Chapter 26 Amber
AMBER
The following day, Roman was just as busy. In his office here at home. Then going to that hotel to handle things. And then… elsewhere. It was easier not to ask. And it was easier to stay focused on Emily and Henry since they were in such a better mood.
But in the aftermath of that incident at the church, when Roman burst in there with his gun and saved me and the twins, it was impossible to escape the thoughts that he had to be involved with a dangerous group. That the Orlovs were a dangerous group.
My suspicion was harder to ignore. It had taken root, and it was hard for me to see anything the same anymore.
All the guards in all these state-of-the-art buildings they owned? They were all soldiers, sworn to serve the Family, right?
The way everyone seemed to defer to Mikhail as the leader—especially how Lorne would call him the “big boss”? That meant that Roman’s uncle was a Mob boss.
The men were armed.
They had so much money.
Drivers and hired help and everything the wealthy could afford, but with a deeper sense of community.
I was used to wealth. Even though William never spoiled me and expected me to just live in my room and not bother him, I was familiar with his lifestyle of extravagant riches and affluence.
“But it’s not the same here,” I muttered to myself as I scrubbed a pre-wash treatment over a stain on Emily’s onesie to make sure it would wash thoroughly when I put it in the washer.
No one expected me or the twins to stay out of sight. All the children, particularly Maisie, were embedded in all of our lives. There was no separation within the home as “important men” versus “others”.
“So maybe other things wouldn’t be the same,” I whispered.
Just because William was wealthy and influential didn’t mean that Roman and the Orlovs would treat me like he had. William’s creepy friends were his, a part of my past. Roman and the Orlovs didn’t socialize with creeps.
If I could take the leap of faith that Roman and his family wouldn’t ever get it in their heads that women could be—
“There you are.” Lorne popped his head around the open door and smiled at me.
I gave him a smile in reply as I paused my hands and faced him. “Were you looking for me?”
“Did you forget?” He chuckled. “The driver’s about to take you and the twins to meet Roman downtown.”
I cringed, realizing I’d truly lost all sense of time.
When it was naptime—a double naptime with both of the twins actually asleep in sync—I fell into a spell of thinking I could accomplish everything on my to-do list. Laundry and tidying up or even just reading a couple of chapters of the latest paperback I was into.
I always ran out of workable minutes. And I’d done it again now.
“You did forget,” he accused playfully as I left the garment on the sink and hurried out of the room.
“Oh, hush. Don’t tell Roman that I forgot.”
He laughed, trailing after me. “I won’t. But I can’t believe you’d forget that the man wanted to take you out to dinner for once.”
I shot him a smirk. “I don’t need him to take me out to dinner at all. I’m here to work.”
He rolled his eyes as I ran to the mirror in the hallway to check my hair. “Sure, sure.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, clearly amused as I checked my makeup. “It’s an unforgettable occasion, though. Roman’s never really dated a woman before.”
“Umm, we’re not dating. I’m the nanny.”
“Sure, sure,” he said again in that teasing if you say so tone. “I mean it, though. Before you, before the twins… He was a player. He got around.”
Annoyance flickered in my heart. “I’ve heard,” I quipped.
“But not for a long time. And he’s not just getting around with you, Amber.” He smiled kindly now. “I’ve known Roman since he was a boy, working for the big boss since before he and Andre and Sergei were even born.”
There is again. The “big boss.” Of what? Crime?
“I know him, Amber. And it’s a big deal that he’s asking you on a date like this. A family date with the twins and all.” He rocked on his heels. “Like a real little family.”
Among the Family?
“It’s just dinner,” I replied.
Honestly, I was thrilled when Roman called me earlier and asked if I’d meet him for dinner at the restaurant at the hotel he owned.
He’d worded it as a chance for us to get out of his building after my trying day with the twins.
I couldn’t deny how good that would be, even if dining out with two babies was tricky to pull off well.
I wouldn’t have to make food, though, so that was a plus.
He wouldn’t have to cook either, and that was another plus.
I’d forgotten that this would be a date, though, because I saw it as a way for him to question me.
I couldn’t explain why, but I felt like Roman was trying to figure out how to have a conversation with me about the things I wouldn’t tell him.
All those times when he’d ask me something and I’d hedge a real reply.
He’d get that dubious expression, and I just knew he wasn’t buying it.
For that reason, I was sort of apprehensive about going out to meet him for dinner.
And also for that reason, I was mildly hoping that the twins would give us a challenge so that we couldn’t have too serious of a conversation.
There was only so long I could stretch this out, though, this reluctance to answer him. But until I could know that he wasn’t cut from the same cloth as William… I had to play this carefully.
