by Roxie Rivera
“Damn right you are,” I grumbled before letting him kiss me senseless. When we finally separated, he slid his hand to the small of my back and walked me toward the mud room and into the garage. He held open the passenger door behind my seat so I could stow the bag there and then helped me into my seat, keeping his hand on my bottom way longer than necessary. “Hands to yourself, mister.”
“Not a fucking chance,” he said in that gruff way that made my heart race and my belly flip-flop with excitement. He swooped in for one more quick kiss before shutting my door and walking around to the driver’s side.
“Do you know where we’re going?” I asked after I buckled my seat belt. “I can Waze the directions.”
Ivan shot me an amused look. “Milaya moya, really?”
“Oh. Right.” Abashed, I put my phone away. “Obviously, you know where to go.”
“It’s on Commerce, over by Buffalo Bayou.” He backed out of the garage and waited for the door to close before pulling away from the house. “It’s an ugly red brick building. There’s a sally port where she’ll walk out when they release her.”
“What is a sally port?”
“It’s like a loading dock or a garage entrance to a jail or some other heavily defended place,” he explained. “I think it started way back with forts and castles. It was a way to control who got in and out of your fortress.”
“Does that mean I won’t be able to wait for her?”
He shook his head. “I thought you knew,” he apologized. “We’ll wait in the SUV or on the sidewalk. She’ll walk out to us.”
“Are there going to be cops there? Guards, I mean?”
He shrugged. “Maybe? I’ve never seen them there when I’ve picked up one of the guys.”
“But, they might be there today to intimidate her?”
He nodded. “They might.”
Noting the strange tone of his voice, I asked, “What?”
He scratched his jaw as he yielded at a stop sign and said, “What if we’re focusing on the jail when we should be focusing on something she saw before she was arrested? Back when she was a full-blown addict?”
“But you said that you that you looked into everything before we got married,” I reminded him. “You paid her drug debts and Adrian’s. You said there was nothing else out there that could hurt us.”
“I could have been wrong. I could have missed something. Or maybe someone held onto her debt to use against her later.”
“Like blackmail?”
“Yes.”
I considered that for a moment. “If we are wrong and the parking lot mess and the voicemail are from before she went to jail, it could be anyone.”
“Did Teague use drugs? Maybe he and Ruby crossed paths when she was struggling. Maybe that’s how he knows what was said to you when you were attacked.”
“He never used when we were together. What he’s been doing since then?” I shrugged. “I suppose anything is possible.”
As we waited to make a left turn belong a long line of cars, he made a frustrated sound and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “I shouldn’t be stressing you out with what-ifs. Once Ruby is safe at the house, we can question her and get the answers we need.”
“You’re not stressing me out.” I reached over and placed my hand on his thigh. “And, maybe, we just ask her. Not question. That sounds very police-like. If we try to interrogate her, she’s going to get defensive.”
He grunted but nodded. “Fine.”
Hoping that things would go well between Ruby and Ivan, I kept my hand on his thigh while he drove downtown. I scrolled through my phone with the other hand, hastily typing replies to my friends. Wondering if Lena had the updated contact info for our mutual friend who worked at Teague’s firm, I asked, “What time is it in Russia?”
“Which part?” When he saw the face I was making, he laughed. “I’m serious!” He glanced at the dashboard clock. “It’s 8 p.m. in Novosibirsk. It’s 10 p.m. in Yakutsk. Way out on the coast, near Alaska, it’s after one in the morning.”
“Moscow,” I clarified. “Where one of your best friends lives.”
“It’s after 4.” He glanced at me with one of his amused grins. “In the afternoon.”
While I typed a message to Lena and apologized if I bothered her while she was napping off her jetlag, I asked, “How do you even remember all of those time zones?”
He shrugged. “The same way you know what time it is in LA or NY. It’s something I learned as a kid.”
“Have you ever been to those places?” I put my phone in the cup holder and focused my attention on him. “Novobrisk?”
