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“Can we go home now? I just want to go home.” I lean my head back against the headrest. I close my eyes, and the car door shuts. Panic sets in and I sit up, ready to bolt from the car. But then Roman’s there, on the other side of me. He shuts his door and slides over to me, wrapping me in his arms.
“We’re going home, baby,” he says and adjusts the blankets. “Arman, fast as you can. The doctor will meet us there.”
“Is that your brother?”
“Yeah, baby. Now just relax. Close your eyes and rest.” He kisses my forehead as the car starts and Arman drives from the lot.
Shots ring out behind us, but I don’t look. I don’t want to see. I don’t want to know. I just want to go home.
Roman
“She shouldn’t still be asleep!”I pace across the kitchen tile.
“You heard what the doctor said,” Arman says from the table. “She’s exhausted, she’s dehydrated, and has been through hell the last two days. He also gave her something to help her sleep, so it could be a few more hours.”
“I don’t like it.” I stop and lean against the countertop of the kitchen island.
Nikolai lifts an eyebrow. “There are limits to what even we can make happen, you know.”
“She’ll sleep as long as she needs to,” Charlotte, Nikolai’s wife says, resting her hand on his arm. “There were no life-threatening injuries, but what she endured—Roman, you need to give her time.”
I stare at my family: my brothers, their wives, our friends, crowded in my kitchen, all waiting for Billie to wake up. Most of them haven’t even met her yet, but here they sit.
“Son.” My father walks into the kitchen. He’s wearing a pair of dark slacks and a deep gray sweater. His shoes are freshly polished, and his hair is swept back away from his face. He’s every bit the force of a man I knew growing up, even with the gray hairs and the wrinkles around his eyes.
“Not now.” I put up a hand to stop him. We still haven’t heard what he’s doing here, but I have much bigger problems. I need to know from Billie’s own words they didn’t hurt her, that they didn’t put hands on my baby girl. I need to know where her hurts are so I can soothe them away.
“No.” His voice firms. “Now. Before your woman wakes up and you’re too busy with her to listen to me.” He points a finger at me. “And rightfully so.”
I sink onto one of the stools at the island.
“Fine.” I’m too exhausted to argue with this man.
“Mandy, Hanna, Charlie, let’s leave them—”
“No.” Dad cuts Anya off from corralling the women from the room. “I need you to hear this, too.”
Arman moves to his wife’s side and slides his hand in hers.
“All right.” Anya raises her chin. Even after my father tried to manipulate her from being part of Arman’s life, she’s been nothing but gracious to him. Forgiven him for sins that she had every right not to forgive.
“Like I said yesterday, I’m retiring. Completely removing myself from all of our family businesses. That includes everything back home in Russia,” he announces. “I’m moving away from Moscow.”
“Why?” I ask. “What’s changed? You wanted to rebuild our family back home, that’s what you said when you went back.”
He shakes his head. “What I built here, with you boys, this is what was important. I lost sight of my real family.” His eyes land on Anya and Arman. “Betrayal happens in our world, as you boys have seen firsthand. Like an idiot I thought I was immune to it, so when it happened to me, I allowed it to cripple me.” Igor sighs. “I made an unforgivable mistake with how I handled your marriage,” he says to Arman. “I don’t expect forgiveness.”
“You have it,” Anya says before Arman can respond. “Fathers—good fathers—do everything they can to protect their children. You thought you were doing that for Arman.”
Igor’s jaw tenses. “I did. But I was wrong.” He moves his eyes to me. “And trying to force you into a marriage not of your choosing is the action of an old man stuck in a different time. You’ll marry the woman upstairs, and together with your brothers you’ll take the Romanov family to new heights.” He pauses a beat. “Yefim Kozlov has been trying to move here for years, but his own father back in Moscow has been stopping him. He’s old, but he still holds more power than Yefim back there.” He whips a hand through the air. “Agh, his reasonings don’t matter, especially now. Your deception doesn’t constitute the actions they took. They planned to take her even before they knew about your lie. The Kozlovs’ expansion to Boston is over. They will have no support or protection here. They’re forced back to Europe.”
“They sell women,” Hanna says with bitterness.
Igor nods. “They do. But they won’t here. And not with our warehouses or our help. Without our support, they won’t be able to expand here, and with the families back home turning against them, they will have trouble expanding at all.”
“And what are you going to do now?” I ask. “You’re retiring. What does that look like?”
“Like you see.” He spreads his arms open. “I’m just asking to be grandfather to my grandchildren. I want nothing to do with the business anymore. I have enough money to last three lifetimes. I’m happy to play with my grandkids and watch my boys grow into strong fathers.”
