Chapter 31 - Lilia
I wanted to believe what Gavril promised about not harming my family was true. I could almost believe it was what he really wanted. I let myself fall into the warmth of his embrace, the excitement of his kisses, and let myself believe.
But the phone calls increased. He never took them in front of me, but always stalked away quickly, with an intense scowl on his face. I’d hear him angrily bark at whoever was on the other end, then he’d make sure he was far enough away that I couldn’t hear anything else.
Maybe it was just a problem that had nothing to do with my family. I wanted to believe it.
But what I knew for certain to be true didn’t match anything that he said.
It was a fact that I had been kidnapped by the Collective, his own organization.
He had been pissed off about it, maybe even caught unawares, but it had still happened.
That meant he had rogues to contend with, men he couldn’t trust to do what he said.
No wonder he was so angry if that was the case.
And maybe that was all it was. A case of dealing with an attempted power grab.
Maybe none of it had anything to do with my family or me.
It didn’t seem like he was lying when he made that promise that let me shed some of my suspicion. But not all of it fell away easily.
All my life, it had been drilled into me to trust no one. Was wanting a fairy tale ending getting in the way of my common sense? Masha would surely think so, but even she had fallen in love with a seemingly impossible man.
Not that I was falling in love with Gavril. Not at all. I only wanted to stop worrying all the time. And I wanted him to stop giving me reasons to worry.
“Why can’t I go?” I asked for the tenth time.
Gavril paused in picking out a shirt in the huge walk-in closet to roll his eyes at me.
“I don’t even want to go,” he said, just as he said the other nine times.
One of the Morozovs had invited both of us to a party at a swanky nightclub they owned.
While they knew Gavril had arrived in Miami with someone, they had no idea that it was me, or the invitation to stay in the house would never have been offered.
They weren’t stupid, not by a long shot, and didn’t want any trouble with a major family they’d never had any issues with in the past.
I understood that, and didn’t even especially want to go to some loud, packed nightclub where I’d only feel out of place, but I didn’t want him to go, either.
Even though he’d been disappearing to the other side of the vast mansion for long stretches of time to take his calls, he hadn’t left the place without me yet.
Was he really only going to a party? Or was he having a meeting I shouldn’t know anything about? I didn’t really believe the Morozovs would ally with the Collective against my family, but I never thought I’d be married to Gavril, now did I? Anything was possible.
“Don’t go, then,” I said, sidling up to him and pressing against his back.
He turned, running his hands down my shoulders and giving me a long look. His eyes were clear if slightly troubled, but he’d been looking more and more tense the last few days, same as me.
“It would be ungrateful not to make a quick appearance,” he said. “And it’s never a bad idea to stay on the good side of a family like the Morozovs.”
Arguing would be futile. Accusations would only piss him off and shut him down. He got dressed and left in the borrowed sports car, with more promises that he wouldn’t be long and that he was counting the minutes until we could fire up a movie when he got back.
“It’ll be too late,” I pouted.
He leaned down to kiss my puckered mouth. “Take a nap,” he suggested with a mischievous grin. So maybe everything was fine, and I was being paranoid once again.
But as I followed him down to wave goodbye from the front porch, he got another one of his phone calls, and didn’t glance back at me as he answered it with a stormy look.
After a long moment of staring at the space where he’d been, I turned and went inside, alone.
Fresh cookies that were delivered that afternoon sat in their box on the kitchen counter, along with tempting mangoes and papayas in a wooden bowl. I pulled out a plate and a knife to slice some of the fruit, but since it wasn’t hunger gnawing at my stomach, I put them away.
It was dark outside, but I could still hear the lap of the waves when I plopped down on a deck chair, sinking into the thick cushions. A nap might be a good idea, and the humid breezes started lulling me into a more relaxed state.
A clunk and a muttered curse at the bottom of the deck had me jerking awake, on high alert. The only thing close to hand that could be remotely used as a weapon was a Frisbee, but I grabbed it anyway.
“Sorry,” a deep voice said from the darkness below me. A familiar head popped up over the edge of the deck. The guard was one of only four on duty at the mansion, and he usually did a good job of staying out of sight. “I got caught on the hose nozzle.”
I laughed a little, a release of the sudden tension, and also because that had happened to me just that morning. “It’s not in a very good spot,” I said.
“Considering everything else about this place is just about perfect, I guess I can’t complain about one stubbed toe.”
This was the most any of the guards had spoken to me in the last several days combined.
This man was only a little older than me, with a sharp buzz cut and a beefy but friendly face.
I didn’t recognize him from the LA crew, but there were so many of them, and after I attacked one of their own, they avoided me like the plague.
“Are you going to be okay?” I asked, somewhat sarcastically.
He smirked and took a few steps, pretending to limp. “I don’t know. It may be broken.”
I leaned forward. Was he pretending? “Do you really think so? Can someone on your team take you to the emergency room?”
He laughed and walked back toward the deck without any trace of a limp. “Sorry, just teasing you. It’s fine.”
We were only separated by the wooden slats of the deck, but since he was on the sand several feet below, it felt safe to keep talking to him. I was bored and a little angry at Gavril for leaving me behind. But still, this guard had a job to do.
“Well, I’m glad it’s okay,” I said, with a tone of dismissal.
“Sorry to disturb you,” he answered, but stayed where he was, looking up at me through the dim light shining from the house. “And sorry you have to spend the evening alone.”
I leaned back at the sudden, unmistakable flirtatiousness of that brazen statement.
Didn’t he know that could get him killed?
I stared at him, the new part of me that had been awakening wanted to keep chatting, but not at the expense of this guy’s life.
Was he a fool just wasting some time in his long shift, or did he harbor a secret crush on me?
Could I use that to my advantage? And did I want to?
