Chapter 47
Chapter Forty-Seven
Radik watched Saskia fuss over their infant daughter from the doorway. Though there was a cradle, the baby was sound asleep on their bed. He could tell Saskia wanted her to wake up for a cuddle because she was gently jiggling the bed next to the baby and making cooing sounds at her.
He’d been living with Saskia in her suite at the mansion. Her apartment in Prague was being rebuilt after the attack. The local media reported it as a gas leak explosion. He wasn’t sure if it was Jozef’s people or Branislav’s that had arranged the story.
Rory, short for Aurelia, was born twelve days ago.
After coming home from the neonatal unit two days after her birth, she’d done nothing but thrive – growing, crying, burping, and sleeping.
She was robust but relatively quiet, or so Leeza and Shaun assured him.
He had watched little Rory scream her demands, so he wasn’t sure about the ‘quiet’ assessment, but he’d agreed, nonetheless.
He chuckled when Saskia gently tickled Rory’s foot, causing the baby to pull her leg away and make a grumbling sound in her sleep.
“Leave her alone and come to me, angel,” he said to Saskia who looked at him with a raised brow.
“Why should I do that?”
“Because I will reward you.”
She tilted her head. “I’m not a dog to come whenever you beckon me with a treat. You’ll have to do better than that.”
He nodded seriously. “What if I told you the reward is a large black coffee and an oatcake from your favourite bakery?”
With the speed of a gazelle, she constructed a barrier of pillows around Rory and zipped towards the bedroom door in search of her coffee. Radik took hold of her arm as she passed him, stopping her.
“I require payment for my effort.”
She smiled, pressing her lips to his before looking around him for the goods. The woman was single-minded, but he loved her for it. Spotting her coffee on the table, she scooped it up and took a long sip, closing her eyes with a sigh as she swallowed. “Heavenly caffeine.”
“How are you feeling today?”
“Better,” she told him, sinking onto the couch with her drink cradled in her hands. “There’s no more pain and the bleeding has pretty much stopped. The stitches are almost completely dissolved.”
Shaun had given him a crash course in women’s health after the birth of his daughter. It had been a lot to take in, but ultimately, he’d been grateful for her instruction. It allowed him to be a better partner as Saskia healed.
As he sat on the couch next to Saskia, his phone vibrated. Pulling it from his pocket, he looked at it. “Jozef is coming to see us.”
“Is Shaun coming too?” Saskia asked hopefully.
Shaun loved seeing and talking about the baby, which gave Saskia someone to moon over her with.
“I don’t think so,” Radik said. “I believe this is business.”
“Branislav?”
Radik nodded and stood to open the door for Jozef.
Thank you for seeing me on short notice. His gaze went to Saskia. I have news on Branislav.
Prime Minister Branislav Makovsky had disappeared after his botched attack on Saskia. Since then, Jozef and Radik combined resources to hunt him.
“Tell us,” Saskia said, anxiously.
Jozef dipped his head in a nod and sat in the chair opposite them. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees while signing, I followed the information given to me by Urban.
The President of the Czech Republic. Radik and Jozef had gone to see him the evening of the attack. He’d tried to run, same as Branislav, but barely made it out of his home before he was grabbed by Havel’s team.
Under the threat of torture, he admitted to ordering Branislav to find him the votes he would need to win the next election, but he swore he had nothing to do with Aurelia’s murder and Saskia’s attack.
“Please, I didn’t know about the translator,” Urban had begged, while tied to a chair in Jozef’s ‘Shed’. “I’ll do anything.” They’d gotten him to give information on Branislav’s possible whereabouts. “His wife, Irena, will go to her family if she thinks her husband is in trouble.”
Jozef signed to Saskia and Radik, We finally got a hit with Branislav’s wife’s sister, Katya.
“Where are they?” Radik asked.
They’re in Belarus. Minsk. But not for long. They will soon make their way to Russia and into the protection of an associate.
“They won’t make it,” Radik said, standing. “We’re leaving?”
The jet is being prepared now. We leave in an hour. I have made sure my connections in the Bratva are aware of our interest in Branislav. If he makes it into Russia, he won’t get far. Jozef stood, walking to the door.
Saskia stood too, her face giving away her feelings.
“I’ll catch up,” Radik said to Jozef.
