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It was the truth, but it didn’t solve their very real manpower problem. Lyon needed to figure out who was behind the attacks and stop the bleeding once and for all.
It was wearing on him too. He wanted to spend time with Kira before the baby came, wanted to go shopping and help her with the nursery and make love to her with their child between them.
The impending birth of their child was an ever-present hourglass in the background of their lives. They had less than two months before the baby would be born, which meant Lyon had only a few weeks to neutralize their enemy before he’d have to make a decision about leaving for Kira’s safety.
“I’m going to call Kofi,” Lyon said, reaching for his phone.
“He’s working on it,” Alek said.
Lyon sighed and left his phone in his pocket. The cyberlab was in its infancy. Kofi was working as fast as he could to setup backdoor access to the video recordings on the traffic cams surrounding the businesses that had been targeted.
It just wasn’t fast enough.
Lyon looked at his friend. “You have an extra passport, yes?”
Surprise flickered in Alek’s eyes. “Yes.”
“Good. Make sure you have cash in addition to that offshore account too,” Lyon said.
Alek rubbed one of his cheeks. “Something I should know?”
“Not yet,” Lyon said.
Alek cocked an eyebrow. “But?”
Lyon hesitated. He trusted Alek with his life, but Lyon still hesitated to voice his backup plan.
“I have to think about Kira, about the baby,” Lyon said. “I’m planning for every eventuality.”
He’d already secured three different passports for them both, in three different names, from three different countries. He had more than one offshore account that could be accessed from anywhere, plus a numbered Swiss account, and he’d increased the amount of cash he kept in a safe in the penthouse just to be safe.
If he had to get Kira out, it would be in style. They could live privately and luxuriously in any number of other countries.
He stifled the pang of disappointment that punctured his chest. He’d only ever wanted to rule the bratva, to make his father — god rest his soul — proud by claiming the role that would have been his if he hadn’t died in prison.
“Fuck,” Alek muttered.
“Nothing’s been decided,” Lyon said. “And if we had a face for the enemy, if we knew who was behind it all, we could fight. But this…” Lyon looked through the windshield as Stefan lit a cigarette, the match briefly flaring before disappearing in the dark. “I can’t protect her from something I can’t see.”
Saying it out loud chilled him to the bone. He’d failed her once.
It wouldn’t happen again.
He wouldn’t allow it.
34
Kira held onto Lyon’s hand as they walked through Grant Park, the lights in the city’s skyscrapers glowing softly against the twilight sky. People milled about on the paths, everyone enjoying the warm summer evening, the quiet chatter of conversation and laughter filling the air.
“This is the perfect end to a perfect day,” she said.
Lyon kissed her head and tightened his hand around hers. “Agreed.”
They’d started out with a whirlwind baby shopping spree at Bloomingdales, where they’d picked out a crib, stroller, and car seat, plus a few odds and ends.
After that, they’d visited several small boutiques, laughing and arguing over the bedding and towels, the little shoes and tiny clothing, toys the baby wouldn’t use for years but that Lyon insisted on purchasing anyway, along with a million little things the baby probably didn’t need at all.
Kira didn’t have the heart to tell him they were buying far more than the baby needed, that they would likely need to pack some of it away in the Lake Forest attic until the baby was older. She had the sense that Lyon needed this as much as she did,that he was making up for both lost time and for their uncertain future, and she didn’t have the heart to dampen his spirits.
