I moved to the kitchen window and peered out into the darkness. The snowy yard was still, blanketed in moonlight and shadows. “I don’t like this,” I murmured.
Jake came to stand beside me, close enough that I could feel the heat radiating from his body. “Me neither.”
We stood there for a moment, scanning the darkness together. His presence was reassuring, solid—like having a fortress at my back.
“I should check on Nora,” I said finally.
Jake nodded. “I’ll make some coffee. Don’t think either of us is going back to sleep.”
Nora was still sound asleep, one arm flung over her head, the other clutching her stuffed fox. I tucked the blanket more securely around her and brushed a strand of hair from her forehead. She didn’t stir.
When I returned to the kitchen, Jake had two mugs of coffee waiting for me. He’d found the cream and sugar without asking. I wrapped my hands around the warm mug, grateful for something tohold onto.
“Thanks for staying,” I said quietly.
He shrugged. “Not like I had better plans.”
A small smile tugged at my lips despite everything. “Hot date canceled on you?”
“Something like that.” His eyes met mine over the rim of his mug, and for a second, I glimpsed something vulnerable there before he looked away.
The coffee was strong, almost bitter, exactly how I needed it. “About last night, what I didn’t tell you—”
“You don’t owe me explanations,” he cut in.
“I know. It’s complicated, but I want to tell you.” I took a deep breath. “Tomas MacGallan was my father, but he didn’t raise me. When Tomas found out my mother had died, he took me from my stepfather. I’d been living in a cottage in Ireland since I was three with a couple that Tomas trusted.”
“Wow. That’s a lot. But why would he do that?”
“He said it was to protect me from my stepfather, Alexei Petrova, the Russian mob boss. Apparently, after he discovered my mother’s affair with Tomas, he wanted revenge. Wanted control of the MacGallan fortune through me.”
“How?” he asks.
“By forcing a marriage between me and his son, Mikhail.” I twist my hands together, remembering. “A business merger of sorts, with me as the commodity.”
His eyes grew large. “He wanted you to marry your stepbrother?”
I nod. “Yes, as soon as he found out I wasn’t his daughter, he arranged for us to be married. I was two years old.”
“So, if you didn’t know Mikhail while growing up, how is he Nora’s father?”
“I was allowed one outing a month. Tomas had sent me to an art exhibit in Dublin, and it just so happened that Mikhail was there. I was young and stupid. He was charming, dangerous—everything a twenty-six-year-old thinks she wants. I didn’t know about the family connection until I was already pregnant with Nora.”
Jake’s face was unreadable when he said, “You were in love with him.”
“I was until I found out his true motive.”
“Which was?”
“I had my bags packed for Cyprus, where his yacht was docked. We were supposed to elope the next day.” My fingers curl tighter around the mug. “That night, I got up for water and heard him in the study. The door was cracked open. He was speaking to his father in Russian—a language he thought I couldn’t understand. He said the plan was working perfectly. That after the wedding, once the babywas born, they’d finally have what they needed to control Tomas. Then he laughed and called me...” I swallow hard, the words still raw years later, “...the perfect little fool they’d always known I would be.”
“Jesus Christ. So you ran,” Jake said softly.
I nodded. “I called Tomas, and he extracted me from Ireland and brought me to Wolf Creek. I thought we were safe.” I laughed, but it came out brittle. “Dumb of me, right?”
“No,” Jake said firmly. “Not stupid. Brave.”
Something warm unfurled in my chest at his words. “I just wanted her to have a normal life. To grow up without looking over her shoulder.”
