He squeezes my knee, then keeps his hand there. “I promise nothing is going to happen to you or Josh.”
“And what about you? What if something happens to you?”
He holds my gaze, then turns his out the window. “There’s one more bit of news you should know.”
“What?”
He glances in the rearview mirror, then turns to me. “Andrei isn’t dead,” he says quietly enough that Josh won’t hear.
“What?” I feel the blood drain from my face.
“I’m pretty sure he’s badly injured, and I’m going to take care of it, but I wanted you to know.”
“How? And…oh my God. He’s going to come after us too.”
“Mommy?”
“Stay calm, Kat. It’s going to be okay,” Lev tells me. “Do it for Josh.”
I press the heels of my hands into my eyes then turn to Josh.
“I really need to go.”
“Almost there, baby.”
Lev picks up speed, and we’re turning off the exit not ten minutes later. He drives right up to the service area.
“I’ll fill up the tank and come back for you. You stay inside until you see me.”
I nod, climb out, then get Josh out. He’s got Wally in one hand and the toy truck in the other.
“Should we leave those in the car?”
“No,” he says and waves at Lev with the truck-hand.
I don’t argue and walk in through the sliding glass doors and toward the ladies’ room. The center is busy, and we have to wait in line for a few minutes, but pretty soon, it’s our turn. When Josh is finished, I lift him up at the sink to wash his hands.
It’s when we walk out that I see them.
Josh must see them at the same time because he stops, then waves. He recognizes the men from last night. They’d returned his scarf.
“Let’s go,” I tell Josh, pulling him along toward the door where, through the glass, I can see Lev at the pump across the parking lot.
“We’ll use the other exit,” the man says near enough to my ear to make me shudder. His hand falls on my shoulder again, like last night, except that today, it’s heavier, and when I try to pull away, he shifts his grip to my upper arm, and I know he’s not going to let go.
“You were getting ice cream,” Josh says to the younger one, who is on Josh’s other side and trying to take his hand.
“Let us go,” I tell the bigger man at my side.
“My orders are to bring you and the boy in. That’s all. I’m not going to hurt you, and you don’t want to scare the kid, so act normal.”
I look back over my shoulder and see the SUV still at the pump.
Shit.
“Please, I—”
“Wally!” I look down at the same moment Josh’s hand slips from mine and see his other one in the younger man’s hand as he separates us, walking him fast toward the exit at the back of the center. “I need Wally!” Josh is trying to get free of the man, body half-turned as he sees his stuffed animal farther and farther behind.
“I’ll get you another toy,” the man tells him in an accented voice. If he’d spoken last night, I would have known. But the one who has me, he sounds American.
“He needs his toy!” I yell louder than I’m sure either of our companions like and loud enough that people stop and look.
“Fine,” the one who has me says through gritted teeth. He leans toward me. “You grab it. We’ll hold on to the kid for you.”
I look at Josh as he’s hurried out of the service area. I grab Wally and run after them, wondering how no one is stopping us. Don’t they see what’s happening?
We’re out back in the next minute and headed toward a dark SUV with tinted windows. It’s parked illegally, and the man who has Josh opens the back door as the older one grabs my arm again.
“Mommy!”
“I’m coming, Josh!” I run for him, but the one who has me won’t let me get to him.
I remember the pistol still in my purse. It’s loaded. Ready. But Josh is inside the SUV.
The younger man gets into the driver seat after closing Josh’s door, and although I can’t see him, I hear him calling for me as the older one walks me around to the other side.
Slipping my hand into my purse, I feel for the pistol. Just when I get my hand around the grip, I see the sliding doors open, and Lev rushes through them.
“Hey!” he calls out sharply, cocking the pistol he takes out from beneath his jacket. It’s got a silencer on it. I can see that from here. “What you’re taking doesn’t belong to you.” His voice is low, rage just beneath the surface of that false veneer of control.
