Page 26 of Capture (Primal #3)

“Yes, nineteen,” I encouraged her to continue whatever thought path she was on.

“I was hoping it would never come to this, but it’s all about the girl,” she sighed, saying something that I least expected.

“What girl?” I asked, mystified.

“The girl Lars found in the dingy apartment alone, with soiled diapers. She never cried, you know, and we thought she was brain damaged from the lack of nutrients and affection, but no, she just wasn’t a crier,” she explained.

The story was all too familiar, and a chill slid down my spine, causing the hair on my forearms to stand up on end. “Girl? Are we talking about Annika?”

She sighed again. “Yes. We discovered her as a baby and took her away, fed her, and changed her diapers. We had her at the house for two days, until the mother came crawling back. Well, it wasn’t the mother; it was the father. Her father, Poppa, Serg Popov.”

I didn’t see this coming. Every other piece of information that we’ve been given by our hired PI or what Sergeant Tindale told us has been astonishing. Maybe that’s the Kaiser in me. I was raised to consider all solutions and scenarios before acting on them—this scenario I hadn’t imagined.

“Ha,” she grunted half-heartedly. “Now you’re the quiet one. It seems I have stunned you, this time.”

I took a moment to digest the information, trying to make sense of it.

Everything seemed to be linked. “I knew Lars,” I started slowly as my head spun.

“He discovered her as a baby, abandoned in her cot, but then you gave the baby back, until she was a few years old, which was when you fostered her? Is that correct?”

“Yes, we put the mother into better accommodation, paid for by us, bought clothes, and baby formula. Whatever she needed, we didn’t hesitate to provide for them. But her habit had a stronghold on her, and there were people who she considered friends or allies who wanted her back in the game.”

She trailed off, and I could hear tapping like she was tapping her finger on a table, irritably. Stepping back into the past did that to the best of people.

She cleared her throat and continued, “We organized a drug rehab twice, and she would come out clean and then go back to the people who treated her poorly. I genuinely believe she tried to turn her life around, but as I said, the chokehold that drugs and the drug pushers had on her seemed impenetrable. We even considered moving her out of the state, but then we’d have less control over her. ”

“So, was Popov one of the ones who was pushing her back onto the game?” The pieces of the puzzle were falling into place, and I knew the answer before she said it.

“Yes.”

“So, you organized his death?”

“Yes. For not giving a damn about his daughter, for pushing drugs onto a vulnerable mother, and for being just a vile human being in general. He then used the girl to bribe for money.” She made a sound as if disgusted.

“A heinous, filthy human, and she, his wife, had no idea what he was really like. No damn idea whatsoever. I doubt she even knew that Annika was her husband’s child.

They didn’t have children of their own, you know. ”

My stomach turned as it seemed far too coincidental that Judith would coax Annika to risk her by coming to work at our club, under our noses, when she knew we’d hurt her if we found out.

“I’m going to bet that Judith the cop found out somewhere down the line that Annika had her husband’s blood running through her veins. It may not have been initially, but I reckon she found out eventually,” I argued.

We both fell quiet again, thinking it over, as my heart went out to the girl I had locked in the room in the club.

How could I possibly hold a grudge against her after everything she had been through?

It was no surprise that she had systemic trust issues with adults, since the adults who were supposed to care for her abandoned her many times in favor of a vice.

“Do you think it was her?” she suggested, speaking in a cryptic language.

“What do you mean?” I questioned, unsure if “her” meant Annika, Judith, or Queen of Sheba.

“That ordered a hit on Lars. Do you think it was this Judith woman?” she clarified.

“She had a motive,” I rationalized. Then I thought of something our most trusted bartender said once about Lars receiving a distressing phone call, and I suspected someone was trying to threaten or blackmail him.

“Unfortunately, she is the only one who could fill in the gaps since Lars’ phone was allegedly broken in police custody. ”

“ Allegedly . Sure it is,” she grunted sarcastically.

“Sylvie, there’s something else I need to tell you, but I don’t want you to freak out and overreact,” I began, deciding that it was appropriate to be upfront and honest about one secret.

“There’s more. Jee, you have been busy. Okay, let me have it. What else are you going to surprise me with?” she mocked, sounding in better spirits after our heavy conversation.

“Annika,” I exhaled to consider an easy way to let her down.

“Yes? Oh, don’t tell me. You know where she is?” Sylvie predicted.

“Yes. I know exactly where she is.” Heat warmed my cheeks as I thought of her. “We’ve been keeping her in hiding until all of this had blown over.”

She made a slight choking noise, then quickly composed herself. “You’re protecting her? Gosh, prison has changed you.”

I wanted to say that it wasn’t prison that changed me. It was Annika, and being back at the club, where I enjoyed the thrill of the business.

“How is Gunner managing having his foster sister, who broke his heart, nearby?” Of course, the mother had to put her son's feelings above those of anyone else.

I chuckled. “He’s doing fine. In fact, he’s enjoying having his friend back.” I was about to say, ‘girlfriend’, but caught myself before it came out. “Friend. They went to the same college together. They’ve become good friends again.”

“Huh,” she wavered again, and I assumed that it stung to be told this in one foul sweep.

“She had a tough early start to life, and even though I try not to think about it, it was horrifying what that baby was put through. After watching her mother struggle for years, we took little Annika into our hearts. It might take some time for me to forgive her after what she did to you and Gunner.”

I was about to add that I was well on the way to forgiving her, and I was pretty confident Gunner and Ronan had too, but Sylvie took the words out of my mouth.

“So, I only hope that she learned from her mistakes. That’s all we can ask, considering that she was likely coming from a place of pain and abandonment,” she said as her voice cracked under the weight of emotion.

“Well, well, well, you’ve made a turnaround. At the beginning of this conversation, you were willing to have her hunted down and-”

She cut in, “This conversation brought back the horrifying memories of the girl abandoned in the cot, and perhaps I shouldn’t be so angry when perhaps she didn’t know better.

But you see… one of the reasons I was angry was that I thought we had failed her.

That all the love we'd instilled in her, her parents’ genes were too strong, and she’d fall onto the same path as her mother.

But you say she is at college? What is she studying? ”

“Marine Biology,” I replied.

“Is she happy and healthy and smart?” she stuttered as she spoke as if struggling to ask for fear of the answer.

“Yes, she’s real smart and gets mostly A’s, looks healthy and seems happy…” I swallowed as my entire body was singing, thinking of her. “She’s also beautiful, a beautiful person. Just so you know, Sylvie, you did well. With her, I mean, you raised her well.”

Her voice broke down the line, and I knew she was crying, but trying to disguise it. “Good,” she sniffed. “Oh gosh, I must have allergies.”