21. Ivan

21

IVAN

A lek wanted another meeting about the potential issue of the drugs. Yusef came too, reporting a bunch of nothing. Murphy was not budging. He wasn’t showing up anywhere.

“No one can care about him that much to hide him this well,” Dmitri said.

I nodded. “It’s making me wonder what he’s working on.”

“And if Becca is a part of it,” Nik said.

I frowned at him and waited for him to clarify. “She’s innocent in all of this.”

He held his hand up. “I’m not implying she isn’t. But it seems like we’re missing something.”

“I’ve felt like that ever since I took her.”

“Let me get this straight.” Maxim furrowed his brow. “Dom Rossini knocked her up and sent her home. No contact at all. And she has his kid.”

“Yeah. Then what?” Alek prompted. “What’s the connection? You think Rossini wants the baby?”

“Over my dead body,” I growled.

They all looked at me. Nik grinned. Dmitri rolled his eyes. “Another one fallen for a magical pussy.”

Nik, seated next to him, punched him hard.

“And it doesn’t seem likely,” I argued. “Why care about a bastard daughter now?”

“Besides the fact that Dom Rossini has knocked up countless women over the years,” Alek added.

“Maybe that’s why they’re so prone to infighting and killing each other. They fuck like rabbits and repopulate,” Dmitri joked.

“Have you talked to Becca again? To figure out if she knows anything else?” Nik asked.

I shook my head and sighed. “I’ve been trying to keep my distance.” Sitting forward, I rubbed my face. “I can’t stop thinking about her and wanting to—” I cut myself off, shaking my head. This wasn’t the time for sappy shit.

“Then stop fighting it,” Nik advised. “And talk to her. Even if she’s a victim, even if she’s not involved in anything, maybe she knows something without realizing its importance.”

“If she spent months in Dom’s company, even if he left her alone for most of it, she had to have noticed or heard something,” Maxim said.

I stood, knowing they were right. I hated to talk about Dom or Steven with her again. Not only did it seem like we were just repeating the same thing over and over, my questions an echo to her non-changing and limited replies, I also wanted to avoid causing her to look so sad and hurt like she had when she told me that Dom raped her.

Back at the vacation home, I sought her out as soon as I closed the front door. “Becca?”

She was already coming toward me. It seemed she was eager to reach out to me directly too.

“What is it?” Her serious expression alarmed me.

“He called again.” She lifted her old phone and the device connected to it. “But it still didn’t trace. I’m sorry.”

I nodded, taking it and also grabbing her hand. The contact of her smaller fingers alongside mine teased me, but I resisted the urge to hold her closer. This call had to come first, and I wanted her to stay with me as I listened to it. “Where’s Emily?” I asked as I led Becca to my room.

“With Margie. Finger paints in the kitchen.”

Good. I didn’t want any interruptions.

In my room, I gestured for her to sit in a chair near the fireplace that waited empty and cold for the far-off winter months. I paced, playing the recording she’d sent to herself from Margie’s phone. It wasn’t the most high-tech solution, but it worked. I wanted to avoid bringing too many men out here to improve it. I already worried that my coming and going here would be a weakness for Murphy or anyone else to notice. I didn’t need more men in and out of here for anyone to try to break in or even know that we were here.

Walking back and forth through my room, I listened to the call. Over and over. I replayed it, filing all of Steven’s angry words to memory.

Becca sat stiffly, frowning at the empty fireplace until I felt confident I would remember it all.

“He’s such a despicable bastard,” she muttered.

“You’re not stupid.”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t care what he said about me. I know I’m not dumb. He’s called me names and tried to belittle me my whole life.”

I tilted my head to the side, loving this stubborn defense she had for herself. Seeing a woman recognize and stand by her self-worth was admirable and sexy as hell.

“What about what he said of me?”

She looked me up and down, a once-over from my shoes to the top of my head. “He doesn’t know you.” After clearing her throat, she sighed. “He doesn’t know you like I do. Even though I want to learn more.”

Fuck me. The longing in her voice cut through me. I wanted to show her all of me. Everything. I wanted to strip bare and welcome her into my life for good.

I went to her, lowering to one knee, and took her hand. Her paler, softer skin cut such a contrast to my darker flesh marred with ink and scars. “And you can count on me.”

She had to know this by now. I’d told her that her purpose was to be a hostage, bait, but she’d come to be so much more.

“I’ve noticed…” She almost smiled, but the topic of her father had her frowning again.

I squeezed her hand before standing, pacing once more to think better.

“He’s just trying to get a rise out of you.”

“I suspected that.” She slumped back in her seat. “And that’s not the first time he’s tried to get me to lower my guard by hurling insults and demands.”

“It’s almost like he’s trying to distract you,” I added.

“But why? For what reason? Distract me from what?” She cringed. “I don’t see what I can have to do with his need to hide like this.”

“Think back. Let’s talk it all out.”

She growled. “I’ve already told you everything I know.”

“Be patient.” I glanced at her as I took the other chair, leaning forward to set my elbows on my knees and my hands held together. “Start with the clubs.”

She smirked. “I don’t go to clubs.”

“But he wanted you to get an envelope for him at one.”

“Yeah, but I hung up on him. I don’t know what that would’ve been for, who would’ve given me anything, nor which club he’d expected me to go to.”

I nodded. “What about your time with Dom? You didn’t hear him mention Murphy during all that time?”

She shook her head. “Just that one time. That night he… he raped me. And I didn’t hear him mention Steven’s name. I just overheard them talking and I recognized Steven’s voice on the speaker call.”

“Dom never asked you anything about him?”

“Never. Nothing.”

I wouldn’t give up. “What did he talk about?”

“Not much. I spent more time speaking with assistants at galleries and meeting instructors and students at universities. Dom was a busy businessman, just arranging my lodging as he traveled around. We’d have dinners and such, enough for him to try to charm me into spending more time with him.”

What aren’t you saying, though? “You said that he admitted to only being interested in you as a way to keep an eye on Murphy.”

She nodded, furrowing her brow. “Yes.”

“But if he never asked you about Murphy, how was he keeping tabs on him?”

She shrugged, lifting her phone. “I don’t know. Maybe hoping Steven would contact me and they could trace my calls? I don’t know. When I came home, before I found out I was pregnant, I wondered if Dominic might have intended to keep me with him as insurance. If he and Steven were working on something together but argued and didn’t see eye to eye on details, maybe Dominic wanted to keep me close as a way to keep Steven in line.”

Which sounds a lot like what I figured to do as well, to use her to lure him out of hiding.

“But they sounded like they’d ended whatever plan they had.”

“Okay. Then what did Dominic talk about with you?” There’s got to be something useful from her time with that fucker.

Her shoulders lifted and fell. “Art.”

“You talked about art?”

How the fuck would that ever matter? Still, I had to keep trying and keep pushing. I refused to admit defeat.

“Yeah. Pretty much.”

I sighed. “Then tell me about it. Tell me about your art and whatever you remember discussing with him.”