Sergi

by K. J. Dahlen

  Then Gavril had suggested supper and they run into Sergi and his son. Levi was stunned to find out that the leader of the Russian mob was his father and that he had a brother. Now this… He wasn’t exactly sure what could happen next.

  A few minutes later, the door opened again and when Levi looked up, he saw Sergi standing there. Levi slowly got to his feet to face the man who’d fathered him. He glared at the man and waited in silence for him.

  “Where is your mother?” Sergi finally asked.

  “She’s gone,” Levi informed him.

  Sergi frowned. “Where did she go?”

  “She left. She didn’t tell me where she was going, only that she was going.”

  Sergi took a moment to really look at him. “She left me again?”

  Levi nodded.

  “Did she say why?”

  Levi shook his head. “Yeah, she told me why. She said she couldn’t or wouldn’t live with people doubting her intentions. She lived that way every day of her life and she couldn’t do it anymore. She also did not want to come between you and your son, Misha.”

  “But you stayed.”

  “She wanted me to know the man my father is.” Levi’s lips tightened as he stared at Sergi. “I told her if you didn’t want her, you didn’t want me either. But she told me to stay and make up my own mind about you.” He looked at his father, from the top of his head all the way down to his shoes. “And you know what? She told me you were an honorable man all my life. She would tell me stories of how great a man you were all the time. But I have to say, I don’t see how its honorable to leave her out there on her own. She raised me to believe that you take care of the ones you love and you sir, have fallen so short of that mark, you can’t even see the end gate. She told me to stay and make up my own mind about you and Misha but my mind was already made up when she walked out the door.”

  “You dare to judge me without hearing my side of things?” Sergi asked. “How fair is that?”

  “Her words have more meaning for me than yours ever will,” Levi countered. “She told me she loved you but that she would never make you chose between her or your son, Misha. She claims Misha would forever doubt her and she wouldn’t live that way again, not even for you.”

  “What else? Did she say anything else?” Sergi asked.

  “She wants me to prove beyond a shadow of the truth that you are my father. She wanted me to give you a chance, but you know what? I don’t need to take a fucking DNA test to prove I’m your son. All I ever needed was her words. My mother doesn’t lie or cheat. She’s lived that way underneath my grandfather’s rules. She hated it. Everything she has today is because of her own hard work and savings. She wouldn’t take anything from her father or grandfather. She wanted nothing to do with either of them. They tried to give me things too over the years when they would find us but she would never let me take them. I didn’t really want them anyway, so it wasn’t hard for me to turn them down. I trusted her and she was always right. Two days ago, my grandfather and great grandfather showed up out of the blue. They hadn’t been around us in years but they showed up all the sudden. They watched me walk across the floor and get my degree then they came to talk to us about how proud they were of me. They didn’t know the first thing about me. They acted so proud of the fact I was a scientist and then they asked if I would design drugs for them. When I told them to fuck off… they invited us out to supper, that’s when you came in. It’s been a hell of a few days but I’m going to follow my mother and just leave it all behind me. You got the men that murdered your wife, you found my mom and me. So now, you can just get on with the rest of your life. Good luck with your Council. I hope they are found guilty and made to face judgement day but I won’t be there. My mom won’t be there either.”

  He moved to step around Sergi.

  Sergi reached out to grab his arm. “You don’t have to go. I’ll bring your mother back and we can all talk about this.”

  Levi jerked his arm loose and glared at his father. “There is nothing left to talk about. She is right, Misha would always doubt her, whether its her being with you or because he might think she’s like her family. In some ways, maybe you would too. She’s always held her head up high and I will not watch her hang her head in shame because of his or your own doubts. Not for something she didn’t do.” Levi walked out the door.

  Sergi felt his soul ache with loss. His whole world had just walked out the door and he didn’t know how to stop it. He couldn’t seem to move. Then the door opened again and he turned hoping to see that Anita had returned to him. But it wasn’t her that walked through the door, it was Misha.

  “Dad, is something wrong?” Misha asked as he looked around the suite. “Where is Anita and Levi?”

  “They left,” Sergi told him with no emotion in his voice at all.

  Misha frowned. “What do you mean they left? Why would they leave?”

  “Anita told Levi that she couldn’t stay with me. That she wouldn’t live with doubts or suspicions anymore.”

  “Excuse me?” Misha frowned.

  “She told him you would forever cast her actions into doubt and suspicions, and she couldn’t live with that nor would she ever make me choose between you or her.”

  “And?” Misha asked softly.

  “IS she right?” Sergi asked looking at him. “Would you continue to cast doubts on her character?”

  Misha shrugged slowly. “I don’t know her well enough for that, do I? I mean this is the first time I met her or even knew about her. You are a wealthy man, Dad. A man of great power. I would be suspicious of any woman you suddenly wanted to be part of our family.” Shaking his head, he added, “And let’s face it, she will be judged and not only by me but by everyone you are associated with for who her family is as well.”

  Sergi walked over to the window and looked out over the city below him. His heart was breaking but he let nothing show on the outside. “Did you know why you never knew about her before?”

