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He shook himself out of the haze of memory and went to the closet to remove his weapon from the safe, then started down the hall.
He found Olivia sitting on the couch, playing with the little figures she carried everywhere and singing a song from one of the movies she watched over and over again.
“Where’s your backpack?” he asked.
She gave a small shrug of her shoulders and Adam felt the anger rise in him all over again.
“Well, go get it,” he said. “I don’t need another email from Ms. Moretti about tardiness.”
Olivia acted like she hadn’t heard him.
“Get the fucking backpack Olivia.” She startled at the sound of his raised voice. “Do it now or you’re going to feel my hand on your ass.”
She looked up at him, her defiant expression a replica of the one Ruby wore when she was being a bitch.
“You said bad words. And Mommy says it’s not nice to hit,” Olivia said.
“Yeah?” He stared his daughter down. “Well,Mommyisn’t here now is she?”
For a few seconds, she didn’t move. He wondered if she would call his bluff, almost wished she would call his bluff so he could deliver the ass-kicking she so obviously needed.
Then she stood slowly from the couch, walking around it the long way to avoid getting too close to him, and disappeared down the hall.
He ran a hand through his hair. It was 8 a.m. and he already needed a beer.
4
Roman
Roman looked around the van's interior at the men checking their weapons and tactical gear.
He'd already double- and triple-checked his own. He was eager to move.
He couldn't get Ruby back in his arms fast enough.
He tried not to think about the fact that it might not be that easy. Before her kidnapping, Adam had outed Roman as a member of the New York bratva. Ruby had been rightfully hurt and pissed off.
Roman should never have kept his work a secret, not once he realized he wanted Ruby in his life for more than one night. He hadn't had a chance to make things right with her before she'd been taken by his father's men, and it was one of many things that ate at him on an hourly basis.
He didn't expect her to be happy to see him. He didn't even expect her to be grateful for the rescue. After all, it was his fault she been kidnapped in the first place, his fault Olivia was now with Adam 24/7, the next injustice Roman planned to correct.
But it was okay. He didn't care if she still hated him as long as she was okay.
Liar. The word wound through his mind like smoke.
It was true. He was a liar. He did care whether Ruby was able to forgive him for his deception, but whether she did or not, the most important thing was that he get her away from his father’s henchmen, who were old-school in more ways than one.
Igor had made more than one offer to Roman through their intermediaries but the offer was always the same: abandon Roman's bid for power and Ruby would be set free.
And every single time the offer was made, Roman was tempted to accept it.
The power he’d craved over the past decade had dwindled to the faintest of aches compared to the hole in his heart left by Ruby's kidnapping, but in the end it wasn’t her captivity that stopped Roman from accepting his father's offer: it was the knowledge that this was who his father was.
No rules. No accountability. No honor.
He didn’t even trust his father to honor an agreement to set Ruby free.
That Igor had worked with Adam Hale, a dirty cop and wife-beater, to separate Ruby from her child said everything about Igor Kalashnik. He was a cancer in the organization — and not just because he'd been raiding the bratva's coffers at its expense.