His mouth twitched. “Novo-SI-birsk,” he corrected gently. “Once. We had a friend who hooked us up with stolen train tickets. We traveled all over that summer.” He smiled at what was probably one of his better childhood memories. “There’s a zoo there. In Novosibirsk,” he explained. “You would like it.”
“Maybe you can take me someday. Our kids, too,” I added with a hopeful smile.
“Someday,” he replied, covering my hand with his for a moment. “But it will have to be a summer trip. Our kids won’t know how to handle the cold after growing up in this humidity and heat.”
“It’s cold right now.” I gestured to the overcast skies.
He snorted. “This isn’t cold.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, here we go.” Imitating his voice, I said, “I am strong as a polar bear. I swam in frozen lakes and played naked in the snow when I was four!”
“I don’t sound like that,” he protested. “And I never swam in a frozen lake.”
“But you played naked in the snow?”
“Probably,” he admitted. “The home I lived at around that age wasn’t very attentive. We ran wild.”
He didn’t like talking about his childhood, and I hated that I had brought up some ugly memories. “I’m sorry, Ivy. I didn’t mean to bring that up.”
“Don’t be sorry. It’s fine.” He glanced at me and smiled. “If our kids are anything like me, we’re going to be exhausted by the end of the day. I was a little maniac, climbing, and jumping and digging and destroying everything in my way.”
“I can see that.” It wasn’t hard to imagine a tinier version of him running around, causing mayhem on a playground. “Ruby was always a risk-taker, too.”
“I bet you followed all the rules and were your teacher’s favorite student.”
I bristled at his guess but had to admit he was right. “Yes. Most of the time.”
“Well, let’s hope our kids take after you more than me.”
“No way! There is so much about you that I want our kids to inherit.”
“Like?”
“Your tenacity. Your loyalty. Your generosity. The way you love me,” I added, thinking of how completely he had committed himself to me.
He seemed a little embarrassed by my praise and cleared his throat. “I...thank you.” He glanced over and caught my gaze. “I appreciate that you feel that way.”
Pleased with his gratitude and acceptance of a compliment, I leaned over and lifted up out of my seat to quickly kiss his cheek. “You’re welcome.”
“Sit back,” he scolded with a rumbling laugh. “We’re in morning traffic with all of these crazy drivers.”
He had a point so I made a show of sitting primly in my seat. “Speaking of cars and drivers...”
“Yes?”
“I was thinking about taking Ruby with me to test drive some cars at Alexei’s lot.”
“I think that sounds like a good idea.”
I narrowed my eyes at his too quick reply. “Really?”
“Yes. Really.”
“Uh-huh.”
“What?” He laughed and shook his head. “I’m being nice and agreeing that your sister deserves a nice afternoon with you, and now I’m suspicious?”
“I mean...”
“Erin.” He looked over to make sure I understood he was serious. “I know you’ve missed your sister. I kno
w you want to fix your relationship. I want you to have that with her. If that means you two go car shopping? Good.”
There was no mistaking the truth reflected in his eyes. He really did want that for me. “Well, thank you.”
He nodded. “You’re welcome.”
Teasingly, I said, “Look at us! Communicating like adults! Talking about our feelings!”
He snorted. “Don’t expect it too often. I have a reputation to uphold.”
“Yes, as my big, sweet, marshmallow.”
He groaned. “I hope you don’t say that to other people.”
“Never,” I answered hastily, hiding my smile.
“Erin!”
“What?”
“Nothing.” He reached over and grabbed my hand, lifting it and noisily kissing the back of it. “I love you.”
“Even if I go around telling everyone what a marshmallow you are?”
He grunted. “Even if you do that.”
We drove the rest of the way in silence, me smiling, and him still holding my hand. As he navigated the busy streets, I tried to control my expectations for the day. I had to be mindful of everything Ruby had endured. She had gone from a raging addict to clean and sober and not fully by her choice. She had lost the man she loved and her freedom. She had gone through God only knew what behind bars. When she came out of that inmate processing center, she wasn’t going to be the sister I had known all my life. She was going to be different, probably harder and more mistrusting, and I had to give her grace.
