I raised my brows. “Because I’d left?” I couldn’t tell if he was fishing for an answer, whether I’d stay or go.
“No. Because you have been sleeping for a long time getting overyourordeal with our enemies. Because you’d be too tired to be a doctor for her so soon.”
I set my hand on her shoulder. “Doctor? Nah. We were just… catching up. Girl talk.”
She beamed at me, giving me more hope that I could embrace this role here. That I could accept my place and belong.
“Perhaps you can catch me up, too,” he suggested, indicating for me to follow him out of the room. He paused to toss a handful of magazines at Anya, though. They landed on the chair I’d vacated, and I smiled at the piano music books, too. “Your delivery,” he told her.
“Thanks,” she replied, picking up the papers.
I joined Andre in the hallway, walking away from Anya’s room. I’d given her a promise to eat dinner with her too, but I wondered if it would be just me and her, or others as well. I wouldn’t put off telling Mikhail my choice for long.
“Where is Mikhail?”
“Napping. He didn’t sleep well, if at all, after he brought you… back.”
I smiled, gazing at the carpet as we walked. “You mean when you brought me home?” I glanced up in time to catch him smiling as well.
“Home?”
I nodded.
“Doesn’t surprise me.”
I laughed once at his cockiness.
“It doesn’t surprise me that you’re just as committed as he is to you.”
We’ll see about that.
“My father discussed the plans to help you start a new life. We would spare no expense after you saved his life. But I, and my cousins, were pretty sure you’d be staying.”
“Am I that predictable?”
“Fuck no.” He grunted. “And that’s why I’m glad you’re willing to give my father a chance. He needs a partner who’d keep him on his toes.”
Again, we’ll see about that.
“However, there is one matter that I need your help with. Regardless of whether you wanted to leave or stay, we plan to remove the threat of your former colleague.”
I furrowed my brow. “Dr. Harroun?”
He nodded.
“Wasn’t he found with the, um, the other men at that building?” I cringed at the idea of Jack out there, able to surprise me on the street again and hand me over to the enemy.
“No. He is missing, and it would be helpful if you told me more about him.”
He’d stopped at the library on this floor.
I gestured for him to enter through the doorway. “Lead the way.”
Talking with Mikhail was my plan, but until then, I’d let him rest. In the meantime, I would be all ears for Andre’s questions. For the next hour, I sat with him and told him all that I could about the doctor who hadn’t quite shared the same ethics as me.
Perhaps I was no better than him. He’d sided with the Giovannis. I was standing with the Orlovs. I was a changed woman, now voluntarily involved with the Mafia.
Yet, if it were ever up to me to harm someone on the run for safety, an innocent like I had been, I wouldn’t have done what he had.
