Page 61 of Kidnapped By the Boss

“Oh, you made it back,” she said. “See, Katya, I told you everything would be fine.”

Katya snickered a little and smiled. “You were right, Mama.”

I walked over to Annika and reached my arms out and she immediately handed him over to me. I cradled him in my arms and gave him a kiss on the forehead. “Hey there, small one.”

“I’ll leave you all to it,” Annika said, standing up out of the chair. She gave me a kiss on the cheek and hugged Katya and gave her a kiss as well, then left Sascha’s room and closed the door.

The chair wasn’t big enough for me to snuggle my entire family the way I wanted to, so I sat down on the floor and motioned for Katya to join me. There was a particularly plush carpet on the floor, so not long after we sat down on the floor, I laid back and rested Sascha on my chest, and then opened my arm so that Katya could lay down next to me and lead her head on my chest as well. She stuck out one of her slender fingers to gently rub Sascha’s cheek.

“Oh man,” Katya said. “When I thought that Antonio could get in here and somehow hurt my son, that was the only thing I could focus on. I didn’t care if I was hurting, I didn’t care if it was dangerous, I was going to protect my son. That was all that mattered to me.”

“I need you to know, Katya. It isn’t like I didn’t believe that you wouldn’t be a good capo or a good mom, but after seeing you today, I know for sure that you’ve got what it takes to be incredible at both. Whatever you want to do, I’ll support that, and we’ll figure it out so that it doesn’t affect our business or our family.” I kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry for not thinking before I did and said the things I did and said.”

“No, we were both unclear with one another,” Katya said. “We just need to make sure we’re trying at it a little harder. I love you and our family way too much to not put in every effort we have to make this work.”

“I agree. We both need to do better. I know one thing for sure. I love you and I will do whatever it takes for our marriage to succeed.”

She snuggled against me more, set her hand on Sascha’s back, and a few seconds later, I heard her quietly snoring. There was a blanket hanging on the rocking chair, so I used a foot to guide it over to us, then I unfolded it and laid it over us. We were going to be sleeping on the floor in Sascha’s room tonight, and that was fine with me. Anyplace my family was, was my home.

As I held them close to me and thanked whatever god might be listening that this nightmare was over, I made a promise to myself to never let anything come that close to hurting my family ever again. If Katya chose to remain my capo, then I’d find a way to support her while also finding a way to protect her. She was the single most important thing in my entire life, and this didn’t just come dangerously close to ending our relationship; it came dangerously close to ending her life. I almost didn’t have my wife anymore. Sascha almost didn’t have his mother, and all because of my negligence as both a boss and as a husband.

Tomorrow morning, I’d have to face all of this. The bulk of the problem might be over, but I still had the aftermath. I still had one of The Wreckers locked up in my containment unit, we dumped fifty or sixty bodies today between both conflicts, and I still didn’t know if there was anyone still hanging around out there with a vendetta that was going to come and try to finish what Antonio started. This wasn’t totally beyond us, but at least that lunatic that felt entitled to Katya for whatever reason he did was gone.

The last thought that lingered on my brain as I closed my eyes and started to drift off to sleep was how no one would ever have Katya but me, and no one would ever have me but her. This was something that I wanted to make sure lasted until I took my last breath, and I wouldmake suremy family was safe and happy until that day.