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Thank you, Ekaterina mouths to me. She strokes Ivy’s sweet blonde hair and gently rocks her. My heart warms. Ivy has moved from the only family she had and been welcomed with open arms into a new one.
This family isnothinglike mine.
I’m not sure what to think. My brother and father told stories of the Romanovs. We heard of their exploits and merciless cunning in the streets of The Cove. When I’d first arrived here, I’d wondered how much of that was exaggerated. But I’m on the inside now. I’m one of them. They wouldn’t treat me the way they’d treat an enemy.
I remember that Aleks said he’d pay a visit to my father tonight…
“We need to begin to plan the gala,” Ekaterina says.
“We have months still,” Nikko says, shaking his head.
Polina scoffs. “Spoken like a man,” she says, rolling her eyes. “Do you have any idea how far ahead most of our vendors are booking? Of course you don’t. You think we snap our fingers, and they just show up?”
Nikko shrugs. “That’s how Mikhail does it.”
She snaps back at him in Russian, and he responds with a quick retort. I have no idea what they’re saying, but after a few minutes of heated discussion, Aleks holds up a hand.
“Enough,” he says in that tone he has that demands attention. “Ivy’s sleeping. You two behave yourselves. Nikko, unless you’re planning on handling the details of the gala yourself, we do need to discuss it. But Polina, understand we don’t give a shit about details. We trust you to handle matters.”
She purses her lips and nods. “That’s fine. All we needed to do was make sure we vet the list of guests. You guys make friends and enemies so quickly, the people we are friends with one day are our archenemies the next, so we don’t want to misstep.”
Aleks shrugs. “Fair enough.”
She starts going down a list of names of people. The only ones I recognize are the Rossis from Boston, and based on the earlier discussion, I’d welcome them myself.
“What’s the gala?” I ask.
“Romanov family tradition,” Aleks supplies. “Every year, my family hosts a huge gala, a charity event with an elite guest list. We spend months planning the event. Last year’s function raised three million dollars for the children’s hospital.” He shrugs. “It allows us to maintain our front as a legitimate business while skillfully forming alliances and networking.”
Ah. “So a charitable front.”
“Mhm.” He turns to face the rest. “Does anyone else have business to bring up?”
“Viktor,” Nikko says, “I heard your little venture recently ran into some…turbulence. It’s a shame when people don’t see eye to eye. Do you need me to smooth things over?”
Ah. Here we go. The veiled hints at who they really are and what they really do. It’s like sitting at a dining table with vampireswho seem nice enough, until the hostess pours a glass of blood into a flute.
“I might need your help,” Viktor grumbles, his arms crossed on his chest. He doesn’t look like he needsanyhelp whatsoever, so the fact that he agrees tells me this is a big deal.
Lev speaks up. “Got Mikhail finally.”
“Sorry,” Mikhail says in a stage whisper as he appears on the screen. “This place has shitty Wi-Fi.”
“You mean the hospital?” Lev snorts. “Tell me about it.”
“Why didn’t you guys tell me? I could’ve helped you,” Aleks says. My master computer hacker. Of course he could.
“Aria said the same, but she’s been otherwise occupied,” Mikhail says.
“How is she?” I ask.
Mikhail smiles at me. “Harper. Good to see you at the family table. She’s amazing. Tired, sore, but says it was all worth it.” He pans the iPad over so we can see where Aria’s fast asleep beside a little bassinet with a baby rolled up like a baby burrito, all swaddled in blankets.
“Oh my God,” Polina says, covering her mouth with her hands. “Tell me they’re taking visitors!”
“Soon,” he says. “I promise.”
“I’m going to buy all the things and do all the things and you have no idea what you guys are in forrrr,” she singsongs.
