Chapter 25
LIA
The next morning, the scene is unreal. Mom, Maksim, and I sit in the large living room, watching Friends.
I sit next to Maksim, my head resting on his shoulder, and Mom looks over and smiles with a distant look.
This is tough on her, but she’s rallying for my benefit.
It’s the first time in years she’s putting me first.
I’m so proud of her for being so strong. In a really messed-up way, I’m happy.
“One more episode?” I ask, picking up the control.
“One more,” Maksim says. “Then I need to leave for the city.”
An anxious note swirls through me.
As the episode begins to play, I take out my phone and text him. I don’t want to frighten Mom, even if she’s handling this surprisingly well.
Lia: Is this dangerous business?
Maksim: It could be. I’ve got a likely candidate for their hideout.
Lia: You’re still injured, Maksim.
Lia: You were never a good patient.
He wraps his arm around me and pulls me closer.
Last night, when Mom asked what Maksim and I are, I wasn’t sure how to describe it.
I haven’t told her about the secret watching, the fact he withheld who he really was.
But I’ve told her he’s a mafia boss and a criminal, and that he has a code.
Mom looked at me in shock, then said again that she trusts my judgment.
Maksim: I can’t let this stand. I’d be gone already if the logistics were already in place. But for now, we can pretend to be normal.
Lia: We must be very good at pretending, then.
He looks down at me with a sad smile and haunted gray eyes.
Soon, it’s time for him to go. I walk him to the door.
“I still don’t know what happens after,” I whisper, wrapping my arms around him.
I stand on my tiptoes and press my lips against his, careful not to press my body too firmly because of his wound.
We kiss passionately, then I go on. “But I know I want you to be safe. I want you to come back to me.”
“I will,” he says huskily. “I swear.”
Later, Mom is in the lavish guestroom, the curtains drawn, snoozing. I sit at her bedside, my hand on hers.
“I’m sorry I dragged you into this,” I whisper, thinking she’s asleep.
But she answers. “I always wanted to see what you were like when you were in love.”
“I’m not in love, Mom,” I say, but my voice wavers. “It’s early days. And how can we judge, with all this going on?”
“I’ve never seen you look at a man like that. Even before I forced you to work all those hours. Even when you tried to date. You never looked like this.”
“You didn’t force me to do anything,” I say. “I wanted to help. And yeah, I can’t deny it. If you take away, well, a lot, I think we have something special.”
“He’s a good man,” she murmurs. “I know he has another side, but when I see you together, I can’t imagine it. And he saved our lives.”
I sit with her until she falls asleep. I’m almost snoozing myself when my phone rings. It’s Joel. I take the call in the hallway.
“Hey, Joel. Did you talk to Tessa? I’m not going to be in today.”
“I know,” he says, and I immediately know something’s wrong. He sounds hoarse and panicked.
“What is it?” I ask tightly.
“I looked at Daniel’s hospital records. Daniel Mercer.”
My chest tightens. “Yeah?”
“Something bad happened. Here, inside the hospital. Somebody was giving him medication they shouldn’t have. I think they were trying to kill him.”
“What?”
“You need to take a look. I know you’re sick, but can you get here, please?”
“Uh—I think so. Maybe.”
Crap!
I hang up, then quickly get dressed. Just like with the townhouse, Maksim’s people have already transferred my belongings. I text Maksim.
Lia: I need to go to the hospital. There’s something fishy going on.
He replies right away.
Maksim: That’s out of the question.
Lia: I’m not your prisoner!
I leave the mansion, walking across the ample grounds of the estate. I didn’t have time to take it all in yesterday. Long green lawns. A glittering fountain. Tall trees. A tennis court.
At the main gate, a tall, hard-faced man approaches me. “Ma’am?” he says.
“I need somebody to take me into the city.”
He frowns. “Mr. Volkov has given strict instructions.”
I think of that poor boy, his freckles, how much he looked like Evan.
Turning away, I take out my phone to call Maksim. But then I spot Nikolai striding across the lawn with purposeful steps. From this distance, he looks similar to his brother. It’s only up close, when I see the tattoos and the lighter hair, that he seems more baby-faced.
“What’s going on?” he demands.
I tell him quickly.
Nikolai frowns over my shoulder at the man. “This is clearly important to her, Sergei,” he grunts. “And Maksim has given me discretion on estate security.”
“He has?”
Nikolai narrows his eyes, then slowly approaches the man. “Did you just question my authority?”
Sergei swallows. “No, sir.”
“I’ll take her myself,” Nikolai says. “Come on, Lia.”
I rush to his side, not letting myself think too deeply about it.
All I know is that I need to get to the hospital and figure out what Joel’s talking about.
I can’t imagine who would dare to harm a patient.
I can’t think how they’d even do it without being caught. I need to get to the bottom of this.
In the car, I sit in the passenger seat, my arms crossed over my middle. Nikolai pulls up to the gate and lowers the window. “Open that,” he snaps.
“We need to arrange security,” Sergei says defensively.
“Who do you think I am?” Nikolai snaps, and I imagine him as my future brother-in-law for one fleeting moment. He’s behaving protectively, urgently, advocating for me and what I want. I appreciate it. “My own men are waiting in the woods for me. Don’t question me again.”
I take out my phone, texting Maksim.
Lia: I know you said I had to stay, but Nikolai is here and he said it’s safe for me to go. He’s taking me into the city. He’s not going to let anything happen to me.
Maksim texts back immediately.
Maksim: Has he arranged security with Sergei?
Nikolai pulls away from the estate, immediately pressing heavily on the accelerator. My back presses against the seat as we take off. He glances at me. He seems different all of a sudden, sweat dripping down his forehead, his mouth working as he chews the inside of his cheek.
“Who are you texting?”
