Chapter 12

Chapter 12OliviaIwoke up early the next morning and immediately looked at my phone. No new texts from Viktor. I hated that he had me worried about him. He was a stranger, a criminal. Amazing in the sack, and Michael’s father, but I barely knew him. And he was too damn dangerous. Just being around him was probably risky.But there I was, checking my phone again. I set it aside, rolling my eyes and flopping back onto my pillows. Stop worrying about him!I stared at the ceiling, listening for any sound that Michael was stirring. Nothing yet. I drew in a deep breath, and said, low and very firmly, “Olivia. Do not let yourself fall for this man.”But the moment my eyes closed, I was back in his dim room, velvet under my back, hands gripping the wood, writhing as he sucked my nipples and fucked me at the same time.I gasped and my eyes flew open. “No,” I told myself again, but it was no use. My entire body was already tingling, my nipples suddenly hypersensitive as they rubbed against my cotton tank top. I wanted him again.Ugh. Why did the best lay of my life have to be a damn mobster? If Anna knew, she’d be furious at me. We had both sworn off troublemakers in high school.But now, she was married to a Captain America type who had been overseas since before the birth of their daughter, while I was pining for a guy who had probably shot people before. Might do it to me if I learned the wrong thing or pissed him off enough.I wanted so badly to be able to walk away, leave him behind, never think of him again. But Michael tied us together. And my body craved Viktor with an intensity I couldn’t explain or justify.But I couldn’t let myself love him. I couldn’t fall. If I did, my judgment would go completely to shit, and I wouldn’t be able to trust myself.Michael woke up while I was taking my shower. I came out wrapped in a towel to find him standing in the hallway, rubbing one eye sleepily. “I’m hungry,” he mumbled.“I know, honey. Go to the bathroom and brush your teeth, I’ll get dressed and get breakfast together.” I really didn’t feel like eating, not with the whole Viktor mess running through my head constantly. But duty called, and I couldn’t expect Michael’s tummy to wait on my weird emotional crap.I came back from my room in jeans and tank top, my usual warm-weather gear when I wasn’t working, to see Michael already parked in his seat at the table. “You brush your teeth?” I asked him. He nodded, but his eyes looked sly. “Michael…”He pouted, but after a few moments he slid off his chair and went back to brush his teeth. He didn’t understand that rushing through his morning tasks wouldn’t make mine go any faster.I made him eggs with a little cheese and mushrooms, and some of those crisp little sausages, and fruit salad. I didn’t know why he liked mushrooms so much, but he beamed when he saw them and picked each of them out of the scramble in turn, eating them all first.Meanwhile, I picked at my food while Viktor haunted my mind.“Can we go to the park today?” Michael mumbled around a mouthful of fruit.“Chew and swallow before you talk, honey, you could choke.”He pouted a little this time, but did so anyway. “Park?”“Yeah, we can go see the ducks.”“Yay, duckies!” He peered up at me. “Do people have pet ducks?”“Yeah, but they’re hard to have in the house. They poop everywhere. You have to make them wear diapers.” I wrinkled my nose at him, and he grinned.“Duckie diapers? That’s funny! I haven’t needed diapers in a long time.”“No, you’re a big boy. But ducks can’t learn how to hold it until they can go outside.”He gave me a big-eyed look. “Can you teach them to use the toilet?”I laughed, my worries fading away a little. “No, they’re water birds, they’ll probably try to swim in it.”He was bursting into giggles when my phone suddenly rang. I pulled it out with more eagerness than I wanted to. It was Viktor. “Hello?”“Yes, hello.” His voice was smooth and calm as ever, and I cursed the surge of relief that went through me at the sound. “My apologies for taking so long to get back to you. I was in meetings of various kinds until late yesterday. Are you free?”“I’ll be done with cleaning up from breakfast in about half an hour, can I call you back?” Michael and I always had meals together, and I wanted my attention on him.“Ah, I see. My apologies for the timing. I’ll call you back in half an hour.”My heart was already pounding, and my thighs were squeezed together under the table. I huffed in annoyance with myself, wondering if I was ever going to be able to manage my feelings for Viktor properly.***After breakfast, I got the kitchen cleaned up in record time and got Michael set up with a new coloring book and some music he liked. Then I sat at the kitchen table like a dumb, lovestruck teenager until my phone rang again. When it did, I realized what I was doing and blushed, almost refusing to pick up the phone. But that wasn’t a very grown-up response either.This man is doing my head in and he’s not even trying,I thought to myself as I connected the call. “Hello?”“Better?” Viktor sounded amused, and not one bit impatient. I wished that didn’t make me feel relieved, but it did.“Yes. Sorry about that, but my first duty is to my son. So, what happened?” I leaned back in my seat a little to check on Michael, who was quietly coloring while his tunes were softly playing.“My accountant was murdered. First someone ran him off the road, then they came back and poisoned him at the hospital.” His voice was calm, measured, with only a hint of tension.My throat suddenly felt like it was closing up, as my mind immediately went to the Russian man who’d been all over the news. The one Luis’s school friend had killed. He was part of the Bratva?For some reason, this information, this connection, made me feel a little sick. With worry? With fear? I couldn’t place it.