Mr. Novikov made a tsking noise. “I will not harm her or tell her anything that would make her feel less for you. I promise.”
“You promise many things and they are all lies,” her man growled and the tension thickened between them until Rya found herself clinging to Dimitri.
“Leave us,” his father demanded and Rya inwardly groaned, knowing there was no way in hell Dimitri was leaving her alone with his father now. Eager to get the hell out of here, she leaned forward and said, “Dimitri, please go talk to Peter by the fireplace. That should give you the privacy you need and I’ll let your father say his piece then we will leave.”
“I do not want him harming you,” Dimitri said in a voice so low it was almost a growl.
She winked at him. “Volk moy, there is nothing that he could say that would make me leave your side.”
Dimitri and his father argued in Russian before Dimitri stalked to the other side of the room. Mr. Novikov looked up at Peter. “Go talk to my son. Get the documents signed, now.”
Peter stared at Mr. Novikov with open animosity. “Then you will do it? You will tell me where they are?”
“Then I will fulfill my promise to you.”
When Mr. Novikov turned his attention back to Rya she could see how much this had drained him and her gaze skittered over to the medical equipment that was showing an increasingly weak heartbeat. Without thought she said, “What are you ill with?”
“Cancer,” he said with a grim look. “When I was young man I was exposed to massive amounts of radiation from Chernobyl.”
“The nuclear power plant that blew up back in the eighties?”
“Yes. The place I lived, Kiev, was in direct line for fallout. I was in parade, a celebration held on May first in old Soviet union . While I was marching with the rest of the people we were being slowly poisoned by radiation falling from the sky like invisible rain. Many, many people got sick and died in the weeks that followed.”
“Wow,” she said in a soft voice and slowly shook her head. “No one told you about the accident? Or that there might be an issue?”
He rested back into the pillows mounded behind him, his breathing labored. “No, no one told us. Our government hides many things from its people. They are more corrupt than even the worst Bratva. Never forget that, little rabbit. But I do not have much time. I must know some things that you have answers to.”
She glanced over at Dimitri and found him talking with Peter in hushed tones over by the fireplace. “What is it?”
“Is true you died?”
“What? I mean yes, but how did you know?”
He gave her a look that made her feel foolish. “Come, Rya, you must know I would have you researched.”
“Right. Well, if you did then you know that technically I did die.”
“I am not interested in your death, I want to know what you saw after.”
This didn’t surprise her in the least. In her experience as a hospice nurse she’d had this conversation many, many times with her patients and it allowed her to get into a different mindset, to stop thinking like Rya the freaked out woman and like Rya the nurse. “What do you want to know? I’ll answer you as best I can, but I would like to remind you that this is just my experience and that my memories may not even be correct.”
“What was it like?”
She told him her story and watched him carefully as she did, looking to see if her words gave him peace or unsettled him. That’s the way it usually went. People were either comforted by her story, or scared of it. In Mr. Novikov’s case, fear seemed to be his response. After she finished he watched her for a few moments, swallowing convulsively before he said in a low whisper, “I would like to think that my wives and my daughter are waiting for me, but what if they are not happy to see me?”
“Were you cruel to them?”
“To my women, no…to their sons…I did what I had to in order to make them strong men, but I hurt them in ways that now shame me.”
She tilted her head. “If they really are waiting for you, then perhaps now would be the time to try and settle any wrongs you’ve done against your sons. While you still have a breath in your body it isn’t too late.”
He leaned back and closed his eyes, his lips trembling as if he was speaking but there were no sounds coming out. Not sure if he was sleeping or not, she took a step away and looked over to Dimitri who was signing a thick stack of documents. After he finished the last one he glanced in her direction then over to his father and back to her again. “Ready to leave?”
“Yes, please.”