“Maksim,” I say. “I’m explaining the situation. He said I should stay here, but obviously, if you say it’s okay, it’s okay. Right?”
His smile unnerves me. It’s shaky. A pit opens in my gut when I realize I might’ve just made a terrible mistake.
I think of Joel’s voice on the phone, tight, anxious.
“He just asked me if I arranged security with Sergei,” I mutter, looking in the rearview mirror. The estate is already a pinprick. We turn a corner, moving between trees, and it disappears entirely. “Where are your men?”
“I’ll call him,” Nikolai says. “He worries too much.” He pats down his own pockets. “Dammit. Forgot my phone. Can I borrow yours?”
I’ve only met this man twice, but he’s behaving erratically.
Too slow, it hits me how little sense Joel’s story makes.
Why would he suddenly go rifling through patient files?
And Daniel wasn’t poisoned. He left the hospital – or Conrad Vale’s men took him – and they killed him brutally. Poison wasn’t necessary.
Stupid, stupid.
I reach for the door handle. Nikolai picks up speed.
“Give me your phone, Lia,” he says, his voice cold now.
I lean against the door, a hot layer of sweat beading all over me, sticking my clothes to my skin.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he says, sounding sick.
“Nikolai, you’re the only family Maksim has. He loves you. I think Maksim is falling for me. Would you really hurt his woman?”
He swallows. “To save a mother and her child. To save people who have never hurt anybody. I don’t want to, but if I have to, I will.”
I press the call button on Maksim’s name. Nikolai’s hand darts out and grabs the phone, snatching it from me. He ends the call and throws the phone out the window.
“He’s never going to recover from this,” I hiss. “He loves you. He trusted you. He lights up when he talks about you.”
“Stop it,” Nikolai snaps.
“He’s proud of you. He cares abou?—”
“I said stop it,” he roars, slamming his hand on the steering wheel.
I cringe away, no clue what to do. We’re racing down the road. If I jumped from the car, I’d seriously hurt myself. And all he’d have to do is turn back and pick me up. Where am I going to run?
“How did you make Joel lie to me?” I ask, my voice small.
Nikolai looks ill, pale and trembling. “Threatened his family. Showed him a few pictures.”
“What if he didn’t do it? Would you have hurt them?”
He looks at me in disgust. “Of course not.”
“You’re clearly not the man your brother thinks you are.”
“We’ve got a long drive ahead of us,” he snaps. “Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be.”
“Maksim says you have a code. You don’t hurt innocent people.”
“Rachael and Mikey are innocent.”
“So am I,” I say, trying to keep my voice calm.
“I wish my brother had kept you on those damn cameras and away from us,” he says. “Maksim had no weaknesses before you, nothing for Conrad to target. He had Rachael and Mikey for weeks, but he couldn’t make me do a damn thing except help that kid steal the phone.”
“Maksim would’ve helped you,” I say. “If you’d gone to him and explained, he would’ve figured out a way.”
“Vale sent me pictures, daily, of Rachael and Mikey with a gun to their heads. What the fuck was I supposed to do?”
“Not this,” I say. “Anything but this.”
He groans as if in physical pain. I grind my teeth, thinking about a patient who came in last year.
She’d been kept in sickening conditions by a psychopath with a penchant for pain.
I’ll always remember something she said to me, her voice hoarse, her eyes hazy as if she wished she were somewhere else.
“I shouldn’t have assumed it would get better. The second he took me, I should’ve done something. Even if it might’ve got me killed. It doesn’t get better when they move you to another location.”
My heart is thundering in my chest, beating into my throat, trying to close it with nerves.
“Why didn’t he use you to get the second phone?” I ask.
Nikolai grinds his teeth. “I don’t know where it is. Only Maksim does. We always agreed on that. Before you, Maksim was a cold-blooded bastard. He had some heart, sure, but nothing would make him squeal. They could’ve done anything to him. Not anymore.”
“Are they going to hurt me?” I ask.
“Stop talking,” he grunts.
“Are they going to torture me?”
“Just stop.”
“That’s not a no.”
“They’re going to use you to make Maksim play ball. Once he does, this will all be over.”
“But you can’t promise they won’t hurt me. And you can’t promise I’ll make it out alive.”
He groans, torn.
“You strike me as a good man forced to do a bad thing,” I say. “Can you really go through with this?”
“Enough,” he snaps. “This is happening. I’ve gone too far already.”
I lean against the window, my arms folded, breathing slowly, thinking of that patient with the haunted eyes. I have to do something. I have to take a chance.
He hasn’t restrained me… yet.
When they tie my hands, I’ll wish I used them when I could.
Another quick breath, just like I do at work when I know it’s going to be a tough shift, then I leap at him. He roars as I dive for his eyes. The wheel turns, the car tips, and suddenly we’re spinning. The car smashes into a tree, and everything goes dark.
“Sloppy driving for a Volkov,” a man grunts when I peel my eyes open, a sharp pain in my side. I’m horizontal, staring at the road. Beside me – above me, rather – Nikolai leans heavily against his seatbelt, his eyes closed, blood covering his face.
A man kneels, peering into the car, a twisted smile on his face.
“Howdy, ma’am,” he says. “Did this clever bastard even know we were following? Or is he that stupid?”
“I don’t know,” I whisper, my voice hoarse. I don’t feel seriously injured, but I think I might have cracked a rib. My hip is pulsing too, severely bruised at the very least. In the grand scheme of things, I’m lucky.
“Let me help you,” he murmurs.
I spit at him.
He chuckles, taking a gun from his waistband and casually aiming it at me. “The boss wants you alive. But he didn’t say anything about your hands or your feet or your kneecaps.” He moves the gun from spot to spot as he talks. “You get it?”
I shudder, then finally nod.
What choice do I have?