“I…I’m terribly sorry,” I managed to murmur, “that sounds horrible.” And yet despite the sudden swirl of thoughts and emotions flying through me, I couldn’t help but notice how obviously and easily the truth had come out. He could have told me anything at all, and I’d probably have had no reason not to believe him. But he chose to tell me what was actually happening.“Yes, I had to spend some time at the coroner’s office,” he continued, his smooth voice sounding a little exhausted, “make sure the family knew. It took far longer than expected.”“You don’t have to apologize,” I said too quickly. “I was just concerned.”“Yes.” Just a beat of silence. “I admit I was a bit surprised. I don’t get asked that too often.”Are you all right? Somehow, the thought that nobody checked in on him, not even his ‘brothers’, made me sad. And then there was his admission. He hadn’t been all right. But he had soldiered on regardless.“You just lost someone close to you.” I left it at that, not feeling like I should have to explain my empathy.“Indeed.” And he was quiet again, as I tried to digest what I had just learned.“Is that bossa nova in the background?” He changed the subject so fast that I had to adjust for a moment.“It is. It’s Michael’s current favorite. He likes music without words best.” I couldn’t help but gush a little about my baby.“The boy is three years old, correct?”Uh-oh. He was feeling things out about Michael. “Yes. As of a few months ago.”“Sophisticated tastes for a child,” he noted, and I laughed nervously.“Yes, he’s definitely doing his own thing.” Bring it up, I urged myself. Get it over with. Let Viktor know he’s a father, and that you’ve been debating this whole time whether to try to get in touch with him. “Um…” My throat was tight again. Why was this so hard?“Yes?” His tone was gentle.“About Michael.” I struggled with my feelings for a few seconds, but I had always been a bad liar. “You should know…I mean…” I sounded like an idiot. Blushing furiously, I took a moment to compose myself. “He has your eyes,” I said finally.This time the silence was long, but when he spoke again, he shocked me. By not being shocked. “I noticed.”“What?” I looked around unconsciously, worrying that he had me under surveillance after all.“When I went to hire your auction house for the disposal of my uncle’s collection, I saw the two of you walking away. I was so shocked at the time that I did not say anything. I haven’t quite known what to say since.”“Me either.” I let out a nervous laugh, not sure whether to be ashamed or relieved that he already knew. “Not for a long time. It’s part of why I never tracked you down.”“That and my…occupation?” Again, gentle teasing in his voice. My cheeks felt like they would burst into flames.“Look, I’m not even judging. And I don’t talk to anyone about what little I know about you. I just didn’t know how much danger being close to you would put me in. Me or my son. But you still have a right to know.”“It is good that you understand that.” I heard a soft huff and wondered if he was smoking. “I would like to meet him. But right now it is too chaotic. You may not believe this, but I have no desire to bring additional danger into your life or his.”I caught my breath for the first time in what felt like weeks. He wasn’t angry. He was being reasonable. He was concerned about our safety. It was nothing like what I had braced myself for. But then again, I had no experience with fathers. “So…what now?”“Do you need assistance with him?”Another surprise. “Do you mean, like, child support? No, I make enough to cover us. But there is his future to think about.”“Private school. College. Medical expenses and the like.”How could he be so cool about this when I was jumping around inside my own skin? “I hadn’t gotten quite that far, but, yes. But…” I stopped, suddenly unable to continue. My mouth was dry. I got up and got myself a glass of water.“There’s something else?” he pried gently.Just spit it out. I sat back down heavily, taking a swallow before speaking again. “Yes. What should I tell him about you?”“Tell him…” He trailed off thoughtfully. “Tell him that I have been on a long journey overseas. I do not think he should know right away who I am…in case these chaotic times force some kind of separation.”I felt a chill go down my back. This mess involving the deaths, and Luis’s school friend. What was going on that he thought there was a risk he might have to leave? “That’s important. I don’t want to upset him.” Or have him gain a father and suddenly lose him all over again.No. That could not be allowed.“Then we are in agreement. Good.” I heard the rattle of something, and the scratch of a pen. “I will contact you about scheduling the estate sale when your office is next open. Once that is properly out of the way, I want to spend more time with you.”This time the shiver that went down my back didn’t leave me feeling cold at all. “I’d like that,” I said softly, before I could stop myself.That throaty, self-satisfied little chuckle of his made me squirm. “Good. I look forward to it.”He ended the call, and I downed the rest of my water in a few gulps, my hand shaking slightly. Did that conversation just happen?Yes, it had. I had gotten through it, stilted and uncomfortable as the conversation had been. I had managed to tell him, finally, that Michael was his son, and he had taken it well. It looked like we might be able to handle this amicably.But in the process, I had learned something I hadn’t been ready for. Luis’s killer childhood friend was an enemy of the Bratva.