“Eat some food,” I tell him.
He goes to the table and uncovers the dishes, picking at them, still standing.
I give him a few minutes, then I go over. “Sit.” I tug out one of the chairs and drop into the other one.
Mika sits. I can read misery all over him. But getting him to talk is another thing.
“I grew up in the streets of Moscow, too,” I offer. “My mother gave me over to the bratva, like yours.”
He lifts his eyes, wary but listening.
“I still hate her for it.”
Alessia looks over from the couch where she was reading one of the romance novels she insisted I download for her.
Mika drops his head, chin wobbling .
I don’t touch him. Don’t want to stop whatever’s going to come out. It will do him better to speak it than to hold it in.
“Your mother is dead,” Mika comments. There’s a wobble in his voice. He remembers this because we were in the same house in Chicago when she died.
“Yes.”
“I wish mine was.”
“She did wrong by you,” I agree. Wait some more. When he doesn’t say anything else, I ask, “Did you go to your old home?”
A single nod.
“Do you have family there?”
He shrugs. Shakes his head. Then offers, “My grandmother.”
“Did you go in?”
His face crumples. “No.” He’s full-on crying now. “I saw her through the window. And I stood there. I stood there for a long time. But I didn’t want to go back in. I didn’t want to see her.”
Now I touch him. I lay my hand on his back. “You don’t have to. You don’t have to ever see her again, unless you want to. It’s your life. Your choice. You have me now. Me and—” I look over at Alessia, but then I stop.
I can’t keep her.
I can’t promise he has her when it’s a lie.
She’s going home.
Just as soon as I figure out how to let her go.
“You have me,” I say again. “And you have Alessia’s money. If something happens to me, it’s still yours. I’ll show you how to get it. And I won’t let Victor take you into the ranks again. He may try, but I won’t let it happen. I promise.”
Now I’ve scared the boy by voicing my own fears.
He stares at me with wide frightened eyes, but then he throws his arms around me and presses his head against my chest.
I gulp and rub his back.
Alessia gets up from the couch and comes over. She rubs Mika’s head.
He looks up and sniffs, wiping his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he says.
“Don’t,” I say more forcefully than I mean to. “Don’t apologize. Is better to get it out. Leave it behind. Leave it here, in Moscow.”
I meet Alessia’s sorrowful gaze over the top of Mika’s head, and I realize I’m deep in territory I never wanted to enter. The emotional realm. I haven’t bared my soul to anyone, much less a twelve-year-old boy, since I was a child. And yet here I am, doing everything I can to make sure Mika gets a better shot at being a decent human being than I had.
And it’s because of Alessia. She believed I could—counted on me to do it, so I have.
I may have shown her my worst side when Sabina showed up, but she’s also seeing my best. Which admittedly isn’t much, but it’s more than I’ve attempted in my entire sordid past.
I reach up and catch her hand and squeeze it and she squeezes back.
For one moment, I pretend we’re a strange and unlikely family: Alessia, Mika and me.
But I know it won’t last.
It can’t.
I already feel the ending screaming up to us without regard to what we accomplish here tonight.
Chapter 17
Vlad
I’m trying not to let the tension show, but both Mika and Alessia pick up my mood on the way to Victor’s. Mika’s pale and subdued. Alessia keeps darting glances my way.
“Why do you have to bring Mika and me?” she asks.
“Victor requested it.” I don’t look over. I want to hold her hand, but I don’t want her to feel how cold mine is. I know something bad is coming, I just can’t figure out what it will be.
“Does he speak English?”
“No. You are safe. Say nothing. Look innocent. I won’t let him hurt you.”
She blanches. “What about Mika?” She heard what I said last night, about not letting Victor take him. I should’ve kept my goddamn mouth shut. Now they’re both worried.
“I will tell him Mika’s very valuable. I am training him to hack and he has great aptitude for it. Victor will be pleased. Right now I am irreplaceable. And now that my mother’s dead, I think he might prefer to replace me.”
Mika watches me intently. When I look at him and raise my brows, he nods.
“You are learning quickly, no? You have great skill already for such a young boy.”