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She was encouraged when his expression didn’t immediately turn to one of rage. “Would you like to share your reason?”
“I feel so helpless. You’re working night and day, trying to figure out who’s attacking the bratva, and I can’t do a single thing to help. I thought…” She sighed, feeling stupid. “I thought maybe she would let something slip, or maybe I would catch her in a lie that would be telling or… I don’t know. Something.” She shook her head. “It was the only thing I could think to do, but I know now it was foolish.”
He bent to give her a quick kiss. “Not foolish. Lovely of you. Visiting Aksana is never a pleasurable way to spend an afternoon. Do I want to know what she said?”
No. No, you don’t. And I’ll never, ever tell you how little regard she has for you.
“She claims she’s staying to enjoy the city. I tried to push, but she just made light of it, said it was a kind of game.”
His eyebrows knit together. “A game?”
She shrugged. “She said it was all a game and if I didn’t know that I was a fool.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were going to pay her a visit?” he asked.
“Because I knew you’d try to talk me out of it, or that you’d want to come with me, and honestly, the only thing that felt worse than suffering through a visit with her myself was making you suffer through one. I always planned to tell you. I just wanted to wait until after it was done.”
A slow smile broke across his face. “Forgiveness rather than permission?”
She laughed. “Something like that.”
“I understand,” he said. “It was good of you to try and protect me, to try and help, but you must promise to never do it again, not without me, or at the very least Alek or Rurik.”
She nodded. “Your turn.”
“My turn what?” he asked innocently.
She slapped at his arm. “You’re not getting out of this. You have something to tell me too.”
He looked at the fountain, his expression suddenly serious, as if he were seeing something other than the crowd of people milling around the fountain and sitting at its edge. “When you agreed to marry me, it was in exchange for a voice in the bratva. You wanted to be a partner in all things.” He turned to look at her. “I don’t think it will come as a surprise to you to know that I didn’t want that at all.”
She laughed. “You made it quite obvious.”
“I was a fool,” he said. “You’ve proven over and over again that you’re an asset to the bratva. To me. You see things I don’t, and it makes me proud and grateful to have you as my partner. But to truly be partners, I have to be honest. About everything.”
Fear thrummed through her body. She sensed something very bad coming.
She squeezed his hand. “Tell me.”
“I’ve made plans for us to leave Chicago, to leave the country.” Shock dropped into her stomach like a lead weight as he continued. “I hope it won’t be necessary. I hope we’ll figureout whoever is behind the attacks on the bratva. I hope that our baby will be born here, in the city we both love. I hope that he or she will be raised in the Lake Forest house like we planned. But…”
His voice trailed off. “But?”
He laughed a little, running a hand through his dark hair. “I find the bratva is no longer the most important thing in my life.”
She lifted a hand to his cheek. “Lyon…”
He held his hand over hers, then captured it in his. “I can’t risk something happening to you and the baby. It’s the one thing I can’t live with, the one thing I would never be able to forgive myself for. The one thing I won’t survive.” He took a deep breath. “I have passports ready, and cash. We have the offshore accounts. We would be very comfortable anywhere we decided to go. I’ve given myself three more weeks to figure out who’s behind the attacks on our business. If we haven’t done it by then, we have to run.”
She could tell he had to force the last word from his mouth, and she knew it was because there was no more distasteful word to the Lion than that one.
Run.
But he would do it. For her. For their baby.
“Three weeks,” she said.
He nodded. “That will give us a month to get settled, to prepare for the baby somewhere else.”
