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The question sounds like a trick, but yes. That’s exactly what I want.
He can’t really be this angry, can he? Right now, I can forgive him. Our fight felt like a big deal at the time. Now, I know there are bigger issues, Benjamin’s safety being a huge one. But Timofey was still in the wrong. He lied to me and threw money around to get my father out of my life. If either of us has reason to be upset, it’s me.
“We can move forward.” I swallow down my nerves and jump into the vulnerability. “I don’t want things between us to be fake, Timofey. I want to be with you. I want to make things work.”
He grabs my chin and tilts my face up. I want to stand up so we’re at eye level. So I can see if what I’ve said is landing, if it’s breaking through his battle armor.
Then his hold turns to iron, and all I want is to get away.
I try to pull back, but he follows me. He shifts forward, wedging his knee between my legs and pinning my head against the back of the couch.
“Timofey. Please. I don’t understand.”
“It’s going to be a little hard for us to make things work,” he bites out. “I’m not sure I’m ready tomove onfrom the fact that you kidnapped my son.”
I blink up at him. “But I never—what? I didn’t write up the CPS report. Did another caseworker come to the house? I never recommended you be removed as Benjamin’s guardian.”
“Of course you didn’t. Why would you need to? You knew you were going to take matters into your own hands anyway.” Faster than seems possible, he grabs my wrists and spreads my arms along the back of the couch. He pins me down and leans over me, his breath hot on my face. “Where is he, Piper?Where the fuck is my boy?”
I struggle against his hold for a second before it’s painfully clear there will be no escape for me. In a battle of strength, Timofey will win every time.
“What are you talking about?”
His hands tighten around my wrists to the point I’m sure there will be bruises. “Tell me where Benjamin is. Now.”
I inhale sharply. “You don’t know where Benjamin is?”
Noelle.That’s my first thought. Blunt and stupid and obvious. She wanted me to get Benjamin away from Timofey. She has to be involved here.
But it’s only been a few hours since I saw her last. Surely she couldn’t have done anything since then, right?
It’s not as if the Bratva doesn’t have enough enemies. If the Albanians could get Noelle to turn on me, then they could have hired someone else to kidnap a baby.
No. It couldn’t have been her. She wouldn’t.
Would she?
“Tell me where he is!” Timofey roars when I take too long to answer.
He slides his knee further between my legs. My lower back is pinned to the couch, but as he stretches my arms further apart, I’m forced into an uncomfortable arch. The muscles in my back are burning from the position.
A whimper forces its way out of me. “You’re hurting me. Please.”
“I’m going to do a lot worse than this if you don’t tell me where he is.”
My shoulders are screaming. There’s so much happening inside my head that I can’t sort through it.
“Maybe…maybe…” Then it hits me. An epiphany that almost brings a smile to my face. “Rodion! It’s Rodion. He did this, Timofey. I didn’t trust him before, and now he is—”
“Dead.”
My face falls. “What?”
“Rodion is dead,” he repeats slowly. “A bullet blew his head open an hour ago. His body is still in my entryway.”
Hope drops like an asteroid in my stomach, cratering whatever semblance of calm I still have left.
Timofey will do anything for the people he loves. Including murder. I knew that. Iknowthat.