“Motherfucker,” the one who has me says and reaches beneath his jacket, eyes glued to Lev. That’s when I pull my pistol out because he doesn’t expect me to have one. He doesn’t expect me to be armed or dangerous.
But I am.
I did it once before, but I was too late then. Joshua was already dead by the time I acted because I hesitated.
I won’t be too late again.
And so, steeling myself, I cock my pistol, ram it under the fat belly of the man who has me, and in the same instant that he realizes what’s happening, that he meets my eyes, I pull the trigger.
The pop is quieter than I expect. Maybe it’s his fat that muffles the sound, I think, as the man stumbles backward, then slumps against the wall.
There’s another sound, another popping. I open the back door to get Josh and can see Lev easing the younger man into the driver’s seat.
Lev shifts his gaze behind me at the man now seated on the ground.
Josh stares up at me when I turn to him, dropping my pistol and grabbing him in my arms. I bury his face in my chest so he doesn’t see the man on the ground.
“SUV is at the pump,” Lev says to me. “Walk. Don’t run.”
I don’t stop. Nodding, I walk fast through the service area, and I don’t know if anyone notices us as we come out on the other side. I hurry across the lot to the pumps and to our SUV. I notice another one behind ours with its blacked-out windows. I see the bowed head of the driver, and I turn away.
Opening the back door, I situate Josh inside.
“Mommy?”
“Wasn’t that funny to run into them again?” I ask him, my voice higher than usual and probably sounding like that of a crazed woman.
“What’s happening?” He’s confused.
Once he’s strapped in, I hand him Wally, move my right hand up but stop and keep it out of sight when I spot the splatters of blood. I kiss the top of his head. I’m going to lose it in a second, so when Lev comes to take over, I let him.
“All set, kiddo?” he asks Josh, handing him a candy bar. “Hope you like Twix.”
“Thank you,” Josh says, still not quite sure what’s going on.
Lev closes his door and turns to me. He looks me over, then nods. “Okay?”
I nod, although I’m nowhere near okay.
“You did good. We need to go. Now.” He’s all business and no emotion at all as he opens my door and lifts me in, strapping my belt in a matter of seconds before he’s walking around the front of the SUV, in the driver’s seat, and we’re driving off, not speeding away, just heading toward the on-ramp to the highway. I glance at the back of the service center and see the parked SUV there.
“They were at Dairy Queen too,” Josh says from the back seat as I hear the unwrapping of his candy bar.
“Were they?” Lev asks. “Didn’t realize you’d gone to Dairy Queen without me,” he adds on, eyes hard when they meet mine.
“We just—”
He closes his hand around my knee and squeezes, but this time, it’s not just to reassure. “We’ll discuss it later.” He gestures to the glove compartment. “Clean up.”
10
Lev
The drive to Maxim’s house is quiet and filled with tension. Beside me, Kat stares out the window while Josh falls asleep in the back seat. We’re going to have to talk about what happened t
oday, but right now, all I can focus on is the fact that Vasily’s men have already found us. The burning question in my mind is how.
More importantly, this means that there isn’t a lot of time left for us in Providence. As soon as Vasily’s men fail to check in with him, he’ll know that we were here. But I can’t leave without speaking to Maxim at least one more time. If he has information that might help us, I’m not going anywhere without it. I’m only hoping that he’ll be more forthcoming once he meets Kat and Josh.
When we pull up to the driveway, Kat frowns at the state of the place. She still isn’t sure about this, but I’m hoping once she meets Maxim, she’ll be more at ease too.
I shut off the car and remove Josh from the car seat, draping his sleeping body against my chest. Kat fidgets beside me as I ring the doorbell. The house is quiet inside, and the blinds move before Maxim comes to the door a minute later.
When he sees Kat standing there beside me, his eyebrows shoot up his forehead and he releases an audible gasp.
“Holy shit, kid.” He shakes his head. “You weren’t kidding. She looks exactly like her.”
