Page 45 of Dark Embers

“You said you haven’t traveled overseas in twenty-four years..” My eyes narrow with suspicion as I watch my mother.

“Did I?” She does that dumb blonde thing where I know I won’t get anymore out of her on the subject. She’s suddenly got convenient dementia.

But I push it aside and another thought strikes me. My family home is going to be empty for four weeks. “Can I stay here and house-sit?” I ask.

“No!” I’m taken aback as all three of them bark in perfect harmony.

Mark steps forward. “Sam thinks it’s safer if you stay with Oleksi. Especially with that woman still unaccounted for.”

My glare swivels to the man in question. “I can’t believe you snitched to Sam about her too.”

“I had to,” Oleksi says simply. “Sam wanted to know and I’m sorry if you’re mad, but this is about Elena and you being safe. Sam or I can’t help with that if we’re not open about what’s happening.”

But before I can argue further, my mother turns to Oleksi. For once—maybe the first time in my life—I see something different in her eyes. Not suspicion. Not ice—respect.

“If Sam has put his trust in you, then I guess we can, too,” she says slowly before switching to Russian, her voice low and deadly. “But if you harm my daughter or granddaughter in any way… I don’t care who you are, Mirochin. I will destroy you.”

Oleksi doesn’t flinch. He meets her gaze head-on. “You have my word,” he replies in flawless Russian, “that I will protect them with my life.”

“Good.” She switches back to English before turning to Mark. “Now give me my princess so I can say goodbye.”

Twenty minutes later, we’re on the road again. Elena is fast asleep in her car seat. The silence is almost too loud.

“I didn’t know your mom spoke Russian that well,” Oleksi says at last.

I nod, eyes on the road. “Yes, I think your aunt taught her. They’ve been close for years. And as she and my dad worked for your family…” Our eyes meet as I let my words hang meaningfully. “I guess it was useful for them to understand what the people they were working for were saying.”

He’s quiet for a moment again before saying, “Your mother didn’t just speak Russian, Sabrina. She spoke it like it was her native language—like a Russian.”

I glance at him, frowning. “So?”

He shakes his head slowly. “Nothing. Just… interesting.” Oleksi shrugs but something in his eyes sends a cold prickle down my spine.

By the time we pull into the underground garage at the Diamond Hotel, a new worry nestles itself beside all the others in my chest.

I can’t help but see the look on her face when Oleksi told her the two men who broke into my apartment were from Russia. That wasn’t just shock like the—what the fuck are Russians doing breaking in my daughters apartment look. That was pure terror—like the kind you get when you think the IRS are after you or the boogeyman really is in your closet or you’ve been found...

Is my mother hiding something from me? Does she know more about what’s happening with Tara than she’s letting on? This trip they’re taking is rather sudden even if she did leave me three messages about it early—my mother is not an impulsivetrip taker. In fact she hates traveling. And what was that slip up about not having traveled overseas for twenty-four years?

What the hell is she not telling me? On top of everything going on in my life I don’t need my mother keeping secrets from me—especially ones that nearly got my daughter hurt! With a head full of steam I follow Oleksi into the private elevator, my baby hugged tightly in my arms. As we swoosh to the penthouse I pat my faithful oversized purse and feel the metal tin I found earlier under my bed—stashed there by my sister.

As soon as I have a moment of privacy I’m going to open this box as now I’m more than sure Tara has something stashed in here explaining what’s going on. As she stashed it inmysecret hiding spot I also know she meant for me to find it.

CHAPTER 18

Oleksi

The vodka tastes like fire sliding down my throat, but I barely register it. I’m sitting in the home office in the penthouse at the top of the Diamond Hotel, hunched in the leather chair like some washed-up king staring into the ruins of his kingdom. The city below is still alive—flashes of neon, the dull pulse of bass from clubs that never sleep—but up here, everything is too damn quiet.

I used to love this silence. It used to give me power.

Now it feels like punishment.

Sabrina is asleep in the guest suite down the hall, curled up behind a closed door I let her shut. Not because I wanted to.Because I had to. Because if I’d fought her, if I’d pulled her into my room—my bed—I’d never have earned her back. Not after what I did.

Fuck.

Setting her up was reckless, cruel… and fucking sloppy. Not only did I misjudge her, I underestimated her. I didn’t know about the surveillance in and around her dressing room. I didn’t see the trap I was walking into because I was too obsessed. Too blinded by possession, by control, by the need to make her mine.

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