“Where the hell have you been?” Ilsa exploded a moment later, raw emotion in her voice. “Naomi, Roman and I looked everywhere for you and came up with nothing! It was like you dropped off the face of the earth.”
A tortured laugh escaped me. “I have so much to tell you.”
“Well, it better be good,” she bit out, her hands clenching the steering wheel. “Months of nothing and I get a call out of nowhere, telling me that Jon is after you and you are at some random retirees’ house. Roman almost didn’t let me come because he was afraid it was a trap!”
I felt like shit. Ilsa was like family to me, and to know I had put additional stress on her pregnant body made me feel horrible. “I’m sorry.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to hear it. I’m just glad you are all right.”
I wasn’t all right. I probably never would be, to be honest, but this was my new norm after all.
“I didn’t use any LAPD resources, by the way,” she continued as she made a series of turns heading to the hills of LA. “I was too afraid of tipping off Jon in the process. He has a knack of finding out.”
Swallowing, I thought about how I had left him. He wasn’t going to stop there. If nothing else, I had pissed him off to the point of taking the next step, and that terrified me.
“I also want to know who knocked you up.”
Her words caused me to sputter. “What?”
“C’mon.” Ilsa gave me a pointed look. “Do you not see me right now? It’s like I have this intuition now to spot pregnant women. Roman says that it should be the new superhero movie. He’s so tired of me saying it.” She resumed her attention on the road before us. “So, who’s the father?”
I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. I didn’t even know if Roman and Gavril moved in the same circles or if they were enemies. Would I be causing another war that Gavril didn’t need? “It’s Gavril,” I finally said, deciding that I would deal with the fallout later. “Gavril Kirilenko.”
From the string of curses that Ilsa released, it seemed that Roman wasn’t BFFs with Gavril after all. “This story is going to cause me to drink coffee again, isn’t it?” she said after a moment. “I’ve sworn off it for the pregnancy, but I already feel a headache coming on.”
“If we weren’t both knocked up, I would’ve suggested something much stronger,” I added with a weary sigh. I thought her life had been confusing, but it paled in comparison to mine right now.
“Ain’t that the fucking truth.” Ilsa shook her head and drove on.
I was safe. For now.