Man of the House(85)

He smiled again. “Yes, yes, we are. Should I be honest with you, Kaley?”

“Please.”

“You’re a problem. You’re the daughter of Anatoli Kozlov, a notorious pain in my fucking ass, which means you should be the enemy.” He sighed and looked at Lucas. “Pour me a drink, son.”

The room was silent as Lucas poured Arturo a whisky and placed it in front of him. Arturo took a sip and nodded almost to himself.

“Now,” he said, continuing, “you have this baby that you say is Vincent’s child. I’ll ask you, though I doubt you’ll change your story. The child is truly Vincent’s?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Of course. Well, that’s complicated. We like Vincent; he’s a very good worker, ruthless and smart in his own way.”

I glanced at Vince, but his face revealed nothing.

“Your family threatened us with war, Kaley.”

I blinked. “Really?”

“Yes, really. Are you worth going to war over?”

“I don’t know,” I said softly.

“No,” he said. “You are not worth going to war over. Say that back to me.”

I felt a cold chill run over me. “I am not worth going to war over.”

“Good. Understand that.”

I was terrified. Were they about to throw me out? I didn’t know where I would go if they did, what I would do.

I had nothing else. I had some money, but it wasn’t close to enough to get me far away. Maybe Vince would help me, but I doubted it, not while we didn’t have the paternity test back yet.

I was screwed. I wasn’t worth going to war over; I knew that was true. I didn’t have any useful information for them, and I wouldn’t tell them even if I did.

All I had was my son. He was half Russian mob and half Italian mob. I had hoped that Vince’s heart would sway him into helping Alexei, but I was beginning to realize how foolish and childish that was.

These people didn’t know me. They had no reason to protect me, to help me. If anything, I was a huge liability to their organization.

“I understand,” I said softly.

Arturo finished off his drink and looked at me. The room was quiet and tense, and I could feel Vince’s agitation next to me. He wasn’t speaking up, but he clearly was angry about something.

Maybe he did give a shit after all. But he wasn’t going to help me if he knew what was good for him.

“I need you to understand that,” Arturo said, “because I do not want you to think that you are the reason we are allowing you to stay here.”

I blinked, surprised. “What?”

“We are offering you our protection, Kaley. We are going to war with your organization, but it isn’t because of you. We are going to war because I’m sick of the fucking Russians trying to throw their meager weight around.”

I stared at him, completely shocked. Hope and anguish raged in equal measures inside me. I was going to be protected, allowed to keep my son, but people were going to die.

My family was going to be in danger because of me.

“But,” Arturo said, raising his finger, “if the child isn’t Vincent’s, then we will kill you and throw the baby into a river. Do you understand?”

I nodded. “Yes, I understand.”

“Tell me now if you’re lying. We’ll let you go, but this is your last chance.”

“I’m not lying.”

“Good.” He leaned back in his chair and almost looked relieved. “Gian, go tell the others.”

The young man nodded and then left the room.

“Last thing, Kaley,” Arturo said. “We need you to be useful to us, and so I want you to think real hard about any information you can give me that will help our cause.”

“I won’t betray my family.”

He laughed. “The family that wants to steal your child away?”

“I won’t betray them,” I said softly. “I don’t want them to get hurt.”

“Of course not. But unfortunately, your actions have ensured that they will. So I implore you, give me information, make this war easier on everyone.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know anything, but I wouldn’t tell you if I did.”

“We’ll see.” Arturo looked at Vince. “Take her back to her rooms.”

“Yes, sir.”

We stood. I followed Vince out of the study and could feel Arturo’s eyes on me the whole time.

Once out of there, we walked quickly away. We got a few halls over before Vince stopped and turned toward me.

“I hope you understand what happened in there,” he said.

“I get it.”

He pressed me up against a door, pinning my body against it. “Are you sure? Men are going to die.”