code when you get in, and send me the number on the secure line. The house isn’t impenetrable, but if anything happens, you just head straight to the panic room in the basement and wait it out. Don’t mess around. Just hang there and one of us will break you out. I’ll get moving right now.”
“How far away are you?”
“If I drive all night, I’ll get to you by first light.”
“Okay. We’re going now. I’ll get the bags and tell Nadia. Love you, Dex. Thanks.”
“Roger that, kiddo. We’ve got your back.”
I place the phone back on its receiver. Honestly, I don’t know what I’ve been thinking for the last twenty-four hours. I was so emotional and shell-shocked that I was just nodding at a man who asked me to disappear.
Get in a car with a kid with a spider tattoo? With my ten-year-old daughter? Vadim must think I’m a moron as well as unlovable. One of those things might be true, but I didn’t get this far in the business without a good head on my shoulders.
I stride down the corridor. “Come on, kiddo. We’re heading out for the weekend.”
Nadia doesn’t look up from her screen.
“We’re going to the Gingerbread House. If there’s anything you need for the next few days, it needs to fit in your backpack. We might have to go on a road trip.”
“Mom!” It comes out as a high-pitched whine. “It’s free dress day on Tuesday. We can’t go on a road trip. Anyway, Sister Hayes says that children of celebrities shouldn’t get special treatment.”
Poor kid. I’ve tried hard to make her life normal, but it isn’t and there’s nothing I can do about it. I take her hands in mine and squat on my haunches so that she’s looking down at me.
“Sorry, baby. Sister Hayes is right, but remember Dex, mom’s friend who does the security for our tours? He thinks there might be a security issue for us.”
Nadia nods at me, her eyes going wide.
“So I need you to do what Mom and Nona say. Okay?”
Nadia nods again and throws herself into my arms. “Can I take Mr. Doggie?” she says, plucking her crumpled stuffed dog from the floor. Mr. Doggie is gray now, despite repeated washes. All the love has bleached him of color, but he’s still Nadia’s favorite.
“Sure you can, baby. Dex will be with us in the morning, and we’ll be fine, okay?”
I blindly stuff clothing into Nadia’s bag, unable to concentrate on packing because of the thoughts swirling around my mind. I’m still locked in my own head as we start for the SUV and venture into the night.
The dark feelscold and unwelcoming by the time we pull up at the gates of the countryside place we call the Gingerbread House. I push the code on my phone to open them.
Nadia is asleep on Nona’s lap in the back seat, and Nona’s drifted off too. I’m alone with my thoughts in the darkness when the burner phone beeps in my bag. I drive to the house and wait for the gates to close behind me before I pull it out.
The green screen lights up with a text from Vadim.
Please tell me you’re safe. Andrei said you didn’t come and there’s no answer at your place.
I don’t reply. I just stare out at the trees around the house that looks exactly like the little Hansel and Gretel cottage in the woods where we made Nadia. There are no tears left to cry at this point.
Your doorman wouldn’t tell Andrei anything.
Seriously? He sends a young hoodlum with a neck tattoo to ask about me, and he wonders why no one has said anything? Is he an idiot too?
I’m going out of my head with worry.
Oh, so now he’s concerned? Well, too fucking late, Mr. Mafioso. We’re gonna be just fine without you.
The phone rings, but I toss it into my bag. Let him sweat. He doesn’t want a relationship with either of us, so what do I care if he’s out of his head with worry?
As I open the car door, a prickle climbs my spine. It’s as if someone is watching me. The phone goes silent as I pull our bags from the trunk. I shake Nona awake, then step out into the darkness. The smell of pine and dew fills my lungs as I scan the trees. Shivering slightly, I let the car door close, alert for some unseen threat.
The velvet darkness of the woods surrounds us. An owl calls as I walk up to the high iron gates and run a hand down them to ensure they’re closed. The gravel crunches underfoot, but mine are the only footsteps I hear. There is only the quiet of the trees at night. And the nagging sense that I’m not alone.