by Elle Casey
“Well, I guess that solves that problem,” Toni says. She looks exhausted.
Lucky comes over and puts his arms around Thibault, slapping him on the back pretty hard several times. “Glad to have you back, man.”
“Glad to be back.” Thibault finally smiles, and it looks as though a huge weight has been lifted from his shoulders.
Lucky comes to me next, giving me a hug too.
“I don’t know what to say.” I’m afraid to believe it’s real. I want to yell and cry and sing, but I’m too stunned to do anything.
He pulls back and looks at me. “Don’t say anything. There’s no need.” He gives me a charming smile and then moves on, making room for everyone else to hug Thibault.
Toni is the last one in line. She holds her brother for a really long time. I start to think it would be better if I just left, but she grabs my arm as I begin to walk away.
“Not so fast,” she says.
I pull my arm from her hand but stand my ground. I lift my chin, waiting for the hateful words that are sure to come.
“You’d better be good to him.”
“Of course I will be.”
“Toni, ease up,” Thibault says.
I hold up my hand at him, never breaking eye contact with Toni. “No, I got this.” I pause, taking in her attitude, her stance, her expression. She’s tough, yeah, but she has her vulnerabilities. I saw one today, but I’m not going to take advantage of it. “I respect your relationship with your brother and the love you all have for each other. I won’t do anything to interfere with that.”
She nods once. “See that you don’t.”
“But don’t think you can disrespect me just because I’m a nice person. I love your brother, but that does not give you a free pass. Are we clear?”
The corner of her mouth twitches. “Yeah, we’re clear.”
“Okay!” Thibault claps his hands together once. “Well, that was fun. Anybody want to celebrate with a beer?”
“We can’t. We’re pregnant,” says a chorus of voices.
All the men in the room stop moving and stare at the three women who just spoke up: Jenny, May, and Toni.
I hold up a finger. “And I’m breastfeeding, so . . .”
“Holy shit, that’s a lot of estrogen,” Dev says, fear in his eyes.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Thibault holds me and Tee together in his arms, right there in the conference room, swaying to some inner rhythm that’s flowing between us. My eyes are closed as I soak up the feelings and try to deal with the storm of emotions raging inside me. He was ready to walk away from everything for me, but now he doesn’t have to. We get to have it all. It’s overwhelming. Too much.
Somebody clears her throat, and whoever she is, she’s standing very close. I open my eyes to find May just behind Thibault wearing a big grin.
“Can we help you with something?” Thibault asks, twisting around to see her.
“You guys are invited to the pizza party that’s about to start in about a half hour.”
“Pizza party?” Thibault sounds like she just invited him to have surgery on his knee without anesthetic.
“I love pizza parties,” I say enthusiastically. I pull away from Thibault and smile at her. My heart is soaring into the heavens. For the first time in my life, I’m thinking fate doesn’t hate me.
May gets in close and tickles the baby’s neck. “Yay! I get to soak up all the baby love.”
“Not so fast,” Jenny says from behind her. “You have to share.”
May glares at her sister. “You’re going to have one of your own soon. This one’s mine. Go away.”
“So are you.”
“Yeah, but yours is due first.” She goes back to tickling Tee.
I look up at Thibault, smiling. I can’t believe he’s not being forced to choose between us anymore. And I’m actually participating in one of those parties I saw in his photo album. It feels like a dream. “You like pizza parties, don’t you?”
He winces. “Love ’em. Love all the noise, and the kids yelling, and the dogs barking . . .”
I reach up on tiptoes to kiss him gently on the lips. “Yeah, you do.”
He sighs and puts his arms around me. “I do now.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
The men are enjoying a few beers in the backyard together, and we girls are in the kitchen laughing about the goofy things our men do when they’re tired and too scatterbrained from getting up in the night with kids to think straight. All the children are upstairs, including Tee, who’s sound asleep next to a baby monitor. The receiver is on the kitchen counter, and it’s completely silent. Bliss.
