Page 62 of Cruel Bet

“I will,” I say, walking over to give him a lingering hug.

He kisses me goodbye and leaves. A moment or two later Adelina emerges, looking better for being clean.

I smile at her and gesture to the bed, “In you get.”

She obeys, climbing in and pulling up the blankets. A look of pure peace and pleasure crosses her face and I wonder how long it has been since she slept in a comfortable bed somewhere she felt safe.

She scoots over, patting the space behind her. “Stay with me, please?” she says, her eyes pleading and fearful.

“Of course,” I soothe, climbing in beside her and cradling her in my arms.

Before long, she falls asleep and I savor the feeling of closeness, of having my sister back. I feel complete.

Chapter 35

Nikolai

I’m up early, despite having been up late working I found it hard to sleep last night given everything that happened. I also missed having Arianna sleeping beside me. When I went to bed, she and her sister were curled up asleep together.

It seems surreal that Adelina is here, and I can’t help but feel suspicious as to how she managed to pull it off. How she not only managed to escape after nearly ten years, but then also found us in a safe house in Vermont. Something about her story didn’t sit right with me, but seeing Arianna so happy, I pushed it to the back of my mind. No matter how she got here, surely Arianna’s beloved sister cannot be a threat to her.

As I pad along the corridor, I hear Mads stirring in her room and decide to get her up and give her breakfast so Arianna can spend some more time catching up with her sister before we have to leave. As I walk into Mads’ room, she blearily looks up at me, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

“Morning,malishka,” I say softly, “Shall we go downstairs and get you some breakfast?”

She smiles and nods at me, reaching her pudgy little arms up for me to carry her.

“Pancakes?” she asks happily.

“Yes, we can make pancakes,” I agree, knowing that Arianna won’t mind her having a treat today.

Dimitri is already in the kitchen when we get there, sitting and drinking a coffee. “Morning,” he greets me. Then, his face breaks into the big goofy grin he always wears when Mads is around.

“There’s my beautiful littlemalishka!” he exclaims, reaching out his arms for her.

She strains toward him, and I hand her over. “Miti!” she says happily, unable to pronounce his name yet.

The blossoming relationship between Dimitri and Mads is heartwarming to watch, even for a heartless bastard like me. They already adore each other. Dimitri has made it abundantly clear that he thinks she’s mine. “Just look at her, that’s all the proof I need,” he’s said on multiple occasions since we got here. He certainly hasn’t helped dispel my suspicions that she’s mine either. I’m trying to be patient and trust that Arianna will tell me in her own time if she’s mine. But in all honesty, I’m seriously contemplating arranging a DNA test soon if she doesn’t. I need to know. If she’s my child, that puts a target on both her and Arianna’s backs. Mads giggles as he tickles her and asks what she would like to eat.

“Pancakes!” she exclaims, adoring the attention, and that no one seems to be telling her no today.

Dimitri glances at me for approval and I nod. He begins bustling around the kitchen and I let him. I know he wouldn’t let me take over, he loves to cook for Mads, for all of us.

“The girls are still sleeping?” he asks as he works.

“Yes, I thought I’d let them sleep late.”

“Good,” he agrees.

“Any news?” I ask, hoping that he or any of my men have found out something new since last night.

“Nothing. It’s strange. A mob boss like Di Stefano gets murdered in his own home and nobody seems to be talking about it. The girl said she killed him and ran off, so it doesn’t sound like she hid the body. I can’t imagine she flew here, so for her to get here from Chicago by car or bus would have taken over fifteen hours, plenty of time for someone to discover him dead and alert the fact that she’s missing. But nothing. It must be well over a day now and still nothing.”

“Strange or suspicious…” I state. “She must have had help, or at least washed and changed clothes on the way since she wasn’t bloody when she arrived, and she was on foot. There’s no way she walked the whole way here. Have we found any witnesses who saw her arrive in town?”

“Nope. We spoke to the bus driver who was driving the bus that she most likely would have arrived on if she came in that way and he doesn’t remember her,” Dimitri says, a small frown on his face as he pours the pancake batter into a pan.

“I don’t like this, something’s not right,” I say, though what it is, I can’t tell.

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