It had been so long since I thought about my escape plan that it was almost like I never had one at all. A long silence stretched between us, and he still didn’t leave.
“I know you offered the guard in LA a bribe,” he said finally, so low his voice almost got carried away on the breeze.
So I could pretend I didn’t hear…
“Do you also know I stabbed him?” I snapped. What was he up to?
He shrugged, finally holding out his hand. “Only because he didn’t take you up on your offer. I’m Reuben.”
Not Russian. Maybe not even a real guard. “How long have you worked for Mr. Bocharov?” I asked icily.
“A long time. He’s a cool guy. But I’m a betting man.”
“So?” I found myself leaning forward. If he wanted to snatch me and drag me down the beach to drown me in the ocean, it would have been done by now.
“So I know the odds are with your family when the war starts. I’m just trying to stay on the winning side.”
He looked so sure of himself. Too sure. If I couldn’t fully trust Gavril, I certainly couldn’t trust this little—well, big—upstart.
I stood up and turned back toward the doors into the house.
“Looks like you bet wrong on this,” I said, slamming myself inside and hurrying to a room he wouldn’t be able to peer into.
Sinking into an armchair in the very room where we were supposed to watch a movie whenever Gavril returned, I wrapped my arms around myself to stop the shaking.
Was Reuben for real? Would he actually go against his boss to get me back to my family? He wanted to be on the winning team when a war broke out. When, not if. Did he know something? Of course he did; he’d have to be part of it. He knew something big was about to go down.
A burst of anger made me pop up and pace the room.
I bumped into the coffee table and barely felt the jolt of pain in my knee.
Had Gavril’s promises all been lies? Pain was creeping in underneath the bubbling rage, but it wasn’t from jamming my leg against the table.
The pain welled in my chest, an iron band twisting and tightening until I could hardly breathe.
He lied about everything. Why was that so surprising? And why did it feel like my heart was breaking? It could only mean he had found a way into my heart.
My hand closed around the closest thing I could reach.
With a feral cry of pain, I hurled the delicate vase across the room.
Fresh roses scattered across the cool marble tiles, water splattered up on the white leather couch, and shards of porcelain made an almost musical sound as they broke and hit the floor.
If my family suffered—if a single one of them died because I had been fool enough to believe Gavril’s lies, then I would never be able to forgive myself.
No one in my family would ever be able to forgive me, either, and that was the greatest pain of all, making me double over as I gasped for breath.
Oh, no, no, no. I couldn’t let him know how upset I was.
If he returned and saw the mess I just made, there’d be endless questions.
I had to be the one asking them, not him.
I carefully picked up the pieces and mopped up the water, adding the roses that weren’t too badly mutilated into another vase.
Still shaking with anger and hurt, I wanted nothing more than to find Reuben and make him tell me what he knew. I even headed toward the deck again, but time was running out if Gavril hadn’t been lying about only popping into the club to be seen.
And what if Reuben was a test? The fact that might have been the case, and Gavril was testing my own loyalty, caused another stab to the heart.
Almost the same as when we’d been swimming the other day.
A little too far from shore, I started being dragged out by a strong undertow.
No matter how hard I kicked my legs and flailed my arms, there were a few moments of sheer helplessness as I got sucked out to sea.
I was adrift again, and this time Gavril wasn’t there to haul me back and get my feet onto solid ground. Solid ground with the man who ran the Collective wasn’t possible.
Fighting tears I refused to let fall, I ran upstairs and used what little time I had left to search his pockets and the drawers in the office room he’d been using.
Anything to give me a clue about what to believe.
There was nothing, and I didn’t need to rush.
It was another two hours before Gavril returned.
Despite the sleepiness that had crept up on me when I was out on the deck, before Reuben woke me up both literally and to Gavril’s possible plans, I remained wide awake.
He seemed shocked to find me perched in one of the master bedroom chairs, a book on my lap that I pretended to read. The words had been swimming before my eyes for almost an hour, and I long since gave up any pretense of turning the pages.
“This is a nice surprise,” he said, his genuine smile tugging at the bands around my heart.
His suit jacket was slung over his arm, tie loosened, and a couple of buttons at the collar undone. While his smile seemed real, his eyes were tired. The faint stubble around his chiseled jaw made a rasping sound when he ran his hand over it. “I’m sorry it took so much longer than I thought.”
He did sound sorry, but why? Because things hadn’t turned out the way he wanted, or because he knew he’d have to go back on his promise? Were my cousins under imminent threat of attack right now?
“What happened?” I asked, my eyes never leaving his.
He blinked, but perhaps it was only at my harsh tone. I put the book aside and waited with my arms crossed over my chest. I’d given away that I wasn’t pleased, may as well lean into it.
“Nothing exciting,” he said. “There was a special concert—do you know Destined… something? I forgot the name of the band, but it was obviously a big deal. I had to stay for that, and then I wanted to discuss some things with Ivan Morozov.”
“What sort of things?”
Gavril shrugged, then reached out to slide some hair behind my shoulder, his fingers lingering on the side of my neck. “Boring business things. Nothing important.”
“Important enough, though,” I said.
He sighed, leaning down to drop a kiss on my head. “Yes, important enough. It’s never a bad idea to maintain strong alliances.” What the hell did that mean? He only looked tired and mildly frustrated when I looked at him. “Let’s go to bed,” he said.
“No movie?” I asked, being ridiculous. It was close to two in the morning.
“We need to get some sleep,” he told me, already undoing the rest of the buttons on his shirt as he moved toward the closet. “It’s probably time to return to Los Angeles. We can leave some time tomorrow.”
His voice was calm and measured. Much too casual, as if returning to California had just occurred to him. If he wasn’t outright lying about what was going on, he was definitely holding back.
The honeymoon had reached its end, and not just because we were leaving Miami.