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But then I heard pained grunts as he rustled out of his coat. The safe he kept in his coat closet clicked open, then shut again after a few moments. I started trembling, my eyes blurring with the tears I was barely keeping back.
When he walked into view, my eyes widened and I stood up from the couch, suddenly distracted by a sight I hadn’t expected. Gregor looked battered and bruised, with smudges and cuts on his face. He smelled faintly of smoke. His lip was cut and slightly swollen, and his eyes had a tired, desperate look that scared me as much in its own way as Alan’s words had.
When he saw me standing there, a mix of relief, shame, and worry flicked across his craggy face. “Alissa,” he muttered, and crossed the room quickly, folding me into an embrace.
Of course it was all a lie. It had to be. I hugged him back tightly, hands slipping around his ribcage under his suit jacket. But then, unexpectedly, my fingers found a strap across his back.
I followed it with my fingers as we drew apart again, and they caught briefly on an empty holster. I froze. The safe in the closet. It was a gun safe.
He was a private investigator. It wasn’t that strange that he would carry a concealed weapon. But as I looked up into his exhausted face, I was still worried. “What happened?” I asked softly. “You were gone when I woke up.”
“I’m sorry. I was following up on the Ivanovs. And something happened. Something that has me thinking I should get you and Michelle out of town for a while.”
“What? Why?”Not without you, I wanted to say, because after everything, even hearing Alan’s claims, Gregor had become my safe space. And he was still Michelle’s father.
“It’ll be on the news anyway, so I may as well tell you. Someone rigged the house behind the daycare to explode, they’d turned on the gas and set up a trigger linked to the door. Itried to slip in to find more information on the Ivanovs after I’d checked out the daycare center and set off a goddamn trap.” He collapsed onto the couch, his weight shaking the whole thing slightly. I settled next to him tentatively, worry and suspicion mixing inside me.
“They…blew up the house?”
“Yeah. Which means one of my contacts betrayed me. The Ivanovs knew I was coming, and they decided they’d rather do that than face me.” He saw my expression and looked away. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to worry you. But I can’t risk having these bastards cause you even more harm.”
“Gregor…” I hesitated, but I had to make a stand. “I don’t want you taking any more risks like this. I hired you to find my baby, not punish those responsible. I know we can’t rely on the cops, but there are other ways of getting the Ivanovs. We can sue the hell out of them. We can go to the press—”
“No.” His tone was flat. “Doing any of that would make you a target. There’s more to this than I thought. One of my sources has ratted me out, and that means—”
“Gregor,” I said quietly. “Look, I’ll go into hiding out of town if you think it’s the right call. But what about you? I don’t want you to be in danger.”
He smiled tightly. “That’s very sweet, Alissa, but danger is a large part of my job. It has been since I was a very young man. I promise that I can handle myself.”
“This isn’t about your competence or your courage,” I mumbled, knowing I was getting off track but desperate for himto understand. “You just came home after nearly being blown up. Of course I’m gonna worry.”
His smile softened a little, but then faded. “Look, Alissa, some of my contacts are part of the local Russian mob, all right? They’re the last people I would have expected to betray me, but here we are. If they’ve turned on me, I absolutely have to keep you away from them. They’re too dangerous.”
I stared at him. I wanted to just love him and be grateful. I wanted to spend another wonderful, comforting night in his arms and make us both feel better. But Alan’s mocking words kept echoing in my head. “Gregor?”
I felt him tense slightly beside me. “What is it?”
“Why do you have Russian mobsters as contacts?”
He went very quiet. I sat waiting, bracing myself, every second that ticked by making my heart beat harder.
“It’s a long story. Why do you ask?”
I stared at him for a few seconds, watching the discomfort deepen on his face. “Alan called while you were gone.”
His face fell. “Jesus. He’s still harassing you?”
“He’s trying. He keeps changing phone numbers. I try not to pick up if I don’t know the number, but you were out, and I thought it might have been you. And he—”
His eyes flashed. “Did he threaten you?”
“Not this time. He said…” I rubbed my face, suddenly very nervous and ashamed that I had even talked to Alan again, let alone listened to him. Why had I ever taken him seriously?
Except too much of what he had said made sense for me to ignore it all.
“After you confronted him at my place, he looked you up on the police computers.” I swallowed, then met his gaze, seeing the growing trouble and resignation in them. “He said you’re part of the Russian mob. That you’re ahitter.” The word sounded really weird coming from me.
He let out a low sigh. Had his face paled, or had he looked this haggard coming in? I didn’t understand his resigned expression, or the sadness in his eyes.
