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Olivia had met Roman only twice, months ago, and there was no guarantee she would even recognize him. Regardless of how Adam may or may not be treating her, Olivia loved him. Without Ruby present, it would seem like she was being stolen by strangers.
Roman had relented, seeing Ruby’s point, not wanting to scare Olivia, which was how Ruby came to be sitting across from the motel with the man named Rurik, watching the door marked with brass numbers — 121 — and scanning the grounds for some sign of Roman and Max.
She took a sip of her coffee — poured into a thermos by Roman and handed to her as they left Baz Rykov’s house — and thought nervously about the future. She was worried about the legalities of taking Olivia from Adam. He’d gained full custody during her imprisonment for obvious reasons, and Ruby had heeded Roman’s advice about trying to restore her joint legal and physical custody while she was living with a leader in the Russian Mob.
But that meant she was now essentially kidnapping her daughter, bringing her across state lines, albeit back to the state where she belonged.
Roman had talked to one of his attorneys — someone, Roman had said, practiced in dealing with his “business” — about the situation and had come to the conclusion that while Ruby was technically kidnapping Olivia by removing her from Adam’s custody, Adam probably wouldn’t fight Ruby in court over the move.
Sure, he could tell the courts that Ruby was involved with Roman Kalashnik, but Ruby would be able to prove that Adam had left New York under a veil of secrecy, that he’d conspired to keep Olivia from her after her rescue, which, absent the argument about Ruby’s relationship with Roman, would restore her joint custody agreement.
Basically, Adam looked as shady as Ruby now. It was cold comfort — Ruby had worked her whole lifenotto be shady: hold down a job, pay her bills on time, live within her means, take care of her daughter.
Now she would be considered a custodial parent of questionable integrity. Of questionable safety.
It was a mess. A fucking mess.Notthe safe, controlled life Ruby had planned.
But she’d become resigned to it all. Like a passenger on a runaway freight train, there was nothing to do but hold on and ride it out, hope it stopped slowly and gradually instead of crashing in a shriek of metal, or worse yet, went totally off the rails.
She had to get Olivia back. She knew in her heart — in her bones — that Olivia’s safety depended on it. She would have to worry about the rest later.
She sat up straighter as movement at the corner of the motel caught her eye.
“There they are,” she said as Roman came into view.
Max stepped out behind him a moment later and they started toward room 121 looking eerily at ease, like they were visiting a friend or returning to their room after a day of sightseeing.
It wasn’t until they got to the door of Adam’s room that they withdrew their guns.
The sight of the weapons sent a shock of fear through her body, and she sucked in a breath, like she’d had the wind knocked out of her.
“They know what they’re doing,” Rurik said next to her.
The words were probably meant to be reassuring, but delivered as they were — flat and expressionless and made hard by Rurik’s Russian accent — they did nothing to stop the rush of blood in Ruby’s ears.
Roman took up a position on one side of the door while Max took the other side. They were looking at each other now, some kind of unspoken communication moving between them.
Roman had told her to wait for a signal that they were clear, but now that they were here, Ruby had to fight against the instinct to rush across the pavement and beat on the door herself.
She slipped her hands under her thighs and forced herself to breathe.
21
ROMAN
He forced himself not to think about Ruby, sitting with Rurik in the SUV across the parking lot. He hated that she was here, hated that she was watching, but he needed to focus on Olivia.
The next few minutes would be critical. Guns and a five-year-old were not a combo he’d ever wanted to test.
Everything could go wrong.
He shook the thought from his head. Nothing would go wrong.
He wouldn’t let it.
He would get Ruby’s daughter back, return Olivia to her mother, because that was what he’d promised he would do.
He and Max had gone over the plan a hundred times: kick in the door (it would scare Olivia, but this wasn’t a social visit — they couldn’t knock politely and hope Adam didn’t try to run out the back, or worse yet, turn Olivia into a hostage), keep Adam busy with a beating he more than deserved, get Olivia out.
