“Well, no.” He sighed over Boris’s corpse. “And I’m thinking you’re the only one I can handle meeting. Dimitri is going to kill me anyway. Let’s get you there quick before I have to provide an update.”
I nodded and we left, man down, drinks gone, and plans completely ruined. Maksim drove fast, city lights whipping past us. We crossed over the river, through fields outside the city lights, and into a small suburb.
A white cedar house appeared in the distance. As we neared, I saw the lawn was taken care of, and the cedar shake gables with a wraparound white-stained porch looked welcoming. Understated but expensive. I wondered if Ivan had picked the place out himself.
We drove up onto the cement driveway, and a floodlight came on. Not a second later, the front door light flicked on too.
Ivan had been waiting.
Now that we were idling just twenty feet from the man who had given life to my mother, whose blood ran through my veins, my body wouldn’t move to open the door.
Maksim cut the engine and waited. “I’m not sure if you want me to shove you out or drag you in, but I’m pretty sure you should walk.”
A laugh burst out of me. “You’ve had about as bad a night as me.”
“You could say that. I’m a little fucked in the head right now, probably why I gave you as much leeway as you got.”
“Fucked in the head from what?” I inquired, maybe because at that moment, he was the only person I felt safe with. I wanted to be in that car with him where I knew he wouldn’t kill me. At least, not yet.
“That’s a story for another day, Katalina.”
“If I see the light of another day,” I grumbled.
“Be happy you got this far. It could have been worse.”
“How so?” But I knew there were worse things than a Boris rushing me.
“I should have called Dimitri. If I was smart, it’s what I would have done. I would have had to let him torture you, fed you back to the bratva where we aren’t sure you belong. Normally, if we aren’t sure, we just kill you. There’s no real soul to this brotherhood, not like with the Armanellis. You know that right?”
“But Ivan wanted to see me. He didn’t want me dead. There’s some hope there, don’t you think?”
“Ivan’s going insane, probably. Still, no one’s sure. No one’s sure about anything anymore, and you’re the wild card. I couldn’t take the risk of not listening to Ivan this time.”
“Guess that’s good for me. Or for Ivan. Should I call him that when I meet him?” I stared straight ahead at the white garage door we’d parked in front of.
“Ask him yourself.” Maksim pointed at the front door, and there stood a tall, older man with a full head of silver hair and a smile that was deceptively comforting.
“If I’m still alive after all this, I’ll owe you.” I whipped open the door and went to meet Ivan with strides that ate up the sidewalk. I’d face whatever the man had in store for me.
He swung the door wide open and waved me in. “You made it tonight. I’m pleased. Dimitri said tomorrow morning instead.”
“Dimitri had other plans for me tonight.”
Ivan peered over my shoulder and nodded at Maksim. “Ah, that one shows the true loyalty, then.”
Ivan closed the door behind me, and I took in the sleek wood floors, the arched doorways, and the delicate blue china in the dining room across the foyer. “You have a nice home.”
“It does what it’s supposed to.” He waved away the decoration. “I had a wife once, your grandmother, and she loved this type of china. Silly woman went and bought hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth during one of our fights.”
I hummed as I walked toward the mahogany dining table chairs. He motioned for me to take one and sat at the head of the table. We stared at each other, his ice-blue eyes studying me like I was a science experiment.
“You look a little like your mother,” he said.
“I doubt it.” I shrugged, knowing I had a lot of my father’s features.
“You’d be surprised.” He pulled at his ear and then got up to grab a picture from inside one of the built-in cabinets behind him. He set it on the table, and the picture clattered against the wood. He slid it across the table.
The woman in the picture wasn’t smiling. She stood against a tree, her mouth downturned and her blonde hair blowing in the wind. Staring off into the distance, she looked like she didn’t want anything to do with the person behind the camera or the world in general.