Page 54 of Vasily the Hammer

Benedetti curses under her breath, and now her hands are shaking for everyone to see. Her curses are hushed sounds; the shake may as well be a scream.

“What do you know?” Kostya asks roughly, despite that close save he just made.

“Tony has Artom,” she whispers. “This whole time, I—whoa, whoa, whoa!”she yelps, and I’m right there with her because Kostya’s just pulled a gun on her.

“Hey!” I yell at him. “Let her talk!”

“She’s obviously a traitor.”

“I didn’t actually know that!” she cries out. “I mean, I’m just now realizing that’s what happened! Everyone kept saying Vasily’s boy, and I knew that Alex was in your brigade and recently went missing, so it made sense.” She drops her arm just enough to point at me. “You thought that too!”

“Because he didn’t know he had a son,” Kostya seethes, as angry as I’ve ever seen him. A good man. Honestly, even if he’s going harder than he needs to, I’m glad it’s giving me a chance tosit back, catch my breath, and let someone else handle my rage for a second.

Because I’m still pissed. At everyone. Including Benedetti. But I gotta make sure Kostya doesn’t kill her because I really am going to need her for whatever happens next.

“You did know, didn’t you?” I ask her.

“I did,” she says frankly. She settles her hands back in her lap and stares me down, making it obvious her words are for me. “I told you already, Analiese Lombardo is a good girl, and she deserves to be left alone. By all accounts, she’s a great mom, and she’s got a happy life, really rocking the single mom thing, thriving where she is. So I don’t know how Tony ended up with Artom, but—”

“She was kidnapped.”

“Oh, shit.” Her shock is palpable. Made even more obvious when she reaches into her pocket despite a gun being on her.

A gun that doesn’t even need to be cocked. I don’t like how that model doesn’t have a safety, but Kostya does. He hasn’t shot himself in the foot yet, so I guess it’s fine.

“Hey!” Kostya barks, his only warning.

Benedetti rolls her eyes. If the situation wasn’t so tense, I’d laugh at it. “I’m grabbing my phone. I need to make some calls, make sure there’s a good team investigating her disappearance.”

“Oh, she’s been found already,” I tell her. “She was returned. To me.”

“Why you?”

“Because she has my insignia tattooed on her.” I hold up my ring, my family crest, the one Ana has tattooed on her mound, the ink still as bright as it was six years ago, albeit fuzzier at the edges. “It’s none of your business who rescued her, but they recognized the insignia and contacted me.”

“Why didn’t they just ask her? Oh god, is she okay? She’s not in a coma, is she?”

“She has amnesia. She didn’t remember who she was, and I told them she’s my wife.” I don’t bother to play like I’m ashamed about the lie I concocted. I’m not. I never was, and now that I know she’s had my son— with a second hopefully on the way— sheismy wife. No piece of paper or lack thereof changes that. “And Artom went to Tony thanks to a babysitter who had his contact info. So when I took Ana up to the roof with me with the intention of welcoming Alex back and giving Ana time to meet her old friend, Tony showed up. With Artom.”

Benedetti’s eyes bug out.“And you let him take them?”she screeches.

Okay, damn, I guess she is on my side. “I didn’tletshit happen!” I yell back though. If she’s on my side, she needs to stay in her place on my side. “Her brother and her son showed up, and her son agreed with her brother that I’m not her husband and her name isn’t Ana Baranov, it’s actually Lacey Lombardo. It was a pretty fucking convincing argument that I’m the bad guy!”

“You’re not the bad guy.”

“Thank you!” I yell, then hold my hand up, take a breath, and repeat myself in a normal voice. “Thank you. Sorry. I didn’t mean to get that worked up, but—”

“But you just found out that you have a son, and you’re the last to know. Shit. She’s at Tony’s now?”

I shrug. I hope so? I think? I don’t know.

“I’m gonna head back to Phoenix. Check in on them. Keep an eye out.”

“Why would you help me?”

Benedetti gives me a lopsided grin, which has me realizing that for all the hats that she wears, from 3D printer provider and servicer to fuck buddy to Mafia connection to ATF playtoy, she’s never been a friend before. But she says, “Because now that you know you have a son, it’s time to be a father. And a husband to Ana. It sounds like she needs that more than anything.”

Kostya, who’s always been a friend although our relationship is more professional, and I appreciate that even if Dima’s always hated him— now I know why, I guess— says, “And while you deal with that, we’re going to be in Flagstaff. You don’t have a choice this time, Vasily.”

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