I slept with Sofia. She didn’t seem worried that Leo would wonder why someone was sharing her room. I took my cue from her.
When dawn was just peaking over the horizon, with my beloved held tightly in my arms, I heard the soft sound of the door creaking open. My hand closed around the pistol under my pillow. Thankfully, before I could level it at whoever had come in, a tiny voice reached my ears.
“Psst, Nikolai! Wake up!”
Releasing my grip on the hidden gun, I shifted carefully and sat up. Leo stood in the doorway, his hair tousled and adorable. He waved at me. I waved back. My heart tightened painfully.
He beckoned me with a mischievous grin. The kid looked like trouble. I couldn’t wait to see what he was up to. I followed him quietly. He took us downstairs to the kitchen.
“Let’s make my mom breakfast. She never stays in bed late.”
“Okay, let’s do it. What do you want to make her?”
Leo considered it for a moment. “Toast?”
“Toast? I think we can do better than that. What about blinchiki? Pancakes.”
“Can you make them?”
“I’m the pancake king, but I’ll need your help.”
“Okay! I can help.”
I gave him a list of ingredients, and he scampered off to get them. I washed my hands, staring out at the water beyond the window. The ocean rolled softly past the dock at the end of the street. The silence felt deep, and salt and pine hung in the air. My lastochka had picked a good place to make a home.
“Are you going to be sleeping over every night?” Leo asked once we were deep in the mixing and measuring of the pancakes.
“Is that a problem?” Evasion came naturally to me.
He shrugged. “Sometimes Zia Chiara sleeps over.”
“Anyone else?”
Leo shook his head. I was ridiculously happy to hear it.
“I think my mom likes it when you stay. She’s smiling all the time lately.”
“Is she?”
Leo nodded. “I hope you stay so she keeps smiling. What’s your last name?”
“Chernov.”
“Chernov. Are you my dad?”
I stared at him, all thoughts startled out of my head. His gray eyes stared at me, unblinking. It was like looking in a mirror, except I couldn’t remember being as young and unspoiled by the world as Leo was.
“Why do you think that?”
“Your name is inside mom’s ring. She said that ring was for my dad. So… you must be my dad.”
“I’m sure there is more than one Nikolai in the world.” Fuck. I wished I’d thought about how I was going to handle this.
Leo narrowed his eyes at me. “But you’re the only one in our lives.”
“Right, you’re right. You’re really smart, did anyone ever tell you that?”
“Yes, my mom tells me all the time.”
“Well, she’s really smart, too.” I blew out a breath and pulled a chair out, sitting so I was at the same height as Leo. Nothing in my life had ever made me as nervous as this conversation had.
“If I was your dad, would that be a good thing?” I couldn’t swallow suddenly.
Leo considered my question and then slowly nodded. The relief of his small, hesitant smile hit me like a ten-ton truck.
Then a small frown crossed his face.
“What is it?”
“I just wonder why you took so long to come to us?”
It was official, this was the most difficult conversation of my life. I was sweating.
“Sometimes we don’t have a choice in these things, Leo. Believe me when I say I wanted to come. If I could have come, I’d have run the whole way here. Also believe me when I say that I will never, ever leave you and your mom again. I’m here to stay. I missed you before I even met you.”
Leo studied me and then stuck out his little hand, holding his pinky up again.
“You know how important a pinky swear is.”
I nodded solemnly. “Yes, I remember.”
“Do you pinky swear that you won’t ever leave us again?”
“I swear.” I took his tiny finger and shook it. His hand was small next to my large, tattooed one.
“Also, you’ll teach me how to skate? You didn’t forget?”
“I didn’t forget.”
A clatter overhead announced Sofia had gotten up. Leo squealed.
“She’s up too quick. She’s going to ruin the surprise!”
“You go and stall her, I’ll cook these.”
Leo nodded solemnly. “Good plan.”
Then he turned on his little dinosaur slippers and disappeared up the stairs, leaving me with the half-made batter and a heart that felt too big for my damn chest.
Two minutes later, Sofia strolled into the kitchen. She wore an oversized t-shirt, her feet were bare, and her short hair was like a puffball around her face. I couldn’t stop staring.
“Wow, Leo was telling the truth. You’re really cooking.”
“I’ve fed you plenty of times, if you care to recall.” I caged her against the counter and kissed her neck.
“Yet I’ve never seen you cook.” She looked up at me steadily. “How did the tests go last night? We didn’t get to speak.”
That’s right. We didn’t get to speak because as soon as the guests left and Leo was in bed, I tugged Sofia into her room, locked the door, and fell on her.
I’d lost count of the number of times I came hard inside her, our bodies sticking together with sweat and juices.
