After hanging up the call to Vlad, I tuck my cell into my jeans and walk to the kitchen to find Mikey and Conor sitting at the breakfast bar eating cereal, and I wander over to them. I reach Conor first and he pulls me between his powerful thighs, brushing my hair back from my face and holding me in place as he bends his head to kiss me. Wrapping my arms around his waist, I melt into his kiss and moan softly as the warmth floods my core, making Mikey chuckle. I swear these men turn me into a sex addict.
“You left without waking me this morning?” I breathe when he lets me up for air.
With a lick of his lips, he grins at me and drops one hand to my ass, squeezing hard. “I couldn’t lie there any longer with this juicy ass pressed up against me and not fuck you, Angel. And Liam needs his rest.”
I look up into his eyes, noticing how red they are. “So do you,” I remind him. “You’re working too hard.”
“No such thing,” he winks at me. “Anyway, I just came in here to catch up with Mikey and then I’m off to bed. Maybe you can join me later?”
“I would love to,” I purr as I run my hands down his hard chest and then I turn to Mikey. “Are you going to be around all day today?”
“Sure am, Red,” he says as he shovels in another spoonful of Lucky Charms. “You got something planned?”
“Yes, actually. I need to go out for a few hours. I can take one of the cars, right?”
Conor tightens his grip on me. “Of course you can take a car, Angel. You don’t have to ask. But where are you going?”
I bite my lip. They aren’t going to like this, but it’s something I need to do. “I’m going to see Vlad.”
I barely get the last word out of my mouth when Conor is interrupting me. “The fuck you are. Not a chance, Jessie,” he snarls with a shake of his head.
“I agree, Red. No way you’re going there,” Mikey chimes in unhelpfully.
I swallow the frustration and resist the urge to remind them that I’m a grown woman who looked after herself for ten long years before they came into my life, because we have been through so much these past few months, and I understand their concern. So, instead I take a deep breath. “I knew you’d both think it was a bad idea, but don’t you see that I have to do this? Vlad might have some answers for me, about my parents, about Alexei. Maybe even about the Wolf. I need to find out what he knows.”
“No!” Conor snaps.
“He might not even want to talk to you,” Mikey adds.
“He will. I spoke to him just now,” I reply.
“What the fuck?” Conor shouts, releasing me from his grip and standing up so he is towering over me. “You’ve been talking to Vlad?”
“Yes. I called him. I understand what Alexei did, and I get that you don’t trust the Russians, but I believe that Vlad is a man of his word. We’re meeting in Central Park, for Christ’s sake. We’re just going to talk. I swear.”
“No fucking way, Jessie,” Conor growls as he runs a hand through his hair. “I’m not discussing this any further.”
“Conor!” I shout, glaring at him. “How can you deny me learning the truth about my family? Please try and see this from my point of view?”
He moves so fast that I gasp in surprise. He wraps one of his large hands around my throat, pushing me against the counter, the weight of his body holding me in place as he leans his face close to mine. “Why don’t you see it from mine?” he hisses. “I will not fucking lose you again.”
I swallow, and he loosens his grip slightly. “You won’t. I promise,” I whisper.
“How about I go with her?” Mikey offers.
“And have to worry about the two of you all day? No!” he shakes his head.
“Conor! Please?” I beg. I had planned on going alone, and I told Vlad that I would, but it seems there is no way Conor will let me and maybe having Mikey as a chaperone might persuade him, because I wouldn’t put it past him to lock me in my room. I had known they wouldn’t be pleased with my decision, but I hadn’t expected this level of anger from him. “I trust Vlad. We’re meeting in a public place and if you insist I have a bodyguard, then Mikey will come with me. I need to know about my past. Everything I believed about my parents was a lie. Don’t you think I deserve the truth?”
Conor’s eyes flicker to his brother momentarily as he releases my throat from his grip and slides his hand to the back of my neck instead. “I don’t trust him,” he says as he presses his forehead against mine. “Why do you have to do this right now?”
“Because I have been searching for answers for ten years, and I’m done waiting,” I breathe.
The sigh comes from deep inside his chest, and I shiver as his breath skitters over my cheek. “I want you both back here within two hours. You understand me?”
