“We can talk more about this when you don’t have a headache.”
“And Luka,” I reminded him. “I will talk to your father.” Now that I didn’t have to fear his involvement in the Obsidian Eye alliance, he would have no motive to kill me.
“Thank you. We’ll head home tomorrow and you can talk to him. To both of us. We will work together, Sadie.” Once more, he leaned in to kiss me, this time, on my forehead.
Together.
That was all I wanted.
I smiled, almost moved to tears that it could be this simple now, to join forces and never worry again.
While he left to get me water and a late breakfast, I closed my eyes and warned myself not to get too cozy.
Nothing would be simple about facing Luka Dubinin. It would be a challenge to convince him that I wasn’t trying to trick them or seduce his son to get intel.
“Here you go,” Emil said when he came back, setting a glass of ice water and a plate of toast and fruit on the nightstand.
“Can you sit with me? I’m not that hungry and I just want to close my eyes. I bet I can sleep off this headache.”
He didn’t hesitate. Climbing onto the bed, he positioned himself behind me so he could spoon me. Held like this, with his hand protectively over my baby bump, I basked in the warmth of his security and soon fell asleep in his arms.
23
EMIL
In the morning, I rolled over and tried to get more comfortable. I liked that this apartment offered more leisure than the rough conditions that safehouse in the jungle did, but I missed being inmybed. The one at my main residence, not the room I had at my father’s house. With the amount of traveling and getting up and going on the spot that I did in my line of work, the creature comfort of my bed, custom made and precisely fitted with the sheets I preferred, the pillows I chose after trial and error, wasn’t a trivial thing.
The Dubinin Dynasty was one of the wealthiest organizations in the country, the world, even, and no expenses would be spared. Still, I wasn’t that picky or hard to please. By nature, I wasn’t a materialistic man.
But I did enjoy a solid night of sleep in my bed. That seemed like a more feasible possibility in the near future, too, with Sadie and I coming to a general agreement that she was with me.
Withme and my family. She agreed to talk to my father. In fact, it seemed like she was expecting the obligation to do so. Shehadn’t come forward with the initiative to suggest that she talk to my father in an attempt to win his approval, but it wasn’t like I’d given her time to speak up about details when I peppered her with questions about her pregnancy. Even though she told me she’d gone to a couple of appointments with a doctor, I wanted to prioritize having her checked over again with the best of care, maybe even asking Gabby about the doctor she was going to for her second pregnancy.
It will all come together.
It had to.
Sadie had made her way back to me despite all the odds stacked against us, and I had to have faith that it was fate. That this could be love uniting us. That it would last even though we came from opposition.
We’ll start the rest of our lives today.
Introducing her to my father would be the first and most important step. It would be the beginning of her being integrated into my family. While it wouldn’t be an instant process, I was confident that my father would come around. When he did, all the men under his rule, and mine, would fall into step too.
He accepted Raisa. Everyone eventually let her in.
Raisa had faced issues fitting in at first because she came from a rival family, yet she stayed strong and didn’t let the grumbling guards bother her. She won over Luka, proving to him that she wasn’t a spy or a threat. In the end, she killed her own father, choosing to be a Dubinin and ally with us over her former family. Nothing could trump that action.
Sadie would be under similar scrutiny. No, she’d be subjected to a harder trial of earning my father’s respect. She was an agent. She held intel about many families, which would be an asset for us, but he would be slow to get over the fact that she was an enemy, an agent formerly expected to arrest me.
But he will come around.
He will.
He has to.
The alternative wasn’t an option. I wouldn’t leave her again, but I dreaded having to vouch for her when we hadn’t talked in depth about what she could bring to the table. What assurances she could give us that she was fully changing her attitude about law and order and the rightness of our style of seeking and delivering justice.
It would be a big day, a long one, too, but I wouldn’t stray from her side. She would be with me the entire time. Even my father wouldn’t come between us during this interrogation. He trusted me, and he wouldn’t stop me from sticking with her. It would be the first sign of how deeply committed I was to her, one more way to show him that this wasn’t some fickle little fling or phase.