The sound of the front door opening and closing comes down the hall, and then May’s tiny dog, Felix, starts barking his head off. The bigger dog is outside in the backyard, and she rushes over to press her face against the sliding glass door, leaving a big drool mark.
“Who’s that?” May asks, looking around. “Everyone’s already here.”
Toni is the first one to move. She walks quickly from the kitchen, Jenny and May right behind her.
By the time I get there, Toni is shouting and furniture is flying. A small side table that was in the front entrance hall lands in the living room, and Toni comes right behind it. She falls onto the floor, curled in a ball.
“Felix, no!” May yells at her dog as he barks and growls like a deranged, bloodthirsty beast. She and Jenny are holding each other, slowly backing down the hallway toward me. I stand there frozen in place, taking in the vision before me.
The tiny Chihuahua is busy yapping at a man’s ankles, biting his pant leg and shaking it for all he’s worth. And I know the man.
“Let Tamika go with me, and we will leave. No one will be hurt.” The distinct Russian accent brings back so many memories. Not all of them are bad, either. I’m so confused.
“Alexei?” I take a couple steps forward, my heart filling with irrational joy at seeing him. “Where have you been, sweetie? Oh my god, I thought you were gone!” I move faster, anxious to hug him, to convince myself that he’s really there and to help him understand that I’m okay and there’s no need for him to be upset on my behalf. The poor guy thinks I need a rescue, apparently.
“Don’t go,” Jenny says, taking my arm, holding me back.
“Felix, come here!” May screams.
The dog stops barking and slinks away into the living room.
I pull myself from Jenny’s grasp. “It’s okay. He’s not going to hurt anyone. He’s just confused.” I walk past the women as Toni gets to her feet. She looks like she wants to murder him as she wipes blood from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand.
It’s when I see that bright-red blood that it hits me . . . he’s already hurt someone. I stop and glance at Toni again; a bruise is already coloring her cheek. She didn’t just trip, she was punched. I look at Alexei and find an expression on his face that’s never been there before. It chills my blood to see how much he looks like Pavel.
“What’s going on here?” I ask him. “What did you do? How did you know I was here?” Suspicion rises up and overtakes the relief I was experiencing at seeing him alive.
“You are coming with me,” he says, glaring.
I’ve never heard him talk like this before. He was always so happy when he was with me. Sometimes he got confused, but never angry. My mind desperately tries to come up with an explanation that makes sense. I’ve spent years getting to know this man. He can’t be here to hurt anyone. Whoever took over Pavel’s operation told him what happened with me. He found out where I was staying from Pavel before Pavel was killed. He’s lost his family and is looking for someone to help take care of him. This has to be it. Alexei isn’t like Pavel.
“Why don’t we all just calm down and take a breath?” I say, holding out my hands.
The sound of pounding feet comes from above our heads. I look up, panicked the kids will get involved. Alexei is already confused enough; he doesn’t need that cha
os making things worse.
Jenny’s voice rings out with a hysterical edge to it. “Kids! Stay upstairs! Nobody’s allowed to come downstairs. Anyone who comes downstairs does not get dessert!”
“Okay, Mom!” comes a chorus of voices. A couple of them giggle.
The sound of running feet going in the opposite direction is like a drug, making me feel high with relief. The whirring of Jacob’s wheelchair mixes in with their footsteps.
I take another step toward him. “Alexei, what is going on? What happened to you? Where did you go? I missed you.”
Toni slowly moves out of the living room around the back side of it, disappearing from view.
“You do not have to worry about me, Tamika. You need to worry about you. You have information for me.” His expression and voice turn downright sinister. “We will discuss in private.”
This doesn’t sound like Alexei at all. It’s like another man has taken over his body. “Alexei, I don’t know anything about anything. Whatever I knew is gone now.” I stare at him, trying to piece this puzzle together. Did someone put him up to this? That has to be it. He’s memorized a script. He loves repeating things he’s heard.