I glance sideways at Mikey, who winks at me and I smile. “Yes, of course. Thank you.”
Two hours later, Mikey and I make our way through Central Park to the place I’ve agreed to meet Vlad. I see his distinctive figure ahead and scan the crowd for signs of his bodyguards. Mikey spots him too and does the same.
“You recognize any of his goons, Red?” he asks as he looks around.
“Not really. But there’s a guy leaning against that tree and another one near the hotdog stand that scream Bratva to me. What do you think?”
Mikey narrows his eyes as he checks out the two men I just mentioned, and then he nods. “I agree, Red. Let’s hope they’re only here to keep an eye on their boss and not to start any trouble, because Conor will have my ass if anything goes down here this afternoon.”
I take hold of his hand, entwining my fingers through his. “Relax. The head of the Bratva doesn’t go anywhere without bodyguards. You know that.”
He lifts my hand to his lips and kisses my knuckles. “Let’s do this then, Red,” he says with a grin as we make our way over to Vlad.
Vlad smiles at me as I approach him before giving Mikey a once over. Mikey releases my hand. “I’ll give you some space, Red. But I’ll be two steps behind you.”
“Thank you,” I whisper before turning and making my way over to Vlad.
“Good afternoon, Jessie,” he says in his thick Russian accent.
“Afternoon, Vlad. I had to bring Mikey with me, but he’s good. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me.”
He nods and draws in a deep breath. “Of course. Shall we walk?” he holds out his arm and I take it by the elbow. Although he towers over me and is almost twice my size, there is something about him that makes me feel at ease and I imagine he is a much easier man to work for than my father ever was. We start to walk and Mikey falls into step a few yards behind us. Vlad puts his free hand over mine and I notice his wedding ring for the first time. I’m sure he never wore it when I was at Alexei’s house.
“You’re married, Vlad?”
He pats my hand gently and smiles. “Yes. Twenty-seven years.”
Something about that endears him to me even more.
“Children?” I press.
“Two sons,” he says with a nod toward the hot dog stand as we pass. “Grown men. They accompany me everywhere now.”
“And your wife?”
“Well, she doesn’t handle a Beretta in quite the same way,” he laughs softly.
“I meant what does she do?” I laugh too.
“Time is precious, Jessie. I suspect you didn’t persuade me to meet you here in New York to discuss my family. So, tell me what it is you want to know?”
I nod my head. He’s right. This isn’t a catch up with an old friend. This is an information gathering exercise, and I need to get this done because Conor will lose his shit if Mikey and I aren’t back by the time we promised. “I want to learn about my parents, Vlad. My real parents. What the hell happened to make them change their names and flee to the States?”
He clears his throat before he speaks. “You know, I knew your father when he was just a boy. Him and Alexei. His name was Boris then, and not Peter, of course, but my father worked for theirs and we grew up like cousins.”
“So, you knew him well?” My heart lurches in my chest that I might finally get some answers.
“Hmm. A very long time ago. And your mother too.”
“Tell me what happened? Please?”
“I can tell you all I know, but to tell you about your parents, I must also tell you about Alexei. Their story is his too.”
I nod and close my eyes. “I want to know everything.”
“Your father was always the smart one while Alexei was much more outgoing and confident — arrogant some would say. Boris was your grandmother’s favorite, and she protected him from the darker side of living with the Bratva, but Alexei thrived at his father’s side, and all of the darker personality traits that he possessed were encouraged and nurtured by the life he was forced to live. He was the perfect choice to take over when your grandfather died.”
“So, he and my father didn’t get on as children then?”
Vlad shakes his head and sucks in the air through his teeth. “On the contrary, Jessie, despite their differences, they were as close as two brothers have ever been. By the time Alexei was a man, he was uncontrollable, but your father was always the one man who could reach him. He was the only man who could keep Alexei in line, and the only person whose counsel he would heed. They shared an unbreakable bond. At least it appeared that way, until Alexei met your mother.”
My mom! A wave of sadness and nostalgia washes over me. I miss her so much. “So Alexei met her first?”
Vlad nods as we continue walking through the park.
“How did they meet?”
He smiles and the corners of his eyes crinkle softly. “At the opera.”
