Page 11 of My Russian Protector

“I met a man in the restaurant who told me to stop looking for your father. He said that his employer will pay me to turn you over to him,” I tell her.

“You won’t, right?” she trembles as the words leave her mouth.

“Of course, I won’t. I told him that if they come for you, they will die.”

“What do they want me for? Nobody’s going to pay a ransom for me and I haven’t done anything to piss anyone off,” she says.

“There’s only one person in the world who would pay me to hand you over,” I tell her.

“Who?” she asks, her eyes as big as saucers.

“Your father, baby girl.”

“My father? But how could he have the resources to do something like this?”

“Seems he’s built himself some sort of criminal empire with the money he owed my bosses. Guess he decided to leave you and your mother behind so that he could start a new life for himself.”

“So, what do we do now?”

“Do you still want to find him? Knowing that he deserted you that way? Say the word and we’ll leave for Moscow right now. We can forget all about him and start our own life together.”

She looks down at the floor, and when she lifts her head again, there are tears in her eyes. “No, I want to find him even more now. He needs to explain why he left me. I need to know why I was all alone when my mother died. It’s time for him to take some accountability.”

“Alright, then we’ll find him.”

“Where do we start?”

“The local government.”

I wipe the tears from her face and pull her close to me. She buries her face in my chest, clutching my shirt, and I hold her there until her tears subside.

6

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

ANNA

Alex spends hours compiling the names and addresses of all of the Village Council, the Constable, and the Mayor. I know that it’s in my best interest to let him work, but I’m itching to pick up where we left off this morning.

If I wasn’t already prepared to give myself to him, his telling me that he would take me back to Moscow and start a new life with me would have sealed the deal. No man has ever put my needs and safety before his own. Not even my own father.

He looks up and sees me staring at him. “We have to assume that your father is using an alias. Oftentimes, when people choose a new name for themselves, they use names of people or places from their old lives that hold sentimental value to them. Take a look at this list and see if anything pops out at you. It could be anything like his middle name, your mother’s name, grandparents, or the city where he was born or went to school. Maybe a favorite family vacation spot?”

“He abandoned us. I don’t think our family vacation destinations are something that he’s sentimental about,” I reply and he pulls me onto his lap.

“I’m sorry. I really am. What he did was inexcusable but…” he pauses.

“But?” I ask.

“If he didn’t do it, we wouldn’t even know each other,” he replies, squeezing me.

“Maybe we would. Who’s to say that we wouldn’t have passed each other on the street or seen each other in a restaurant in Moscow and one of us decided to be bold and introduce ourselves? If you had seen me somewhere, would you have approached me?”

“If I had seen you on the street, I would have stopped traffic for a chance to meet you,” he kisses my cheek. “But if your father had decided to take you on the run with him, you wouldn’t have been in Moscow.”

“You don’t think there’s any chance that he would have paid off his debts and stayed with us?” I ask.

“I’m sorry. I just don’t think he has that kind of integrity, baby girl,” he replies and I frown.

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