Chapter 42 - Gavril
I was tired to my very bones, and Lilia looked like she wanted nothing more than to crawl into a warm bed when I returned to the car.
It had been a long, stress-filled day that went on far too long.
The black night sky was slowly turning purple around the edges.
Dawn would arrive soon, but neither of us would be able to sleep if we went home now.
I handed her my phone. “Call Aleks,” I said.
She took the phone but shook her head. “I’m going to talk to Masha first. I think she’ll understand.
” Before dialing the number, she held the phone in her hands as if she were praying she was right, quickly filling me in on her sister’s relationship with a former enemy of her family, Anatoli Ovinko.
“If you think it’s the best thing to do,” I said, trusting her judgment.
She nodded, and within moments, she gave me a look that told me she’d made the wrong choice. I could hear Masha yelling as Lilia held the phone away from her, eventually giving up and ending the call.
“I can’t believe it,” she said, welling with anger and disappointment.
“I can,” I said. “She’s too close to you, too worried you’re in danger.”
“No, she thinks I’ve been brainwashed. She’s always—”
I gently stopped the sisterly tirade with a hand on her wrist. “Even the best of us can have blind spots. You’re hers. Call Aleks.”
She did, and while he didn’t start yelling, I could tell from Lilia’s side of the conversation that this wasn’t going to be smooth sailing.
“I’m not a hostage,” she insisted for the third time.
“There are no demands. Well, one, but it’s from me, not Gavril.
” A long pause, in which she scowled while listening.
“Yes, that’s what I’m trying to ask. We want to meet.
” Another pause. “No, absolutely not. It has to be neutral. Not the restaurant, either.”
I mouthed a word to her, and she grinned. “We’ll be at the downtown public library when it opens. There are study rooms where we can talk privately.”
She hung up, swallowing hard. “He thinks I’m insane. Asking to meet in a public place wasn’t helping, and…” she trailed off, going pale. “It won’t keep him from causing a scene.”
“So, a few librarians, a couple of unemployed people, and what? A homeless person or two get a show. I can’t think of a more neutral spot, and you’ll feel right at home.”
We still had some time, so I had the driver pull into a twenty-four-hour diner where we all ate a greasy breakfast and poured coffee down our throats. The guard gobbled down a breakfast sandwich and went to sit in the car while Lilia and I held hands across the table.
It felt like the end, and her continued lack of color in her cheeks told me she was more worried than she let on. Her smiles didn’t reach her eyes, and she held on too tightly.
“I’m not giving you up,” I said, squeezing her hand. “I won’t let go.”
She kept turning my wrist to check the time, becoming jittery with coffee overload.
I cut her off and suggested she splash some water on her face to freshen up.
The last thing I wanted was for her to greet her angry cousins in a state of such high stress.
It didn’t go far to dispel their assumptions that she was still my prisoner.
“I’ll be fine,” she said, more to assure herself than me.
“I have no doubts,” I told her, getting the first real smile since she set up this meeting.
Finally, the library was open, but when the driver rolled up to the front entrance, she smacked her hand against my chest.
“You have to stay in the car for now,” she said, turning to the guard with a fierce look. “Don’t you dare let him out, and neither one of you follow me.”
“Do you really believe your cousin is going to assassinate me in the damn public library?” I asked.
Her long silence told me that she did indeed think that might be possible. The idea of her going in alone raised all sorts of alarms. It all boiled down to one question. Did I trust my wife?
Yes. Of course.
I gave her a searing kiss before letting her go. The guard handed her his phone. “I’ll call when it’s safe to enter the fray,” she said, putting on a very good show of confidence.
“There isn’t going to be a fray,” I told her, running my fingertip down the side of her jaw, which was set with determination. “You’ve got this.”
“Yes, I do.”
She took off at a brisk trot up the staircase, disappearing behind the doors of the old Art Deco building. The hairs on my neck prickled as if a sniper rifle was aimed at me through the car windows, and I told the driver to circle the block while we waited.
We barely made it around before she called, telling me it was okay to join them and telling me which room they were in. How could she have told her cousins everything in that short amount of time? And would we be able to use our indoor voices for what lay ahead?
The moment I entered the historic building, I ignored the grand atrium, barely felt the sun shining through the vast windows as I jogged up the escalator, skipping every other step in my haste.
