Page 15 of Kidnapped By the Boss

Chapter Five: Vincent

Despite the fact that Katya and I agreed to stay in contact while she was out, I hadn’t heard from her once, and it was making me very nervous. I trusted her, more than anyone in my entire life, and I certainly believed in her ability to do her work, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t fear for her as her husband when she was out in the field. I knew when I asked Katya to be one of my caporegimes as opposed to just coming and living with me as my girlfriend, that I’d have to actually give her missions and expect her to contribute to my empire the same way I would anyone else. In fact, it was a huge, positive shift in our relationship that I’d done that, because she was fresh off having her father completely disregard the way she could benefit an organization for her entire life.

When Katya and I first met, one of the things that attracted us to one another was the fact that she wasn’t just a passive person. She took action—and I respected that and allowed her the space to exercise that action. Katya wasn’t just some damsel in distress, she took control of her life, and that was something that I knew she wanted to continue when she came back to NYC with me. Not only that, but I needed to surround myself with people that I trusted after what had happened with my father and my former advisor, and I trusted Katya with my life.

It only made sense for both of us that I would include her in my hierarchy, but itdidmean that I had to work extra hard to separate our lives as a family and our lives as business partners.

Still, Katya and I hadn’t known each other that long in the grand scheme of things, and there was still a lot I had to learn about her. One of those things was what the threshold was between Katya's lack of communication because she was just so into her work that she wasn’t thinking about it, and because she was in trouble and I needed to be worried.

I didn’t know how long I should wait before I sent out the cavalry, but because I didn’t want to undermine her, I decided it was best to give her some time. In order to soothe my mind, I went into Sascha’s room and dismissed his nanny early. He was asleep in her arms when I walked in, so she handed him over to me and I took him and sat down in the rocking chair.

“He’s been fed, bathed, and fell asleep actually about an hour ago, but he was just too cute that I couldn’t put him down,” Kari, Sascha’s nanny, explained.

Kari was a carefully vetted andhighlypaid nanny. We interviewed over a hundred people looking for the perfect person who we could trust not to put him in any sort of danger or turn on our family. I could admit that part of what I looked for was someone who had more to lose than they had to gain. Kari, specifically, took care of her sick mother and her younger brother. On top of her impressive pay, Katya and I bought her family a lovely home and covered most of her living costs and her mother’s medical expenses.

Needless to say, if she ever chose to do something that caused us any sort of strife, it would be very, very bad for her.

However, after just having Kari around for a couple of weeks, Katya and I knew that we didn’t have anything to worry about with her. She was appreciative of all of the benefits we’d offered her in exchange for the job and she very quickly fell in love with our son—and who wouldn’t, he was perfect. She took her jobveryseriously, and wasn’t a pushover in the slightest, so we knew that Sascha was in safe hands when he was with her.

“Thank you, Kari. Have a nice night.”

She gave me a kind smile. “Thanks. You too.” Then she left.

Once she was gone, I looked down at my son and smiled. He looked so much like his mother, although he also had some features that reminded me of my late mother and myNona. It was crazy to think that at one point in my life I truly believed that I would never be a husbandora father, and now these two people were easily the most important people in my life. My son meant the entire world to me. He was so small and still just starting out on his life, and yet I still felt like I had to put all of my effort into making each new day the best day of his life.

“What do you think, Sascha, should I be concerned about your mama just yet?” I asked him quietly. He was sleeping, so the only real response I got were some adorable coos as he continued snoozing away. It gave me a sense of calm though, almost as if he was trying to let me know that I needed to just relax. “You’re right. Your mother is strong and wonderful. I know that she knows how to take care of herself. She’s okay, I’m sure.”

Looking at Sascha, it made me wonder how my father could ever develop the disdain for me that he did before his death. How did he ever look down at a sweet, innocent life, know that he created it, and want the worst possible outcome for that child? If I were a man of lesser confidence, it would make me question myself or if I’d done something wrong to make him love me less.

What I knew, though, was that my father was just a painfully sad man. I’d never known a more close-minded person, and he refused to accept that the world was changing around him. He wanted me to ascribe to his old-world practices and keep doing things the way they’d been done for centuries, even though those techniques weren’t viable anymore. Tia, my old advisor and a true opportunist, knew how to take advantage of my father’s ego, and in the end, that killed them both.

I couldn’twaitto see what my son had to teach me.

He was going to enter a world as a kid, a teenager, and a young adult that wasvastlydifferent from the one I had experienced growing up. He was going to be able to show me all sorts of new things that I would no doubt be taking for granted as an adult, and I was excited to learn from him as opposed to the other way around.

I would teach him as well, of course. I had an entire empire to show him, and teach him how to run, but unlikemyfather, my son would have a choice whether or not he joined it. If he wanted to take over one day, then I would start him low and make him earn his way up to the top. He’d have to learn how we did things around here, but if he had new ideas to bring to the table, I wouldn’t shy away from them. Those kinds of things were what was going to help the Costello family continue to grow and increase our sphere of influence.

He was the legacy that meant the most to me now. My business wasn’t even aclosesecond.

“You know, your mother does mean the world to me. I had no idea when I met her that I was going to fall in love with her the way that I did, but now I would do anything for her. Even if I know that she can take care of herself, it doesn’t stop me from worrying. My father used to teach me that loving people was a weakness, but I know now that isn’t true. I hope that you love people, Sascha. I have a best friend, your godfather Mario, and if you ever tell him this we’ll have a problem, but Idolove him. I have no idea what I’d do without him. And your great-Nona, she’s so precious to me and you are so precious to her. She remembers very little these days, but she remembers you. I hope you get to meet her when you’ll be able to remember, but I’ll make sure you know who she is anyway. You’ll love her too. And of course, I hope you meet someone who you love as much as I love your mother. As much as Mario and Devrick love each other. As much as your Uncle Maks and Aunt Chloe love each other. It’s one of life’s greatest joys. I promise you that.”

Finally, my voice started to stir Sascha a little bit, and I didn’t want him to wake up, so I just gave him a kiss on the forehead and continued to rock him back and forth so that he wouldn’t wake up. I could probably go on for hours and hours about all the things that I hoped for my son, but really, I just hoped that he never hurt a day in his life. I knew that wasn’t realistic, but that was what I wanted, and I would do everything in my power to give him that life.

As the night carried on, I started to get more and more concerned that something had happened to Katya. She’d already been gone a few hours before I lost my patience and came up to sit with Sascha and it had been an additional hour and a half since then. I wanted to continue showing faith in her—that she was safe and just laying low—but this was slowly leaving the length of time that would make me concerned about my wife and entering the length of time I’d be concerned aboutanyoneunder my ranks. When Mario went to Russia on my behalf, this was about how long I hadn’t heard from him before I really started to worry.

Maybe Katyawasin trouble and I needed to send some people out to look for her.

Carefully so that I didn’t wake Sascha, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called Mario.

“Hey boss,” Mario said. “It’s late. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” I said quietly. “Or I think so. Katya went out per what we discussed to try and unearth The Wreckers, and she hasn’t kept in touch with me at all. I expected that she would be home by now or at least have contacted me.”

“Why are you talking so quietly?” he asked.

“I’m with Sascha,” I replied. “I may need you to go out and—” Before I could get the rest of the sentence out, Katya came walking into Sascha’s room. “Oh,” I let out a breath. “Never mind, she just walked in.”

“Oh, excellent,” he said. “How’d she do?”