The kids follow me inside, and Alexei strides in behind me, shooting a look to the guards on the door. I feel a twist of guilt, knowing that I’ve managed to land them in trouble too, but I hardly have time to linger on that before Alexei rounds on me once more. As soon as the kids are out of sight, back down to their quarters, his eyes narrow.
“You lied to the guards about what I said to you.”
“I didn’t know it was that serious,” I protest. “It’s been two weeks since all of that happened, I?—”
“Which means they’re even more likely to strike now than they were before,” he snarls. “And if they did, if they go after Max…” His voice cracks slightly and he drags his gaze away from mine, his jaw tense.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I–I’m going to go back to my quarters now. We won’t come out again. Not unless you tell us it’s okay...”
And that, for the time being, at least, seems to be enough to satisfy him. He lets out a grunt, indicating that I’m dismissed. I turn and rush off down the corridor before he can change his mind again. I don’t want to risk finding out what happens if he gets even angrier with me, or if he decides that I might be working against him again.
I need to do something to fix this.
I pause outside the door before I go in to check on the children. I don’t want them to see me scared, especially not after they saw their dad talking to me. No matter what kind of man he might be outside of his work, I can see that there is another side to him, a softer side to him, that comes out when he is around Max, and I want nothing more than for Nina to be able to experience it, too.
Drawing in a deep breath, I warm my face with a smile and step inside. “So, who wants something to eat?”
I continue to smile as they come hurrying to meet me, and I lean down to give Nina a hug, squeezing her closer and tighter than I feel like I ever have before. And, as I hold her there, I send up a small prayer to whoever might be listening—that I haven’t just managed to put my daughter in more danger than I can protect her from.
14
ALEXEI
I hearthe floorboards creaking before she arrives at the door, my head snapping up from the computer at once. I’ve been reviewing footage of the night of the fire, trying to identify who exactly it was who set the damn blaze in the first place, but, so far, I’ve come up with a stone-cold nothing.
And then, there she is, Cara. Standing in the doorway just like she did on the night this fire happened, when she came to check on me. Only this time, she is not wearing the drawn expression of a woman who doesn’t know what to expect, nor is she in her long tee. No, she has a smile on her face, and is wearing a light dress that falls down to just below her knees.
“Hi.”
“Hey,” I reply, leaning back from the desk. The sight of her, no matter how angry I might have been at her yesterday, salves something in me I didn’t even know I needed to pay attention to. Her sweet expression, the way she cocks her head to the side as though she is apologizing for interrupting me like this.
“I... I was wondering if you wanted to join us for dinner,” she offers, and I raise my eyebrows. I hardly keep track of the days passing at the best of times, and now she’s here, talking about dinner?
“Join you?”
“Yeah, me, Max, and Nina,” she explains. “I figured that you would be pretty busy, but I thought it might be... nice for you to have a little time with your kids.”
She seems certain, her mind already made up. At least she is not trying to take them outside, I suppose I should be grateful for that at least, though I’m struggling to find it in me. When Olev came to my office to tell me that she had taken the children outside, after insisting to them that I had given her permission to do just that, I should have chewed her out on the spot, but I could tell she was only trying to help. I had told her I wanted all of her focus on those kids, and I could hardly say that she had failed me in that matter, could I?
But now, I’m distinctly aware of the possibility that someone might have seen them. That someone might have had the chance to lay eyes on them when she took them out of the house. Given how closely the warehouse had been surveilled, there was a good chance that they had decided to go after my home base, too, and that would put my son and daughter at the epicenter of it. I’ve heard nothing about it, no threats coming my way since the incident, so I’ve to hope that the guards have done a good enough job scaring people away and keeping them from getting involved in anything they can’t handle.
But I won’t be sure for a long time, if ever, and that bothers me.
“Max has been asking about you,” she explains. “I think he really wants to spend some time with you. He and Nina have become such good friends, and it would be really nice if you could get to know her better...”
She raises her eyebrows at me hopefully, and I sigh, closing the laptop.
“Alright, I’ll do it,” I reply. “When?”
“About half an hour,” she replies, grinning. “I got Marsha to help me make a curry today, so it’s not a total mess.”
“Glad to hear it,” I chuckle. “Give me some time to wash up and I’ll be down there soon, alright?”
“Great,” she replies, her smile widening before she heads off down the corridor. I watch her for a second before I make my way to my room, wondering if I can really risk taking the time away from work like this. But, shit, I’ve been up to my ears in it for days now, and nothing more has come out. Maybe it would do me good to clear my head and spend some time with my family instead of getting myself caught up in everything that was going on outside the walls of this mansion.
I take a quicker shower and change into a t-shirt and jeans, striding past the guards and checking to see that everyone is on their appointed spot on the door. They take the safety of this place with deadly seriousness, likely because they know what I’ll do to anyone I’ve reason to doubt.
But I push that aside as I key in the code and step through the door, the corridor already lit up with the sound of laughter and something sizzling in the kitchen. A delicious scent floats down the hall, and I follow it to the kitchen, where Cara, Nina, and Max are dishing up curry on to plates.
