Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Poppy
I didn’t know if firing Ivan actually worked because I refused to leave my room, except to check on Jane.
One thing was for certain: I missed the low timber of his voice and the way he tried not to smile, though I could see the amusement in his eyes.
I missed how thoughtful he was, but… He’d said he wanted to kill Donovan.
Was that an over exaggeration, or did he really feel that way?
I mean… I knew he handled special cases, but what exactly did that mean?
Was it just being a glorified babysitter or something more?
The longer I sat alone with my feelings, the more questions I conjured up. If he was something more… did that mean he could possibly know who killed my father?
It was a dead end, and we would probably never have the answers we were looking for.
At least that was what the NYPD fed us. I didn’t believe it.
I knew how money talked, and it didn’t get past me that my brothers had even hired extra security.
Every time I visited them at their building, the windows weren’t left uncovered, and I could see that they weren’t sleeping based on the bags that collected under their eyes and the pale sheen to their usually tan complexions.
“Thank you, Don,” I’d barely heard it, but I raced across the plush carpet and pressed my ear against the door anyway. “I appreciate you looking out for me while I figure things out.”
“You aren’t going to be done with this then?” Don’s voice was muffled through the door, and I strained to try to hear Ivan’s reply.
“She can fire me all she wants to, but that doesn’t mean I’ll go anywhere. Her brothers haven’t fired me, and my grandmothers haven’t either, so as far as I care… I’m still employed.”
Even though I missed him, red-hot rage boiled through me. How dare he! Like I had no say in this! I would have a say in this!
With enough force to put the door through the wall, I ripped it open and stormed down the hall. “Get out!”
Ivan leaned in the entryway and raised a brow at me. “At last, the princess has emerged from her temper tantrum, just to throw another one.”
I was seeing red, I swore. I could have breathed fire. It wouldn’t have taken much at this point. Don be damned. Jane be damned. The whole world be damned. I marched across the space separating us and shoved my finger into his very muscly chest.
“Just who do you think you are?!”
He pressed his lips together, and I swore I saw the amusement dancing in his eyes. “Ivan Cristof is what it says on my birth certificate, I mean, last I checked.”
I sputtered. “You were fired.”
He spread his hands wide, and my treacherous eyes tracked them in all their rough, large glory. “And yet, I’m still here.”
He didn’t move, except to cross his arms over his chest. It only made me angrier. My chest heaved with each breath as I tried to think of something—anything—to say to this infuriatingly hot man.
“Are you done yelling?” His lips twitched up in the corners. “Or should I sit down for the encore?”
My hand curled into a fist at my side. “Ivan Cristof, I told you to leave.”
“Poppy Fairchild, I do not work for you. You do not sign off on my checks, and until you do… here I will stay.”
“Your checks,” I repeated, the words bitter on my tongue. “Right. Because that’s all this is to you—clocking hours and getting paid to babysit the woman too stupid to know what’s good for her.”
His jaw clenched tight, and his eyes went hard. “Don’t twist my words. You aren’t my boss, so you will not tell me when to leave.”
“Anyone else would have,” I snarled. “They would have listened and left.”
“Well, I’m not anyone else, Poppy! I actually care about you.
Now, is that so bad? Yes, your brothers sign my checks, but I would do this for free any day of the week just to know you and your sister are safe.
You don’t know what’s going on out there, and I will not let you ruin yourself finding out. ”
Don must have snuck away when I first started yelling. I didn’t blame him. I was surprised Jane hadn’t come out of her room to see what was going on… Though I guess all she needed to do was press her ear against her door, like I’d done. My eyes bounced between his. “Who are you?”
His jaw worked. “I told you.”
“I don’t think you did.”
He rolled his shoulders. “I’m dangerous, but I care about you. Okay? That’s all that matters.”
“Do you kill people?” I knew he did. I wasn’t stupid. He told me he did special jobs. I’d seen all of his guns.
Shit… I’d seen him kill someone right in front of my eyes. That should have told me, but I needed to hear it.
He lifted his chin. “Yes.”
My stomach swooped. “Do you know who killed my father?”
He rolled his lips as he looked away from me.
“Why won’t you tell me?”
“Because it won’t do anything.”
“Why would someone want him dead?” That was what I couldn’t wrap my mind around. He hadn’t been my favorite, no, but he was still my father. I had so many questions, even more now than before. Why couldn’t he just help me?
Ivan’s icy cold stare cut back to me. “Because he wasn’t a good man.”
I blinked. “What do you mean?”
I figured he hadn’t been. Especially after my brothers sold me off to the shittiest human being on the planet. But I’d hoped for different. I’d wanted different, but I guess that didn’t mean much.
His jaw flexed as he exhaled through his nose.
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Your father… wasn’t who you think he was.”
I swallowed hard. “I didn’t exactly think he was a saint.”
“No,” Ivan said, a sharp, humorless huff leaving him. “He wasn’t even in the same galaxy as a saint.”
Something inside of me shriveled. I should have sat down.
I shouldn’t have asked these questions. I should have run back to my room with my tail tucked between my legs and given up, but we were here now, and there was no backing down.
“So, what? All of the money I inherited… it was blood money?” I laughed, but there was no amusement in it. I knew the truth. I didn’t need to ask.
He looked down at his shoes and shrugged. “Kind of. Listen, once you go down this rabbit hole, you can’t come out of it. You can never not know these things about your father.”
I took the coward's way out and ran out of the room. He was right. I wasn’t ready.
“That’s it?” He called after me. “The questions get too hard, and you run?”
I looked over my shoulder and leveled him with a glare. “Just like you did?”
He threw his head back and laughed. “It was just sex.”
My lips curled into a smirk. “Was it, though?” I shrugged. “You told me that once I found out, I could never not know again, and I think I need time. Time to do what? I don’t know. But I just need to be innocent for a little bit longer.”