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I walk with Dr. Jenkins to the heavy door that seals off the safehouse from the rest of the basement. “If you’re looking for a reason to spend a little more time away from Vera and Usev, you can stay down here for a bit. You don’t have to rush upstairs after my appointment.”
“I wouldn’t want to intrude.”
“No intrusion! I can imagine it would be nice to be able to have a conversation with someone. Vera and Usev don’t speak English, do they?”
“I’m picking up some Russian here and there. Vera and Usev keep to themselves a lot anyway.”
“Another reason why you can stay down here. If you want the company?”
I don’t say it, but I know what it’s like to be cooped up against your will. Before Mariya and I were on friendly terms, I was miserable. I hate thinking that Dr. Jenkins feels that way because of me.
He grips the door and keeps his eyes on the floor. “Thank you for the offer, Luna, but I don’t think that would be appropriate.”
“Probably not,” I admit, “but since you’re living above my ultra-secret safehouse bunker, I think we’re past the normal doctor-patient relationship. I don’t want to pressure you, but I feel bad that you’re stuck here because of me.”
“I’m not here because of you,” he says softly.
He seems to regret the words as soon as they’re out of his mouth. He sucks in his cheek and shifts from foot to foot.
“Yakov,” I fill in softly. “I know he’s protective, but he’s worried about me. He’s intense, but it comes from a place of love. He’d do anything to keep me safe.”
“I know he would.” His voice comes out high and tight. He steps through the door and starts to pull it closed. “I’ll be back tomorrow to check on you. Same time.”
“Okay. See you tomorrow,” I say, but my words are cut off by the slamming of the door.
Mariya pops her head out of the room a second later. “I heard the door close. Is he gone? Is your vagina put away?”
“You walked in on one exam, Mariya. Let it go. It’s not like I was in active labor.”
“Active labor would have been better,” she says, hopping over the back of the couch to sprawl across the cushions. “Dr. Jenkins was two fingers deep in you. It was perverted.”
“It was a pelvic exam.”
“It was uncomfortable,” she fires back.
I sit next to her, my feet propped up on the coffee table. “It was only uncomfortable because you made a joke about me cheating on your brother and I was forced to inform you that your brother is way less clinical when he puts?—”
“La la la la!” Mariya clamps her hands over her ears. “Forget I mentioned it. I will never speak of it again so long as you swear to never mention where my brother ‘puts’ anything.”
I flash her a grin. “Deal.”
Mariya shakes her head like she’s scrubbing her brain of the thought. Then she slips seamlessly back into the conversation. “How is good old Dr. Jekyll?”
“Dr. Jenkins,” I correct. “And fine, I guess. I told him he could hang out down here with us if he wanted, but he acted like I asked him to do the same thing you just swore you’d never joke about again. He could not have been less interested. I didn’t realize hanging out with us could be a threat.”
“I’m sure it has nothing to do with us and everything to do with the fact that my brother has Dr. Jenkins’ balls in a vise grip.”
I shake my head. “What does that mean? Yakov is paying him to be here. It’s not like he’s being blackmailed.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure. Dr. Jenkins is one of the best OB-GYNs in the country, right?” she asks. “I doubt he’s desperate for cash. Even if he is, he can’t be bad enough off that he’d willingly stay here for weeks on end to take care of you. Whatever Yakov has on him, it must be big.”
I think about it for a second and then curse under my breath. “When am I going to stop being so naive about how your world works? I just assumed Dr. Jenkins was doing all of this for the money. I didn’t even consider—What do you think Yakov has over him? He’s still a real doctor, right? He seems real enough.”
“I’m sure he’s legit. Yakov wouldn’t have brought him here if he wasn’t. But who knows what Yakov has over him?” she shrugs. “With guys like that, it can be anything: gambling debts, addiction, blackmail from hiring a hitman to kill his wife. Either Yakov has some dirt on him or Dr. Jenkins needs something from him.”
“I don’t love the idea of the man who is going to deliver my babies having killed his wife, so let’s delete that from the list of possibilities.”
I lounge back on the couch, eventually wedging a pillow under my lower back. I’ve had a constant back ache for the last week. I was hopeful it would go away, but I’m more and more confident every day that it’s here to stay. Another glorious pregnancy symptom.