Meet me out front in ten minutes, Jozef signed before leaving.
“Muhammed…,” she started but stopped, her gaze going to the bedroom.
“You want to come,” he finished for her.
She nodded, looking at him imploringly. “I know I can’t. Rory needs me. There’s no telling how long you’ll be away. I can’t leave her.”
Radik rubbed his hands up and down her arms. “We can make it work if you wish to come. Shaun is more than capable of handling a baby, and we both know she’s itching to get her hands on our daughter.”
“You would really let me come?” Saskia asked.
“Yes, I would,” he said seriously. “You’ve made it clear that to be happy in this relationship, we must treat it like a partnership. That means you are equally entitled to go to Minsk as I am. More so, as it was you who was targeted by the man we are hunting.”
She hugged him around the middle, pressing her face into his chest and sniffling. He felt the wetness where her tears soaked into his shirt.
“Hey,” he said, taking her gently by the shoulders and pushing her away enough to see her face. “What are these tears, my angel? Tell me what has injured you and I will kill it.” He paused, then added, “Or hold it down so you may kill it yourself.”
She laughed, the sound a bit choked. “You’re what’s making me cry.
” She swiped at the tears. “All I’ve wanted my whole life is to stand out from my family, to stand separately as my own person.
Do you have any idea what a gift it is to hear you tell me I can make my own decisions?
Even go to Minsk where we don’t know what kind of threat we may be facing. It’s… it’s just wonderful. Thank you.”
“It humbles me that you would thank me for such a simple thing.” He tipped her face up to his, pressing a lingering kiss to her lips. “You have shown me how much sweeter life can be when the woman I love is empowered, rather than oppressed.”
Her eyes shone with what he hoped was love. “I’m not going,” she said decisively, stepping away from him and heading for the bedroom. “Come say goodbye to your daughter while I pack your bag.”
Confused, he followed her. “You said you wanted to come.”
She nodded, pulling a leather bag from the closet. "I do." She stopped, looking down at her daughter with tenderness. "I can't leave Rory. She needs me and I need her. This is my life now. Everything else pales in comparison."
“I feel the same,” he said.
She smiled softly. "I know." Then she became serious.
"I want to come, I really do, but my biggest responsibility lies here with our daughter and always will. What you guys are going to Minsk to do carries risks. You plan on capturing the Prime Minister and bringing him back if you can. I know you, Jozef and Havel are professionals, but things can still go wrong.” She folded a pair of fatigue pants and two shirts into the bag, adding a couple pairs of socks and underwear.
“We must be mindful of who we are and where we come from. Now that we have a child together, we have to mitigate risks. Which means one parent stays behind while the other takes the risk. This is how we will keep our family together, safe and whole.”
She walked past him toward the washroom, he assumed to get his toiletry kit. He grabbed her wrist, stopping her, pulling her down onto his lap where he sat on the bed. “Slow down.”
“The car leaves in a few minutes.”
He smoothed the curls off her forehead, enjoying the way they stubbornly sprang back into place. “The car won’t leave without me.”
She relaxed against him. “I suppose that’s true. As much as there does seem to be peace between you and my family, I think they’re still wary around you. Your violent reputation precedes you.”
“Rumors and lies,” he assured her.
“Leeza says its mostly true,” she countered with a raised brow.
Changing the subject, he said, “Do you have any idea how happy it makes me to hear you speak of our future as a family? It makes me want to conquer the world and place it at your feet.”
She snuggled against him, laying her head against his chest. “I don’t want the world, just you and Rory.”
“And so you will have us.”
“You haven’t had any nightmares since you’ve been here.”
He set his chin on top of her head. “When our daughter was born, when I was holding her in my hands, my fear for you choking me, the world rearranged itself. Everything became clear to me.”
She tilted her head to look at him. “What changed?” she asked softly.
“In that moment, my world, my wife, my daughter, everything was mapped out in front of me. So fragile, a thread about to be cut, lost to me forever. I knew nothing else mattered. Not the past, not the empire I’ve built, or the armies I have amassed.
Only a future that could have so easily disappeared.
It’s now my mission to do everything in my power to protect that future. ”
Her breath caught and her eyes sparked with tears as she gazed at him. She touched his face, cupping his cheek, running her thumb over his lips. “I love you, Muhammed.”
“And I love you, my angel.”