by Terry Towers
“Alexander knows people! He pays people to tell him things.” Her state of terror intensified. “We’re not safe!”
“Anastasia. Do you trust me?”
She stared blankly at me for a moment as if considering the question. I won’t lie, it hurt. I wanted and expected her to say yes without hesitation. Yes, she trusted me with her secrets. Yes, she trusted me with her child. Yes, she trusted me with her life. She wasn’t saying any of those things.
You don’t know what she’s been through Jaxson, my conscience argued.
“Please. I promise. You’re safe. Ura is safe.”
She hesitated a moment longer, looking over her shoulder at the closed bedroom door, as if she were expecting someone to beat the door down and rush in any second. Closing her eyes, she seemed to meditate on the question. When she opened her eyes, she nodded. “Yes. Yes, I trust you, Jax.”
Thank God! The thought of her and Ura making a run for it, going fuck knows where without someone to protect them wasn’t something I would consider or allow. From what Vince had told me, she and Ura without protection just couldn’t happen.
“Then believe me, this guy will keep things quiet and he’ll be able to help.” I hope, I silently added, but didn’t voice my thoughts.
“Okay.” She took a deep breath in, slowly released it and sat back down next to me. With urging she snuggled tight to me, placing her head on my chest and draping her arm across my torso. “I don’t know what to say.”
Her accent was thick now. I was becoming used to hearing the accent come out when she was stressed. In truth, I was now able to gauge her anxiety by the thickness of the accent.
“Start from the beginning. How did you meet him?”
“He was a business partner to my boss in Ukraine.”
“What did you do for work in Ukraine?”
She shrugged and I could feel her body begin to stiffen. “Stuff.”
And that was the end of that line of questioning. All right, I can give her that. We’ll get back to it if we need to.
“Okay, so you met him and then what?”
“He was handsome. Rich. Powerful. My boss was scared of him.”
No doubt, I thought. Bratva Vince had called it. Russian mafia. I knew nothing about the Russian mafia, but it sure as hell didn’t sound good.
“He offered me and Ura a good life in America. I just had to be a good wife. And he’d care for Ura, like his own. It sounded like a fairy tale.”
“So you came to America?”
She nodded. “And it was good for, maybe, I don’t know. A month. Then things got bad.”
I frown. Hooking my index finger under her chin, I forced her to look up. “Bad how?”
“He…” she shrugged. “He, didn’t treat me like wife. It was….” She sighed. “He started giving me rules. And I had to obey. And sex, it was rough, it was for him, not to make me happy.”
“Why didn’t you leave?”
She shrugged, her cheeks beginning to turn crimson. She pulled her chin from my hand and averted her eyes, snuggling against my chest. “I had no money. Nowhere to go. I knew, if we left, he’d find me. He’d kill us.” She looked back up at me, tears in her eyes. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know he was that kind of man when I came here. I was stupid and desperate for a better life. Young and stupid. But what was I supposed to do?” Her expression turned inquisitive, as if she were asking me for an answer, to enlighten her on what she should have done.
“I don’t know.” And I honestly didn’t. It was hard to judge honestly what you’d do in a situation without being in it yourself.
“I thought I could endure. For Ura. I could endure. But it was too much. He hurt me so many times.” The tears began to flow and she lowered her gaze again, hugging tight to me and softly weeping against my chest.
Pulling her tighter to me, I began stroking her hair and whispering encouragements. I didn’t need to know more about why she stayed, I knew. I’d lived through it. I’d seen my mother bow to the demands of my father for years. “It’s over now, Anna. It’s over. How did you get away?”
“We fought. I was so scared. I grabbed a vase and he kept screaming at me, challenging me, to hit him. That if I hit him he’d kill me. He didn’t think I’d fight back. But I did. I hit him across the head with it and knocked him out. I handcuffed him to the radiator, packed, took Ura and ran.”
“Wow.”
