45. Chapter 45
Rory
Three weeks later
I knocked on the door of Cal’s office and pushed it open, letting it swing shut behind me as I made my way straight to him, ignoring the other men in the office until I was curled under Cal’s arm.
I smiled at Mikhail and the older man seated next to him, then turned to Tommy. As they always did when I saw him, my eyes watered as gratitude filled my chest with warmth. I mouthed another thanks to him and he smiled warmly at me and dipped his head respectfully.
Cal leaned down and kissed the top of my head as his arm squeezed me tighter to him, immediately placing his big hand on my belly.
“What have you got there, mo solas?”
I pulled my legs up under me and pressed my head against his shoulder, silently asking for more cuddles and kisses. As his cheek pressed against my temple, I held my phone up to show him the email that had just come through.
He quickly scanned it and whispered in my ear, “That’s good though, isn’t it?”
I shrugged. “I can”t decide.”
He chuckled. “We talked about this, mo solas. You said if it came back positive, you would try to give Marco a fair chance. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Protect you, or blow his cover and-”
“I know! I just…now that I know, I don’t know how to feel about it. I’ve never had a father before.”
Cal sighed into my hair, but the older man sitting next to Mikhail cleared his throat. Cal lifted his head from mine. “I’m sorry, Andrei, this is my wife, Aurora.”
I had the urge to climb in his lap and hide, overwhelmed by this news, but he was still healing from his injuries. The stab wound in his thigh had been mostly superficial. The gun shot to his lower abdomen had done some damage, but nothing life threatening. The fracture in his tibia caused him the most pain, but he was refusing to let it slow him down.
“Rory, this is Andrei, Mikhail’s father. He’s on the Concordia.”
I rubbed a hand over my belly and smiled at him, despite my emotional state. “It’s very nice to meet you, sir.”
He stepped forward and held a hand out for me to shake. I grabbed it, but he surprised me by bringing it up and kissing the back. “I do hope we can get to know each other soon. I hear you’re quite the woman,” he said in heavily accented English before turning to Cal. He spoke in Russian and Cal smiled with pride.
“I’m incredibly lucky to have her.” He ran his fingertips up my arm, sending goosebumps skittering across my skin.
“Forgive me if I’m being forward, but I think I can offer some insight into this situation with Marco,” Andrei said. I lifted a brow and waited while he and Mikhail shared a meaningful look.
“When Mikhail first saw Irina at the ballet in Moscow, he immediately wanted to claim her. You are familiar with Mafia traditions, so you can understand that I was quite…”
He trailed off and moved his hands in a way that made it clear he was looking for the correct English word for what he was trying to say. I waited patiently, my emotions settling as Cal ran his hand up and down my belly.
“I cannot find the word.” He said something in Russian and Mikhail supplied “Irritated, Otet.”
Andrei nodded. “Yes, I was quite irritated when he showed so much interest in an orphaned ballerina with no status. He chose to marry her anyway and, in my ignorant and closed-minded ways, I banished him to America. I was so angry with him that I did not speak to my only son for three years.”
My heart thumped painfully, tears filling my eyes at the regret rolling off Andrei in waves. “What changed your mind?” I whispered.
Andrei smiled softly, his eyes trackingCal’s hand caressing my slight bump.
“My wife reminded me of something very important. Something I had forgotten in my hunger for power and respect.” He met my eyes. “Family is family and even when they make mistakes, even when they hurt us or make decisions we do not agree with, they still are family.”
I thought about that for a moment, my brow furrowed.
“If it helps, it took me a long time to forgive him, too. Irina helped me understand that, even though he had banished me, even though he didn’t support my decision, his reaction came from a place of love. He wanted the best for me, and the way he was raised, the traditions he was taught, told him that the best thing for me was to marry a socialite with status. And when he banished us, Irina still never held animosity towards him, because she knew how difficult it must have been for him to send his only son away.”
I nodded my head, but remained quiet, tasting more of my weight against Cal’s side.
“Not to butt in, but I’d really like to continue our earlier conversation,” Tommy said. Then he looked at me. “We were discussing the trial, potential outcomes, and debating who we think Elio was planning to wed.”
My stomach turned at the reminder that he had bought a wife. “Do we have any ideas?”
“I followed Hajek, when Elio sent him away from the warehouse.” Tommy’s jaw clenched and Cal’s fingers tightened against my side. Immediately, nerves rattled around in my chest.