“That is lie.” He laughs. The sound reminds me of an evil clown in a funhouse. There’s no real emotion to it. “You have good memory,” he says. “You will tell me everything.”
I keep talking, hoping this situation will start making sense soon. “Alexei, we’re friends. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. I have nothing to hide.”
“We are not friends,” he says. “We are going now. You are coming with me.” He holds out his hand. “Come.”
He moves toward me, but I back away, pushing the women into the kitchen. I don’t want to go with him. He looks crazed. Something terrible has happened to him; maybe he snapped when he lost his cousin. I need to stall him.
“But I don’t want to leave the party.” I try to sound cheerful, hoping to turn his mood around. “It’s a pizza party. You like pizza. We can put some ketchup on it for you.”
“No more ketchup!” He yells so loudly, it makes my ears hurt. “Your ketchup makes me sick! All you cook is with ketchup.” He sneers, his bottom lip turning down almost to his chin.
“But I thought you liked the ketchup.” I feel like I’m trapped in a seriously weird nightmare with no way out. Nothing is how it should be.
“‘I thought you liked the ketchup,’” he mimics. “And you thought I was stupid, too. I guess you are not as smart as you think.”
My heart lurches as an idea starts worming its way into my brain. Could I really be that clueless?
“All that time, I watch you,” he says. “I see you. I hear you. Pavel was right. You are not sem’ya. We cannot trust you.” He smiles, obviously proud of himself. “I am the shpion living on your couch.”
I go dizzy as the blood leaves my head. Oh, sweet Jesus. Apparently I am that clueless. Alexei was spying on me the whole time.
The disappointment crashes over me, making me think I’m going to suffocate from it. This man I cared about, who I was willing to risk my child’s and my own safety for, was playing me all along. He was Pavel’s eyes and ears, and I never saw it. Not even a glimmer of his treachery came through the façade he’d created.
Bitterness rises up and takes over my mouth. “I never wanted to be in your horrible sem’ya, Alexei, but I guess you already knew that.” I mumbled plenty of negative things about his family over the years when he was hanging around. I shudder at how much he was probably able to reveal to Pavel. I’m lucky to be alive.
“Yes. And when Pavel sees you are pregnant, he send me away. He knows all your secrets, even the ones you don’t share with me. Then he doesn’t care about you anymore. Only baby. Too bad you have baby and get away from hospital before he take him away. Lucky for you, maybe, because you would be dead and baby would be with him.” He sneers. “But I don’t care about baby. Too much trouble, babies. Baby stays here, you go with me.”
My ears are ringing. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “Pavel knew I was pregnant? How?”
He shrugs his massive shoulders. “You are fat and you are sick. It is not hard to see.”
“But . . . he never said anything.” A heartless Russian gangster knew I was pregnant, and I didn’t. My mind is officially blown.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see a figure standing in the kitchen to my right. Thibault. He’s got something in his hand, above his shoulder. His crutch. I back up another step. If I can just draw Alexei in, Thibault could crack him over the head with it. I grit my teeth and make the decision: We’re a team, Thibault and I. We can take Alexei down together, that sonofabitch.
“We can talk about Pavel outside,” he says. “Come.” He holds out his hand.
“Um, no, thanks. I think I’ll stay here.” I back up another step.
“All these people in here,” Alexei says, looking at whoever is standing behind me, “they invite you to pizza party? Did you tell them you are not loyal person?”
“What are you talking about? I was loyal.” I pause. “Until I wasn’t.” Yeah, if Pavel were still alive, he probably wouldn’t consider me loyal at all.
“You helped foreigner take my cousin’s business. You thought nothing of me.” He jabs his finger into his chest.
Now I’m back to being confused. “What? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Sebastian! He took business from Pavel and from me. He is not sem’ya, he is foreigner. You let him in.”