She managed to pull herself together to continue. “Ura kept asking if Daddy was okay. If Daddy had hurt me again.” She began to unravel again. “It’s n-not. And now y-y-you’re in d-danger.” Her tears came harder, saturating my t-shirt under her cheek.
“I’ll be fine. You don’t ever have to worry about me.” Maybe the best thing was to run… Start somewhere else. But then what? Run forever? I couldn’t just leave the bar or we’d both be poor with nowhere to go. Witness protection would be ideal for her, but that also meant I’d never see her or Ura again, unless by some miracle something happened to Alexander. Damn, I wished I had the answers.
“I do need to know some more about Alexander. What do you know about his businesses? About his business associates? Do you know anything that the FBI could use to put him away?”
The tears slowed and then stopped completely. When she looked up again, her eyes were red-rimmed and cheeks streaked from her tears. She slowly shook her head and my heart sank. “He didn’t let me know about business. I went to dinners, events and met people. That’s all. They never talked about business when I was around.”
“Damn.” I thrust a hand into my hair and sighed. “Anything at all? Think honey, think hard. Anything that the FBI could use to send him away. Anything.”
“There’s the cocaine.”
I sat up so suddenly in the bed, I nearly knocked her off. She yelped and reached out to me; had I not grabbed her waist in time, she’d have been flopped onto the floor. “Sorry.” Raking my fingers through my dishevelled hair, I eyed her. “Cocaine?”
“Yes. In his safe. He has. Or had. Maybe has three or four.” She motioned with her hands. “I think it’s called a brick here. A kilo.”
“Each?”
She nodded. “But there’s more. He sells it at the clubs.”
I shook my head. “Why didn’t you tell someone? Drug trafficking could put him away for years. Decades even.”
“Who would believe me?” She spread her hands out to the sides, palms up. “His brother is with the police. He pays people. He won’t go to prison. Not for this –” She sat up on her knees and lifted her satin negligee and pointed to the long scars marking her stomach. I cringed and anger flared up within me, damn it, I couldn’t help cringing and certainly couldn’t help the anger. I didn’t want that monster to go to prison, God help me, I wanted him dead. “And not for drugs.”
The hem of her skirt fell back into place as I grabbed her hands and held them tight into mine. “Listen. I know this seems impossible, but with Vince’s help this can work. We’ll get through this.”
To my surprise a hint of a smile tugged at the corners of her lips, despite the look of desperation in her eyes. Before I could ask her what was going on, she told me. “You said ‘we’ll.’”
It took a second to process what she was getting at. You said “we’ll…”
“It’s never been ‘we’ll’ before,” she further clarified.
I frowned. Maybe I was being daft; it had been a long, stressful day.
“Since my parents’ death, it only had been me. After Ura was born, it was us. But I’ve never been part of a ‘we’ll’ before. As a couple. Looking out for each other.”
“From now on its ‘we’ll.’ I promise.”
When she threw herself into my arms, thanking me in a number of languages, I knew two things for certain. The first was that no matter what it took, no matter what I had to sacrifice, I’d keep that promise. The second was that I was completely and utterly in love with Anastasia Evanishyn, but for some reason I just wasn’t ready to tell
her that yet.
Chapter 13
Jaxson
“Hey little man, up already, huh?” I said from the sofa as Ura’s bedroom door opened and he came sauntering out, releasing a loud yawn as he rubbed his eyes.
Ura stopped and raised his eyes to meet mine. He blinked once, twice and his brow creased. “Jaxson. Why are you here?” He didn’t sound upset, just curious.
“I thought I’d hang out and surprise you with some breakfast this morning. And then maybe we can spend a few hours playing some games?”
The offer of breakfast didn’t excite him, but the idea of a gaming buddy seemed to. He suddenly went from half-asleep to fully awake in record time. Ura grinned. “I’m not hungry.” He motioned for me to follow. “Let’s play.”
Laughing, I rose to my feet and gave my head a shake. “Nope. No can do pal. Breakfast first, that’s the rule.”
