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That’s the key issue, isn’t it? If I dealt with everything according to how a don “should be,” I’d be acting in Sergey’s design. He’s the one who set the expectations, the demands, the standards.
And for a brief but dangerous moment, I was so close to becoming the beast he trained me to be.
I sigh and run a hand through my hair. I’m half-tempted to rip it out of my scalp. “If I’d been a man of my word, I would have believed you the first time. I never would have doubted you.”
If I’d acted like the man Emily believed me to be, enough to leave her only child in my care…
I shake my head before the tears have a chance to sting my eyes.
Suddenly, Piper is in front of me. She has her fists in my shirt and tears in her eyes. She’s looking up at me with as much sincerity as I’ve ever seen. “I have nothing to do with Benjamin’s disappearance, Timofey. You have to believe me.”
I take a deep breath. Hold it. “I do.”
She stifles a gasp. “You…you do?”.”
I let that breath out and nod. “I do. There’s too much pointing in a different direction. I think I’ve wasted enough time chasing the wrong shadows.”
Her suppressed giggle comes out in a very unattractive snort. I love it. Piper bites her lip for a moment, and I’m suddenly distracted by thoughts of biting that same lip myself. She breaks me from my reverie when she asks, “So does this mean you’re finally going to hunt down the ones who really did it?”
I raise my brows. “I didn’t know you were the vengeful type.” Butgoddamn, is it hot.
“That was before they took Benjamin. Before…” She blows out a shaky breath. “That was before Noelle betrayed me. Before she threw a tiny baby under the bus to protect herself. She is the one working with the Albanians, Timofey. Noelle wanted me to kidnap Benjamin for her, but I wouldn’t. So she took things into her own hands.”
I stare down at her as seconds stretch and pass without either of us saying anything.
Finally, Piper sighs and releases my shirt. She backs away. “If you don’t believe me, there isn’t anything else I can do to change your mind. So you might as well—”
“Give me your phone.”
I hold out my hand and she stares at it.
I wag my fingers. “Give me your phone.Now.”
Slowly, she obeys, sliding her phone into my palm. I unlock it and turn away. In her recent calls, I see Noelle’s number just before mine. Piper hasn’t called her from this phone once since before Benjamin disappeared.
I tap Noelle’s name and put the phone to my ear. Each ring lasts a lifetime, waiting to see if Noelle will answer. It’s the only thread of Piper’s story I’ve refused to unravel because of how fucking unlikely it seems.
Instead, the voicemail beeps and that thread starts to fray.
“If you don’t return my son to me immediately, you traitorous bitch, I will make you beg for a life in prison,” I growl. “Return Benjamin to my house immediately. If you fail, I’ll use all of my energy to make your life as excruciating as possible.”
I hang up before I crush the phone in my hand and turn back to Piper. She’s staring at me, her mouth hanging open.
When I hold her phone out, she takes it with trembling fingers. “Does this mean…we’re good?”
I nod. “Yeah. We’re good.”
21
TIMOFEY
I peer through the curtain down at the street below. In the heat of the afternoon, most people are off the streets. The shop on the corner has a “Closed” sign in the front window. Even the man with the rickshaw who has been preying on the hotel’s guests relentlessly since I arrived has his feet kicked up on the dash and a hat pulled down low over his eyes.
“I don’t think you were followed.”
I turn back to the room and glance around. Piper is sitting on the edge of the sofa. Her elbows are on her knees, her back hunched. The shaft of light from the window angles across her face. When she looks over at me, she squints.
“Really?” she asks.
