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My eyes narrowed. “What do you mean??”
“Look,” another glance over my shoulder. “What I want to tell you is something I have never told anyone else before. You must keep it a secret, promise?”
I was curious to hear what Ava had to say. Maybe it had something to do with the expensive handbags she'd turned up at work with. Government official as a boyfriend, perhaps? “I promise.”
She leaned closer to my ear and whispered, “You already know that Turner is my stepfather, right? Before now, I told everyone I had no idea who my biological father was. But that was a lie.”
My hands flew to my mouth. “You lied?” She nodded. “Why would you do that?”
“To protect him.” Her response was instant. “We have been in contact since I was twelve. He reached out to me and, to date, not even my mother knows this. His name is Cian O’Sullivan, and he’s the head of the Irish mafia.”
Oh, hell no.
“No freaking way!” I almost squealed. Even though Rafail wasn’t with us in the room, I knew he hadn’t gone too far. He could be blended in amongst the shadows and be listening to us right now.
“Your father is ... this?” I gesticulated wildly. The fact that Ava’s father was a mafia boss himself utterly stunned me. It certainly explained the expensive things she owned and made me wonder what else I didn’t know about her.
“He has planted spies among Rafail’s people. Soon he’ll know I’ve been kidnapped and come for me. He'll save us, Julie, so please don’t marry that bastard. It might take a few days, but you just have to be patient. I am confident he will come.”
“What if—”
“Time’s up!”
We jumped away from each other as if we had been caught in a robbery and turned towards the door. A tall, muscular man sauntered into the room, and I recognized him immediately. Intense dark eyes and a face that almost matched the high standard Rafail had set. Almost.
He was the same man who had Ava in a tight lock that day in Liam’s house. Then, he had appeared even fiercer, but today, as he stared at my friend, there was something different about him—softer.
Black ink peeked from the collar of his white shirt and the rolled-up sleeves as he ran a hand over the stubble on his jaw. “Come on, princess. Time to take you back to your tower.”
His eyes were cold, but the way Ava’s cheeks heated told me there was more beneath the surface. “Don’t worry,” she whispered. “I’m being kept in a good place. They treat me well.”
I sighed and tried to smile. “I can only hold on to hope.”
She tucked her hair behind her ears, and we hugged one last time before he led her away. I slumped back in my seat and wrapped my arms around myself. Aside from the new information Ava shared with me, something else plagued my mind.
He’d arranged this.
Rafail brought her to me deliberately. I could see his fingers twitching, moving the pieces around for me, as if he was playing a game of chess.
I didn’t know what to make of the gesture; if he was a normal person, it would have been easy to say he cared. But he wasn’t. He was a ruthless man and ...
I felt hot burns on my face as if someone was staring at me. I raised my eyes and met him on the stairs. He just stood there and watched me in silence, without saying anything. But the weight of his intense gaze spoke volumes, there was something deeper in those midnight orbs.
My heart raced, and my skin tingled under his watchful eyes. I knew what I had to do. But somehow the thought of leaving him hurt inside me and made me miss him even more, no matter how threatening he was.
He was still human.
Chapter 10 – Rafail
I ran a palm down my suit and smoothed out a crease in the expensive wool blend fabric. “How many more minutes?”
Viktor tapped the silver watch on his wrist and glanced at the door. “Olga said ten.”
He looked his usual self, black shirt, dark suit, and a worried expression on his face. He wasn’t the only one with a scowl. I raised an eyebrow, silently questioning the veracity. “Ten minutes since?”
He ran his fingers through his hair and let his hands fall limply to his sides. I ignored the whispers and murmurs of the small crowd sitting there and waited expectantly for Viktor's answer.
“That was twenty minutes ago.”
