“What.. . I’m not... What the fuck?” He keeps looking at his burning tables. Smoke starts to seep into the rest of the room. It needs to be put out before it spreads.
His wife?
“What are you talking about?” I snap.
“You think you’re so fucking smart. Why haven’t you put it together?”
“I named her Irina, and she went and changed it to Jane.” Ivan shakes his head. “Sawyer? She had such an obsession with old literature.Jane Eyre. Tom Sawyer.”Ivan laughs. It makes me sick. “So predictable.” Sawyer opens his mouth, but Ivan cuts him off. My brain is already turning the wheels, and I don’t like where it’s steering me. “She kept you from your true potential.” He looks around. “Now you bake cookies for a living.” He scoffs. “Fucking pathetic.”
“He doesn’t just bake cookies,” I growl.
Ivan’s brows pop in surprise. “You are one dumb fuck, Aiden.”
“What the hell is going on?” Sawyer takes a healthy step away from me. I still can’t meet his eyes. Ivan’s leer is on Sawyer and I already know what he’s going to say, but I can’t believe it either way.
“You’re my son.” My limbs go numb. My chest grows tight. “I didn’t even know you existed until Aiden told me about you.” He laughs. “Your mother. Always a firecracker.”
“Aiden—”
“I don’t. Koda, he—” I shake my head. “This doesn’t make sense.”
“Aiden, what the fuck is he talking about?”
I can’t look at him. “I don’t... I don’t know. I didn’t know that. I’m sorry, I tried. I tried to... I tried.”
“Where is it?” Ivan snaps me out of my thoughts. It’s like my brain is soaked and drowning. I can’t think straight. Everything’s rushing.
“I told you, I don’t know!” I’m not sure why he wants it, but if Ivan wants something, it’s never a good thing.
Ivan turns to Tagar. “Bring her in.” Tagar slides an uneasy look toward me before he turns out of the bakery only to return with my sister in his arms, asleep. Ivan doesn’t look at them. His hard eyes are piercing into me. He reaches into his back pocket without looking at her and points a gun to her head.
“No!” I scream.
“Shh,” Ivan smirks. “Don’t want to wake her now, do we? Although with the amount of drugs in her system, she’ll probably sleep through her brains being splattered all over the bakery floor. Now. Where is it?”
I’m shaking so violently I’m going to be sick.
I look at Sawyer, equally as afraid as I am.
“Aiden, what is he talking about?”
I pull my eyes away from him. It hurts too much to look at him. “I’m so sorry,” I say to him, then I look at Ivan. “It’s upstairs. On the counter in the kitchen.”
“What?” I can’t look at him. “What are you talking about?” Dominic ignores him, going toward the back and up the stairs. I hear his boots thud as he walks up.
“You know, this could have been easy.” Ivan cocks his gun and I watch Tagar flinch slightly, hugging Katya a bit tighter. There’s something in his eyes that passes between us. “I could have had that statue and been on my way, Aiden, but you destroy everything and everyone you can.” Ivan walks a bit closer.
“What’s happening?” Sawyer whispers.
Dominic returns downstairs with the statue, handing it to Ivan.
“That’s my mother’s!”
“Correction. It’s mine. Your mother stole it when she stole you from me.” He smirks. “Now that one of my possessions is back I’ll also be taking the other.” He nods at Dom who walks over to Sawyer and grabs him. Sawyer thrashes. My heart rate spikes.
“Leave him alone! He had no idea what was going on! Take me. Kill me, I don’t fucking care. Just leave him alone!” I scream.
Ivan shakes his head. “You had your chance, Aiden, and you failed. If I find you anywhere near my property, or Katya, or him, I will gut them both and paint that shitty fucking car of yours with their blood.” He looks at Dom and Tagar and nods toward the door, leaving me stunned. Sawyer looks back as he’s wrenched forward, and I’ll never forget the hatred he has in his eyes for me.
