Chapter 17 Roman
ROMAN
“Amber?”
I lost my smile and opened my arms to hug her close. She launched herself at me with that stricken frown on her face.
“What happened?” Holding her close, I looked over her shoulder. From here, I could see the twins sleeping in their stroller. Safe. Unharmed. Relaxed and napping.
“Amber?”
She pried herself off me and licked her lips. Something was stressing her out, and I hated the sense of déjà vu. The last time she’d looked like this and was so frantic was when those two intruders came in here and frightened her.
But that didn’t make sense. No one could have bothered her on a walk through Central Park.
I allowed no risks with her safety and the twins’—and they were always together, so that was a collective goal.
Lorne was with her. Guards, too. I would never take chances on their not being protected.
That was a given. Everyone in our family had to have security measures, especially those of us at the top of the organization close to Mikhail.
“Someone was following me.”
I held her by her upper arms, giving her my full attention.
“I was going to text you or call you as soon as I realized it,” she admitted. “But I didn’t want to worry Lorne. Or the guards.”
Oh, my God. That was what they were there for! To worry about them, not the other way around.
“But then I got panicky and paranoid and I wasn’t sure if I was imagining things or—” She tore her gaze from me and glanced at the twins, as if needing to reassure herself that they were there and all right.
“I kept thinking that I was being ridiculous or something. But they didn’t go away.
Two men were following me through Central Park. ”
I frowned at her while she paused and sucked in a deep breath in the middle of her ramble. One huge, glaring question flashed in my mind so far.
Why do you keep saying me?
She wasn’t out there alone. Lorne was with her. The twins were. Guards, too. She was intentionally part of a group and always would be as someone in my home.
Yet, she worded it like that. She was convinced that two men were following her.
Not the guards, not the twins. Her. And I wanted to know why she’d make that distinction.
She wasn’t thinking clearly. I could tell.
Panic overruled her and her fear was evident in her tone.
Unless it was something general, like some womanly stereotypic issue of men always preying on women, I didn’t understand why she singled herself out as a target.
And why the fuck am I only hearing about this now?
Lorne should’ve contacted me immediately. He should’ve asked for backup or insisted that she leave the park instantly. Anything.
But I was relieved that Amber prioritized confessing it all as soon as she could. Her upfront awareness mattered. She was clear to communicate with me, and I valued that openness, her trust in me.
I focused on her, listening and making sure she felt comfortable telling me all her worries.
“I saw them once and didn’t think about it. But the more they showed up, I got more and more worried.”
She licked her lips, catching her breath again as she wound down. “I just wanted to get the twins home. No matter what, nothing can ever happen to them.” She pressed her hand to her chest. “I would never be able to forgive myself if something happened to them. On my watch. Or at all.”
I furrowed my brow, tucking her against me in a hug. I knew she loved them. I saw it with every smile and laugh. I witnessed how they weren’t just babies to watch over as a nanny, but children she loved.
But I didn’t care for how she phrased that. How she was immediately and profoundly anxious about keeping them safe, but not that she’d see the point to protect herself and worry about her own safety.
That wasn’t right.
And I hated how it got me to thinking that she was here with one foot out the door, prepared for a chance that she might not be here for good.
The idea of her not being here infuriated me. I dreaded losing her, not just because she was an amazing fit with my son and daughter but also because she was a ray of light in my life, a source of goodness I wanted to keep gravitating toward.
Why would you ever assume you wouldn’t be here?
Separate from us?
“I’m so glad that they’re here now.”
There it was again. She was worried about them, but not herself?
I kissed her brow and stroked her back, pressing her to me and keeping my arms locked around her in a secure hug.
“It will be okay,” I reassured her. “I told you before and I’ll tell you as many times as I need to. You are safe here. All three of you.” I parted from her and ducked to get down to her eye level. “You hear me? I will spare no expense to protect all three of you.”
She strained to smile and nodded weakly. “I… I know.” With one last shaky exhale, she lowered her gaze. “I’m sorry to interrupt and burst in here like that. I just wanted to make sure you knew what was going on. If it was even anything or if it was my imagination or… I’m sorry.”
I kissed her, not pulling away until she sagged against me and relaxed.
“You have absolutely nothing to be sorry for.”
“I just… It just made me so tense, the mere thought of someone following. After that break-in, I guess I’ve sort of been waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
Maybe part of that was my fault for never telling her that those intruders were dead, by my hands, and that men were still looking into who had sent them here.
But I couldn’t. As skittish and na?ve as she was, I couldn’t sit her down and explain that the Orlov name represented the most powerful Bratva in the city, one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in the world.
I took care to shelter that truth from her, and so far, she’d been buying my half-truths about my “job” and what my family members did.
None of them would outright tell her what the Orlov name meant, either.
But now, it almost seemed like a disservice.
“Just the thought of Emily and Henry being near danger was enough to freak me out.”
I kissed her again, trying not to get ahead of myself. To love her for being this good to us. “I’ll look into it,” I told her. “Never dimmish what you feel, Amber. Trust your instincts, always.”
She nodded.
