“It will take you a day to fly back with her. I’ve also sent you the staged photos of him.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
His gaze goes to the hall. “Is she ready to go back?”
There’s no point in telling him no. I have no choice but to bring her back and I don’t want him to decide to kill her instead if he thought she would say something. She’s not going to. Not after what we just shared. I can tell. She’s not acting or trying to pull the wool over my eyes. If she wanted me dead, she wouldn’t have tried so hard this morning to stop me.
“Yeah. I keep her chained because I don’t want her trying to go back on her own and running into bears or something out there. But she said she wouldn’t go to the cops, she knows how much her father hates them. And she told me she doesn’t want him to kill me either. She’s going to pretend that Sacha told her about what he really does.”
Dad runs his hand over his grey hair. “Does she still need the files about our family history? I can still get them to her. They’re in my office, but I hadn’t planned on coming here today so I didn’t grab them.”
I wave him off. “I’m sure she would be interested in learning more, but you can get them to her on your own time. She’s still processing everything, but I don’t think we’ll have to kill her.”
He lets out a sigh and stands. “Well, now that you know and you two aren’t dead, I’m going to head back to the city. Just don’t fuck this up. Don’t let Michail sniff out that this happened any different than it has. We don’t want to burn the bridge with Kotovs after how long it has been standing.
I step over to the door to let him out. “I won’t. Where are you going?”
He peers over his shoulder as he steps toward the small hallway that leads to the bedroom. “I have to take a leak, and why use the woods when there’s a perfectly fine bathroom here?
My heart hammers. He’s going to smell the sex in there. We haven’t had a chance to air out the room, and it’s not like there was air flow happening while we were sleeping. I follow him some, stopping at the edge of the doorway.
Josie, sits on the bed with a book in her hands. The one that we were reading last night before we passed out. I hadn’t expected everything to change like it did this morning.
She looks up from the book and smiles at him. “Hello, Mr. Bancroft.”
He nods to her. “Hello, dear. Give me just a moment.” He closed the bathroom door.
We look at each other.
“What’s going on?” she mouths at me.
I shake my head, not wanting to tell her while he can hear.
She points to something on the ground and I move into the room to peer at the floor. The towel I used to clean us up earlier lays there. Would he know what it was used for? Josie motions for me to throw it to her and I pick it up and toss it at her. She quickly balls it and tosses it under the bed just as the toilet flushes.
I move back to the doorway as he steps out. He stops and turns toward the bed. “How are you, Miss Kotov? Is my son taking care of you despite his lack of cooking skills? I’m sorry he fed you raw pork. I would’ve thought that by now he would know that pork isn’t like beef.”
She frowns for a second before she schools her features into a smile. She laughs. “Well, the sides he makes are edible, so I’ve been surviving. And please, call me Josie. We’ve known each other for decades now, sir.”
He runs a hand over his hair. “Please, you can call me Will. Sir sounds too formal as does Mr. Bancroft at this point.” He sighs. “Listen, none of this situation is ideal. I’m sorry you had to find out the truth after all these years this way. It was a harsh way of showing you the reality of things. I always told Michail treating you like a glass doll would come back to bite him in the ass one day, but he’s stubborn and refused to listen to me. I made sure to do the opposite with Ros and she turned out just fine. She’s the best on our team.”
She’s also the most emotionally distant, well, other than Porter. But Porter has anger issues. I’m not sure either end of the spectrum is the best choice. It should’ve been somewhere in the middle for all of us kids. At least, that’s what I feel.
She shrugs. “It is what it is, Will. I would’ve found out one day. And don’t worry. I already told Cason that I’ll keep what really happened this last week a secret. The only ones that will know are us and your other sons. I promise.”
I didn’t tell her to say that, but it lines up with what I told him, so at least our asses will be covered.
Dad gives a bow of his head. “I’ll have to stop into your bakery for a bagel with cream cheese one of these days. It’s been a while since I was there. I have some things you might find interesting now that you know the truth about our families.
She nods. “You’re always welcome, si...Will.”
“Well, I best be headed back to the city. It’s a drive from here.” He walks toward me and I let him pass before I follow him to the door.
He stops at it and rests his hand on the knob. He sighs and turns to me. “Son, I’m not an idiot.”
I tilt my head to the side and frown at him, even though my heart thuds in my ears. “I never said you were, sir.”
“It smells like sex in there and she looks fucked to hell and back. What the hell were you thinking.”