Ivan’s description of the building was correct. It was ugly and very plain. Across the street, there was a tall building made of wheat-colored stone. “What is that?”
“Court,” he said, pulling into a public parking lot right next to the building. He took his wallet from the center console and plucked a ten from it. He rolled down the window and handed it to the bored-looking attendant. “Keep the change.”
“Thanks, man.”
“Where do you want to park?” he asked while his window finished rising. There were dozens of empty spaces this early in the morning, so we had our pick.
“How about this first row? Next to the building? She’ll see us when she comes out, right?”
“I think so.” He chose a spot in that row and parked. “Now, we wait.”
“I’m not good at waiting.”
“I know you aren’t.” He brushed his fingers along my jaw. “But you’ve waited all these months to get her out, so what’s a few more minutes?”
“I guess when you put it like that...”
As if on cue, I spotted the familiar form of my sister rounding the corner. I unlatched my belt and practically tumbled out of the front seat before bounding toward her like an overwhelmed child. She stiffened when she saw me running, probably instinct after being incarcerated and on edge all the time, but relaxed when she realized it was me. “Ruby!”
“Jesus, Erin!” she exclaimed with a laugh of disbelief as I launched myself at her. “We saw each other a week ago!”
“It’s not the same!” I hugged her tightly, not wanting to let go. It wasn’t until that moment, feeling my sister’s arms around me that I understood how much I had missed her. From the moment she fell into her drug habit, she had been lost to me, flitting in and out of my life when she needed something. At least, when she was in jail, I didn’t have to worry about where she was sleeping or if she was eating or even alive. I had been able to let that anxiety go, but I had replaced it with the worry about what was happening to her on the inside. Was she being hurt? Harassed? Bullied? Beaten? It was awful not to know, to lurch from one phone call to one visit to one phone call on a never-ending cycle of intermittent contact.
But she was out now. She was coming home. I had already lost my parents, and I swore right then, as I refused to let go of my embrace, that I wasn’t going to lose my sister, too.
Chapter Nine
“So, do you want to go straight home or stop for breakfast somewhere?” I knelt in my seat, facing her in the middle row as she slipped into the hoodie from the bag I had prepared. “Ivan and I have the day off, so we can do whatever you need to do.”
Ruby made a face. “You didn’t both need to take the day off.”
“I needed a driver,” I explained.
“Why?” she asked, frowning.
“Why do you think?” Ivan asked, skipping straight over the niceties.
I cringed, and Ruby looked at me with confusion. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Ivan,” I pleaded quietly. “We talked about this.”
He clenched his jaw and turned his gaze toward his window. “I’m sorry.”
“No, no, no,” Ruby interjected, sitting forward and aggressively grabbing the sleeve of his jacket. She jerked hard enough to make him sway and demanded, “If you have something to say to me, be a man and say it.”
“Ruby!” Shocked at her behavior, I reached for her arm, and she suddenly balled up her fist as if to strike me.
“Don’t. You. Dare,” Ivan growled menacingly. “You touch your sister, and you’ll be living under a fucking bridge for all I care.”
“Ivan,” I whispered harshly. “Please.”
His jaw remained tight as he met my pleading gaze. “I’m serious, Erin. If she hits you, that’s it.”
“I know.” I placed a soothing hand on his shoulder and turned to face my sister. She seemed just as surprised by her behavior as I was. She had dropped her hands and looked dazed. Hating that she felt so out of place and so on edge after her time inside, I carefully took her hand. “Ruby, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have grabbed you like that.”
From the corner of my eye, I could see Ivan staring with disbelief. I could practically hear him asking what the hell I was doing apologizing for almost being struck by my sister.
