“Don, sir, I apologize if I erred. You told me she had the freedom to come and go. She… she said she was leaving so… so I—”
“It’s okay, Caplan,” I say before the man suffers a nervous breakdown. “You did nothing wrong.”
He looks visibly relieved. “I told her I could call her a cab, but she insisted on walking down to the end of the hill.”
“Which means she was probably being picked up?” Lev infers, turning to me.
I nod and wave a hand at the security guard. “You’re excused. Both of you.”
Both Caplan and Margarit disappear instantly, visibly happy to be done with this impromptu little interrogation.
I rub my throbbing temples. “What the fuck happened?”
Yulian strolls in, oblivious and nonchalant. “Whatcha talking about?”
“Jessa left,” Lev fills in.
“Oh. Weird. When’s she coming back?” Yulian asks.
He still doesn’t get it. To be fair, I’m not sure I fully understand it yet. One thing is obvious: Jessa left of her own volition. After I told her how I felt, what I wanted.
What changed between that conversation and now?
“I don’t think she is coming back,” I snarl as my instincts start buzzing.
“Why would she leave?” Lev asks. “She was happy to stay. You said she agreed to move in here with you.” His mind is already racing with theories, probabilities, truths and lies and courses of action. It’s the only way he knows how to be.
I used to be the same—until she burst into my life.
“Move in here?” Yulian gawks at me, dumbfounded. “Jesus, I thought you were just having fun with the broad.”
Lev rolls his eyes. “If you had any powers of perception, you would have realized that Jessa was never just a distraction for him.”
“Maybe she was more freaked out about the pregnancy than she let on,” I ponder.
But even as I say it, I know it’s not true.
I saw her face when she heard the news. She was happy. Thrilled, in fact. Once the initial shock had worn off, there was only joy and excitement left.
According to Caplan, she left two and a half hours ago. Which is right after I left her in my room. Something crucial happened in those few minutes.
I need to figure out what it was.
“What pregnancy?”
Lev and I both turn to look at Yulian. I realize that in all the madness of removing Rodion’s body, addressing his men, and establishing a new alliance with Yaromir, I had neglected to tell my brother the biggest news of all.
“Jessa’s pregnant,” I say bluntly. “The baby is mine.”
“Ha!” He slaps his knee. “What’s the punchli—oh. Shit. You’re serious? You’re serious. Fuck me, you’re serious.”
“She’s my woman, plain and simple,” I say, unwilling to spend a lot of time dissecting this.
“You’ve never said that about any woman. Including the one you married.”
“Because she wasn’t mine,” I say harshly. “She was forced on me. I never wanted her.”
“But Jessa is different?”