I knocked once on the closed door to the small study area and opened it. It might have been comical to see the three huge men crammed in there on one side of a desk, with Lilia sitting on the other, looking as nervous as if she were in the most important interview of her life.
Maybe she was. It was the most important of mine.
Aleks was flanked by two of her Russian cousins, Rurik and Daniil. None of them uttered a greeting as Alek motioned for me to step in. I caught Rurik’s eye, recalling that I would be dead because of him if it weren’t for Lilia shoving me out of the way.
He raised a brow and grunted. “We wouldn’t be here now if you hadn’t saved my life,” he said.
The closest thing I’d probably ever get to gratitude out of a Petrov. I only nodded and turned my attention to Aleks.
“It seems we owe you for rescuing Lilia from your rogue man,” he said, practically choking on the words. “And the information we received yesterday went a long way to saving many of our properties.”
Went a long way? The Collective had a very good chance of kicking their asses once and for all if I hadn’t turned my guys from Russia loose on them.
I shoved my ego aside. None of that was important.
What was important was Lilia—and it was clear she had used those five minutes with her cousins to tell them nothing more than that I’d rescued her, kept her unharmed while she was with me, and helped them keep their reigning title as the most powerful crime organization in LA.
Not a word about the marriage. Did she still not view it as real? She refused to meet my eye, but said firmly, “We’re here to make a deal. Right, Aleks?”
“We’ll see,” he said. He waved for me to have a seat on the only chair left in the small room. It was next to Lilia, but her cousin Rurik leaned over and dragged it further away from her before I could sit down.
She made a very small noise in her throat but kept her eyes trained on her cousins as she outlined how I hadn’t been part of any of the attacks within the last few months—not exactly the truth, but I had definitely been trying to keep Luigi in check for a while.
“They’re a completely different organization now,” she finished.
“I witnessed the utter decimation of all the bad actors yesterday… er, last night. Anyway, there won’t be any more wars between the Collective and the Petrovs.
” She gave each of her sullen cousins a hard look. “At least not any started by Gavril.”
“You’re really buying what he’s selling?” Rurik asked her.
She sniffed airily. “He saved your life when he could have easily retaliated.”
“That’s true,” Aleks said.
“Only time will tell,” Daniil added.
We continued hashing out the details of a tentative peace treaty.
I was so stunned, I mostly went along with whatever they said.
I thought I came here to fight for my wife, but no one knew we were married.
Once everything seemed settled, at least for the moment, Lilia still made no move to tell them.
The three men rose, and Lilia popped up. I remained seated, my chair blocking the door, and gave her a long look, my arms crossed. Did she think she was going home with them and not me?
Hell no.
But she returned my look with one full of pleading for me to understand. I didn’t, or rather, I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to give her up. What the hell was going on? A peace treaty was nice, but it meant nothing without Lilia.
Nothing meant anything without her.
Her cousins shoved past me as I slowly stood. Once they were out, she rushed to my side. “Please, please, let’s just take this slow. It’s the only way.”
Before I could answer, she hurried out, instantly flanked by Rurik and Daniil as if she needed protection.
From me. The man who’d been keeping her safe all this time.
With an iron band around my chest, I followed them outside into the courtyard.
I barely felt the heat of the sun, promising to deliver a scorcher of a day even though it was still only early spring. My insides were slowly turning to ice.
She was really going to leave with them, and short of pulling my gun and shooting them one right after the other, I had to go along with it. Aleks begrudgingly held his hand out to me, and I shook it in a state of stunned disbelief.
“Invite him to dinner,” Lilia urged.
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Aleks said, looking at me to confirm I didn’t need such hospitality to seal our negotiations. I didn’t say a word.
“This Sunday?” she asked, poking her cousin in the back.
“If that’s good for you,” he said, looking pained.
“I’ll make it work,” I said, shifting my gaze to Lilia. This was when she told them the truth, right?
She gave me one more hopeful look before Rurik put his arm around her and whisked her to a waiting car.
I let her go. What choice did I have? My insides churned; I was on the verge of exploding. Her pleading voice echoed in my mind, the only thing keeping me from charging the car as it slid away from the curb. Take it slow.
My fists clenched, my jaw tight, I turned and stormed back to where my own car waited. She was mine, and I would be damned if I took anything slow.