“Ahhhh man.” His lower lip jutted out as he attempted to sway me. “Not hungry. Please.”
“Nope. That’s the deal.” Jerking my head in the direction of the kitchen I turned and proceeded to enter, hearing the soft patter of Ura’s bare feet following behind me. “Bacon, eggs, toast?” I asked, already grabbing the items from the fridge as he slid up onto one of the kitchen chairs.
“Uh-huh.”
After getting the food ready and cooking I turned and leaned back against the counter, my arms crossed over my chest, and eyed Ura as he yawned another time. “Need some more sleep?”
He looked up at me with sleepy eyes and nodded. “I only sleep a little. It’s okay though.”
Poor little guy, his mother was so worked up the previous night, frantically pacing he was sure to have picked up on the nervous vibe. “You okay? Want to talk about anything?”
“Mamo woke me up a lot.”
I nodded again, sympathizing with the poor kid and all he’d been through. I’d experienced a part of what he had, I’d just been older, although I couldn’t say I had much more understanding. “She’ll be okay.” I walked over to him and ruffled his already bed-mussed blonde hair. “It’ll all be okay.”
“Mamo kept saying ‘Oh God’ from her room.” He crinkled his nose up at me. “And was jumping on the bed. Kept waking up.”
Every muscle in my body froze and I could actually feel the colour drain from my face. Had we been that loud? I cringed. Yeah, probably were. But damn, I wasn’t used to kids being in the next room, it had been years. Considering the house she was used to living in she wouldn’t have considered how thin the walls were in this building. The thing about having one-night stands was that I never had to deal with going to their house and worrying about kids in the other room. Maybe I was out of my element?
“Jaxson?”
Ura’s little voice broke me from my semi-trance and I gave my head a shake, smiling down at him. “Maybe it was a dream, buddy.”
He shook his head, not even considering the possibility. “Nope.”
I didn’t blame him for being skeptical, I wouldn’t have bought that excuse either, even at five years old. Sadly, it was all I had. I made a mental note: quiet, non-acrobatic sex from now on. At least in her bedroom. I looked around the kitchen to the counter that I’d fucked her against. Okay, maybe the kitchen too. Or I could buy the kid earplugs…
My gaze met Ura’s questioning one and I chuckled at myself and the foolishness of my thoughts. It would take some time, but I’d get used to this. I could do this, I was sure of it.
“Jaxson. I smell something.” My eyes darted back to Ura to see him holding his nose and staring at the stove behind and to the left of me.
“Oh damn!” Rushing to the stove I pulled the frying pan with severely burnt bacon from the heat and groaned.
“You burned it?”
Looking over my shoulder I caught Ura’s gaze and shrugged. “The eggs are still good.”
Ura’s lips pressed into a tight line and he gave his head a little shake.
Okay, I’m almost positive I can do this.
~*~*~*~*~
The chiming of my mobile phone interrupted me from my intense ring-gathering competition with Ura. Pausing the game I pulled the phone from the front pocket of my jeans. The phone display glowed the name VINCE.
“Give me a few minutes, okay, Champ?”
Ura frowned, but nodded.
Getting to my feet I left the bedroom, closing the door behind me. “Hello.”
“Hey Jax, how’s it going?”
Sitting on the sofa, Anastasia gave me a quizzical look. Holding my index finger up to her, I opened the apartment door and exited into the hallway closing the door firmly behind me. No doubt I’d be bombarded with questions when I returned.
“We’re getting by. Have you figured something out for us?”
“Well, I was asking around and the standpoint of the agency is that we’d be happy to work with her, IF she can provide us with information that will lead to his arrest and agrees to testify. Have you spoken to her? Has she got anything to offer?”
“She said that she knows that he has cocaine in the house and at the clubs.”
“So he’s distributing at the clubs?”
“I would assume so. She said she wasn’t really exposed to the business end of his dealings, but from what she’d seen and heard over the last couple of years, the drugs are being sold through the clubs.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. “And she’ll testify to that? Does she have any proof or just her word? Does she know how it’s being distributed? The bartenders? Bodyguards? How are the drugs being smuggled into the country?”