“They went well. Though with the way you wore me out last night, I need to go back in to replenish vital fluids.”
“Nikolai,” she breathed out, exasperated. “Can’t you be serious for a second?”
“I’m being serious, very, very serious. I’ll see to Leo’s problem, one way or another. Nothing is more serious to me. I am also very serious about getting to the bottom of something.”
I had the ring off her finger before she could stop me. I turned it, holding it up to the light. Sofia made an attempt to grab it, and I pinned her hands behind me.
There it was, in the smallest cursive, engraved on the inside.
Nikolai Chernov
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what?”
“That you’ve always been waiting for me?”
Sofia was silent for a long moment and then shrugged. “I guess I didn’t know how.”
“I would have gone easier on you.” I thought back to chasing her through the woods and pinning her to the ground, fucking her with her own knife, and locking her in the coffin.
“Would you really?” She raised an eyebrow at me.
“I don’t know.” It was an honest answer. “The demons inside aren’t easily placated. They wanted a blood sacrifice.”
She brought a hand to my chest, pressing just over my heart, the place where the swallow was tattooed. “And now?”
“And now, I don’t know. They’re quiet, for the first time in years. I feel… calm.”
“If you’re trying to call me boring to be around, it won’t go down well,” she warned.
I chuckled at that. “When you’ve lived the life I have, calm is precious, rare. Calm has to be cherished, just like you.”
“Hmm, you’re pretty romantic in the morning.”
The sound of hurrying little feet raced above us. “I’d love to get a whole lot more romantic right here on this counter—”
“But you’re about to get a crash course in life with a kid, so brace yourself.” Sofia stepped away so it didn’t look quite like I’d been about to sit her ass on the counter and eat it for hours.
I took her hand and slid her ring back on. “This needs to be official as soon as possible.”
She blinked at me. “Are you asking me to marry you?”
“No.” I shook my head, smiling at Leo as he raced down the stairs toward us. “I’m telling you we’re getting married, and soon.”
“You’re such an asshole,” she murmured to me, smiling at the incoming shape rocketing toward us.
“True, but I’m the asshole who will be your husband before the week’s out.”
I found the Russians in Portland. Bran and I had been watching their movements. The operation itself was frighteningly simple. Drugs, arms, and people were moved out of Canada, through Maine, and down into Boston, where they spread out all across the East Coast. Edward Sloane had relied on exiled bratva members to do the dirty, dangerous work for him, while he paid the police and customs to look the other way.
There were five Russians who had worked for Sloane. The leader of the group was a man called Andrei.
He was sitting eating with his men when I arrived at the bar.
It was dimly lit, despite being daytime. A woman was singing on stage. The entire place smelled like greasy fries.
Bran waited outside in case another car full of them should roll by. I made my way across the room toward them. They went quiet as I approached. I swung myself into the free seat across from the leader.
Dark stares fixed on me.
“And you are?”
“Nikolai. Nikolai Chernov.”
The stares only turned darker. One of them reached for his gun under the table.
“Don’t turn this into an argument, bratan. I’m not here to argue. I heard you were looking for your boss.”
Andrei took his time to answer. He nodded. His answer was about as forthcoming as I expected from Russians.
“Well, you’re looking at him. Sloane’s operation is mine now. If we get along, then your jobs are safe. If you think that you’d like to be boss over me, you can join Sloane.”
Andrei’s gaze fell to my hand. The new tattoo from the vor stood out against more faded ink.
“Palach. We’ve heard of you.”
“Stop, you’ll make me blush.”
“Why would Kirill Chernov’s brother, a vor in his own right, the palach, want to take over a two-bit operation here?”
“New York is over, bratan, didn’t you hear? My reasons aren’t important, and it won’t be a two-bit operation by the time I’m finished. We’re done with moving people, though. It’s not my wheelhouse, and I don’t like it for our brand.”
The men exchanged cautious looks at my glib humor.
“I don’t know who you are, or what you did to be forced from your bratva, and I don’t care. From today, you have a shiny clean slate with me. If you work well and prove yourself, you’ll be given more responsibility.”
“Is the Chernov bratva expanding up here?”
“Maybe. If you want to belong to a brotherhood again, this is your chance. Take it or leave it. But we do things my way. I’m going to live here, and we have to respect it. Clean, honest drugs and arms running. That’s the plan.”
“Clean and honest drugs and arms running? You really are as crazy as they say,” Andrei said, finally cracking a smile.
“I sure am. We’ll work it out, if you’re with me.”
Andrei looked around at his men one by one. They communicated without speaking.
He turned to me and nodded solemnly. “It’ll be an honor to be brothers with the palach.”
