Vasquez, who was the other one involved in this shipment mess, came forward. “Where are you off to, Zahkarov? Weren’t you the one so gung-ho to capture the mole?”
“He’s your man and not one of ours. Kolya needs to get back in the game, and I have complete faith in him.”
My friend snorted.
“The shipment is being redirected. You’ll get your guns tonight,” I told Vasquez. “I expect payment in full.”
Without another word, I left the basement of horrors.
So now Iwas returning to my house with the bouquet. After I had time to think about it, I realized I was just being an asshole. I was rarely home anyway, so what did I care if there was aneyesore in the foyer? And the plant. Fine, it wasn’t as if I took care of the plants in the house. Sorcha could ask one of the staff to water it.
But when I arrived, it was to see a commercial truck and people moving things out of the house. One of them was the yellow painting, and I wondered if Lucy had decided to leave me. I checked my phone. Why weren’t there any messages from Sorcha or Sato? Didn’t they think I had the right to know if my wife was leaving me?
Did they think I deserved it?
I stared at the flowers on the passenger seat, and suddenly they seemed an inadequate gesture to make up for my heartless attitude yesterday. Was that how a husband was supposed to behave with no regard for his wife’s feelings?
A lump formed in my throat. An uncomfortable pressure radiated its way to my chest. Jaw clenching, I grabbed the flowers and exited the vehicle and hurried up the steps only to be met by my mother-in-law.
Fuck.
She and Lucy were standing in front of a new painting. Another abstract but with more muted colors and splashes of yellow.
When Lucy saw me, her eyes fell on the flowers and then her mouth twitched. It wasn’t a full-blown smile, but her eyes sparked with pleasure.
Encouraged that I was on the right track, I first gave Lucy a light peck on the lips and turned to Lottie.
“Kirill,” my mother-in-law exclaimed. “You’re home so early. We thought to surprise you.”
“Kolya is back and is taking some load off,” I said.
Once I’d tapped the right people for key positions, I could spend more time with Lucy. In the last years of his reign, Ivan rarely left the house.
Lucy cleared her throat and pointedly looked at the flowers I was still white-knuckling so hard, it was a feat I hadn’t mangled the stems.
I coughed a rough, brief chuckle. “I was an insensitive ass yesterday, and I’m sorry.”
“Aww.” Lottie clutched her chest in a swoon. I hadn’t intended to make my apology in front of witnesses. Heat climbed up my neck. I was embarrassed. It was a feeling I hadn’t associated with myself in a long time.
Lucy stirred unsettling new emotions and novel experiences inside me, and I was powerless to shut them down because the compulsion to explore them won over any misgivings I might have.
Lucy, probably realizing how much this whole scene was costing me, came to my rescue. She grabbed the flowers from me and clasped my hand to lead me away. “I’m putting this in water, Mamma. Be right back.” She squeezed my hand while staring up at me. “They’re beautiful. Thank you. And yes, you were insensitive yesterday. And I’m sorry too for making assumptions regarding redecorating?—”
“Stop right there. I told you to do it. But why is your mother here?”
She sighed. “I prided myself on knowing the right people for the job, and I didn’t think about my mother, who used to be an interior designer.”
I remembered glossing over that detail in her mother’s dossier. Carlotta Moretti had been featured in luxury home magazines.
Lucy asked for a vase from Sorcha. My stoic housekeeper was smiling from ear to ear, making me wonder if she derived any pleasure at all in running my household before. She seemed to be in a better mood nowadays.
“These are really pretty, Kirill. So colorful. I don’t know what half these blooms are. You need to tell me who the florist is.”
“And give up my secret weapon?” I drawled. It was Margo, of course. The flower shop was part of her Marriage Ink business, but apparently she also dabbled in husband groveling.
“I came home to tell you, you can keep that yellow monstrosity.”
Lucy laughed, and my chest expanded.
