Luka steps in close behind me. “Sofia…” he says, his voice uneasy.
Fox’s eyes shift from mine to Luka’s, but he takes my hand. His grip is soft and restrained, just like his eyes. There’s so much hidden beneath the surface. He shows me enough to make me think twice about distrusting him.
“You’re welcome,” he says.
I return to my seat with Lucian and Luka follows us like a shadow, taking the chair beside me with hard, protective eyes.
Chapter 19
Sofia
“Bozhe moi!”
Nina Lutrova places her hand over her heart the second we walk through the front door. She glares down at us from the stairwell in a silk, blue robe, her eyes hopping from Luka to Yuri to me to Fox. Then, finally, to Lucian yawning quietly in my arms.
“Yuri?”
“Oh, no,” he says, shaking his head at Luka. “Don’t look at me, Ma.”
Luka keeps his grip on my hand. She notices, her eyebrow popping upward. “Ma, I—”
“Wait—” She holds up a hand to silence him. “I have a feeling your father should hear this.”
She takes off down the hall with Yuri trailing close behind. Fox lingers with us, obviously as hesitant as I am to wander through the Lutrova family estate.
Luka looks at me and offers a reassuring smile. “It’ll be okay.”
“Will it?” I ask, doubtful.
He squeezes my hand a little tighter and steps forward, leading me down the hall. He gestures at Fox to follow along with us and Fox obeys.
I scan the dark entryway as we push forward. Several guards stand scattered in the halls as we pass by, as armed and alert as the ones back in Italy. The walls are practically bare with minimal decorations compared to the Zappia estate, but I say that with great appreciation. I always hated how flamboyant and colorful everything was there, almost like it was all a clever ruse to hide the darkness within. At least the Lutrovas seem to own their reputation as a notorious crime family.
Nina and Yuri disappear into a room down the hall. I instantly hear the quick chatter of voices, but there’s not nearly enough time to prepare Nikolai Lutrova for what he’s about to see walking through his house in the middle of the night.
We arrive in the doorway and he looks up at us from his desk with great confusion.
“What is she doing here?” he asks, glaring at me.
Luka pulls me into the room with him. “She needs help.”
“Where is Giovani? Does he know she’s here?”
“Pops, I…” Luka pauses, his voice failing. I don’t blame him.
I have no idea where to start with any of this either.
“I left, sir,” I say.
Nikolai and Nina draw sharp breaths. I suppose I’ve never spoken to either of them directly before now. While there was no law forbidding me from speaking with Nina, the Zappias sure as hell didn’t want her influencing me in any way and kept me far away from her.
“I ask for asylum.”
Nikolai shakes his head. “From what?”
Luka steps forward. “Gio tried to kill her,” he says.
Nina looks down at my blood-stained dress. “Why?”
Yuri glances at me from his spot against the wall behind his father’s desk, his eyes quickly falling on Lucian before descending right back down to the floor.
“It doesn’t matter why,” Nikolai says. “Send her back.”
“No,” Luka says.
Nikolai jolts out of his chair and takes wide strides around the desk toward us. “You brought a Zappia girl here?” he growls at Luka with wide eyes. “Are you mad?”
“They’re not going back.”
“Luka…” He barks at him as if I’m not even here. “Zappia family matters are none of our concern. Never have been, never will be. We do not interfere with their way.”
“Niko…” Nina says, staring at the bruise on my cheek.
“You went there to talk to Gio. To get his help,” he continues, his voice growing louder. “Not to take his wife and kidnap his child.”
“The child is mine.”
Nikolai falls silent and looks at me, the sheer force of it nearly knocking me off my toes. He spins around and puts several angry paces between us.
Nina steps forward, her eyes full of shock. “This boy is my grandchild?” she asks.
“Yes,” Luka answers.
“Are you sure?”
“Just look at him, Ma.”
She moves slowly closer to me, her eyes fixed on Lucian the whole time. I shift my arm and he raises his head with curiosity as Nina studies his face.
“My god…” she whispers, blinking once.
“Gio found out,” Luka explains. “Then, he killed Rosalie and went after Sofia. I stopped him.”
“You stopped him?” Nikolai spits. “And I suppose he let you leave peacefully with them after that?”
“Not exactly.”
Nikolai grits his teeth, flexing his jaw in anger as he shifts back and forth on his feet. He looks behind us at Fox. “And who the hell are you?”
Fox hesitates and scratches once at the scar on his cheek. “I helped.”
Luka takes a deep breath. “Pops—”
Nikolai holds up his hand. “Luka, I don’t—”
“There’s more.”
He freezes and his jaw sags. “There’s more?”
Nina lays a hand on my shoulder. “Come with me, Sofia,” she says. “Let’s get you some clean clothes.”
“Nina—”
“Niko,” she counters, firing a hard look at her husband. “She’s been through enough.”
He backs down, staring at me for a quick second before nodding.
Nina looks up at Luka, hinting at him to release my hand, and we reluctantly let go of each other.
“It’s okay,” she says to me, smiling softly at Lucian. “Come on.”
