Chapter 21
ISABELLA
I’ve been sick since I came back from my dad’s house. I thought it was just nerves, but now I’m starting to think that maybe I might be coming down with something.
That would just be perfect. With everything going on, I don’t think I can afford being sick right now.
Or, I don’t know, maybe I can. At least if I’m sick, I’ll be in bed for a few days and Alexei won’t have to worry about my going off half-cocked.
I’m sitting on the side of the toilet, my back against the cool tub ledge.
I just heaved up my breakfast and maybe part of last night’s dinner.
Maybe this is food poisoning. I’ll bet Alexei is somewhere sick as a dog right now.
I get up, rinse my mouth out, then brush my teeth. I’ll make myself some tea and get some rest and wait for Dad to call me when he’s somewhere safe. Maybe if Maxim and his people can’t find him, then this whole stupid thing will finally blow over.
I start to think about the story Anya told me about Maxim’s act of vengeance in the name of his older brother.
He wiped out an entire family—criminal and otherwise—over her father’s death.
Like, he committed a mini genocide in the name of honor or revenge or whatever.
Even though Alexei swore he wouldn’t let harm come to me, now I’m starting to wonder if we’re all in danger over this.
A man who would do something like that would be pretty hard to stand up to.
Alexei’s a big, brave man. I have no doubt that there are very few things in this world that can hurt him, truly. Maxim… well, he’s way scarier than my husband. Still, I had to try and warn my father. If something happened to him and I did nothing, well, I’d never forgive myself.
I hear the front door open as I turn off the water in the sink. Alexei’s home. I’m kind of hoping there’s some good news. Maybe he talked some sense into his father.
“Isabella?” he calls out. “Are you home?”
“I’m in the bedroom,” I say as I wipe my mouth and step into the bedroom. He walks through the door a second later… and I notice he looks like hell. His hair is mussed and falling into his eyes, and his complexion is pallid and a little green around the edges.
And he’s not meeting my eyes. Uh-oh.
“Sit down,” he says. “I need to talk to you about something.”
My heart leaps up and gets stuck in my throat. My first thought goes to my father. Was I too late? Did he blow me off after I left and now…?
“What happened?” I ask him.
“Isabella, sit down.”
“I’ll stand,” I say even though my knees are knocking. “Please just tell me.”
He sighs and presses his fingers to the bridge of his nose. “Your father… he’s been shot.”
Just like that, my knees start to shake and threaten with buckling. I walk over to the bed and sit down before that happens. I can’t speak. My mouth is suddenly as dry as the desert and I can’t utter a single word.
“I don’t know if he’s all right,” he says. “He was alive when I last saw him, but—”
It’s like a record scratch goes off in my head and pulls me out of my stupor. “What? When you last saw him? When did you see him?” He doesn’t say anything. “Alexei, what the hell is going on?”
He takes in a deep breath and says, “After speaking with my father, I went to warn him, Isabella, but by the time I got there, there were gunshots. I went into the house to see what happened and… I can tell you that he’s alive. Alive enough to yell at his captains.”
A wave of relieve comes over me. If my father was yelling, then he couldn’t have been hurt too badly. “Did you take him to the hospital?”
“I couldn’t get close to him. As soon as his people saw me, they opened fire on me. Naturally, they think I had something to do with it.”
My hand flies on its own to my forehead. “Oh, my God, you’re kidding me.”
“I wish I were.”
My heart is pounding through my shirt. Shit, shit, shit. If I’d known that he was going to try and warn him too…
“You should be happy to know,” he says, “that it looked like word got to him somehow. When I got there, he was having some of his bags packed…” He tilts his head at me, sapphire eyes suddenly alight. “Isabella, where did you go today?”
I freeze for a split second, then look away from him. This whole thing is imploding. There’s really no point in lying about it now. “I couldn’t just sit here, Alexei.”
“Fuck,” he says.
“I had to try, okay? If something had happened to him and I didn’t at least try—”
“I told you to stay put and let me handle things.”
I shake my head at him as my eyes start to burn with tears. “There was no way I was going to leave that up to chance. I’m sorry.”
He sighs, closing his eyes and putting his hands on his hips like an exhausted parent. “Does anyone know you did this?”
“Anya. I kind of conned her into taking me.”
He stares at me carefully. “Anyone else? Could you have been seen?”
I shake my head.
His eyes run over my face as if he’s reading me, then, satisfied, he says, “Good. No one can know what you did or what I tried to do today.”