“Like that intuition you claim to have about the babies’ cries,” I reminded her. “Never doubt yourself.”
She sighed and rested her head against my chest as Emily made a noise, indicating she was awake.
“I’m going to talk with Lorne about this.”
She stepped back, looking in the direction of the stroller as Henry added his voice to his sister’s.
“I’ll investigate this,” I told her.
As she glanced at me, she frowned again.
That shouldn’t worry her. She’d come to me to tell me about her concerns, and it made sense that she’d want it looked into. Or… not?
She didn’t reply, going to pick up Emily and Henry, having mastered the balance and dexterity to hold them at once, one in each arm, propped against her hips while supported. “Ready for a snack?” she asked them, always talking to them and giving them her attention.
As soon as she carried them to the nursery, I went back into my office and called for Anya to come keep Amber company.
“How come?” she asked after agreeing. “Are the twins acting up? I thought she was going for a walk at the park and—”
“Please?” I asked. “I need to speak with Lorne.”
She came, and I headed out to find my assistant since I knew Amber wasn’t alone. Maybe Amber would open up to her and tell her about her worries of being tailed too.
Even if she didn’t, I’d get to the bottom of it with my assistant. I tracked him down in the security room, busy on the phone. He held up his hand as soon as he saw me, indicating for me to sit and wait.
I did, but I was annoyed to have to wait.
“Got it. Thanks. No, no. Don’t make a move yet. I’ll let you know.” He ended the call and nodded at the guards in the room, the same ones who’d been at the park with Amber and my children.
“What the fuck’s going on?” I didn’t yell it, but some of my irritation slipped through.
Instead of answering me, he turned toward one of the guards and nodded. “You were right, Eli.”
The guard frowned.
“Good eye,” Lorne told him, swiveling in his chair to face me. “Popovs.”
“What the fuck?”
Lorne drew a deep breath, which indicated that he was readying to talk—a lot. “We were at the park walking around, and I noticed a couple of men who were watching her.”
I fisted my hands. “Her? Or the twins?” I asked.
“At first, I couldn’t tell. I didn’t wanna spook her, either. She can be skittish, you know?”
Boy, did I ever. But that was what made her so appealing, too. Amber wasn’t helpless, but taking the role of protecting her and providing for her filled me with a sense of pride I didn’t want to give up.
“They stayed back and didn’t approach. Just watching. I tried to keep her preoccupied, talking and whatnot.”
“Why didn’t you just fucking bring them home?” He wasn’t stupid.
“Because when I noticed them, I thought they seemed familiar. But I couldn’t tell. Eli asked what I wanted to do, and I thought it might be best to stay there and see if I could place them.”
“You used her as bait?” I demanded.
“No.” He scowled like I’d insulted him. “I was there, they were too. Eli called backup, and they showed up to surround us further back. She never knew. The drivers moved closer, and it was a brief chance of seeing who the fuck was looking at her. And why.”
I calmed a bit, knowing he would’ve had it under control. I was stupid to doubt my loyal assistant.
“Then when she caught on and realized they were tailing her, she got spooked. She hid it, though, almost like she was just trying to process it all. It wasn’t long after that when I made up some bullshit about being cold, knowing she’d want to hurry me to warmth and be worried about me.”
“They were watching her,” Eli added.
Lorne nodded, looking pissed. “They were. When I got us in line to get a bag of roasted chestnuts from a street vendor, I kinda split them up. To see what they were doing. Watching her or the twins.”
I narrowed my eyes and he held up a hand.
“I stayed with the stroller, with the babies, and dropped my glove. Eli stepped aside with her as she went to pick it up for me, and that told us. The two men watched her. She wasn’t alone.
The twins weren’t either, but they looked at Amber.
Didn’t they?” he asked Eli and the other guards who had been there.
Robert, one of the others, nodded. “They did. No mistaking it. They were more focused on her, not the twins.”
“So, that’s where we’re at now. We had them covered, Kid.
” He patted my knee. “We weren’t gonna let anything happen to them, but since it seemed like no danger was close to them, I wanted to see if I could identify them.
We led them past where some of the backup was waiting, and they got video of them. ”
Eli turned to show me a play of two thugs standing together at the snowy park, just watching and walking after Lorne and Amber with the guards and stroller as they went by.
“I wondered if she’d tell you about being so spooked,” he said. “And I came down here to look up who those fuckers are.”
“Popovs?” I asked, squinting at the screen.
“The hats and coats hid them a bit, but yeah.” Lorne showed me the laptop that had used facial recognition to match them. “A couple of assholes caught doing the Popovs’ dirty work here and there in the city.”
Is this all because of that one time?
One time of Ivan showing up unannounced and getting the idea that I have a woman in my life?
I shook my head, trying to puzzle it all as my fury boiled over.
Underneath the frustration to understand why the Popovs were trying to target Amber with their assumption that she was the next woman to belong in our family, I struggled to dismiss why she’d seemed more nervous when I said I was going to investigate the matter.
A sinking dread that Amber could be hiding a secret from me was the last thing I needed right when I was losing to the argument that she belonged in my life as much more than my nanny.