Lorne helped me get the twins bundled up and down to the garage where a car was waiting for us.
“You’re not coming?” I asked him.
“No.” He laughed. “Why do you keep thinking this ain’t a date, Amber?”
I smiled, embarrassed.
“You go on and have fun.” He tapped the top of the car while I checked the twins in the backseat.
“Okay. See you later, Lorne.”
He saluted me, which was comical, and we were off.
The driver didn’t talk to me, seeming to listen to whatever was being relayed through his earpiece. But that was fine. I’d learned from William to never talk to the hired help. I also learned from the agency that I would be expected to not talk across the line of staff and employer.
What about fucking over that line? I mused and smiled to myself.
It was so wrong. So bad. So forbidden. Sleeping with my boss was a huge sin and a major mistake.
But it was also so right. So good. And so justified. Loving my boss was the best thing I’d ever chosen to do in the pursuit of my happiness.
“Almost there, Miss.” The driver glanced at me in the rearview mirror, pulling me out of my reverie and fantasies about Roman.
“Hmm?” I raised my brows, only then glancing around at the scene on the street. I hadn’t realized we’d slowed down. Or that we’d been slowing down for a while. We were stand-still, stuck in a clogged-up area of traffic.
“It looks like there’s some construction up ahead,” he reported.
Ah. That explained it. Now that he’d mentioned it, I had been feeling a little bit of the stop-and-go pattern of the drive.
“Oh, no worries.”
It wasn’t like it would be my fault if I were late.
We’d gotten in the car and had been en route as planned.
Traffic and backups were just part of life in the city, part of the unpredictable that no one could count on.
I had been living a lesson in that regard—that sometimes life threw a curveball you couldn’t plan on.
Roman was my curveball.
Falling in love with him was another.
After my past and how I’d been treated, I should’ve been wise to never ever trust a man again.
The sexy and ruthless “businessman” who’d learned that he was a single daddy to twins had been changing that mindset.
I sighed and sat back, thinking again of how just yesterday he’d told me that he wanted me every night. To never miss me.
He wasn’t just talking about sex, right?
I bit my lip, teased into thinking he felt the same depth of a connection that I felt for him.
Just wait and see what he wants to talk about tonight first.
Then get carried away with what-ifs and get your hopes up high.
We’d sat in this same spot for a few minutes now. The sounds of the road were muted outside the windows. The vibration of vehicles and machinery out on the road rumbled up through the floor of the backseat.
But it was still. Calm. Private.
Until it wasn’t.
The driver’s door opened suddenly.
I frowned at the cold air whipping in as a man’s arm reached in.
“Stop—”
The driver didn’t finish. He slumped over as a hand pressed something to the side of his neck. In a flash, the driver dropped to the side and the man who’d opened the door shoved him over.
It happened so quickly, I could barely believe it. In a flash, the idle stillness was replaced with an adrenaline rush taking over my body.
“What are you doing?”
Panic tricked me into the urge to flee, but I couldn’t. Not with the babies in here. I felt the burning urgency to get the hell out of the car before it was hijacked by a stranger. Yet, I stayed put, placing my hands over the twins’ carriers, as if that would shield them.
“Get out—”
He lunged over, fully in the driver’s seat, to snatch my phone from my lap. “Shut up, bitch.” He slammed the door shut so hard that it shook the car. Another man got in on the passenger side. In order to make room for himself, he had to first pull and shove the Orlovs’ driver out.
The click of the locks being engaged was deafeningly loud. Yet I grabbed the handle anyway and yanked on it, scrambling to escape. I’d need to get the twins out in their carriers, and it’d be clumsy, but I would.
“Let me out! Let me out!” I banged my shoulder against the door to no avail.
I was locked in the backseat with the twins.
Seeing the faces of a couple of men I’d spotted at William’s house before, I sank under the pressure of anxiety. Of dread and complete terror.
This was it.
They’d found me. And I was seriously being kidnapped.
“Let me go!” I shouted as they stepped on the gas. The hood crumpled a bit as they hit the back of the car in front of us in this standstill traffic.
I lurched back as they reversed sharply. Then I slammed forward once more as they sped to drive away.
“Stop! Please stop!”
Emily started fussing and Henry grabbed my finger, looking ready to cry. The violent stops and fast pushes forward were freaking them out too.
“Stop the car. Let me out!”
They laughed, ignoring me as they debated how to get out of the traffic jam. Driving up onto the sidewalk was their answer. Over debris from construction and around pedestrians, they scraped the car along a building and sped away.
As the twins wailed, I kept my hands on their chests and tried not to let my panic spread to them as we were kidnapped in the middle of the city, now locked in the backseat and unable to flee.