“Fuck,” I breathe.
“Yeah.”
“So Mikhail adopted and raised you.”
Iakov nods. “He was a good father. Better than Vasily ever would have been, that’s for damn sure. He wanted me to have a normal life, to be free of all this bullshit. But Vasily and Natalia kept pushing. They wanted me to take over the Bratva.”
I run a hand through my hair. This is all too fucking much.
“Don’t worry,” Iakov says when he sees me thinking. “I have no interest in the Bratva. You’re welcome to it.”
“You just want to see me in jail.”
“No, he doesn’t,” Arielle cuts in. “Not really.”
Iakov looks at her. “Arielle?—”
“You don’t,” she insists. “You don’t actually want him to suffer. You just want justice for your father.”
“My father killed himself because of him,” seethes Iakov, fists clenching up at his sides until the whites of his knuckles show through the skin.
“Your father killed himself because he was sick, depressed, and unhappy,” Arielle reminds him gently. “That’s not Stefan’s fault.”
“Of course it fucking is! Stefan exiled him. He destroyed his reputation. He?—”
“He was protecting his birthright. Just like Mikhail would have done if someone tried to take it from him. Or fromyou.”
Iakov’s jaw clenches. He doesn’t have a response to that.
Arielle stands, completely unconcerned by my gun, and walks over to him. She takes his hands in hers. “Let it go, baby. Please. For me.”
He looks down at her. At her face. At the love and concern written all over it.
Then he looks at me.
“Fine,” he says. “I’ll help you. But not for your sake. For hers.”
Arielle smiles. “That’s all I ask.”
I holster the gun. It no longer seems necessary. With one piece of paper, all the lines have been erased. The world as I knew it has been wiped clean and it’s up to us now to decide how it will look for the future.
“Where is Olivia?” I ask.
“I don’t know for certain,” he warns. “But I have an idea.” He clears his throat. “There’s a farmhouse about an hour north ofhere. It’s one of Natalia’s safe houses. She mentioned it once, years ago. Said it was remote. Off the grid.”
“You think she’d take Olivia there?”
“If she wanted to keep her hidden? Yes.”
I pull out my phone and call Taras. “I have a lead,” I say when he answers. “Farmhouse north of the city. Iakov’s going to text you the address. Meet us there.”
I hang up and look at Iakov. “You’re coming with me,” I tell him.
He sighs. He’s standing in the middle of the room, Arielle beside him. He looks... tired. Like he’s been carrying a weight for too long and is finally ready to set it down.
“If you hurt her,” he says quietly with a jerk of his head toward his woman, “I will kill you. Brother or not.”
“I’m not going to hurt her. Now, let’s go.”