“I didn’t let anyone do anything! Pavel was his contact, not me!”
“But what about me?!” he yells, pointing at his chest again. “You forgot about me!”
Everyone disappears from view. I have the strangest sensation that I’m alone in this house with a madman. “Alexei, how can you blame me? You always acted like the most important thing in the world to you were your Legos. I had no idea you wanted to run the business. I didn’t even think you could.” None of this makes sense. How could he even imagine being able to run a business like Pavel’s?
He sneers again. “I was doing my job. Pavel told me, ‘Watch Tamika,’ and it was a good way. You are always so paranoid. You never say anything to anybody, you never do anything with anybody, you always stay on outside. But to a man who is a child, you say everything. So stupid.”
I shake my head at both his naïveté and mine. “For five years, you acted like you had a developmental disability so you could spy on me, and yet somehow that was supposed to make me think you were someone who could take over a multimillion-dollar business?” I snort in disbelief. “I’m pretty sure I’m not the stupid one in the room.”
He pounds his chest with his fist. “It is a big job. It is a big job for a big man.”
I feel almost intoxicated as what he’s saying finally comes together and makes some kind of twisted sense: Alexei was trying to prove his worth and loyalty to Pavel, and when Pavel saw that Alexei wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer but could still be useful, he gave him a simple job he knew he could handle, all the while leading the poor sap on by telling him one day he’d earn a place at the head table for his sacrifices. Alexei got played as badly as I did.
“You were doing all that so Pavel would trust you and bring you into the business.”
“We all do what we have to do. It is for sem’ya. Family and loyalty. You know nothing of this. You are not sem’ya.”
I almost feel sorry for this poor delusional bastard. “But he was never going to do that, Alexei. He was always going to keep everything for himself.”
“You do not know this! Shut up!” He lunges at me, pulling a gun from behind his back.
Time seems to move in slow motion as I stumble away and look over at Thibault standing to my right, hidden from Alexei’s view.
The gun rises and points at my face.
Alexei’s finger is on the trigger, and then . . .
Thibault’s crutch comes down in a large arc from above, just as I pass
by on my way down to the floor. I’m falling . . .
The aluminum crutch makes contact with the barrel of the gun and smacks it out of Alexei’s hand.
The heavy weapon tumbles to the floor and discharges, a loud bang sending the gun skittering sideways into the edge of the stairs.
Several screams follow, one of them mine.
Something stings my leg like the fires of hell.
I fall onto my back and reach down to touch my leg. I feel something warm and wet there.
I roll onto my side as someone grabs my hand, pulling me across the floor. It’s May, and she’s dragging me away from the two men grappling in the hallway—Thibault and Alexei.
“Oh shit, you’ve been shot,” Jenny says. She grabs a dish towel off the counter and wads it up. “Get me a belt,” she shouts.
Toni whips hers off, dropping to her knees next to me.
Other bodies come flying through the kitchen, followed by a galloping dog that looks like a hound from hell, and then there’s a lot of growling, grunting, and crashing.
“Knife!” Ozzie roars.
Then more crashing and deep barking.
Alexei’s voice comes out in a higher pitch. “He is biting! Take him off!”
I look down at my leg, the sounds of the fight fading out as I realize how bad things are for me. “Am I going to die?” I feel weak at the sight of quickly reddening dish towels. “God, that’s a lot of blood.”
“Nope. You’re not allowed to die,” Toni says.
“Why not?” I ask, because apparently now is the perfect time for more stupid conversations.
She glares at me. “Because my brother loves you, idiot.” She yanks her belt tight over the dishrag covering the hole in my leg. “If you die, I will never forgive you.”
I laugh and cry at the same time.
May puts her hand on my cheek. “Are you okay, honey?”
“I think she likes me,” I say, still crying.
“She’s going into shock,” May says. “Somebody call 9-1-1!” She stands and leaves me there with Jenny and Toni.