“My mother was afraid of him.” I can’t believe this. “All my life I thought she was overprotective. She was hiding us from him.” I swallow. “She was hiding me from him.”
What would have happened if she hadn’t run? Would I have ended up like Koda? Aiden? Stuck in a life of violence. Forced to serve a hateful man. What would have happened to Jane? Would she have been used as leverage like Katya?
“I’m sorry,” he says softly.
I know he is, and that... I don’t know. It’s breaking my heart even more. I don’t know what’s real or not. I don’t understand any of this. Is he really sorry, or is it just more lies. He could have told me, right? He could have let me in.
Instead, he kept it a secret. He lied to me.
To save his sister.
No. Our sister.
A door opens, distracting me from this spiral I’m falling down, and Kenji walks back in with Koda. I look at him. He looks a little uneasy.
There have been rumors here and there about Kenji Morozov. His family owns a nightclub a couple of hours from here. It’s all rumors, but the man in front of us is nothing but real and scary, despite how young he looks.
My eyes slide to Koda.
“I’m going to talk, and you two are going to listen.”
I try to focus, but all I can see is Ivan on the floor. Bleeding. He barely moved. He did that without a thought.
Now we may be next.
Aiden hugs Katya tighter. I want to be angry, but when I look at him, I just feel pity. He’s hugging her as if she’s going to float away from him. I’m still unclear what’s going on, but there’s one thing I know for sure and that’s Aiden will do anything to save his sister.
I think about Jane and the lengths I’d go to for her.
We’re so close in age, it never felt like she was older than me. I’d do anything to protect her. I have done everything to protect her.
It just really sucks that Aiden chose to lie to me.
“She’ll be fine,” he says to Aiden. “The drug should wear off soon.”
“I’m going to take her tonight. I’ll watch her here,” Koda says softly.
Kenji sits down at his desk then rests his hand on the elephant. “That’s my mother’s,” I say, and Kenji’s eyes harden on me.
“No. It was my mother’s.”
“What?” Aiden asks.
“Ivan used to work for us. He stole it.”
“How much is it worth?”
Kenji shrugs. “It’s priceless, and worthless. It was a present from my father the night they got married. Ivan stole it from my mother. I don’t even think he knew how much it meant to her. She’s gone now. When Koda came to me and told me what was going on and what Ivan was looking for, I knew I had to step in and take it back. I’ve looked for years.
“Fantastic, you have your weird-ass sculpture. Can we go?” Aiden snaps.
Kenji’s hard eyes land on Aiden who seems to shrink back. “It’s a safe, not a sculpture,” he says.
“That’s what Ivan said. It’s a safe.” I look at Aiden then pull my attention back to Kenji.
Kenji smirks. “Ivan didn’t want the elephant. He wants what’s inside. My mother used to tell him it was worth a lot of money. I think he found out it was worthless. He went to all the trouble to take it, if he returned it. My father would have gut him alive. So he probably kept it hidden. It’s a great hiding spot. Koda told me what he was really after.” Kenji presses something in the back before a mechanism whirls and the back pops open. He pulls a photo from inside. “This I think belongs to you.” He hands it over to me.
I take the photo in my hand, my fingers shake. It’s a photo of my mother on the lap of that hateful man, a baby in her arms. “That’s Jane.” I smile when I see my mother’s face. My eyes prick with heat. I blink fast. “That’s my mom.” I swallow.
