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I walk into the house, and Vincent steps out of the living room, caution in his eyes.
He still has bruises on his face from what happened to him.
He looks me over. It’s the first time he’s seeing me with my hair this color. It must be odd. It was odd to me too to see myself like that. I liked it, so I decided to keep it as it is.
“Hello,” he says first and walks up to me.
“Hi.” Tears pull at the backs of my eyes, but I smile when he takes a lock of my hair and allows the ends to curl about his thumb.
“You look beautiful. You look like you should.” The corners of his lips tip up into a small smile.
“Thank you. How’s Timothy?”
“He’s okay. He’s back to being my little tyke.”
That makes me smile. “I’m glad he’s okay.”
“He is. Come,” he says and puts out his hand for me to take.
I take it and follow him into the living room. He sits me down on the sofa then settles in next to me and faces me.
“Did it all go okay?”
“It did. I didn’t stay for the execution. I didn’t need to.”
“I understand. I hoped you wouldn’t. You shouldn’t see a thing like that, no matter how evil the person is,” he states with a nod, and I agree.
“Thank you for giving me the power to do that.”
“Did it help you?”
“Yes.” It helped in a way I can’t fully express to anyone. I became the holder of Ilya’s fate, the way he was over me. “I feel like I can move past it now. The whole situation and everything helped me to move past my fears.”
He touches my hair again. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry any of it happened to you. I feel like I didn’t do enough to make them pay.”
“Vincent, there’s no more you could have done for me to make them pay. The people who hurt me most are dead.” There are more guys, more of them who worked for my uncle who hurt me, but I couldn’t face them. “There’s a new leader being called for the brotherhood. He’ll be dealing with the others in Russia who worked for my uncle. I know they’ll mete out justice, but I’m done there. I don’t know when I’ll go back, if ever. This trip felt like a mission of sorts.”
“Time will heal you properly now. It will heal you in a different way,” he assures me. “When it does, you’ll know how you feel about Russia. Until then, focus on you.” He gives my hand a gentle squeeze.
“Thank you. Thank you for everything. Absolutely everything. Thank you for saving me.” I wipe away a tear.
“You are more than welcome.”
“I’m not taking the money though.” I shake my head.
He raises his brows. “Why the hell not?” he asks in a lighter tone.
“You gave me two million dollars, Vincent. That’s an awful lot of money,” I breathe.
“Don’t you try to give it back. It’s a gift I want you to have.”
“I can’t take it.”
He chuckles. “Ava, I don’t know anyone who would turn away money like that. It’s in your account, and it’s staying there. You will have it. I am sorry about your father, Mark. This all started with him and that two million. You have it. See if you can achieve a dream or two with it. Maybe it may take you back to your first love. Dancing.”
Seriousness washes over his face, and the humor fades.
“Can’t I just… have you?” That’s what I want. It’s something I know I won’t get, though, from the somber look in his eyes. “Can’t I just be with you?”