  Misha didn’t move but he did answer his father, “No, I don’t?”

  “I met her shortly after you went off to university. She was so much younger than I was at the time and we only had three days together before she left but I loved her then and I love her even now. I looked for her for years on the QT but I could never find her. She only knew me by my first name and I only knew her the same way. But I have to say those three days were heaven for both of us. We toured the city and we made love. She was a pure woman our first time and I think I fell for her then and there. For a while, I had the whole world in my arms and I was happy. Then I found she left and I felt like the world’s biggest fool. I thought everything she told me was nothing but a lie. Then I found her again and for the first time in twenty something years, I was whole again.” Sergi walked over to the bar without looking at his son. Pouring himself a drink he knocked it back and poured another. “The whole time I was doubting her she was raising my son. She was teaching him things about me I didn’t know about. I had no idea she was Gavril’s granddaughter or that she would prove her father was present the night your mother was killed. But she didn’t hesitate to do it.” He turned his head to look over at Misha. “Did you know that when she left, she wanted Levi to stay behind and get to know me? She said to him that would never make me chose between you and her? She’d lived a life full of lies and suspicions with that father of hers and she didn’t want that life any more. That she loved me enough to let me go but that he should stay and know the man who fathered him.”

  “Then where is he?” Misha asked softly.

  “He told me he didn’t want anything I had to offer him.” He shrugged. “That his mother never lied or wanted more than what she could earn on her own. She wanted him to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was my son and then he could make up his own mind about me. He felt that he didn’t have to do any of that. He trusted her word and that was good enough for him. If I needed any more than her word, then he felt that I wasn’t worthy of her love or time
.”

  Silence took over the suite for a long moment then Misha asked, “And what are you going to do?”

  Sergi shrugged. “What can I do? I lose either way. If I go after her, I stand a chance of losing you. If I don’t go after her, then I lose her. Either way she’s not in my life anymore.”

  “Dad, you could never lose me,” Misha assured him. “I’m your son and will always be your son.”

  “But Levi is my son too,” Sergi pointed out. “As you already said though, many would never accept him or her in Russia, because of who her family is. And as Nikoli pointed out, we may never know who she really is. The High Council would never accept her on that alone.” He looked at Misha and nodded. “You already told me you would forever have doubts about her.”

  “And you don’t have doubts yourself?”

  Sergi just looked at his son. “I didn’t then and now I don’t either. I trust her and she’s done nothing to make me doubt her. I might have doubted her briefly but it was just that, briefly. I didn’t know that much about her background and I found it shocking when she turned out to be the granddaughter of the man who took everything away from me a lifetime ago.”

  “But you just said you began to doubt her after she left before. Has that changed?”

  Sergi nodded. “Yes, I think it has. I realized that she never knew who I was before. I never told her my full name. She didn’t know I had money or power when we met twenty-four years ago. All she knew was that I lived in a big house filled with pretty things but that’s all she knew about who I was. I should have trusted her with my last name. Now its too late. I lost her and my son because I was a fool.”

  “Then Dad, I think you should go after her and drag her back here. Hell, drag both of them back here,” Misha told his dad. “If I have a brother, then I want to know him. If she is important to you, then I want to know the kind of woman she is.”

  “And the doubts you have about her?” Sergi had to ask.

  “I can put them aside until she does something to bring them back up. I will always protect not only you and the Bratva but myself too. I love you dad but you are still a man and deserve someone by your side. I always wondered why you never even looked for a steady woman.”

  Sergi stared at his son for a long time then set his glass on the table. “I have no idea where to even look for them.”

  Misha smiled. “I think Nikoli has their addresses. If he doesn’t, he can find them.”

  “Let’s go then.” Sergi went to the door and looked back at Misha. “Come along, I want you with me to ask her to come back. She needs to hear that you have no objection to us being together.”

  Misha sighed and followed his father out of the room.

  Anita reached her small home and opened the door. She was exhausted. So much had happened in the past few days and she still couldn’t accept it all. She couldn’t even cry right now. Her mind had been in overdrive since she left the hotel.

  Now she was crashing and she couldn’t stop it. Maybe she just didn’t even want to try. If she stopped and thought of it all, the pain of losing him again would overwhelm her and she didn’t want or need that. She did that once and she decided she couldn’t do it again. It just hurt too fucking much. This time, she knew it would devastate her.

  She flopped down in her bed and closed here eyes. Her eyes burned with unshed tears and her heart was heavy. She felt so fragile and didn’t know how much more she could take without shattering completely.

  Even breathing hurt right now. She wanted to lose herself in the oblivion of sleep but her mind wouldn’t allow her to rest. The look in Sergi’s eyes when Misha cast his doubts on her, had just about killed her. She did the only thing she felt she could do, leave him.

  She loved him but she couldn’t stay with him. She hoped Levi would stay and get to know him but even that she had no control over. He was a grown man and had to make his own mind up about his father.