“Does anyone know you went?”
He nods slowly, and I don’t have to wonder who he means. His father knows already. Dammit.
“Father thinks I fucked up his assassination,” he says. “At least… at least that’s what I let him think. He might suspect that I was there for some other reason.”
That sounds like bad news all around. “What about Pavel?” I ask. “Pavel won’t tell him, will he?”
“Of course not,” he says. “Pavel and I might butt heads from time to time, but he is loyal. He would never betray me that way. He knows the stakes.”
I take a few seconds to take that in. Then I start to think of my dad, lying in some hospital bed with wires stuck in his body. He’s probably at St. Anne’s. He likes it there even though it’s across town. I might be one of the few people who knows that, so maybe he’s safe… maybe…
“Alexei… I have to make sure my dad is all right.”
“That’s not possible,” Alexei says.
“I’m not asking you what’s possible,” I tell him, standing up. “In fact, I’m not asking at all. He’s my father. I can’t—”
“Don’t you understand, yet, Isabella?” he says.
He doesn’t raise his voice, but the bass in it strikes me in the chest with its intensity.
“We are now, officially, at war with your father and his crew. His men will be looking for any way to get back at us for this attack on him. Do you have any idea what would happen to you if you showed up at the hospital?”
I’m just staring at him and my already stinging eyes are starting to water with tears. “He wouldn’t let his men hurt me. I’m still his daughter.”
“And they know that.” He closes the gap between us and takes me by the shoulders. “As far as they are concerned, you are sleeping with the enemy. It would be foolish for any of them to believe that you would be loyal to them after being here with me all this time.”
I don’t believe that. I don’t think I can believe that. My father has never been what one might call a good man, but he’s always still been my blood. He wouldn’t… he couldn’t…
Alexei rubs his hands up and down my shoulders and arms. Their rough texture against my soft skin is soothing somehow.
There’s something in the roughness of his touch that always calms something inside me.
I’ve never been able to explain it. Maybe it’s the little pinpricks that remind me that I’m alive and that all this is real.
“If you went to him,” he says, “I would have to come with you. And if any of your father’s men catches me in his territory—”
“I’ll go alone.”
“Not a chance.”
“Then, I can go with Anya. Or Dmitri.”
“If your father’s men catch any of us in his territory, they will do their best to kill us. They’ll shoot first and ask questions later.” He’s looking at me with so much sincerity behind his deep blue eyes. “I’m sorry, Isabella. You can’t go to see him. You just can’t.”
I twist out of his arms, tears running down my face. This whole situation sucks. I almost feel like I shouldn’t have warned him. Maybe he would have gotten out of there faster if I hadn’t held him up…
No. I don’t regret telling him. He’s probably alive because I gave him a head’s up. I wipe my eyes with the heel of my hand, pushing away the tears, and turn to Alexei. “So, if I can’t go to him, then what do I do? Just… stay here in this penthouse like a caged bird?”
“No,” he says. “We are going to have to leave. Tonight.”
I just gape at him. I couldn’t have heard that right. “Leave? Seriously?”
“I don’t know for how long, but after what happened today, they’ll definitely be looking for me and anyone they think is associated with me. We need to leave town as soon as we can, so… grab a bag and start packing.”
I stare at him for a long moment before nodding. “Okay.”
I wander over to the closet as he pulls out his phone. He walks back into the living room and I hear him talking on the phone a few seconds later.
As I start packing my clothes, my stomach lurches again. God, do I even have anything else left to vomit? I hold it in and continue packing. I’m most of the way through when he comes back into the bedroom.
“Anya and Dmitri are going to accompany us,” he says. “Listen, once we’re away, I need you to stay close. No more running and no going anywhere without letting one of us three know first.”
I nod. That’s an easy ask under the circumstances.
“Also, no communication with anyone outside our circle. If anyone other than Pavel happens to call your phone, do not pick up. Understand?”
“Yes,” I tell him. I look down at my hands. They’re starting to shake. He sees it too and walks over, taking them into his warm palms.
“We’ll be fine. I promise.”
All I can do is nod. I’m so confused and scared… but I have to believe him when he says we’ll be all right.
The drive takes the rest of the day. I’m sitting in the backseat with Anya, dozing in and out of sleep. The landscape has changed at least twice as we’ve traveled, and now I’m looking at nothing but trees whizzing by on the side of the road.