Page 40 of The Promise

It wasn’t that he’d assumed he would stay with Karine at the lodge in Vermont either. He just hadn’t considered the minor details because the overall picture had finally started to make sense to him when he had the idea in the first place.

“Karine won’t like that,” Roman admitted.

Quietly.

He didn’t want to say it, but he felt like he should. How would she cope alone? None of this was easy.

Demyan studied him before saying, “Something tells me you don’t like the idea of being far from her, either.”

Right on time once again, the waitress arrived with a beaming smile and a stack of pancakes to quiet the two men. He was grateful that his father seemed happy to let the woman serve them for a moment because it gave him a few seconds to gather his thoughts.

Roman knifed through three pancakes in the stack of six as the brunette left as fast as she came. He wasn’t hungry, but his body needed sustenance, and it gave him something to do with his hands. Both good things. He didn’t want to delve too deep into what exactly he felt for Karine.

He didn’t need to be told to know he already felt too much.

“Vermont does feel like the safest option for everyone,” Demyan eventually said, breaking the silence between them. “I agree there, Roman. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

He nodded, but said nothing.

Understanding he’d have to be separated from Karine for a long period of time in the process of everything worried him. A lot. But he’d been the one to suggest it—even if he hadn’t thought it through—and his father was up for the plan, and ready to remind him of why it was a good idea in the first place.

“It will also give you the opportunity to go about business in Brighton Beach without her in tow. If you’re being watched by Dima’s men, they won’t know where to look for her if she’s not with you. On the other side of that same coin, it may give us a bit of time if they come here expecting her with you, and she’s not. Either way, it works.”

“I don’t need to be convinced. It was my idea.”

In a sigh, Demyan murmured, “But you don’t like it.”

Roman could have just as easily brushed it off, and if he were a humble man, he’d admit he didn’t need to say anything because his father could already see it written on his face. For once, though, he didn’t want to be any kind of man except the one his father expected him to be, so all he said was, “You’re right—I don’t like it.”

“Is it ... a sense of responsibility? A duty for what might happen to her if not for your meddling?”

Roman said nothing because what he was really thinking about was the look of disappointment and sadness on Karine’s face when he was leaving the room this morning. That had very little to do with his sense of responsibility, or duty.

What was she going to say when he told her they would have to live apart for a while—would that push her back?

For once, Demyan didn’t seem to mind his son’s silence when it was clear he also wanted an answer. The two men ate their pancakes in silence, and eventually gulped down the remainder of their lukewarm coffee.

Roman wasn’t entirely sure how he was going to break the news of Maxim’s death to Karine, either. How complex and dark was the relationship with her father that she’d somehow manifested a whole identity to kill him?

What he knew to be true about Maxim’s relationship with his daughter certainly didn’t lend toward his final message for her. Because yeah, Roman hadn’t forgotten about that little detail from his father—he wanted Karine to know her father loved her.

What the fuck was he supposed to do? Wouldn’t it be a better idea to shield her from it now that nothing could be changed? That seemed cruel, too, but he really did believe the past should stay where it belonged.

“Your mother could join her in Vermont,” Demyan said without warning, breaking Roman from his thoughts.

He looked up, then, not quite sure he’d heard his father right. “Ma?”

“You know, she used to be a nurse. Sure, she worked mainly with kids and in the NICU, but she could help if Karine needed something.”

“I thought you wanted her far away from—”

“Seems our issue with Chicago, and Karine, might be around for a while. Your mother would appreciate knowing, in that case. It’ll keep her safe, too, if activity picks up in Little Odessa,” Demyan added.

Placing his cutlery to the table, Demyan then pulled out his wallet and left too many bills to count in the middle. The waitress, whom he didn’t even particularly like, would get a decent tip—as Roman suspected.

They stood up together, the rest of the day looming ahead of both men, but for entirely different reasons, Roman suspected.

“Son,” Demyan said right before he stepped away from the table. “I give it no more than a week before Dima’s men start to find their way here. That’s how much time you have to settle the girl in. Go to Vermont with her, but within the week, you need to be back here if you want to come out of this thing alive. Don’t draw them to her.”