Chapter Twenty

Brooke

I t was well past five o'clock and I was still at the office. Everyone else, including Ruben, had called it quits at five on the dot, but I couldn't. Once I found the other discrepancies, I couldn't stop digging. Lara was in Seattle at a conference until Sunday, so I'd called Ryan to see if he could collect Karina from school, she was spending the weekend with him and his family anyway, so it made sense. This was not how I'd planned on spending my Friday evening, but when the numbers didn't add up, it reflected badly on me, and that pissed me off.

Finally sure I'd gotten to the bottom of the problem, I was ready to head home. I grabbed my sweater and gathered my phone and charger, shoved them into my purse, and shut off the lights as I made my way to the lobby. Montrose Accounting was on the third floor, and I skipped the elevator in hopes the three flights of stairs would alleviate some of the tension that radiated through my body.

The building was too quiet, but it was Friday evening and most people had probably left early or right on time, which gave the entire place a creepy and unsettling feeling. The lobby was empty except for the two older security guards who offered up smiles and waves as I left the building.

Traffic was going to be a nightmare at this time of evening, I was supposed to call Ilya by six, which was in fifteen minutes' time. He wouldn't be happy with what I'd found, but he needed to know that someone wasn't just stealing from him. They'd set it up, so he lost a significant amount of money every single week. How they managed it without his notice, I didn't know.

The street outside the office was eerily quiet for a Friday night. Then again, this block was mostly office buildings, but that didn't ease the tension that made my palms sweaty and my heart race in my chest. Fear overwhelmed me and I knew it was because of the rumors of Ilya's ties to the Russian mafia. This was the kind of information that could get people hurt, or worse.

What would Ilya to do to the person who was stealing from him? Would he kill them? And would that be my fault?

Was that something I could live with?

Footsteps sounded behind me, so I walked faster. I was too afraid to look back, and I couldn't risk the move slowing me down. If I could put more distance between me and whoever it was, I had a chance.

The footsteps behind me came faster and I took off at a full-on run, darting across the street while I dodged traffic coming from the left and right. It shaved a couple of years off my life, but I made it across without getting dinged and rushed up the stairwell, widening the distance between me and whoever the hell it was.

At my car, I dropped my keys right as I went to unlock the door. "Dammit." I bent down to pick them up, and when I came back up, I saw a large figure behind me and let out a scream any horror movie chick would be proud of, at least until a large hand clamped over my mouth. My heart raced as my panic turned up to one thousand. I put one foot on my car door and pushed, but the man had a good fifty pounds on me, and he didn't budge.

The man shushed me. "It's okay, it's me, Ilya."

Those words should have comforted me, but they didn't. I don't know why, but for some reason instead of relief that it was Ilya rather than some mafia thug I felt a sense that something bad was about to happen.

"Brooke, I need you to come with me."

He moved his hand and let go of my arm. Instantly I tried to shove him out of the way.

"Damn it, Brooke. I need you to stop fighting with me and come with me. I'll explain everything later. I promise."

Before I had a chance to consider what was happening a car pulled up beside us, and he bundled me into the back, sitting himself on my other side. I tried the door handle nearest me, but it was locked. "What the fuck?"

"I'm sorry Brooke, it's for your own good."

"Tell me what's happening?" I demanded.

"In time," he said, his voice calm.

He was going to kill me, it was going to happen tonight. Karina. My sweet girl would grow up without both of her parents. Thankfully, she had Lara and Ryan to raise her and show her how to be a good person, "I wish I'd never met you!" I shouted at him. And it was true, though if I had never met him then I would never have had my wonderful daughter, who was now going to be an orphan.

"That is a shame, but perhaps once I have explained, you will feel differently," again his words were measured and careful.

"You're going to kill me."

"No!" The anguish in his voice was the first time he'd shown any emotion. "Brooke, you have to believe me. It is like I said before, I will never let you come to any harm. That's why you have to come with me."

***

We drove in silence for almost an hour until the car pulled up at a large tower in Manhattan. He led me into the foyer and greeted an older man sitting at the reception desk before turning left to go to the elevators. I still didn't speak as he punched in the floor number and waited for the elevator to reach the top. A penthouse apartment, that figured. The Ilya I had known as a teenager was modest about his family's wealth, but it was clear that nowadays he had no concerns about flaunting it. After entering his apartment, he led me down a long hallway towards the living room. If I had been in a better frame of mind, I might have appreciated the décor, but as it was, I was seething with anger as he gestured for me to sit down on a plush white sofa made of the softest leather I'd ever touched. Everything about the place screamed luxur y . There was art hanging on the walls, crystal vases, a chandelier above my head, and when I glanced over, there were floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city.

