Chapter 9
LEAH
I'm walking out of my daughter's school when I see the car again.
Not exactly the same car, but it's a big black SUV with all the windows tinted so dark I can barely see anything inside.
The hair on the back of my neck stands on end, but I keep walking because my daughter is looking up at me and chatting about her day.
The last thing I want to do is frighten her, even though I'm scared to death.
It's just a car, I tell myself. Take a deep breath. There are cars everywhere, and it's been a while since I last saw the sedan. Many people own black SUVs with tinted windows.
But the hair on the back of my neck doesn't settle down, and neither does the feeling that whatever that car is about, it's there for me.
"Did you know there are whale sharks, Mom?" she asks. I don't answer right away, caught up in my thoughts—her little hand tugs on mine. "Mom?" she repeats.
"Sorry, baby." My voice sounds breathless to my ears. I wonder if she can sense it. "What did you say, sweetheart?"
"I said there are whale sharks. They look like whales, but they're sharks. They don't eat people either. People swim with them. Can we go swim with the whale sharks sometime?"
"I don't know about that, sweetheart.” I only half hear her question; most of my attention is on the SUV, which we’ve almost reached. I look down at her and stop, my heartbeat hammering in my ears. "You know what? I think you left your coat back in school."
"I didn't bring a coat," Eliza says. "I told you I didn't want one this morning, remember? You told me I would get cold, and you wanted me to bring a coat. But I was right, I didn’t get cold."
"Okay, well, you left something you brought here this morning. I just know it. Let's go back to the school and look."
Eliza looks confused, but I don't give her a chance to protest. I begin pulling her back toward the school building half a block away.
I'm just being paranoid. I'm just being paranoid. Go back to the school, and by the time we come out, it'll be gone.
But the other half of my brain doesn't believe it. That car is for me, and so is whoever's inside. Could it be Clarissa? I had no idea she was Viktor's ex-wife. And unless he told her, which I highly doubt, she couldn’t possibly know I’d slept with him.
"Mom!" Eliza protests. “I didn't leave anything.”
"Just come on," I tell her, glancing back only to see the driver's side door open and a big man in black get out. "Come on, sweetie," I say, holding her hand until she's trotting after me. "Let's go."
"Mom!" Eliza shouts. She digs in her heels and pulls back her hand. "Mom, I don't want to go!"
I know she can sense something is wrong, and it's not just her stubbornness showing.
But the man is gaining on us. He's big, massive, his hair cut short, his eyes hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses. If a dictionary had pictures, his would be under the word "menacing."
"Miss Walters," he calls, his voice laced with an accent.
We're nearly at the school, which is still surrounded by a large crowd of parents and teachers. I hope this guy won't try anything with all these witnesses, so I turn and look straight at him.
"What do you want?" I demand. I realize the guy looks familiar, especially as he takes off the sunglasses. "You're Iliya, aren't you? Viktor’s driver?”
He nods and confirms it. "Yes. Mr. Antonov wants to speak with you."
Out of the corner of my eye, I see several people looking our way. "Well, as you can see, I'm with my daughter right now. I have an appointment after this that I need to get to. If Mr. Antonov wants to talk with me, he knows where I work. He can call me there."
"I don't think you understand—" Iliya says, interrupted by a voice from behind him.
"Leah? Are you okay?" Two teachers, one female, one male, are walking toward us, their expressions worried.
I glance back at Iliya, then gratefully toward the teachers. "Actually, I—"
"Leah?"
That voice. I whip my head around. Viktor has come up to stand in front of Iliya, who has assumed a place just to the left of his boss's shoulder, like he's guarding his back.
"Viktor, what are you doing here?"
"I came to see if I could take you for coffee."
"At my daughter’s school?"
"I think we have a lot to talk about, don't we?" The way his head tilts, the quirk of his mouth, the look in his eyes, and I suddenly realize Viktor knows my secret. He knows, though I have no idea how he found out.
Eliza tugs at my hand. She's looking up at me. "Mom, who's this?"
"This is a friend. He helped me one time when Benji was being bad."
A spark in Viktor's eye makes me flush, and his quick smirk to his mouth makes me want to either smack it off his face or kiss it off. I'm not sure.