We make it halfway down the hall before the shouting begins.
Chapter 20
Luka
“I need you to tell me, Luka…” my father says, his lips barely moving. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
I don’t answer. Doing so would only admit guilt in his eyes. I refuse to feel guilty about any of this.
He turns toward the windows. Yuri flinches. “Did you know about this?”
“No,” Yuri answers. “He told me today.”
“For three years, you’ve kept this from them, Luka? For three years, Gio has raised a child that’s not his own?”
I shake my head. “I didn’t know he was mine until yesterday.”
His face turns a bright red. “You slept with another man’s wife!”
“She wasn’t…” I pause, struggling to keep calm. “Sofia was unhappy. She didn’t want to marry him, but she didn’t have a choice. They never gave her a choice.”
“And you thought this would change that?”
“No. But she asked me… she wanted a baby. One that wasn’t Gio’s. It was the only way she could think of to… I don’t expect you to understand.”
“Not only did you deceive our friend…” he says, “you did so on purpose?”
“Giovani Zappia is not our friend,” I say. “He planned to take us down.”
“What are you talking about?”
“He ordered the hit on Hans Petrovin and made it look like me to spark a mob war in Russia.”
He scoffs. “That is bullshit, Luka.”
“He tried to have me killed when he found out about Lucian. I couldn’t leave Sofia behind to suffer the same.”
“I don’t blame him after what you kept from him. From all of us!”
“You’re really going to convict me for keeping secrets, Pops?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
I glance at Fox and look back at my father. “Why didn’t you tell us about Snake Eyes?”
He closes his mouth, silently fuming. Finally, he shifts and his ire lands on Fox and his black tactical gear. “I suppose that’s who you are, then?�
�
“Yes, sir,” Fox says.
My father nods and turns around.
“You knew this whole time,” I say. “You knew who they were and what they did, and you just let them do whatever they wanted in your city.”
“Of course, I did.” He sighs. “I protected my family. That’s what a father does.”
“Oh, I know.”
He shakes his head and points a stiff finger at me. “Don’t get smart with me, Luka. You’ve known your child for one day. Do not pretend that makes you a father. You have no idea what being a father really is!”
“I know what it’s not,” I say. “It’s not bowing down like a coward to the damn Zappias while they march through Moscow.”
He squints at me. “A coward?”
“It’s not bending over to those who have shed Lutrova blood.”
Yuri steps forward. “Luka, stop—”
“You think you can do better?” my father asks me.
“Yes.”
“I’d like to see that!”
“You will!”
“That’s enough!”
We all turn and look at my mother in the doorway.
“Everybody go to your rooms,” she orders. “Get some rest. We’ll work through this in the morning.”
Yuri doesn’t question it. He steps around me and offers a quick goodbye to our mother before bolting with his head down. My father lingers behind his desk, too angry to sit down.
“Where is she?” I ask her.
“She’s in the guest suite.” I move to pass, but she lays a hand on my shoulder. “Leave her be, Luka. She’s had a rough night.”
“I know. I was there.”
“Let her sleep,” she urges. “You wouldn’t want to wake the baby, too.”
“Ma—”
“Spokoynoy nochi, Luka.”
I sigh at her defiant tone. “Goodnight, Ma.”
She squeezes my arm as I move to the door, a silent and subtle show of support, but it doesn’t do me much good right now.
“And you.” She points at Fox. “I don’t know who you are, but I hope you don’t mind a couch because I don’t trust you in the guest wing with Sofia.”
“No, ma’am,” Fox says quickly. “I don’t mind.”
“Good. Come with me.”
He looks at me for confirmation and I nod, signaling for him to follow her. Fox Fitzpatrick has earned my trust for a night, but that’s all. I don’t like his chances of surviving an encounter against Nina Lutrova in her own house anyway.
“Luka…”
I pause in the doorway and look at my father.
“Was it worth it?” he asks from behind his desk.
My knuckles pop as I unroll my fists. “Yes.”
“Well, I should hope so,” he whispers, “because you’ve killed us all.”
Chapter 21
Sofia
Lucian sleeps beside me while I wonder if I’ll ever rest again.
There are only a few things in this world that frighten me. I’ve experienced every single one of them in the last twelve hours. My little sister was murdered in front of me, my child was taken from me, and Luka… I almost lost him forever.
I take a blanket and throw it over my shoulders to block out the cold as I slide off the bed. Nina gave me a loose top and thick flannel slacks to sleep in, but I can’t shake the chill off my skin.
Lucian doesn’t move, completely lost in a deep sleep in the middle of the bed. I tuck him in a little more to make sure he stays warm.
The hallway is darker and colder than the bedroom. I look down the hall to find a guard standing several feet outside of our door. My instinct is to jump back into the room and stay there, but he smiles and nods as he catches sight of me. There’s no expression of annoyance. No flurry of intruding questions.
“Madam Zappia,” he says with a respectful bow.
I flinch at the name, but I offer a kind smile. “Excuse me,” I say, pausing to clear my dry throat. “Where can I find Luka?”
He points toward the stairwell. “Down the stairs, end of the east wing.”