“What?” I asked looking between the two, then to Mikhail who was shifting uncomfortably. “Who did he meet?”
“You have to promise me, mo solas, that what we tell you remains in this room. If it gets out that we know, that we’re onto him, it could jeopardize any chance of taking him down.”
I licked my suddenly dry lips. “Is it someone I know?” Tears filled my eyes. “Why are you acting like you don’t want to tell me? I thought you wouldn’t ever keep secrets from-”
He kissed my lips softly. “I’m not keeping secrets, baby. We were going to tell you.” He sighed but nodded to Tommy.
“He met with Senator Black. And since Elio is straight, and the Senator only has two children…”
Bile rushed up my throat and I quickly ran for the small trashcan next to Cal’s desk. Because Cal was still moving a little slowly, Mikhail was the first to reach me, holding my hair back while the contents of my stomach spilled.
When it was over, he lifted me gently and settled me back on the couch, as close to Cal as I could get without being on his lap.
“Are we going to tell her?”
“We can’t. If it gets out that we know, Hajek will run. But we are going to protect her. It makes sense though, why her father suddenly hired Nate and Elliot, when they’ve had their own security all this time. He had tried to back out of the deal and Hajek was obviously not happy with that.”
I shook my head. “I can’t process all of this right now,” I said, rubbing my forehead. “I think I need a nap.” Cal chuckled as he traced the shell of my ear with his nose. “What about Elio’s trial? What will happen with that?”
“The Concordia has already met regarding Elio and his feral daughter,” Andrei said. “We do still have to hold the official trial, so that he can plead his case, but we have already decided that he will be sent to Italy. The word around the-” He stopped suddenly and looked at Mikhail. “What is the saying? Word around the apple tree?”
I quickly smothered a laugh in Cal’s shoulder while Mikhail cleared his throat. “Grape vine, Father. The saying is ‘I heard through the grapevine.’”
“Oh yes, that’s it. I heard through the grapevine that Elio has been on Italy’s radar for some time. Sending him home will be a death sentence.”
My brows knitted. “And Fern? What will happen to her?”
Andrei shrugged. “She is not a Boss or a Capo. She does not fall under the direct rule of the Concordia. Technically, she is yours to deal with.”
I looked at Cal. “We can talk about later, mo solas. I promise, whatever we decide, we will decide together.”
I kissed him, hugged Tommy and Mikahil, and then excused myself to make my way upstairs. As usual, Connor and Carson found me in the hallway and escorted me upstairs. They had become almost as protective as Cal since finding out about the baby.
In the bedroom, I closed the curtains, turned on the TV to some documentary about giraffes, stripped to my underwear and crawled under the covers.
The ringing of my phone woke me up sometime later. The giraffe episode was over and they were talking about penguins now. I reached a clumsy hand out for my phone, blinking at the brightness with bleary eyes.
The moment the name registered, I sat up straight.
Act cool. You don’t know anything. You definitely don’t know that your evil stepfather tried to buy her as a bride. Nope. Don’t know anything. Be cool.
I hesitantly answered the phone. “Hey! What’s up?”
Sobs burst through the line and I immediately jumped out of bed. “Charlotte? What’s wrong?” I yanked one of Cal’s shirts out of the hamper and pulled it over my head, listening to Charlotte sob on the other end of the line and I ran through the door and down the hall.
Connor yelled after me, but I kept going, wanting to be near Cal.
“Charlotte, honey,” I panted, “You have to talk to me. What’s wrong? What happened?”
She sobbed some more and babbled some nonsense words about her dad and my heart sank. She knows.
I skidded to a stop as I passed the sitting room, doing a one-eighty just past the doorway. I ran into the room, ignoring the three shocked faces and putting the phone on speaker as I collapsed, out of breath, next to Cal.
Charlotte”s sobs came through the speaker, echoing now that we were in a larger room. “Charlotte, honey, come one, take a deep breath. I’m here wil Cal. I need you to tell me what’s happening. Are you safe? Where are you?”
She took a deep, shuddering breath. “H-h-home,” she hiccupped out.
“Okay, good. Are you safe? Where’s Nate?”
“Ou-ou-outside,” she cried.
“Okay, honey, that’s good. Now what’s going on with your father?”
Another sob broke through the line, the heartbreak in that one sound sending dread through my veins like ice as the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. My wide eyes met Cals just as Charlotte’s wail cut through the line.
“He’s dead!”