“The opera?”
“Yes. Your father was supposed to go with your grandmother, but he was ill with the flu, so Alexei accompanied her instead. Your mother was there with her father.” He turns to me at this point and studies my face. “She was a true beauty,” he says, reaching out and brushing his fingertips over my cheek. “As soon as Alexei saw her, he decided he wanted her, and that was that. The fact that she was the daughter of one of the wealthiest and most influential men in Russia meant nothing once the head of the Ivanov empire set his sights on her.”
“So, what happened?”
Vlad sucks in a long breath and glances behind us. Mikey still follows closely behind, as well as his sons who keep a more discreet distance than my own bodyguard. “It is a very long story for some other time, but Alexei wanted her to be his wife, so she became his wife. She had no family other than her father, and he died a few months after their union. Alexei was always a cruel man, and I don’t expect that he was able to hide his true nature from her.”
I blink back the tears as I think about my mother being ripped from her life and forced to marry the head of the Bratva. How terrified and alone she must have felt with no family around her. “But her and my father?”
Vlad nods solemnly. “I don’t know when that started, but your mother and father must have fallen in love. I didn’t often see them spend any time in each other’s company, but I recall one dinner when I caught the two of them sharing a look that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.” He shudders slightly at the memory.
“Why?”
“It was the look of two people so deeply in love that they would risk everything to be together, Jessie. I knew that it would bring trouble, and it did. But at the time, I tried to pretend it was all in my imagination. I convinced myself that Boris would never do that to his brother. Then she fell pregnant and Alexei was the happiest I’ve ever seen him. He threw a massive ball in Nataliya’s honor. He commissioned portraits of him and his pregnant wife. He boasted to everyone he met that he was about to become a father. But a few weeks later, your mother and Boris disappeared.”
I swallow. “How did Alexei react?”
“As you’d expect,” he shrugs. “Like a crazed madman would. He tortured anyone with any allegiance, be it perceived or genuine, to your parents. He tore the country apart trying to find them. He searched for sixteen years before he found you all.”
“And then he had the Wolf slaughter his own brother and his family?” I snap as the bile burns the back of my throat.
“Any flicker of humanity that Alexei held in his heart was snuffed out by the betrayal of the people he loved most in the world.”
“You think it was their fault he was such a monster?” I challenge him.
He shrugs. “No judgment. I am simply stating the truth, Jessie.”
He picks up his pace slightly and squeezes my arm tighter, and I sense the tension in Mikey, even though he’s a few yards behind me.
“I don’t have much more time. We must walk and talk faster,” he adds with a reassuring smile.
“Sure,” I nod. “Did Alexei ever meet the Wolf?”
“No,” Vlad shakes his head. “Nobody has ever seen the Wolf and lived. Nobody except you, Jessie.”
“So, he was supposed to deliver me to Alexei?”
“Yes, and when he didn’t, Alexei almost lost his mind. All of those years searching for you, only to have you stolen from him by the very man he paid to bring you back.”
“So, he searched for the Wolf too?”
“Vigorously.” Vlad nods. “But there was never a trace of either of you. I tried to persuade Alexei that you were both dead. There seemed to be no other plausible explanation. But, well, now I realize that the Wolf is as good as the myths surrounding him suggest.”
“You think he’s still alive?” I ask.
“Yes,” Vlad states and my heart sinks through my chest. I believe he is too, but hearing someone like Vlad say that too is like confirmation that I’m not crazy.
“I do too,” I say quietly.
Vlad places his hand over mine and squeezes tightly. “I must go now.”
“One more question?” I ask.
“Of course,” he nods.
“Why didn’t Alexei have me killed too? Why was he so sure I was his daughter if my parents were having an affair?”
“Oh, you were his daughter.” Vlad narrows his eyes at me.
“But how could he know that? Even a DNA test couldn’t determine the truth if he and my father were identical twins.”
“True. But you were conceived while Boris was in prison.”
“My dad? In prison? For what?”
Vlad shakes his head. “Some charge relating to espionage that nobody ever quite got to the bottom of. At the time, Alexei made noises about how unjust it was and how nobody put an Ivanov behind bars. He made everyone believe that it was he who got your father out. But, now I think that it was he who put your father in prison.”
