Page 61 of The Pakhan's Secret Baby

"I told you I would keep my promise and I did," he says. "He's alive and nobody has touched him since this afternoon." Well that's a lie. I saw the blood.

"Where is he?" I ask, wanting more information. If no one touched him since this afternoon then where did they put him? Why was he bleeding?

"He's in the house. He's safe."

"I want to see him." My mind is spinning, pulling threads together on how to get out of this hell I'm currently living. Rashid isn't going to keep me here permanently no matter what I agreed to.

"I know you do."

I growl in frustration and pound his arm again, but he doesn't loosen his grip. He is heartless. Can’t he see this is affecting me?

"Why are you doing all of this?" I ask him. "You could've taken Lex and sent me away. You could have killed my father and never thought about either of us again. Why are you keeping us here?"

A few seconds pass before he answers. "Because family is all I have," he says quietly. There's no edge to his tone this time. "There isn't anything in this world I wouldn't do for my blood. Ilearned that from my father and his father before him. Whatever else you think of me, Emory, that part you can believe."

His words make my whole body relax a notch as I think about what he's saying. He's not good at reassurances or comfort, but it feels like he's trying. He's saying he'd never hurt Lex. But I'm not his blood and neither is Batya.

"You didn't even know Lex existed two weeks ago," I say blankly. How can a man go from not even knowing about someone to suddenly doing anything in the world for them?

"But now I do," he says. "And nothing will change that. He's my son and he'll be raised as my son. I won't apologize for taking what belongs to me."

I lie with that for a moment, still fearing the worst. I'm Lex's blood, and Rashid has given me this promise to keep me around, but I don't trust it, or when he says he won't hurt my father.

"And my father?" I ask.

"I want to sleep, woman. I have work to do tomorrow." Rashid sounds grumpy, but not in the "angry criminal" way. He just sounds like a tired man, annoyed by a woman with too many questions.

"Promise me you won't hurt Batya again." My bottom lip quivers as I ask him, and he sighs hard.

"I promise—if you just let me sleep now." His grip loosens a little as he fluffs his pillow and lies back down.

"And I can see him?" I'm not trying to push his buttons, but I need reassurance.

"Yes, just shut up and let me sleep." I feel him settle in and pull me closer, but it doesn’t feel like restraint this time. It feels like he's holding me, protecting me even.

I close my mouth and let some of the tension out of my body. Maybe I've gotten him wrong a little. Right now he doesn’t seem like the monster who's caged me. He seems like he genuinely just wants to make me happy, so I'll relax a little.

And I find sleep tugging at my eyes now too, as if I'll finally be able to rest instead of jolting awake to nightmares.

I close my eyes and sigh, thinking about what I'll say to Batya when I see him. He doesn't know Lex is Rashid's son, unless Rashid told him. And when he finds out he may never want anything to do with me, or maybe he won't care and he will want to plan an escape for both of us.

But that's a tomorrow problem, because it's obvious I’m not leaving tonight.

20

RASHID

It's been a long day, and after the stunt Emory pulled last night and having to keep Rostov quiet in the basement this afternoon, I know it's time to return and get information out of him. Devid walks down the stairs ahead of me, pulling the door open as I adjust my cuffs and step into the room.

Oleg is sitting on the edge of the cot, hunched forward with his elbows on his knees.

He flinches when the door opens and looks up at me with hollow eyes that haven't seen sleep in days.

The bruise on his cheek has gone a deep purple overnight and his lip is still swollen from where the guys knocked him around.

I pull a chair across from the cot and sit down, taking my time crossing one leg over the other while Devid shuts the door and leans against the wall behind me. Oleg finally raises his head and looks at me, and he looks like death warmed over.

"You look terrible," I tell him.