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“Today.”
My eyes bulged. “Today? Like…today today?” I repeated stupidly.
“Yes. Today today,” he replied with a small smile.
“How are you supposed to get that done today?”
Grinning down at me indulgently, Ivan reached out and lightly pinched my cheek, before rubbing it with his big thumb. “Easy, baby. Money.”
*****
I had to admit. Ivan was right. Things moved like lightning when you had money. He spoke to the owner of the building and was signing a lease within two hours while I sat in Hannah’s apartment stunned at the speed of his decision making. And his spending.
Fortunately, Ivan barely had any possessions in his other apartment and the little he had, he had no desire to keep. He got rid of it somewhere. I asked about it, and he just waved his hand and said he had a guy who could take care of it.
He was going to have one of his Bratva guys to my dorm and get my things, but I balked at that. I could only imagine some tattooed, tough looking Russian mobster pawing through my underwear drawer.
When I explained the situation to Delaney, she kindly offered to pack up my stuff for me. Will overheard me talking to her and offered to pick my things up from Delaney for me, though I knew his offer had nothing to do with generosity. He was still trying to talk to her after she caught him with his pants down at the Trinity Club.
I had to give Ivan credit—the two-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment he bought was beautiful. Newly updated, open concept and fully furnished in warm, earthy colors, it was spacious and cozy-feeling at the same time. I loved it. He’d even had my harp installed in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room, giving me a view of the lake when I played.
We stood in the living room as I struggled to digest what Ivan had accomplished in a single day. As I considered the price tag and the hassle of this purchase, guilt and worry played tug-of-war in my gut.
“You didn’t do all this for me, did you?” I blurted, my arm swinging wide, gesturing to the huge apartment.
He cocked his head. “I did it for both of us. You’ll be safe here and I suppose that’s for you. I can’t tolerate having you unsafe, so it’s for me, too.” He pulled me into his arms and buried his face in my neck. “Keeping you safe is as much for me as it is for you,” he murmured quietly against my throat.
My body melted against his and all doubts and worries flew out of my head.
*****
The day after we moved in, I heard Ivan on the phone with Nikolai. It was impossible not to overhear that they were talking about retrieving the bodies of their mothers. Ever since Pavel returned to Chicago, they’d frequently been in communication.
“What the fuck do you mean he still can’t remember? I don’t care if we have to drag him down every back road in northern Illinois,” Ivan barked, then rubbed his hand down his face. “Fine, I know. Talk to you later.”
Ivan threw his phone on the table with an irritated flick of his wrist and stared out of the tall windows toward the lakefront, his arms folded over his chest and his expression tight.
It was difficult for me to know what to do for him in times like this. To know what he needed. There was something so solitary and insular about him, approaching him felt intrusive.
I did it anyway.
I walked up behind him and slid my arms around his waist, causing him to instinctively tense. A breath later, his body relaxed. His acceptance of my touch still sent a flutter through my chest. We simply stood there, my arms locked around him, offering him comfort he would never ask for, but sorely needed.
“What’s going on with your mom?” I asked quietly.
He took a deep breath. It was shaky in a way I wouldn’t have noticed had I not been holding him, but I felt the way the air stuttered in his chest.
“When we find them, we’re moving them. Nikolai and I have been talking to Pavel, trying to figure out exactly where…” His voice caught slightly, and he cleared it quickly. “Where they’re buried. Pavel is an old fuck who was barely in Chicago, so he doesn’t remember much of the area very well.”
“But he knows enough. He thought about it enough to come back, right?”
Ivan shrugged, his face still a hard mask. “Honestly, from the way he talks, it sounds like Mikhail forced him to come here when he found out what Pavel knew. I mean, he’s trying, and he feels bad, but he’d probably rather forget about it than dredge this whole thing back up. Everyone tried to forget about her.”
I twisted around to face him, my arms still wrapped around his waist. “I’m so sorry, Ivan. Sorry about what happened to your mom. Sorry that this guy is unintentionally making it so difficult to find her. Sorry this is bringing up so many sad memories.”
He stared down at me for a moment, his arms still crossed. Abruptly, he reached out and pulled me against him, his arms clamping around me in near death grip. “The memories aren’t all sad,” he murmured in a rough voice.
I tried to squeeze him as tightly as he was holding me, though I knew that was impossible. “I know,” I murmured, though there was no way to fully understand what he was going through. I gave him a soft kiss on his tight jaw, seeking any way to comfort him.
