Chapter 24
The Boston wind is crisp the afternoon I bury Seamus. A line of black limousines, SUVs and town cars starts at the gravesite and fades into the distance.
“Who are all these people?” Elana asks leaning into me.
“The Irish,” I say, wrapping my arm around her shoulders as the priest moves into position with his bible propped open.
It’s a short service, but the processional of people giving their last respects as they pass the casket covered in roses seems to take forever. Elana shifts from foot to foot beside me. The woman just can’t stand still for this long. And it’s too cold for her to be standing out here this long.
At least I got her to wear a warm coat over the dress she wore. She stuffs her leather-gloved hands into the pockets as a shiver runs through her.
“We should get you into the car.” I turn to ask Kaz to take her, but she shakes her head.
“No. I stay with you.”
Kaz must overhear us, because he gives a small nod and steps forward.
“Let’s get in the car, Elana. It’s freezing out here.”
She shoots him a glare worthy of the name Volkov, and he raises his eyebrows, slowly backing away.
I’m next to experience her look as she says, “I stay with you.”
“All right.” I agree, pulling her closer to me. “But you’ll be taking a hot bath when we get back to the hotel.”
“O’Brien is coming,” Alexander says stepping up to my side. Kaz and Ivan move into position beside Elana. Front lines of a silent war.
“My condolences.” Cole offers his hand.
“Thank you.” I nod with the handshake.
“He will be missed.”
Elana snorts but tries to cover it with a cough. Cole’s gaze flicks to her.
“He’s been out of the business for a long time, but he left his mark on the world.” He tries to explain.
Elana wiggles her arm beneath mine, and squeezes. I understand what she’s saying, she’s telling me that the only mark that matters to her is me. I’m his legacy.
Cole raises his brow a little, like he’s expecting me to put her in her place with the dark glares she’s shooting at him. But he doesn’t know her. There is no putting her in any place she doesn’t want to be in.
It’s one of the things I love most about her.
And also the most frustrating.
“Since you’re all in town, we should sit down. Discuss things.” He turns his attention to Alexander now.
“We are flying out in the morning,” Alexander answers, ignoring the fact we control when the family jet takes off.
“Tonight, then. My club. Bring your wives; they can enjoy the music while we talk upstairs.” He eyes Elana for a second. “Fiancées, too.” He smiles, like he’s being clever.
“I’m not sure we can,” she answers, and I squeeze her. A silent message to stay out of the conversation. Alexander will handle this. We’ve already navigated our way out of one mess she made in Boston; I won’t be responsible for letting her make another.
“Tonight is fine,” Alexander says.
“Good.” He nods, then addresses me. “Again, my condolences.”
Elana grunts after he walks away, a small trail of men following him.
“He’s only sorry that he didn’t get to do it himself,” she mutters.
“Elana,” I warn under my breath. The crowd is filled with the Irish, and we don’t need any more of her insults getting to their ears.
After everyone has left, Elana sighs. “I’m sorry I said what I said about Cole. It wasn’t his fault Seamus had a heart attack.”
“No. It’s not,” I say, keeping my eyes on the casket, trying to summon up the level of grief a father’s death should evoke. But all I can manage is an easing of the anger and hatred I’ve held on to for him since my childhood.
“I guess it’s a good thing he went into town for supplies. Who knows how long it would have been before anyone found him in that bunker of his,” she continues.
The grave workers wait for my gesture, then begin to lower the casket into the ground. A light flurry of snow begins to fall. A shiver works through Elana and into me.
“Let’s go.”
“Are you sure?” She hesitates. “When my mom died…Alexander had to tear me away from the gravesite. I didn’t want to leave her. I was much younger then, but what I mean is if you want to stay, we can.”
“It’s all right.” I exhale, my breath hovering in the chilled air before floating away. “He’d be snapping at me for keeping you out in the cold like this.”
“Really?” She lets me lead her away from the gravesite and to the car idling as it waits for us. “The man who blew me up?”
“You blew yourself up. He did tell you not to touch anything,” I remind her as I open the back passenger door for her.
“Who lives with booby traps all around him?”
“A man with an army of ghosts chasing him.” I buckle her seatbelt, shooing her hand away when she tries to do it herself. “Let me, Babygirl.”
She huffs. “We’re not alone.”
I grin. “You think an audience will stop me from taking care of what’s mine?” I tweak her nose because it dilates her eyes and makes her cheeks red with irritation. “Now be a good girl.”
She eyes me. “You’re not coming with me?”
“I have to take care of things. Sergei will take you back to the hotel. Stay with Megan, Vivienne, and Sienna.”
“Artem.” She grabs my hand, holding tightly. “I’ll go. I’ll even behave but tell me what my brothers said to you the other night.”
I drag in a breath, knowing I should shield her. But also, this is Elana. If anyone was to go into war beside me, I would want it to be her.
“They’ve offered me a seat.”
“A seat?” She drops her hand into her lap. “You mean with them. They want you to be one of them, not working for them, but with them.”
I nod. “Yes.”
Her brow wrinkles, confused. “Why would that upset you? Isn’t that something you’ve wanted? You’d have more power, more money.”
I laugh. “I don’t need more money. And the only power I need is for you to give, not them.”
I lift her hand to my lips and press a kiss to the engagement ring sitting on her finger.
“You’ve never wanted to be part of their business dealings—”
“Maybe I was wrong to want to be independent of my family. It’s not like I haven’t been using my father’s money to survive. He only made a trust for me to further humiliate his wife. I should have turned it down, but I took it.”
I shake my head.
“Artem,” Kaz calls to me from the car behind us.
“You have the whole world at your feet, Elana. All you need to do is decide what to do with it. I’ll deal with your brothers.” I brush my lips across hers.
I tell Sergei to take her straight to the hotel, no stops. Just to be sure she won’t be able to convince him to take her where she wants to go instead, I inform him of every bone I will break if she’s not safe inside the hotel within a half hour.
Before she can ask any questions, I shut her door and watch as Sergei pulls away and heads down the winding roads of the cemetery to the exit. Only once I’ve seen the SUV turn into traffic do I make my way to Kaz’s car.
“Everything all right?” Kaz settles into his seat, straightening his tie.
“Fine.” I snap my belt into place and signal for the driver to get going. The sooner we get this afternoon over with, the sooner I can get my girl on a plane home.
As we drive away from my father’s grave, I watch as the grave diggers throw shovel after shovel of dirt onto his casket. Memories of the same scene, only the caskets belonging to my mother and sisters, flood me.
He walked away to keep her safe from his world, only for another to collide and take her anyway. All the years he watched from the side, staying out of the way to keep her as protected as he could, were wasted.
I promised myself I would never walk away Elana, but this world her family has created isn’t one she wants. She will always be a Volkov, even when she takes my name. There always be extra security, extra eyes on her, extra everything crowding around her because of who she is.
“Artem. You good?” Kaz sounds worried.
I nod. “I’ve made a decision.”
“About what Alexander offered? The casino project. You’re going to take it?”
“No.” Just the single word lifts the weight from my chest. “I’m out.”