“Only the bad ones, I swear. And I have found my calling, Cassie. I have vowed to protect those who are good, who are victims, and those who are innocent. Like our son.”
I look at him hard, weighing his words against the screaming voice in my head telling me to condemn him, to turn away and never look back.
But I can’t do that. Because I love him. And because he is right: I do know him. I know the real Andrei Petrov, the man who rescued me from that awful basement and made me happier than I’ve ever been. I never told him but I’d heard the things the people in that crowd were saying to me, and now I have the understanding to know what they meant. They wanted to assault me, to hurt me. They laughed about it. But Andrei has never even raised his voice to me, even though I’ve been abandoned by everyone else I know and love. There’s no one to protect me from him, but I’ve never needed protection from him.
He is the man I have been waiting for, even though I never knew it. And I must accept him, no matter what, as he has accepted me.
“I swear to you, Cassie, I only do this now to rid the world of evil. I want to make the world a safer place for our child to grow up in. I want to shield you from pain and danger, and I will never stop protecting you, no matter what. Please let me prove myself to you.”
“You don’t have to,” I reply. “I know exactly what you are.”
There is a long pause before I take a deep breath and continue.
“You are my husband. And I will follow you anywhere. I took a vow, Andrei, and I will not turn my back on that promise. I love you more than you can ever know, and I will stay with you through thick and thin. But you must swear to me one thing.”
Andrei takes my hands in his and kisses them. “Anything.”
“Don’t send me away,” I say, my voice cracking as tears spring to my eyes.
My husband stands up and takes me in his arms, cradling me to his chest.
“Of course, moya lyubova,” he assures me, kissing the top of my head. “Never again.”
21
Andrei
“So, Kasym, h-he’s really dead, then?”
“Yes,” I answer, taking a sip of coffee as I stare intensely at the man whose life I’d spared just a few nights before meeting Cassie, “and now it’s time for me to call in the favor, Mr. Jackson. A life for a life.”
Jackson runs his hand through his hair, striding around the room of the safe house he’s been living in since I put him there all those months ago. And soon, he won’t have to live here ever again.
“And you’re sure Kasym is the one who...who…” Jackson swallows, wringing his hands. Even in hiding, he’s only become a more nervous man than he was before.
“Who ordered the hit on you, yes,” I answer calmly, “he acted through an agent to hire me. I only found out more when I was digging up dirt on the man himself before carrying out the act. All I found out about you was that you were an innocent cab driver. Now, I need you to think very carefully. Why did Kasym want you dead, Jackson?”
I’ve been bringing food and water to Mr. Jackson at this unassuming safe house far upstate, far from anywhere the Bratva would care to stick their noses, ever since I faked his assassination. He was an innocent man, certainly not deserving of the death my client at the time had asked for him. Most of my targets had been dregs who deserved such punishment, in one way or another, but Jackson...he was totally benign. Just a bystander someone wanted slain.
And now I see why. Kasym’s arbitrary cruelty knew no bounds.
Jackson wrings his hands and sits on the couch, biting his lip as he speaks. “I...I think...the only thing I can think of seems too absurd-”
“Nothing is out of reason for someone like Kasym.” I’m trying to prove a specific piece of information with Jackson’s account. I’m almost sure of the answer, but I need to hear this from a witness before I act on something this big.
“Well,” he hesitates, “the only time I met him was when I drove him from the airport to the apartment complex he was going to. He was completely trashed when he got off that plane, I mean absolutely blitzed. His bodyguard had to practically carry him.”
I nod, taking a few paces around the room as I drink my coffee and he speaks.
“H-he kept rambling drunkenly on the way, like he was bragging. His English was broken, but he kept talking about how he was going to ‘rule this town’ because of his dad.”
Now I know I’m onto something, and I watch Jackson intently.
“He went on and on about how rich they were, and he said his dad was bringing him home so he could take over as the next ‘king of the whores’ and that he was going to spend all his time here enjoying his ‘dad’s empire.’ ”