I stand straighter. I was half expecting this. “I wasn’t, sir. It happened.”
He looks me dead in the eye. “Are you going to let it happen again?”
Is there a point in lying to him? He’ll see through it. He’s the one who taught me how to lie.
I brace myself for the inevitable punch that’s going to happen. My nose just stopped hurting, but I guess we’re going for round two. “I want it to, after she has time to settle, I’m going to talk to her father. I know it breaks the promise, I don’t care. You can disown me, it won’t stop me from pursuing her. I’ll make my own way. I didn’t want you to find out like this.”
He sighs and he raises his hand, instead of punching me, he lays it on my shoulder. “Honestly, I can’t say I’m surprised. Anyone with a brain cell can see you two have chemistry, and when I left here, I had a feeling something might happen. I’m too old to be angry over a promise made so long ago. In fact, I had a thing with Juliet back in the day, it was just for fun, we never planned on taking it to a serious level, so no one found out. But had I been in love with her I would’ve told everyone to fuck off.
My eyes widen. Juliet Kotov was Michail’s twin sister. She’s lived through six husbands and is working on securing her seventh who is twenty years her junior. “I think you dodged a bullet with that one, but it’s not like that with Josie. I don’t want this to be a fling we take to our graves.”
He nods. “Well, Michail has always been the uptight one when it comes to that promise, so if he doesn’t kill you with his bare hands, then I give you my blessing to see where it goes.”
A smile pulls at my lips. I hadn’t expected this from him. I expected him to lose his shit, that he warned me, or that they’ve been driving home the Bancrofts can’t mix with Kotov promise for as long as I can remember. “Thank you, dad. I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect this from you. I thought you would flip your shit.”
He laughs and rubs at one of his eyes. “Like I said, I’m getting too old to care about that kind of thing. She’s not blood, she’s of age, you can do whatever the hell you two want as long as you’re happy. But her father can never find out about what actually happened. She has to stick to the story that Sacha took her.”
I nod. “I know. I’ll make sure she has a story to give him matches with what we came up with and the evidence we send him.”
With a nod and not another word he leaves to go to his Ford Mustang, a gift he bought himself when he hit his midlife crisis a few years back.
I watch him go and then close the door. My heart won’t stop racing. I still can’t believe that I got his blessing to date, Josie. I hadn’t been expecting this. All this time I thought he would bring hellfire down on me for even toying with the idea of being with her. My mother won’t care. She’s never cared about that kind of thing, but then she wasn’t born a Bancroft. She married into it, so the promise wasn’t drilled into her skull at every event.
I turn to go back to the room, but stop at the kitchenette and pick up the gun. I put it back in its place and sigh. I’m glad he didn’t press me about that. I don’t know what kind of lie I would’ve come up with, nor do I ever want to tell him the truth of how low I got after he was so accepting of it. He never needs to know what point I got to mentally. I just wish he had told me a long time ago that he didn’t care.
If I had known the truth I would’ve pursued her a long time ago.
With the gun safely out of sight but where I can get to it fast if something happens, I head back to the room. She sits on the edge of the bed. “I heard what he said to you. He doesn’t care if we’re together.”
I nod and smile. Going to her I pick her up and hug her tight. “Now, all we have to do is win over your father.”
I set her back down and kiss her. I run a hand over her hair and lean down to press my forehead to hers. “I love you.”
She reaches up and wraps her arms around my neck. “I love you, too.”
Chapter Sixteen
Josie
I sitat the table with Cason as we eat our last meal in this cabin together. I’m sad we won’t get to spend as much time together as I thought we would be able to, but I’m glad my feelings are finally known to him and that he returns them.
“So, tell me the story again, we have to make sure your father believes it and he doesn’t question you about it later on.”
I push the roast beef around the plate. “Sacha found out about the security cameras and used them against me to lure me there and find out what he was doing. I was foolish and didn’t go without calling him first because I didn’t think that Sacha would try to hurt me. He kept me somewhere dark for two days, and I could hear him speak Russian with another man but couldn’t make out what was said. The next thing I know he’s carting me through the airport, having paid off several TSA agents to let us through right away, while he threatened to kill my whole family to keep me in line.”
He nods, taking a bite of meat. “Good. Then what happened?”
“We get there and I learn they’re wanting to sell me into sex trafficking. I tried to fight Sacha, and I didn’t know who the other man was but he had black hair with white streaks. They subdued me with more threats about what they would do to my mother. After two days, their buyer didn’t show, and you showed up in his stead. You killed Sacha but the other man got away while you were making sure if I was alright. We took the first flight back to New York and didn’t land until two hours before you dropped me off.”
Cason reaches across the table for my hand. “This is going to work, he’ll never learn of what really happened. I or one of my brothers will have to go kill his competitor, but don’t worry. He’s an evil man involved in sex trafficking. We would’ve taken him out by now, but he’s one of those red flags I was telling you about. We’ll figure out how to get rid of him. I doubt your father will stop at nothing once he learns of the story to take him down or destroy his business from the inside out.”
Knowing that he’s not a good man helps make me feel less horrible, but I don’t think any of this will ever get easy. “I know, but do we have to be apart for three weeks? I don’t want to be away from you that long. Can’t I just hide out at your house since your dad doesn’t care?”
He shakes his head. “No, he’ll more than likely be watching both of us. We need to let enough time pass for him to calm down. Perhaps talk about me and me saving you. Maybe he won’t be shocked that you fell in love with me after I saved you. If he’s willing to break your heart over a promise for some rule, then we’ll figure something out. But as painful as it is, we should keep our distance from one another until we’re ready to strike. If he’s still full of rage, there will be no getting through to him. I’ve known your father long enough to know there’s no reasoning with him when he’s mad even if the reason is dead. If he has me go after Petrov, I could be gone for a week or more anyway.”
I bite my lip. “And I can’t text you? What if we got burner phones? Speaking of phones, where is mine?”
Cason lifts his hand to rub at the back of his neck and doesn’t look me in the eye. “I had to destroy it so it wouldn’t be tracked. I’m sorry. I’m going to get you another one when we get into town. As for a burner phone, if his spies come back saying you’re using two phones, and trust me they’ll know, they’ll say something to him. He’s more paranoid than you think. He might think you turned spy on him for the cops. I know he loves you, but I’m certain he loves himself more.”
