“Hey,” he said softly, taking me out of my thoughts. “You’re okay.”
“I know.” I took a deep breath. “What about—Henry?”
“He knows something. He said the Bianchi enforcer helped a woman when I was at the brothel. I might have been fifteen at the time.” He looked off to the side before saying quietly, “That was the year I tried to run away.”
I bit my bottom lip, knowing without asking that he didn’t succeed. From the age of twelve to nineteen. He spent seven years in that hellhole. Where would he be now if Damien had never found him?
I didn’t want to think about it.
I buried my face in his chest, and he wrapped his arms tightly around me. “I’m okay,” he said.
He might be, but I wasn’t.
“Whose birthday party are we crashing?” I asked. Obviously, it would be someone to this Ricci person.
Mikhail confirmed that when he answered, “His niece.”
I nodded. “When do we crash the party?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Can I do anything to help?”
I pulled back and looked at him. He smiled a little and nodded. “Oh, yeah. We have a role for you. A very important role.”
“What is it?”
“You’re going to come as my date.”
“Will that work? Can we really get in?”
He nodded. “With those innocent brown eyes of yours? Any man who can say no to those eyes of yours is a harder man than me.”
“Be serious,” I said, though I was secretly pleased. I hoped that was true.
“It’ll work,” he replied firmly.
I nodded. “Okay. I’ll do anything for you.”
His eyes turned soft. “I know, kotyonok.”
I moved back toward him, wrapping my arms around his waist and staying there. My infertility was still very much present in my mind, but I had a new task to worry about. For now, I was putting it far in the back of my mind and helping Mikhail find his mom.