“Yes. I could do that with you, uncle.” Spoken with no emotion whatsoever.
“Thank you. Eva and I were talking, and she mentioned it being too bad her house is on the West Coast. We could have used it here. Though Alek will want something more than a bungalow, I suppose.” He didn’t breathe as adrenaline seeped into his thighs and sickened his gut. He waited for it. And when it came, he could have sworn he felt something in his heart break.
“The house on Mercer Island is two story.”
“Hmm. You’re right.” He was glad they weren’t in the same room because there would have been no way he could have hid his reaction. His whole body wilted as his last hope for an innocent verdict was dashed. “Are you going to be around later? Gabriel mentioned a big card game in Astoria. We could lose some money together.”
“No. Reynard said Maks has a job for us.”
He looked to Maks and received a negative. His attention went from there to Dmitri, who slowly brought his phone up to send a message to Leo and Nestor. Sergei wouldn’t be leaving his house. Not until it was dark and he was being taken out by a group of enforcers chosen by Vasily.
“I have to go. Goodbye, Uncle.”
Vasily felt the loss as he cut the tie that bound him to this man he no longer knew. “Goodbye, Sergei.”
He hung up and explained before he could be asked. “There are very few of us who know where Kathryn and Eva’s house is. Sergei has never been told.”
Gabriel got up and started working off his tension by slowly circling the table. “Could he have overheard you speaking about it?”
“No. Absolutely not. But even if I’d been so careless, there is no reason he should know its exact location. And he certainly wouldn’t know what it looks like…unless he’s been there.”
“Holy fuck.” Alek came to the front of the desk. “I’m so sorry, Vasya.”
“I’m sorry, son.”
They spoke at the same time just as Dmitri’s phone rang.
“What! Fuck. Sit tight. Someone’s on their— Aw, no. Okay. If you can get him inside, do it. If it’s going to make you bleed, leave him and go inside yourself. I will send the boys right now.” Dmitri hung up. “Get a crew to Sergei’s house,” he ordered Maks as he made a call. He spoke into the phone but looked at Vasily. “Yuri, I need you to get to Oceanside. To Sergei’s house. You can’t help Nestor, but Leo was hit in the leg. No. Sergei got Nestor point blank; Reynard got Leo as he rounded the corner. Lock up the house and get them the hell out of there before the neighbors start coming home from work.” He hung up. “Forgive my disrespect, but you, get that fuckin’ look off your face,” he said, pointing the phone at Vasily. “You are not going over there. For all we know, they could be waiting for you or Alek to show. I do not know what Sergei’s end game is, but I can tell you this; it won’t be either of you.”
TWENTY-FOUR
The following days were busy ones for Sacha. She arranged personal visits with her families to let them know she would be going on an indefinite hiatus. The more she’d thought about it, the clearer it became that continuing with her small operation wouldn’t be possible, only one of the reasons being she would now be living almost an hour away from Sunnyside. Unless she and Alekzander eventually returned to their apartment. Even then, Manhattan wasn’t Queens, and the convenience of being readily available and right in her clients’ backyard had been an attractive bonus in their eyes.
She’d been stunned when Alekzander had offered to find her some commercial space where she could open a permanent daycare. She’d feigned interest in the bare trees that had surrounded them in the woods behind the house until she could swallow the emotion that rose in her throat. Wanting to bring up her hope of returning to school, but thinking it too soon, she’d told him she would think about it but would likely pass on his offer. When he’d blown out a sigh and muttered “Thank Christ. I don’t know who we’d have assigned to watch over you and a nursery full of babies”, she’d laughed at the imagery and nudged him off the well-trodden path they were traveling. He’d snagged her by the hand and pulled her against him, careful not to crush Lekzi, who was in her baby carrier on Sacha’s front. He’d kissed his daughter first, and then Sacha, unconcerned that Anton and Grigori had been ten feet behind, accompanying them on their morning walk.
Today was the day she would let go of her last family. And since she would be in the neighborhood of the women’s center, she was taking advantage and had arranged to meet Angela for lunch. As Alekzander brought Lekzi out and strapped her into the already warmed up Maybach, his brow was down low, and he kept exchanging those silent looks with Grigori and Lucas, communicating who-knew-what.