Page 27 of In Love With the Leshy

“I’m so sorry.” She pulls back to look at me. “I needed to be sure you weren’t working with my brother. I know Em has ample protection for us. He always has a backup, and a backup to the backup. Safra is the last line of defense.”

“Yes,” Em interrupts. “And you took her with you, leaving Erin alone and disobeying me.” His voice rises with each word, like a parent scolding a child. Thunder rumbles overhead.

“In my defense, she didn’t tell me she brought this.” Masha’s eyes meet mine, pleading with me. “If I’d known, if I’d seen this . . .”

“I couldn’t show it to you because I left it in my car after your brother so kindly shot my window out and ran me off the road.”

“Em?” The color drains from Masha’s face as a look of fear crosses her face.

“Where is Ana?” He asks, getting to his feet.

“Napping in the bedroom.”

Em gets to his feet and heads into the other room. Again, I get that uncomfortable feeling that makes me think their interconnected life is more complicated than either of them lets on, and I’m intruding on it.

“What’s wrong?” I ask after Masha jumps to her feet, rushing behind Em to check on her daughter. She drops to her knees and sighs in relief at the sight of Em returning with a sleepy Anastasia in his arms.

“You smell good, Uncle Em,” Ana yawns before laying her head against his chest, closing her eyes, and falling back to sleep. That’s something she and I can agree on. There’s another tug on my heart.

Masha gets to her feet and kisses the top of her daughter’s head.

“Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?” I whisper shout.

“Patience, my flower. Nothing happens in an instant.”

I sit back down on the loveseat, a hair away from losing my patience, and wait for someone to enlighten me.

“Nikolai wants this.” Masha holds up the pincushion. “Only he doesn’t know what it is that he’s after.”

“That makes no sense. Why would he want that anyway?” After getting dragged into this mess, I think I’ve earned the right to ask questions.

“Babushka had a Faberge egg. Very old. Very expensive. Worth well over ten thousand dollars.”

“Irina?” The same woman who made dog food a gourmet meal?

“Yes. I can still see it.” She closes her eyes as she describes it. “It was beautiful. Royal blue with gold netting. She encased it to keep it safe. We knew it was never to be touched under any circumstances. As a teenager, Nikolai got mixed up with the wrong crowd. He started using drugs. He’d be gone for months at a time and then come home like nothing happened. Eventually, he tried to take the egg so he could sell it.”

“That’s terrible.”

Masha nods. “Baba wouldn’t let him. She held a kitchen knife to his throat, although I don’t think she could’ve killed him. She lost so much in her life and didn’t have it in her. All four of her children died. Two were stillbirths.”

“Poor Irina.” My heart breaks for her.

Masha nods. “Nikolai didn’t come back for three months. When he did, he was so strung out. He pushed Baba. She hit her head on the end of a dresser so hard it left a gash in the wood. I rushed her to the hospital when I found her lying on the floor. I sat by her side for days until she regained consciousness. When I returned home, the egg was gone.”

“That’s why she had no money.”

Masha nods. “It wasn’t safe for her to have anything of value. I packed our things and moved us into my fiancé’s apartment while she recovered. He was a good man and did all he could to make us comfortable. We hadn’t been together long, but I knew I loved him.”

“Is that the apartment she died in?”

“No. She needed time to recuperate. I dreaded telling her about the egg. When I did, she smiled and told me all I would ever need is her pincushion.”

“Do you know what’s in it?”

She looks to Em, who nods his head, giving his approval.

“My grandmother’s ancestors were Druids.”

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