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It was something that had always weighed on my heart. I had let Kirill murder my mother without fighting back. He took her from me, and I had done nothing. Sometimes, she still haunted my dreams, her pale face peeking up from the dark alongside the brother I had been forced to kill. If only I had been stronger, a better fighter. If only—
“Stop berating yourself, Matthias,” he reprimanded me. Andrei leaned forward in his chair, elbows resting on his knees, his stormy eyes roaming my tormented face. “You know she named you after her father. Matthias Belov was your grandfather. He was a hardworking man who moved to America with his only daughter, your mother, after his wife died. Your grandfather and your mother had a relationship most would dream to have. He was loving and supportive. When I came in and took her away, he was happy for her despite her choice in men.”
“Did she know you were heir to theBratva?” I snorted.
“She did.” He chuckled lightly. “We never told her father, though. I wanted to keep my life.” The two of us laughed. “My point is, you were only a boy, Matthias, and you did the best you could with what you were given. Amalia did the same for you.”
I sighed, running a hand through my mussed hair.
“I don’t have any ill will toward you, my son,” Andrei murmured. His gray eyes were glassy as he stared at me. “What happened with your mother and Antony was not your fault. It was Kirill and my blindness that led to their deaths.”
Pursing my lips, I shook my head.
“You could never have known, Father, that he would betray you.”
He blew out a breath. “Kirill had always been someone to seek what was best for him first,” he admitted. “And I should have seen that. But none of that matters now because it led us here. You never would have made the connections you made or forged the bond you have here with your brothers if it hadn’t been for his treachery. We may have lost people, but we gained so many as well.”
My father stood from his chair, placing his empty tumbler on the table to his right.
“I learned a lot over the years,” he admitted sadly. “After Ivan left me, I was lost, drowning in a black pit of despair because I had nothing left. It took me a long time to realize that if I kept looking at the past and imagining what could have been, I would never have a future.”
“Goodnight,otets.” I smiled up at him.
“Goodnight,syn.”
* * *
I sat at my laptop for a few more hours, running through weekly reports from my men. Despite everything that was going on, I still had aBratvato run, as well as some of my other businesses. Nicolai took care of most of the clubs and bars, but he still reported to me and kept me in the loop. Ava had taken over running Arctic Security so that Leon could step down from the more public eye. He never liked being the face of most of our companies. He liked to get his hands dirty too much.
Setting my laptop aside, I stood from the chair and stretched, my sore muscles groaning in protest at the movement. Fuck, I was getting old. Taking the elevator up to the residential floor, I quietly entered the room we’d been staying in while the house I bought was being renovated. It didn’t need much renovation, honestly, since it was fairly new construction, but there were safety features I wanted added, and the houses next door were being torn down to make room for a larger lawn.
“Not again,” I muttered under my breath when I found our bed empty and still made. It was nearly midnight, and she still hadn’t come back to the room. I was all for motherly bonding time, but this was getting ridiculous.
Shaking my head, I exited the room, leaving the door open slightly for when I came back, and took the elevator up one more floor to where Liam had housed Katherine in the suite across from his. I turned the doorknob and quietly padded across the living room carpet and through the open bedroom door.
There my wife was, cuddled into her mother’s side like a kitten, on top of the covers while her mother slept peacefully beside her. Stepping up to the bed, I leaned over and drew Ava into my arms. She whimpered as I pulled her away and into my chest.
“No,” she whispered grumpily, her eyes still half closed. “I want to stay.”
I shook my head. “Not tonight, Red,” I told her. “You are my wife, and you will be in my bed.”
Her cute face twisted into a scowl, the sleep washing from her eyes as she glared up at me, her nose scrunched angrily. Damn, why did that make my dick twitch?
“She needs me,” Ava insisted haughtily.
I stared down at her as I walked us out of the room and into the elevator. “And I need my wife,” I told her. “You can’t use your mother to put distance between us,Krasnyy.” Ava bit her lower lip guiltily. Yes, I knew exactly what she had been doing, and I was not going to stand for it. “How am I supposed to show you that what we have is real if you don’t allow me to? I have given you time to spend with your mother to remold the bond you lost, but now it is time to give her some distance.”
“But she shouldn’t be alone,” Ava whispered, her eyes growing sad. Shit, I hope she didn’t cry. I never did well when she cried.
“Ava.” I nudged the door open to our room with my foot and let it slide fully closed. Carrying her to our room, I set her gently down on the bed and crawled over her, bracing my arms on either side of her head. Instantly, her body relaxed, feeling my heat and the weight of me pressed down on her. “This is going to be hard for you to hear,malyshka, but she has been alone for a very long time. Did you ever think that maybe you are overstimulating her by spending every moment with her?”
From the way her mouth shifted and her cheeks heated, she hadn’t.
“My sweet little psycho,” I whispered into her hair.
“I just want her to know she isn’t alone anymore,” Ava hiccuped. Her legs came around my waist, and she held herself tight to my body.
“And she will know that for the rest of her life, baby,” I assured her. “I promise you that, but you need to give her some room to find her own way.”