“He could do that?”
Vlad laughs softly. “In Russia, the head of the Bratva can do as he pleases.”
“How did he get out then?”
“I believe Alexei did get him out. He loved your father very much. He was not the same man when Boris wasn’t around. I suspect he believed that once your mother was pregnant with his child, that would put an end to any feelings between his wife and his brother.”
“But it obviously didn’t. And my father always treated me the same as my younger brothers. I had no inkling at all that I wasn’t his biological child,” I say as another rush of emotion almost floors me and I wipe a stray tear from my cheek.
“I appreciate that Alexei did terrible things, and hurt you badly, Jessie. But understand that in his own way, he loved you above all others.”
I stare at him, searching his face. I am convinced that my instincts are right and I can trust this man. “Is that why you helped him take me from the Ryan brothers?”
His eyes narrow and darken. “Yes,” he says solemnly. “I thought it was for the best. I didn’t realize he was going to drug you.”
“Why did he?”
“He was terrified that you would discover he wasn’t the father you knew. He wanted you to discover his side of the story, I suppose, and he needed time to make you dependent on him. To force you to need him. For him, need equalled love.”
“So, how did he find me?”
“This is more than one question, Jessie,” he says as he checks his watch.
“Last one. Promise.”
He stops in his tracks and turns to me, brushing a strand of hair from my face. “You are so very like her,” he whispers. “In so many ways.”
I smile at him, although I’m not sure if he means that as a compliment, but I will take it as one anyway, because my mom was the most amazing woman I ever knew.
“One of Dmitry’s men, Viktor, recognized your mother in you. I was contacted by a nurse at the hospital, who told me that he was desperate to speak to Alexei because he’d found his daughter. I visited him there, and he told me what happened at that bar before I ended his suffering. It didn’t take long to figure out who you were with. Future tip, Jessie. If you’re trying to lie low, don’t run around with the Irish Mafia.” He cocks an eyebrow at me.
“Well, I kinda think that ship has sailed, don’t you?”
He laughs softly. “You take good care of yourself, Jessie Ryan.”
“I will. Thank you, Vlad.”
He lifts my hand to his lips and kisses it softly before placing his free hand over his heart. “It has been my pleasure.”
Before I can reply, his two sons are by his side talking to him in Russian. Vlad releases my hand and the three of them slip into the crowd as Mikey steps up beside me.
“You okay, Red?” he asks as he slides an arm around my waist.
I turn to him and smile. “Yes.” I lean against his shoulder as we start to head back through the park. “I think I got most of the answers I needed. Thank you for coming with me, Mikey,” I say, relieved now that he offered to be my chaperone, because I feel so emotional and vulnerable that it is comforting to have his huge arm wrapped around me.
“Any time, Red,” he replies before planting a kiss on the top of my head.
“I love you,” I breathe. “You know that?”
“Yeah,” he says with a shrug, making me laugh.
“Did you hear any of that?”
“Most of it.”
“It’s so much to take in.”
“I bet it is, Red. You want to go somewhere? Just the two of us?” he asks as he squeezes me tighter.
“I would love to. But Liam needs his lunch and his meds. Conor will be probably be pacing the hallway, and even if he’s not, you’re well aware he won’t sleep until we’re back. Even if we call him and tell him we’re okay.”
“Okay,” he says with an overly dramatic sigh, and I laugh again.
“How about we do something later? Just me and you?”
“Hmm,” he says as he chews on his lip as if deep in thought. “How about strip poker?”
“Is your mind always in the gutter, Mikey Ryan?”
“Pretty much, Red,” he laughs.
“Good. That’s exactly where I like it,” I laugh too.
“So, we’re on for strip poker then?” he turns to me and smiles widely.
“Yes,” I nod.
“Nice,” he nods too before leaning down to give me a soft kiss on the lips. Mikey is my happy place. He has a unique ability to lighten any mood and uses humor to diffuse almost every situation, even when it’s completely inappropriate. But that’s one of the things I love about him. I know that beneath it all, he has a heart as big as anyone I’ve ever known. And as we walk toward the car, he leans down and whispers softly, “I love you too, Red.”
