“Sorry,” I said, flipping another pancake onto the growing stack. “Didn’t want to wake you.”
Nora looked between us, her expression thoughtful. “Are you and Jake boyfriend and girlfriend now, Mom?”
Ella choked on her coffee, and I nearly dropped the spatula. Leave it to an eight-year-old to cut straight to the chase.
“Well,” Ella began, her cheeks flushing pink, “Jake and I are... we’re...”
“We’re figuring things out,” I supplied, coming to her rescue. “But we care about each other very much.”
This seemed to satisfy Nora. “Good,” she declared. “Because you make Mom smile. And you make the best pancakes.”
“High praise indeed,” I said, winking at Ella over Nora’s head.
The moment was interrupted by Mikhail’s arrival. He stood in the doorway, watching with an unreadable expression.
“Good morning,” he said formally. “I see you’re all up early.”
“Dad!” Nora called, waving him over. “Jake made chocolate chip pancakes. Want some?”
A flash of something—pain? envy? —crossed his face before he smiled. “Perhaps just coffee for now,” he said, moving to the pot.
I served up another plate of pancakes, deliberately keeping my movements casual, though tension had crept back into the room. “Declan mentioned you spoke with Interpol,” I said.
Mikhail nodded, leaning against the counter with his coffee. “They’ve arranged for agents to come here, given the weather conditions. The roads are still barely passable.”
“What will they want to know?” Ella asked, her hand finding Nora’s on the countertop.
“Everything,” Mikhail replied bluntly. “The kidnapping, the rescue, what happened at the compound.” His eyes met mine briefly. “All of it.”
I understood his meaning. We would need to coordinate our accounts, especially regarding the deaths at the compound. Nora didn’t need to know those details, nor did she need to witness her mother being interrogated by agents.
“Nora,” I said, turning to her with forced brightness, “after breakfast, would you like to see the horses? Declan has a stable with some beautiful animals.”
Her eyes lit up. “Really? Can I ride one?”
“If it’s okay with your mom,” I hedged, glancing at Ella.
She smiled gratefully, understanding what I was doing. “That sounds like a wonderful idea. Maybe Aunt Wren and Aunt Kat can show you around while the grown-ups talk boring stuff.”
Nora made a face. “Boring grown-up stuff is the worst.”
“Tell me about it,” I agreed solemnly, which made her giggle again.
After breakfast, Wren and Kat whisked Nora away to the stables, promising hot chocolate and pony rides. As soon as they were gone, theatmosphere in the kitchen shifted, the pretense of normality falling away.
“We need to get our stories straight,” Mikhail said without preamble. “About what happened in the study.”
Ella looked between us, her expression sharpening. “What exactly did happen? You’ve both been vague about the details.”
I exchanged a glance with Mikhail, a silent negotiation passing between us. He nodded slightly, yielding the floor to me.
“After you got Nora out,” I began carefully, “Alexei tried to reach the panic room. Mikhail stopped him. There was a struggle.” I paused, choosing my words. “Two of Alexei’s men came in. They were armed. They fired first.”
“And you defended yourselves,” Ella concluded, her voice neutral.
“Yes,” Mikhail confirmed. “It was... necessary.”
She absorbed this, her face giving nothing away. “And Alexei?”
