Page 78 of The Bratva’s Secret Heir

I sit on the bench. The house is out of sight, but Alexei remains in every thought I came here to escape.

I brush my fingers over the stitched letters and wonder what Cara thought as she sat here, knowing her brother had put her on the Blacklist to protect himself.

Cara hid Mikhail from Dmitri, just as I hid Misha from Alexei. The thought sends a shiver through me.

My thoughts shift to everything we left outside the estate gates. Marina should be at the hospital now, scolding a resident over missing blood work. My apartment should smell of Galina’s soup and the citrus cleaner she uses on the kitchen counter. Papa’s watch should still be inside its case. Every thought begins with should, and every answer ends here, behind guarded glass.

I press my palms between my knees. The flowers near my shoes are pale pink, their petals too soft for the stone and iron holding them. My mother loved winter flowers because they bloomed when everything sensible had gone to sleep. She used to bring home small pots and place them on the kitchen sill, then complain when my father watered them too much.

I remember their apartment before I remember my own burned one.

That feels like another theft.

A latch clicks behind me. I close my eyes. Heavy steps move along the tile, slow and stubborn.

Can’t I have ten minutes without him finding me?

The thought is childish, but anger comes easily now.

I count five breaths, then turn. Alexei stands between two orange trees with one hand inside his coat pocket. A dark sweater replaces his usual shirt, and the scar through his eyebrow catches the light beneath the greenhouse lamps.

“You shouldn’t be walking this far,” I tell him, folding my arms.

He glances toward the bench. “You shouldn’t be hiding in a glass building.”

“I wasn’t hiding.”

“You left the west wing without telling security where you were going.”

“I told Sergei.”

“You told him after you were already outside.”

I look toward the snow beyond the glass. “Then he was informed.”

Alexei comes closer and stops across from me. “Misha asked where you went.”

“He has Oksana, Lidiya, Anna, Sergei, three guards, and enough toy cars to supply Moscow.”