I smile at the teachers. "I'm okay. Really."
The teachers give me one last look, then turn away, their heads bent together as they talk. I sigh. "I hate to cut our reunion short, but I have an appointment I have to get to in Midtown. "
"Why don’t you let me drive you?"
"No, thank you. We'll just take the subway."
"It's just a ride, Leah. That's all. And I feel we know each other well enough for a single ride to an appointment."
That's when I see the sedan with the blacked-out windows.
It's waiting under the trees on the opposite side of the street.
Both Viktor's and Iliya's attention follows my gaze.
Iliya is on instant alert. It's impossible not to notice the way his shoulders tense; his jaw clenches, and he moves like he wants to grab something at his hip.
Even Viktor's expression changes. His mouth tightens into a grim line and something frightening flashes across his eyes.
Both their reactions tell me very clearly that I haven’t been imagining things, and that car, and whoever is in it, isn’t harmless.
"Leah?" Viktor asks. "We’ll go straight to the office. Promise."
That's what his words say, gentle, nonchalant. But his expression, the look in his eyes, says something different. He wants me off the street and away from that car.
"Okay," I agree. I turn to Eliza. “We’re going to ride with my friend.”
“Okay.”
So I wasn't imagining things. The person in the car was following us, although I have no idea why. But I must say I feel safer in Viktor's car with Iliya at the wheel than I would out on the street. It's an odd feeling because I don't know either of these men, not really.
Having had only one day with Viktor means I know almost nothing about him, except the erogenous zones that drive him wild, a thought that brings a flush to my cheeks.
I try to hide it by looking out the window.
My gaze is averted, but I listen in on the conversation Viktor is having with Eliza.
She’s telling him all about the whale sharks—where they live, how giant they are, and that people swim with them.
To my surprise, Viktor’s not only listening, but is carrying on a conversation with my seven-year-old.
He's asking questions and seems genuinely curious about the newfound knowledge my daughter is so excited to share.
Halfway there, stuck in traffic, Eliza gets absorbed in the book she checked out of the school library, and I pop her headphones on her ears and turn on the latest Kids Bop compilation.
Viktor looks over her head at me, and one corner of his mouth curls up to find me already looking at him. It's too late to turn away.
"How have you been?" he asks.
I'm not sure why it feels like a loaded question. It's just friendly conversation, but something about it makes me listen carefully to his words.
"I'm fine," I say. "Everything is fine. I've been keeping busy."
I don't tell him I was hurt when he left with only a note. I don't want to show that kind of vulnerability.
"I'm sorry I left as I did," he says quietly, and I hear regret in his voice. Now he's the one looking out the window, but it's just for a moment before those incredibly blue eyes find their way back to me. "But I meant what I said in the note; it was much better for you for me to leave."
I want to ask him why he left and what the real reason was that he didn't call again. I wanted to know whether that note was just an excuse, as I imagined it to be, one that sounded like some spy movie cliché. I'm not about to be taken in by that kind of bull.
Instead, my anger flares. "Is that why you're here now? You couldn’t stay away any longer?"
Of course, I'm not stupid or naive enough to believe in romance novel ideals like that.
Those blue eyes find mine, and he doesn’t share the acidic joke. "More than you know," he says softly, and my heart skips a beat before fluttering in my chest, and I can't meet his gaze anymore.
A confession bubbles to my lips, and I can't hold it in any longer. "The appointment I'm going to—"
"Is it for the baby?" Viktor asks, just as softly.
Despite my sharp intake of breath, I'm unable to speak for a few seconds. “How did you know?" I finally ask. "Have you been following me?"
"If I’d been following you, you would have known.
" There is a promise in Viktor's swift response that makes me snap my mouth shut and banishes any idea I had that he’d been stalking me.
Then his voice and gaze soften. "I heard you talking with your friend outside the bathroom when I went to make sure you were okay. "
My cheeks redden. "I didn't have any contact information to tell you. "
"I know.”
I look for anger in Viktor's face, but I see none. Only, surprisingly, understanding, and an odd softness I'm not sure I would have expected the man to be capable of.
"If you come with me, will Iliya watch Eliza?" I offer my olive branch.
Amusement curls at the corners of Viktor's mouth. "I believe that can be arranged."