Kat offers him a nervous smile, and Maxim gestures us all inside.
“Have a seat.” He points at the sofa. “It’s not the Ritz, but I can offer you a glass of water if any of you are thirsty.”
“We’re okay,” Kat answers. “But thank you.”
Maxim nods, and for a moment, the two of them just study each other. Kat is the first to break the silence, reluctantly eager for information.
“Lev tells me you knew my mother?”
“I knew of her,” Maxim says. “We weren’t exactly friends. At least not at first anyway.”
“What does that mean?” Kat squeezes my hand in hers, and I don’t even think she realizes she’s doing it.
Maxim looks at me, and I give him a subtle nod. I want Kat to know the truth. After today, she’s proved that she’s tougher than I ever wanted to believe. If she can handle Vasily’s men coming at her, she can handle some hard realities too.
“I used to work for Vasily,” Maxim explains. “That’s the first I ever heard of your mother. She’d come into the club about once a week. It was always after we closed, but she’d sit at the bar and fidget with her keys. I always thought she looked out of place in that club. She was too pretty to be sitting there alone.”
Kat swallows her emotion and smiles. “She was pretty.”
“Well, if it’s any consolation, you look just like her. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I would have thought I’d seen a ghost on my doorstep this morning.”
Kat nods, too choked up to speak.
“Anyway, I used to see her there every week. Vasily would come down and talk to her, and then she’d leave. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. It wasn’t until I saw her at a Vory gathering on Gleb’s arm that I started to piece shit together for myself.”
“Gleb, the boss?” Kat looks at me.
“Yes.” I nod.
“Vasily was using her. I don’t know how she got wrapped up with him in the first place, but I figured maybe he had something on her. That’s how he got her to do his bidding.”
“What do you mean?” Kat asks. “What was she doing?”
“She was running information about Gleb back to Vasily,” I reply. “Vasily used her as a pawn. He wanted to take down Gleb.”
“But things got complicated when your mother got pregnant,” Maxim adds.
Kat’s face pales, and she looks at me for confirmation of her silent thoughts. “Are you telling me that Gleb, the Russian mafia boss, is my father?”
“There’s a strong possibility.” I wrap my arm around her, brushing the hair off her shoulders as I do.
Kat seems to process that reality for a long time. “But why would she do that? Why would she help Vasily with anything?”
“She never told me.” Maxim shrugs. “And I didn’t ask. I figured that was her business, and in the end, she was so spooked, she wasn’t going to tell anyone anything that wasn’t necessary.”
“Did she love Gleb?” Kat’s voice fractures.
“It’s hard to say.” Maxim looks at me. “But if you’re asking my two cents, I think she did. I think, in the end, it was really hard for her to know which way was up. By that point, it didn’t matter what she did because the walls were closing in on her. If she came clean to Gleb, that was a big risk. And by turning her back on Vasily, she knew she was starting a war. But she did what she thought was best. For you.”
Kat swipes away a few silent tears that have leaked from the edges of her eyes and shakes her head as she tries to process everything. It’s a lot. But I know now that it was the right thing to do. She deserves to know her truth. Her backstory. Even if it’s difficult.
“When I saw the name Kieran on the disk, I never even looked twice. I just assumed it was someone else.”
“I think Vasily coded her that way in his own contacts,” Maxim explains. “That way, if any of the Vory saw it, they wouldn’t think anything of it either. He didn’t want to take the chance of their connection getting back to Gleb.”
“That makes sense,” Kat murmurs. “I just... I still can’t believe that he might be my father.”
“Yeah.” Maxim eyeballs me as he leans back into his recliner. “That could complicate things.”
Kat looks at me. “How?”
“If Vasily makes this connection himself, then there’s a chance he could try to use that against us. He could get to Gleb first. Spin this in another direction. I don’t know.”
“So we need to go to Gleb?” She twists her hands together in her lap.
