Chapter Ten
Igor
“Well you do move fast, don’t you Igor?” Maria wore a bright smile as she wrapped me in a hug. “Congratulations, you are going to be a father.”
“Thank you.” I kissed both of her cheeks before releasing her. “It does not feel real just yet, but it is.”
Maria waved me inside, barely sparing a glance for Mikhail. “Where is Maxim?”
“On another task,” I answered as I followed her into the kitchen.
“So, tell me about this woman who is carrying your baby!” She looked happier than I expected at the news, which filled me with relief. “How did you meet her?”
I smiled, remembering the gunshots and the way April had unburdened herself of all her worries. “It was quite random,” I answered and left it at that.
“Hmph.” Maria eyed me carefully. She studied me as if that too keen stare would get me to open up. “You like her.”
I frowned, aware that while I trusted Maria, it was best to keep the specifics to myself. “She is in the right age range, healthy and fit, and we were able to come to a mutually beneficial relationship.”
“I am happy for you, Igor. Do you have time for lunch today?”
“Of course.” I flashed a smile and looked around the kitchen. “Where is your chef?”
She shrugged. “He’s been sick this week and it would be a waste of time to break in a new chef when he will be back in just a few days. I prepared lunch today.”
My eyebrows shot up. “You cooked?”
“I did,” she answered haughtily. “I can cook, you know.”
“I am sure you have been taught the mechanics, it’s just, have you ever actually cooked before?”
Maria laughed and the sound took me back to our childhood when Boris was still around and all three of us would run around the large estate grounds just outside Moscow.
“I have. My chef does get days off and you know how much I loathe leftovers.” She shuddered. “The worst of all American inventions.”
I laughed. “Pretty sure leftovers wasn’t an American invention.”
“Has to be,” she insisted and went to the fridge, pulling out a few platters. “It is simple, but it is delicious.”
“I have no doubt.” My phone buzzed and I received a message from Maxim who was busy watching April from a discreet distance.
She had another doctor’s appointment today, which she made with minutes to spare according to Maxim.
After a quick stop at the pharmacy, she picked up groceries presumably for her brother and made her way home.
“Someone more interesting than me?” Maria’s voice was filled with amusement but when I looked up, I could see doubt and uncertainty swimming in her blue eyes.
“Of course not. Merely a status update from Maxim,” I assured her with an easy smile.
“Everything is okay?”
“Yes.”
Satisfied with my answer, Maria put several platters on the table and then joined me with a smile. “I made your favorite, pirozhki.”
My mouth watered. “With beef?”
She nodded. “As well as cabbage and potatoes.”
“Bless you, Maria.” The table was filled with Russian dishes we’d eaten all our lives. “I cannot wait for you to introduce these dishes to my son.”
She gasped. “Surely the woman isn’t that far along?”
“No, I am just certain that it will be a boy.” It had to be a boy, or I would have to do this again.
“Even you cannot control the weather or the sex of your child, Igor. Only the Almighty himself.”
I rolled my eyes. “We shall see.” The rest of the meal passed in friendly conversation but soon it was time to head back to the city and take care of business. “What are you doing?”
Mikhail looked up as if he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, but it was far worse than that. He was on his phone. “I was just making plans for tonight, Boss. You know, with the ladies?”
I rolled my eyes. “Do that shit on your own time. I pay you to be alert.” I glared at him, so he knew to take my words at face value. “Check the vehicle. I am ready to leave.”
“Sure thing,” he said in a horrible American accent.
My annoyance with the young soldier grew but I kept the words to myself. I needed him focused for the drive home. Afterwards, we would have a talk.
A long overdue talk.
On the drive home, my focus turned to April. Keeping my distance now that she was pregnant was harder than I thought. I thought about her frequently. Did she have morning sickness? Baby brain? With a smile, I pulled out my phone and asked. “Do you have baby brain?”
It took more than a minute for her to respond, but she did. “Why? Did I forget to do something?”
I found myself laughing at her response. “No, I was just curious.”
“Oh!” She responded with a few laughing emojis. “Not yet, the books say that’s not until the second and third trimester.”
“You’ve been reading pregnancy books?” That surprised me, though it shouldn’t, she was a smart and capable woman.
“Absolutely! I’ve never been pregnant before and I need to know what to expect.”
“Smart. What about morning sickness?”
“Try morning and evening sickness. It skips the afternoon on most days but shows up usually right as I get hungry for dinner.”
“So the pregnancy has not been too rough on you?”
“It’s an adjustment but no, not horrible. How are you, Roman? Excited about fatherhood?”
I smiled again, something I found myself doing even though we weren’t together like that evening at the lake. When was the last time anyone had asked me how I was doing? And when was the last time anyone gave a damn what the answer was? “I’m good and excited, but ready? Not even close.”
“You will be, I’m sure. Have you been reading those parenting books you haven’t ordered yet?”
“Guilty,” I replied quickly, still smiling.
The car screeched to a stop, and I looked up to see a red SUV blocking the path of my own SUV. “What is going on?”
Mikhail shrugged, one hand moved slowly to his gun. “Looks like we have company,” he sighed and stepped from the car.
As soon as I spotted a familiar and unwanted face, I made my presence known. “Voronov. You need something?” I looked around me to see at least a half dozen of Dmitry’s men had me surrounded and I wondered if this would be my ending. Would I live to see the birth of my child?
“Do I need something?” He flashed a wicked smile, his blue gaze full of hatred and fury. “No, Igor, I don’t need a fucking thing from you. Except your head, on a platter.”
“This is getting old, don’t you think?”
His nostrils flared and the hatred he’d carried for twenty years was aimed squarely at me. “Old? It is too bad you won’t live long enough to experience the pain of losing a child because then you would know.”
“It was one of my father’s men and they are both long gone, what the fuck else do you want?” I knew exactly what he wanted and now that April was pregnant with my child, it was time to turn my focus on Dmitry.
“To end the Romanov bloodline once and for all.”
I smiled. “You don’t have much time left to make it happen,” I taunted. “Better hurry.” I tapped my watch and stepped back inside the vehicle. If he wanted me dead, he would’ve led with bullets, not words. “Let’s go, Mikhail.”
It was no coincidence that Dmitry had stopped me where he had, at the halfway point between my home and Maria’s. Which didn’t make sense since no one but my men knew that Maria was in America or Georgia. It was a closely guarded secret for a reason.
Unease settled in my gut, and I sent a message to Maxim.
“Around the clock protection on Maria. Immediately.”
In the meantime I needed to figure out how Voronov had found me.