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“It sounds like another prison,” I said softly.
“It isn’t. We have the best men, they will keep you safe.”
As long as I did as Aslanov said. I could read it in the subtext. Well, we would see about that. I hadn’t come here to become a princess in a tower.
I took a deep breath. “Let’s go and face the czar.”
Aslanov was like nothing I had imagined. He was every preconception I ever had about Russian mobsters, put together in one attractive package wearing a blue pinstriped suit.
The first thing I noticed was a deep scar on his left cheek. I wondered who had put it there. Or had it perhaps been an accident? Somehow, I doubted the latter. Second, I noticed how much we looked alike. He had the same color eyes, the same hair color—a deep blond—and even the same skin tone as me. It was like looking into a mirror, in a way. I’d always suspected Sokolov had found out who I was because of my resemblance to my mother, but perhaps it was also because I looked uncannily like my father.
He stood by a window, in front of an oak desk. The light cascaded over his skin, putting half his face into shadows.
I didn’t know how to react, what to say, and stood before him for a few awkward seconds.
His hands were in his pockets, so I assumed he didn’t feel too confident about this meeting either.
Then he spoke to me. “You look so much like your mother.”
It was that gravel-toned remark that eventually broke me. Like a child, tears sprung into my eyes, and my shoulders shook.
He was in front of me in two steps, and took me into his burly arms. For a second I froze, unsure of how to act around this man who had been described as a boogeyman to me.
But then he spoke my name. “Ekaterina.” He said a lot of nonsense words in Russian, but they were soothing, like a balm to my soul. All I could think of was my mother. No matter how much I tried, her image in those crime scene photos were seared into my brain.
Part of me wished I had never seen them, but I knew it was the only way I would have ever believed Ilya when he’d told me about her. Because I hadn’t wanted to believe that the woman who had never hurt a fly in her life, was violated and beaten to death. And honestly, I wished she had died in a car accident. At least then I could believe that she’d died quickly, without any pain. That’s what Kristoff had told me.
I stiffened when I thought back on how he had made it sound like she’d had a merciful death. I had been broken by the end of his story. But not as broken as I was right now with the knowledge that she had suffered right until her very last breath.
I pulled back from Aslanov, feeling embarrassed that I just cried all over his white shirt. I hadn’t even properly greeted the man and here I was, already clinging to him like some weak simpleton.
“I’m sorry.” I wiped away my tears and stepped back.
He gestured to a leather Chippendale couch in the corner, and I sat down, suddenly feeling overwhelmed.
“You have nothing to apologize for.” He had a heavy accent, but there was no malice in his voice.
Once again I was reminded of the preconceived notions I’d had of him. I expected him to look and speak like a devil, sans the pitchfork.
“I’m usually not this weepy,” I said softly. “It’s just that I had no idea about what truly happened to my mom.”
He cursed something under his breath and waved at someone next to us. It was then I remembered Ilya was in the room as well. His jaw clenched, but he left without a word.
“Inessa was avenged.” For a moment there was a deadly spark in his eyes.
I didn’t know how to respond to that, other than the fact that one vengeful act had led to another, and that my mother had been killed because of Aslanov’s cruelty in the first place. I thought all of that and more, but I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t want to rock the boat. Not yet, anyway.
“I want you to tell me about my mom.”
He grabbed my hands, which were calloused, yet warm. “I met your mother when she slapped my face in the middle of a busy cafe.”
I blinked. He smiled.
“She thought I had dumped her friend, but one of my brigadiers was to blame, not me.”
From there he spun a tale of my mother’s fierceness, and how they had gotten together. I listened with tears in my eyes and a smile on my face. Coming here had been the best decision I had made in a long time.
Right up until the moment when we walked into the dining room, and I came face to face with Svetlana.