“I need to go to Gleb,” I clarify. “Test the waters. Then we can go from there. I’m not taking you anywhere near him until I have an idea how he’s going to react to this news.”
Maxim stands up and pads to the kitchen. “I think I have something that might help. At the very least, it couldn’t hurt.”
When he returns, he has a file in his hands. It looks like it’s about a hundred years old. And I’m curious what it could be.
“Your mother’s notes.” He sets the file on the coffee table in front of us. “If you see Gleb, you can give these to him as proof that she didn’t give Vasily everything. They are the original copies. The only copies.”
“How did you get those?” Kat narrows her eyes at the yellow folder.
“Honestly?” Maxim sighs. “Vasily sent me after your mother. It wasn’t something I was keen on doing, but you have to understand that in this line of work, you don’t get much of a choice.”
Horror washes over Kat’s face as her gaze meets his. “Did you—?”
“No,” he cuts her off. “The minute I saw she had a kid, I backed out. My loyalties to Vasily were already on thin ice at that point in my life, so I didn’t want that on my conscience. I told your mother the truth. What I was sent there to do, and that I wouldn’t be the only one. She understood that. But I suppose it was only a matter of time before it happened.”
“Do you know who?” Kat presses. “Who killed her?”
Maxim looks at me, as if to say this is just another reason for me to go after the bastard. “It was Vasily. He did it himself.”
Kat takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, shuddering. “I understand now. I get why he has to die. He’s poison. Everything he touches, he destroys...”
Her words drift off right as Josh opens his eyes and stirs back to life, blinking sleepily as he glances around the unfamiliar surroundings.
“Hotel?” he murmurs.
“No, sweetheart.” Kat leans over and kisses his forehead, stroking his hair back. “We are at a... friend’s house.”
Maxim gives Josh his best attempt at a non-threatening smile, but Josh just clings to my shirt, digging his fingers into the fabric so nobody can peel him away. It’s second nature when I dip my head forward and kiss him on the top of his hair too. Kat watches the whole interaction, teary-eyed but happy. Despite all the shit ha
ppening around us, we still have each other. And I know now that she will fight for that.
The words are on the verge of spilling from my lips. Words I’ve never confessed to a woman other than my own mother. But I realize we still have an audience, and right now, I need to get us back on the road.
“We need to get going,” I tell Maxim. “But there’s something you should know.”
“What is it?” he asks.
“There were a couple of men in the city already. They found us somehow. I took care of them, but—”
“The others won’t be far behind,” he finishes for me with a sigh. “I suspected as much.”
“I didn’t mean to bring trouble to your door.” I meet his gaze. “But now that I have, I think it’s best you leave too.”
“Son of a bitch,” Maxim grumbles under his breath. “I’m an old man now, kid. Life on the run is too hard for the likes of me.”
“So maybe it’s time to quit running,” I say. “Come to New York. Help me with Gleb, and let’s finish this once and for all. Together.”
He leans back, glances around the shoddy house he calls home, and shrugs. “Ah, fuck it. What else have I got to do?”
* * *
“Where are we?” Kat stirs from her thoughts as we pull into the garage.
“It’s a friend of Maxim’s,” I tell her. “We’re going to trade vehicles again. I’ll grab Josh.”
She gets out of the car without a protest, resigned to the fact that this is our life for now. But I meant what I said. It won’t always be that way. And I hope she can come to believe that at some point.
Maxim does the talking, and within twenty minutes, we have two different rigs to get back on the road. But before we leave Providence, there’s just one more thing I need to do. We load up, and Maxim follows us to another service station just off the interstate.
“Stay here,” I tell Kat. “I’ll be right outside, okay?”
She nods, and I meet Maxim behind the SUV, pulling out the burner phone I took off Vasily’s guys. Maxim’s eyes collide with mine in quiet contemplation.
His: Ties that Bind Duet, Book 2 Page 6