Once settled, I finally spoke, "Ilya, you bastard. You kidnapped me."

He fixed his gaze on a spot just over my shoulder for a long moment. "I had to." His blue gaze slammed into mine and it carried the weight of a guilt I didn't understand. "I was ordered to kill you and I can't. I won't."

He was ordered to kill me? Why?

And then I remembered the rumors Lara had spoken about, and Ruben had hinted at. No longer a vague notion hovering on the fringes of my mind, but now a reality. "Oh my god. It's true, isn't it? All of it is true." Holy shit, my baby daddy was a mobster. Or was he a mafioso? I didn't know and that information wasn't a priority at the moment. Escape. Freedom. Getting to my daughter and getting us the hell out of his way, those were my priorities.

"The rumors are not rumors, Brooke. It is true. My father and my uncle, my family," he specified, "they are, we are bratva."

"The Russian mafia."

"My father was the head of the Kuznetsov Group, that is my family's legitimate business, but he was also pakhan of the Kuznetsov bratva. We came to America the first time because he wanted me to have a good quality American education to take our organization in a different direction, one that would carry us into the future. But he was killed on New Year's Eve and my uncle, Oleg, became the new pakhan ." Ilya scrubbed a hand down his face and let out a heavy sigh. "Oleg forced me to stay in Moscow to finish my education there and begin training to become one of his loyal soldiers."

"What have I done to warrant my murder? I don't know about your businesses. I don't even know you."

His jaw clenched. "You do know me."

I laughed. "No, I don't. I never did." The more I learned about him, the more I realized that I had spent eight years fooling myself, lying to myself. Ilya wasn't just nice, charming, and sophisticated, like I'd thought as a na?ve teenager. He was a snake, a chameleon capable of being whoever he needed to be to achieve his goals. "That's clear now." I tucked my knees against my chest and wrapped my arms around my legs, staring at the man who had kidnapped me.

"You let me take this job. No," I shook my head because that wasn't accurate, "you demanded that I be in charge of your accounts knowing how dangerous it was, knowing that this very thing could happen." He'd put my life in danger just because he could. I'd put my child's life in danger. I had a sudden thought. If he was asked to kill me, what about Karina, did he know?

"No!" He shook his head and began pacing back and forth. "I never would have put you in danger. You were never in danger."

"Yet you had to kidnap me instead of killing me, as you were ordered to do. What did I do?"

"Nothing," he stated. "There is more going on, you clearly uncovered something, but I haven't figured it all out yet."

"Wow," I shouted sarcastically. "So you're part of an organization that just randomly orders innocent people be killed for no reason? Good to know."

"Somehow, they know you've been asking questions about the books. Like I said, I haven't figured it all out yet, but that's what I have so far. You were correct, someone is stealing from me."

I blinked and scoffed. "That's what you want to tell me so far," I corrected him with an attitude that probably wasn't wise when my life was literally in his hands. "Whatever I've done, just tell your people that I've already forgotten it, quit my job, and moved to a small village in Montana that no one has ever heard of. Your family business is none of my business."

"Brooke, just listen. Please."

I wasn't in a listening mood. "No, Ilya. I'm tired of listening. I'd like to make a phone call."

"I can't let you do that. Not until I can be sure your phone isn't bugged."

My eyes widened with shock. "You think my phone is bugged?" I looked around in panic, "Then let me use your phone, I have to make a phone call." Luckily, with Karina away, there was no one to notice my absence. They might even be out of cell phone range if they were on the boat. But if I didn't at least make an attempt to call and leave a message, knowing my older brother, he would send out his police buddies to do a welfare check.

"I can't."

A sliver of worry slid through me. This could all be some elaborate plot so that he could kill me, but I had to trust him, and if someone was after me, then alerting Winter Valley PD might not be the best option. I had to speak to Ryan. "There are people who will worry if I don't come home." I couldn't say more without telling him about Karina.

His brows dipped into a frown. "You are a grown woman, surely you are allowed to spend the night with a man if you choose."

I rolled my eyes. "That doesn't make people who give a damn about you not worry. I don't just stay out all night, and never without telling someone."

His brows crinkled, but I saw the minute he decided that I wouldn't be able to make a call. "It's too dangerous. Hopefully, this will all be over soon."

"One way or the other," I murmured.

"You're safe with me, Brooke. I would never hurt you."

"Again," I shot back with a hint of venom.

"What?"

His confusion caused another bitter tasting laugh to bubble up out of me. "Again. You would never hurt me again. Right?"

He hung his head in something that looked like guilt or shame.

It was something, but it wasn't enough. I turned away from him and focused on the dark sky just outside the window, staying in that position for hours until my eyelids grew heavy, and sleep claimed me against my will.