“Not upstairs?”
“No, ma’am. He’s head of security, so he resides on the ground floor.”
“Oh…” I nod. “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome.”
I continue forward and grip the banister in the dark on the way down the unfamiliar staircase. The moon lights my path, seeping in through the windows. I look out as I pass, taking in the trees and wildlife. It’s strange to not see a giant wall behind it all, but that is something I’ll gladly get used to.
An orange light flickers through a door sitting slightly ajar at the end of the east corridor. I move slowly, listening to the soft cracking of my joints as I inch closer.
I peek inside to find Luka sitting near a fireplace with a book in his hands.
He senses me instantly. “Sofia?”
“I’m sorry,” I say, retreating. “I didn’t mean to interrupt—”
“Wait,” he says, standing up. “Come back. Please.”
I push the door open, pulling the blanket a little tighter around my shoulders as I glance around. Luka’s room is as minimalist as the rest of the house with a bed in the corner and a desk stacked with books and various objects I can’t make out in the dark. The fireplace crackles quietly, the flame barely alive, illuminating the space with a pensive atmosphere.
“You couldn’t sleep either?” I ask.
“I rarely do.” He walks over and closes the door behind me. “Are you all right?”
I open my mouth to speak, but I merely shake my head once in response.
“Lucian?” he asks.
I smile, touched that he asked. “Fast asleep.”
Luka nods. “Good.” He looks at the blanket cloaked around me. “You’re cold?”
“This place…” I chuckle as I adjust it over my shoulders, “it’s a little different than Rome.”
“It’s usually warmer this time of year.”
“Probably not the weather keeping the house ice cold, I’d guess…” I say, recalling the screaming echoing through the halls earlier. “I’m sorry for getting you into so much trouble.”
“You didn’t.”
He gestures at the fireplace. I take the opportunity to sit down beside it, loosening the blanket to feel the heat on my skin as he picks up a new log from the pile of wood stashed in the corner.
“It’s strange,” I say.
“What is?” he asks.
“Coming and going through the house without drawing questions.”
He sets the log on the fire and sits down across from me. “Our men serve and protect. They aren’t paid to judge.”
I nod, feeling a little more at ease. “What are you reading?” I ask. He offers me the book and I blink at the foreign alphabet staring back at me. “It’s in Russian.”
“They’re old folk tales,” he says. “Children’s stories and such.”
I flip the book open and thumb through the crinkled, old pages, admiring the unique illustrations scattered about every other page. “Why are you reading this?”
He looks at the fire beside us. “I met my son yesterday and I thought he might enjoy them.”
I smile, watching the flame flicker in his eyes. “He’ll like them very much, I think.”
I turn the pages again, landing on the spot with his bookmark and I pause, somehow recognizing the faded red ribbon marking his place.
“That was yours,” Luka says.
I pause, briefly counting the years. “You’ve had this since…”
“I always meant to give it back to you, but I never had the chance.”
I strum it with my fingertips, stunned to silence. Luka has kept me with him all this time.
“Sofia, I’m sorry,” he says.
“For what?”
He hesitates, his eyes growing dark. “I wish I had gotten there sooner. I wanted to save her, too.”
I try to banish the blood from my memory,
but it prevails. “That wasn’t your fault, Luka. That was mine.”
“It was his,” he says. “Him and that… damn family.”
I thumb the ribbon again before closing the book and laying my hand over the hard cover. My diamond ring glistens on my finger in the changing light and a weight twitches my shoulders. This used to feel like a chain binding me to Gio, but I am far from Italy now.
A Zappia no more.
“I guess I don’t need this now…” I say, sliding the ring off my finger. I set it down on the fireplace and relish in the freedom of the act.
Luka stands up and wanders across the room to his desk. “In some cultures,” he says, “destroying a token of affection signifies a divorce.”
He grabs something from a drawer and returns to the fireplace to hand it to me.
A hammer.
“I don’t think divorce is mentioned in Zappia law,” I say. “I believe they take ‘til death do us part quite literally.”
“To hell with Zappia law.” He gestures at the ring between us. “Go ahead.”
I hesitate, feeling the weight of the hammer in my grip, but it’s lighter in comparison to that damned diamond ring.
It’s just a ring. Just a tiny rock on a band of gold. It’s the only thing I have left tying me to Giovani and the Zappia cult.
I shift, straightening my posture and holding the hammer with both hands. Luka looks on and smiles with amused eyes, waiting with patient anticipation.
I take a deep breath before bringing the hammer down — and I miss.
He chuckles. “Try again.”
I slam the hammer down once more, this time clipping the golden band, jarring a line into the edge. I hit it again, smacking the diamond itself and it rattles free of its spokes. I take one last look at it before slamming it all a final time.
“How did that feel?” Luka asks.
I laugh. “Really fucking good,” I answer, ecstatic tears filling my eyes.
He reaches out for the hammer. I hand it to him to set aside while I cast the broken bits into the flames, the diamond included.
Now that the weight of the Zappias melts away, the guilt for the Lutrovas takes its place.
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