  Now she really was alone in the world but she was ok with that. She didn’t need nor did she want her father or grandfather in the picture. What they were doing was wrong any freakin’ way you sliced it. They both deserved what they had coming to them. They got away with killing a woman forty years ago and now they would face justice for their crimes. Not only that, but they were spreading poison in two different countries and they needed to be stopped.

  She stared at the ceiling and didn’t notice the heavy stream of tears leaking from her eyes. She laid there so long she didn’t hear the door open or notice when her son joined her.

  He sat down on the bed and watched her for a moment.

  She finally looked down at him and asked, “What are you doing here?”

  “I decided I didn’t need a man in my life that would cloud your honor,” he told her calmly. “You didn’t do anything wrong, either back then or now. You can’t help who your family is nor can you be held responsible for what they do or don’t do. You raised me the best you could and never asked him for anything. That’s really all I need Mom.” Levi smiled at her. “I’ve always known you as my mother, I guess I never thought of you as a woman before. I’ve always known deep down that you loved a man once, a man who was probably my father. I should have listened a little bit more when you told me about him. If I had, I would have known how much you loved him back then and how much you still love him now.”

  Fresh tears ran down her cheeks and she just stared at the man her son had become. “I love you.”

  “I love you too. You and me? We got this. We don’t need anyone else.”

  Anita tried to smile but then thought about his words. It was true they didn’t need anyone else but there was someone she wanted, desperately. She did want Sergi in her life. Levi was grown up and would leave her one day soon. Plus, she would never want to be one of those mothers who couldn’t let go. He needed to live his own life and that was as it should be.

  Chapter Six

  Sergi and Misha had gone back to Nikoli and asked him for Anita’s address. Nikoli didn’t really want to give it to them but he did. In digging into Anita’s background, he was digging into Gavril and Nico’s backgrounds as well and he didn’t like what he was finding.

  He had already found out that the man, Adrian Marky, Anita claimed she came to Russia with twenty-four years ago didn’t exist. There was no record of him coming or going through customs with her and no record on the Russian side of him either.

  There was however, a weak link of a mob connection to Gavril back then. One he might or might not want exposed. His men were still digging into her story but some of the things Sergi told them about what he remembered; Nikoli just wasn’t able to back that up with fact.

  When Sergi and Misha pulled up to the small house on Cranston Lane in Hoboken, New Jersey. The house was small but well cared for, there were even flowers planted in the front walkway. The neighborhood wasn’t a rich one but perhaps what the American call an old neighborhood. The houses were clean and tidy they just looked old.

  Sergi walked up to the front door and knocked. Looking around at the other houses, he saw curtain’s twitch as if the people around her were watching. When no one answered, he knocked again.

  Misha stood silently at his side.

  This time the door swung open and Levi was there. He gave Sergi a blank expression.

  Sergi blinked in surprise. It was the same look he’d often used. He swung his gaze over to Misha to see if he had the same reaction.

  Misha stared at his half brother as a smile almost tugged at his lips.

  Yes, he saw it too.

  His expression gave away nothing as Levi asked, “What are you doing here? How did you find us?”

  “Did you really think I would let you both just walk out of my life as if you meant nothing to me?” Sergi asked as he walked into her home. He looked around and liked what he saw. The house was small but it was clean. Her things were well cared for. But he wasn’t here to observe what she had and didn’t have. He was here to see her.

  H
e looked over at Levi and asked, “Where is your mother?”

  Levi stared hard at the man he now knew as his father. Then he looked beyond him to the man he knew was his half-brother. He was about to tell them to leave when Anita came to the doorway between the living room and the hall that led to the bedrooms.

  “I’m right here, but I think we said all there was to say at Nikoli’s hotel.”

  Sergi turned and looked at her. Her eyes held defeat and a blankness he’d never seen before. She reminded him of someone who was broken beyond repair and that broke his heart. “I came here to bring you back with me.”

  Anita looked up at him and held her head high. “I don’t belong in your world and I know it. As much as I loved you once, I know my place in life. I would never be accepted in your world and I will be no man’s whore, not even yours.”

  “I’m not asking you to be my whore, and for the record, you’ve never been a whore.” Sergi growled at her. He walked over to where she was standing but paused as the closer he got she began to step back away from him.

  “I never really doubted you,” he spoke quietly. “But I’m afraid I let circumstances and doubts enter my mind as more facts were revealed. I knew your grandfather hated me, he has hated me for so long, the reasons no longer matter. I knew he murdered my wife because of some insane reason only he knew. No I can’t say that either. I knew exactly why he hated me. He wanted to set up a drug route even back then. I stopped him. I didn’t want that poison distributed in my homeland. I knew it was there but the Bratva had nothing to do with it. He wanted to bring in more money by bringing the Bratva into the drug trade. I lobbied hard to keep the Bratva out of it and he took it as a fact that I was trying to ruin him.” Sergi shook his head. “The Bratva didn’t need that then and we still don’t need it now. I can’t control what other men want or do but I can control the Bratva staying out of the drug trade and I have for a long time. It cost me my wife but I have finally found her killers now and once they face the Tribunal, at least that wrong will be righted.”