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Nikolai swallowed hard. I knew the gut reaction he was having. I had it myself in Viktor’s presence. The man was pure evil, a demon who had tortured and abused his sons and tried to turn them into his mirror image. As the prospect of fatherhood bore down on me, I knew I’d kill anyone who treated my child the way Viktor had treated us.
“Let’s go, Princess.”
* * *
Only once Mollywas securely back in The Tower with its increased security, did I venture out to Pravda. The music pounded in my bones as soon as I stepped through the doors, a tattoo of the oncoming war beating in my blood. I went directly to my office tucked far beyond the front of the house.
Opening the door, I found my brother had beaten me to my chair.
“Move,” I told Nikolai as I rounded the desk and sat in his vacated seat.
“Did you see your wife home safely?”
“Why?” I asked immediately. I didn’t like Niko asking me about Mallory at all, and he seemed to know it. As a result, he did it constantly.
“She’s a rare and special treasure. I’d take good care of her, that’s all.”
“Watch it when you talk about my wife. You already knew when you gave her money and a car to escape me she was carrying my child, I presume?” I demanded, anger ringing in my tone.
Nikolai merely smiled. “I didn’t even consider it before I knew she was pregnant.”
Letting out an incredulous laugh, I sank back and stared at my brother. “I swear, I never know what the fuck is going to come out of your mouth,” I confessed. “So, you wanted to take my kid from me, as well as the woman I planned to marry?”
“I didn’t want to take anything from you. It wasn’t about you. I know that might be difficult for someone with your size ego to imagine, but I’m being honest.”
“Watch it,” I warned, annoyance lashing in my veins. I stared at my brother, trying to figure out his unpredictable mind.
“I did it for her, and for Irina Bulgakova and Fiona Lewis.” Nikolai dropped my gaze as he spoke our mother’s names. “Mallory should get to choose if she wants their lives, not be forced into one.”
“I’d never treat Mallory like Viktor treated Irina or Fiona.”
“Wouldn’t you? Did you give her a say in her future?”
My anger turned inward, burning my chest with its heat. It was much easier to dismiss Nikolai when he didn’t say things that were so searingly true.“I may not have planned to, but I gave her a choice, in the end, and she chose me. Knowing the entire story between us, she chose me.”
Nikolai smirked, but there was a wistful quality to it that made it oddly compelling.“Then you’re lucky, and I congratulate you on your marriage.”
That statement was the most genuine thing that had passed between us in seven years of knowing each other.
Then Nikolai spoke again and ruined it, as only he could.“Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of her and the baby once I’mpakhan.”
“We both know that’s not going to happen,” I ground out. “Anyway, we have Viktor to worry about first. Just make sure he doesn’t suspect your shifting alliances.”
Nikolai stood and shrugged on his heavy leather jacket. “Oh, Kirill, he won’t suspect a thing because my alliances haven’t shifted an inch.”
I watched him as he sauntered toward the door.
He paused with his hand on the handle. “I’m on my side, and only my side. See you soon,bratan.”
23
MOLLY
Cedar Green nursing home was as beautiful as I remembered. It was Sunday visiting hours, and I was heading inside with Federica.
“Lori!” Gladys, my favorite nurse, and my mother’s dedicated caretaker, rushed toward us. “And Federica too. What a lucky day.”
I hugged Gladys, enjoying the older woman’s comforting touch. Even when I’d been a penniless bartender, scraping tips together to pay for my mother’s care, Gladys had been kind and always gone out of her way to look after my mother.
