“Why haven’t you done that already?” Ella asked.
“Because the moment the evidence becomes public, every enemy my father has ever made will come after anyone connected to him,” Mikhail explained. “Including Nora. I needed to secure you both first.”
I could see Ella wavering, uncertainty replacing some of the anger in her eyes. “Does she know?” sheasked softly. “Does Nora know who you are?”
Mikhail shook his head. “No. I introduced myself as a friend. I wouldn’t tell her without your permission.”
The room fell silent except for the crackling of the fire and the faint sounds of Nora humming to herself in the kitchen. I looked at Ella, trying to read her thoughts. She met my gaze, confusion and pain evident in her eyes.
“I don’t know what to believe,” she whispered.
“Believe that I want to keep our daughter safe,” Mikhail said. “Whatever you think of me, believe that.”
Connor moved to the window, peering out at the darkening forest. “We should stay here tonight. It’s not safe to move after dark, and the snow’s getting worse.”
I nodded reluctantly. “But we take watches. Trust is earned, not given.”
“Fair enough,” Mikhail agreed.
Ella stood abruptly. “I need to check on Nora.”
After she left, I turned to my brother. “If you’re lying to me—”
“I’m not,” he said firmly. “I swear on Mom’s grave, Jake. This is real.”
I studied him, searching for the signs I’d known since childhood. But his gaze was steady, his stanceopen.
“The bandaged hand?” I asked.
He grimaced. “Cut myself breaking into Kozlov’s motel room to plant a tracker on his phone. Got caught on the way out. Not my finest moment.”
“And the vet call?”
“I overheard you talking to Dr. Miller when you called to check on Scout,” he admitted. “Thought it would seem less suspicious if I ‘received’ the information rather than eavesdropped on it.”
It made sense, in a twisted way. But I’d been burned too many times by people I trusted to accept it all at face value.
“I’m watching you,” I warned both of them. “One wrong move, and I’ll put you down myself.”
Mikhail nodded solemnly. “I would expect nothing less from the man protecting my family.”
The word “family” hung in the air between us, loaded with implications. I thought about Ella in the kitchen with Nora, trying to explain why we were in this remote cabin with two men she’d been taught to fear. I thought about the way Mikhail had looked at his daughter—with awe and longing and regret.
And I thought about the kiss Ella and I had shared, the way she’d felt in my arms, the future I’d started to imagine despite myself.
Nothing was simple anymore. Nothing wascertain except the storm howling outside and the long night ahead of us.
“I’ll take first watch,” I said, moving to position myself by the window where I could see both entrances to the cabin.
As darkness fell completely, I watched the snow pile up around us, trapping us together in this strange limbo of truth and lies, past and present. Whatever happened next, I knew one thing for sure: nothing would ever be the same again.
Chapter 13
Ella
Declan and Rory had decided to take a chance and head back to Wolf Creek and were going to call me the second they landed at home. Hours later, with still no word, I found myself alone in the small kitchen until Mikhail walked in. The silence between us felt heavy with unspoken words as I watched him warm two mugs of tea, his movements deliberate and careful, so different from the reckless young man I’d known years ago.
“She has your eyes,” he said quietly, sliding one mug toward me. “And your stubbornness.”