“Yes, she’ll testify. No proof, but she says that when she left he had a couple bricks of coke in his safe at the house. She’ll do whatever it takes to get him sent away and regain her life.” I was overstepping my boundaries, I knew it, but I also knew we needed his help – if not for her, for the life of the five-year-old child who was waiting for me to return.
“All right. I think we can work with this. There’s a big push to crack down on importers and distributers of narcotics. I need some more time to get this together. I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know how the agency wants to proceed from here. Do you think you will be fine until then?”
It had only been a day since the goon had shown up and he hadn’t shown up again last night, so I figured it was safe to assume we had a couple more days. They wouldn’t backtrack through their search until they had canvassed the entire area. “Yeah. I think it’ll be fine until then. Would we have a choice?”
Vince sighed. “Not really. Alexander would be a great catch, but he’s not a priority for the agency. I could call the local police and see about having a car parked out front to keep an eye out. Truth is, as long as you’re armed and with her, you’re the best protection she can have until we get there.”
Put a police car outside of the building and make us a target? Might as well post a neon sign in my parking lot notifying them she’s here. No thanks. “Nah. We’ll be good.”
Anastasia
I swear to god, my heart was thumping a mile a minute in my chest as I watched Jaxson leave Ura’s room and exit into the hallway. I’d been tempted to follow him, but respected his privacy. It was apparent I hadn’t done a decent job at keeping us out of harm’s way, I knew I had to trust that Jaxson would do a better job at it. At least I hoped, but what choice did I have?
When Jaxson re-entered the apartment I sat rooted in the spot, watching as he walked over and sat next to me on the sofa. “We have another day or two while they get things in order, but they are requiring your agreement to assist in the arrest and your testimony in order to offer you protection.”
I expected as much. Jaxson had already prepared me for it. I’d bucked at the idea the previous night, but now after I’d had time to sleep on it all I could think was that if it meant this could be over, we could stop running and Ura could make friends and start a real life then I had to accept that.
“What do I need to do?”
/>
“I’m not sure yet, but you’ll be fine. I promise.”
Tilting my head to the side I eyed him. “Why are you doing this for me –” I motioned toward Ura’s bedroom “– for us?” We weren’t even “officially” a couple and he was risking his life for us. “Your life would be so much easier if you had just let us go yesterday and moved on.”
His stare caught mine and I saw a flicker of something there. I saw the affection, but I’d screwed up so many times over the years, misread people so much… I just couldn’t trust myself, or my heart – not on a hunch. I needed to hear it, I needed to hear what I meant to him.
I hadn’t heard those special three words from anyone aside from Ura since my parents’ death. And I’d never heard them from a man. Alexander made no airs about our arrangement once I was settled in. He didn’t love me, I seriously doubted he was capable of love, but for appearances he played the part of devoted husband.
But I was feeling it, the connection with Jaxson; that bond that I was sure could only be felt for the person who you believed to be the one. But I’d be damned if I would expose my heart to him without knowing – without a doubt – he was feeling the same way.
Jaxson caught my chin in his hand and lowered his lips to mine. His lips ghosted mine and a smile began to play on my lips. “Are you going to kiss me or spend the day teasing?”
He chuckled and was about to deepen the kiss when the gameplay in the other room stopped and seconds later we heard a loud, “Ewww,” coming from the direction of Ura’s room. “Mamo, he’s my friend! You’re taking him.”
We both jerked back and away from each other, our faces turning rosy at being caught. We shared a look, I cringed and he gave me a wink before getting up from the sofa and heading toward Ura.
“I’m sorry, buddy. I just had to talk to your mom for a minute.”
Ura glared at me before smiling up at Jaxson and nodding. “Is okay.” Grabbing Jaxson’s hand, Ura pulled him into his bedroom and less than a minute later they were back at intense ring gathering, leaving me to my thoughts.