EPILOGUE
VADIM
Islip out of bed and leave Danica sleeping. She's breathing deeply and evenly with a peaceful expression for the first time in weeks. After everything she's been through, she needs the rest.
My clothes are still soiled with yesterday's mess, but I dress quietly and head downstairs, following the smell of coffee to the dining room. Where the leaders of this family are all seated around the kitchen table.
"Good morning," Yuri says, gesturing to an empty chair. "Come, sit. We were just discussing your situation."
I take the seat and accept the coffee that Rosa sets in front of me. "I didn't know you'd all be here." When I meet Dimitri's eyes, he nods. He's come all the way from Moscow to help with things? I'm confused, but there will be time for questions later.
"Yuri called us in last night," Fyodor says. "What you uncovered in Belgrade is gonna fuck with all of us." He sips a cup of coffee and looks a little too serious for first thing in the morning.
"Tell them everything," Yuri says.
So I walk them through the entire situation. The months hunting Lebedev, discovering Ruslan was feeding information to our targets, the video evidence showing his tattoo, the politician providing protection. Then I get to the part that's been eating at me since yesterday.
"Ruslan said something before he died that I can't stop thinking about. He talked about an impending war between the Gravitch family and the Balkan syndicates. He said every Gravitch male is marked for death. He claimed he killed Dominic to show strength."
"Did he say who else was involved?" Dimitri asks, narrowing his eyes. I've been gone so long, I have no clue what's transpired around here other than snippets I've heard, but he seems to know something. Or at the very least, have a deeper interest.
"I couldn’t get a word out of him," I grumble, taking the first sip of my scalding coffee. "But he led on that he wasn't the end of this problem."
"Do you have any more intel?" Lev asks.
"I'm sorry," I say. "I don't."
As if on cue, the dining room door opens and Inessa walks in with Danica beside her. My beautiful wife is wearing a simple black dress that must belong to Inessa. Her hair is pulled back and she looks nervous, but when her eyes find mine, she relaxes.
I stand and cross to her, kissing her on the cheek softly. "Good morning. I didn't want to wake you."
"Inessa came to check on me and offered to lend me some clothes," Danica says quietly.
"Come, sit," Yuri says, his expression softening. "Inessa, you should be resting." He reaches for her and she bends to kiss him.
"I wanted to meet Vadim's wife properly," Inessa says, taking a seat near Yuri.
I guide Danica to the chair next to mine. "These are the heads of our family's Russian operations. You've met Yuri. This is Fyodor and Lev, more of my cousins, and Dimitri" —I nod at him— "Yuri's brother."
Each man nods as I name them, and Danica offers a quiet greeting and a smile.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Fyodor says. "Vadim's spoken highly of you."
"Which brings me to something I need to announce," I say. "I'm staying in St. Petersburg permanently. I'm done with fieldwork. I want to be here, working to root out these conspirators. But I want to do it from a secure location where I can go home to my wife at the end of each day."
My family is probably shocked by this announcement, given my penchant for being on the road and out on my own, but Yuri has already approved, and when Fyodor nods his acknowledgement, I know they understand.
Rosa brings in breakfast and the conversation shifts to lighter topics.
I watch Danica talk with Inessa and see how easily they're bonding.
She's going to fit in perfectly around here.
And when Dimitri announces he's planning to run the casino with Yuri's permission, it feels like the whole family is back together again.
After everyone finishes eating, the men start filtering out one by one.
Fyodor claps me on the shoulder on his way past and mutters something about checking in with his security teams. Lev follows him out, already on his phone making calls.
Dimitri lingers for a moment to speak with Yuri in low tones before he leaves too.
Then Inessa excuses herself to go rest upstairs, giving Danica a warm hug before she disappears.
That leaves just the two of us sitting at the table with our coffee. Danica's fingers trace the rim of her cup and she's got that look on her face that tells me she's working up to saying something important.
I stand and start clearing plates, stacking them on the tray Rosa left. Danica gets up to help me, and we work in comfortable silence for a minute, moving around each other in the dining room like we've done this a hundred times before.
"So you're really staying here," she says, carrying dishes to the sideboard.
"Yes, I gave you my word of no more risks and I mean it." I take the plates from her hands and set them down.
"Good." She leans against the sideboard and looks at me. "Because I've been thinking about something."
I turn to face her. "About what?"
"Inessa is pregnant." She crosses her arms. "And watching her this morning, seeing how Yuri looks at her, how excited he is…"
I wait for her to finish but she doesn't, so I step closer. "You want that."
"I do." She meets my eyes. "I want kids. With you. I know we just got here and everything's still crazy, but I don't want to wait forever."
I reach for her and pull her into my arms. "Okay."
"Okay?" She pulls back to look at my face. "That's it? Just okay?"
"What do you want me to say? That I need time to think about it?" I brush her hair back from her face. "I want kids with you. I just didn't know if you were serious about building a life here or if you were just saying what you thought I wanted to hear."
"Of course I'm serious." She puts her hands on my chest. "I wouldn't bring it up if I weren't."
"Then yeah. Let's do it. Let's have a family."
She's smiling now, but her eyes fill with tears. I wipe them away with my thumb before they can fall.
"You really mean that?" she asks.
"I really mean that."
"Even with all the conspiracy stuff and the war Ruslan mentioned?"
"Especially because of that. This family needs kids. They need people who'll keep things going." I kiss her forehead. "And I want ours to be part of that."
She wraps her arms around my neck and kisses me properly. When she pulls back, she's grinning.
"I don't know if I'll be any good at this," she says quietly. "Being a mother."
"You'll figure it out. We both will."
"When do you want to start trying?"
"Whenever you want." I pull her closer. "Today, tomorrow, next week. I'm here."
"I think I need some time first. To learn Russian and figure out how things work here. Maybe a few months?"
I can't even begin to tell her how happy she makes me. The idea of being a father never crossed my mind until I met her, and she's right, seeing Inessa pregnant makes me want children of my own too.
"I love you," I tell her, and she smiles.
"I love you too, Vadim."
She rests her head on my chest where I know she feels safe, and my world is complete. Who'd have thought someone like me could settle down and start a family?
Turns out I was wrong about a lot of things, but mostly about what kind of man I could be.