“No.” Ruby lowered her gaze and shook her head. “I’m sorry. I’m just...it’s reflex now.” She swallowed hard. “It was hard the last few weeks, and I haven’t been getting much sleep.”
“It’s okay,” I assured her. “Really. I know this is going to be hard for you to adjust to everything.” Chancing a glance at Ivan, I silently begged him to let it go. He nodded stiffly and turned his attention back to the windshield. Giving Ruby’s hand a gentle squeeze, I said, “Maybe we should have a hands-off rule for a bit?”
She nodded. “Yeah. That’s...yeah.”
“Okay. Good.” I let go of her hand, and she settled back into her seat and buckled her belt. With Ivan’s blundering accusation, there was no point in waiting to ask her until later. “So, the thing is,” I started carefully, “last week, I was leaving my barre class, and, well, I was robbed.”
“Attacked,” Ivan corrected gruffly. “She was attacked by men with ski masks. They robbed her and set her car on fire.”
Ruby's face slackened with shock and horror. “What? Why? Who?”
“You really don’t know?” Ivan watched her in the rearview mirror and seemed convinced by her reaction.
“Of course, I don’t know who attacked my sister!” she snapped angrily. “I know I’m a fuck up, but I wouldn’t stand by and let that happen.”
“I know you wouldn’t,” I hurriedly assured her. “It’s just that...well...”
“What?” she demanded. “What is it?”
Holding her gaze, I explained, “The guy who had me shoved against a car told me that if you didn’t keep your mouth shut, they would be back for both of us.”
There was a flicker of understanding in her face, so quick and faint that I thought I had imagined it. Before I could ask if she knew what he meant, Ruby said, “I have no idea what that means. I don’t know anything that could get anyone hurt.”
“If you’re lying,” Ivan cut in, “you’re risking your safety and your sister’s.”
“Obviously,” she replied. “I’m not lying. I don’t know what those men want me to stay quiet about, Erin.”
You’re lying. I wanted to shout at her, to demand she tell me the truth, but I
knew her too well for that. She would clam up and grow obstinate. Instead, I calmly nodded. “I believe you, Ruby. I know you wouldn’t lie about something so serious. Something that could get us both killed.”
“I wouldn’t,” she insisted, brazenly lying to my face. Then, with a nasty look, she glanced at Ivan. “If anyone has a reason to hurt you, it’s because of him.”
Before Ivan could turn in his seat to tell her off, I placed a calming hand on his arm and pinned her in place with a stern glare. “Ruby, don’t even try it. We aren’t your enemies, and you’re not going to turn us against each other. We’re all family, and we’re all in this together.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Whatever.”
Feeling the aggravation pulsing off of Ivan in waves, I turned in my seat and let my hand slide down his arm to his hand. He instantly curled his fingers around mine, showing me that we were okay and would talk about this whole mess later. He lifted my hand and kissed the back of it, drawing a disgusted noise from Ruby in the backseat.
Anxiety started to build low in my stomach, swirling like a knot of snakes. Nauseated and on the verge of tears as my hopes for the day were dashed within minutes, I nevertheless put a smile on my face and asked, “Would you like to grab breakfast before we head home? Or maybe stop at Target or some other place you need to visit?”
“When do you meet your PO?” Ivan asked, crashing into my desperate attempt to get the day back on track like a runaway car. “Is it walk-in for the first visit or an appointment?”
“Appointment,” Ruby said before tearing into the Pop-Tart foil with her teeth. “I want to go home. I need a shower and a nap.”
Deflated, I kept my smile in place and nodded. “Okay. Home it is.”
Ivan tried to keep hold of my hand as he backed out of our parking space, but I tugged it free and interlocked my fingers on my lap. My worst fears about our living situation were coming true. Ivan and Ruby disliked each other so much they were going to fight nonstop. Imagining months of them at each other’s throats made me sick. The damage their inability to get along would inflict on our marriage, and my relationship with my sister was nothing to the risk of her relapsing and using drugs again to deal with the stress.