“No,” he replies.
I nod, tapping my fingers lightly against my thigh. I let a beat pass, then press a little. “What happened back there? With the FBI?”
“Nothing I haven’t seen before.”
“But they let them go?”
“They didn’t have a choice.”
That’s all I get out of him. He doesn’t elaborate and I don’t push. Still, something prickles beneath my skin.
“You’re not going to tell me anything, are you?” I murmur.
That earns me a glance. “Depends,” he says. “What are you most curious about?”
I open my mouth but nothing comes out. Not right away.
He chuckles. “You’re not subtle,” he says. “But you’re not reckless, either.”
I blink. “Thanks, I think?”
He shifts slightly in his seat, one hand still on the wheel. “Yuri wasn’t always like this, you know. Cold. Cautious. Carved out of ice.”
I turn to face him more fully. “No?”
“No,” Grigori says. “He was different once. Quiet, yes, but there was warmth before everything hardened. Before he had to make peace with losing things.”
My chest tightens. “What changed him?”
He exhales. “Life.”
“And now?”
“Now?” Grigori shrugs. “Now, something’s changed again. He’s slipping. Letting the frost thaw.”
I sit with that for a moment. “You think that’s a bad thing?”
“For a man? No,” he says simply. “For an Ivanov? Maybe.”
That lands like a weight between us. I rest my hands in my lap. “I don’t know what to say to that.”
“You don’t have to say anything,” he replies. “There’s only so much a man—or a family—can control. The rest?” He glances out at the rain. “That’s fate’s business.”
I think of the baby. Of the tiny, barely-formed heartbeat inside me. Of what the child will mean for Yuri, for me, for all of this. I swallow the lump in my throat.
We pull up to my building and Grigori cuts the engine. “Keys,” he says, holding out his hand.
I give them to him without hesitation, watching as he disappears inside. The rain is softer now, more mist than downpour.
He returns minutes later. “You’re clear. Come on.”
He walks me to the door and waits until I’m safely inside. Then he’s gone.
I stand in the quiet, lights off. I wrap my arms around myself and realize—utterly and completely—how much I miss Yuri.
Coldness and all.
CHAPTER 23
