Page 177 of Nine Months to Love

“She already knows who I am.”

“Does she? Or does she only know the version you’ve shown her?” When I don’t answer, Natalia laughs. “That’s what I thought. Goodbye, Stefan. Think about my offer. You have one week.”

The line goes dead.

I stare at the phone in Iakov’s hand. He tucks it away and meets my gaze. “Well?” he says. “What are you going to do?”

I walk around the desk and stop in front of him. “Why are you doing this?” I ask instead of answering his question. “You’re handling her dirty work, playing errand boy. Is it because she promised you the Bratva?”

He shakes his head. “I have no interest in your Bratva.”

“Then why?”

He looks at me for a long, contemplative moment. Then he says, “Because I owe her my life.”

I blink. “What?”

“After you exiled my father, he was going to kill himself. He had the gun in his hand. The barrel in his mouth. That’s how Natalia found him,” Iakov says. “She talked him down and got him help. She’s the only reason he lived as long as he did.”

“He still killed himself.”

“Yes. But she gave him five more years that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. So when she came to me and asked for my help, I couldn’t say no.”

I’m looking for the lie. But I don’t see one.

He really believes this.

“She’s using you,” I warn him.

“Maybe. But I’m using her, too. We all use each other, Stefan. That’s how the world works.”

“Not my world.”

He smiles. It’s sad. “If you really believe that, then you’re lying to yourself.”

He turns and walks toward the door. Taras steps aside to let him pass.

“Iakov,” I bark. He stops and looks back. “If you come after me or my family again, I won’t hesitate. I’ll kill you. And I’ll make sure Arielle knows exactly why.”

He merely nods, neither surprised nor concerned. “Noted.”

Then he’s gone.

Taras closes the door and turns to me. “What the fuck just happened?”

“My mother happened.”

“She’s alive.”

“Yes.”

“And she wants the Bratva. Are you going to give it to her?”

I walk back to my desk and sit down. My hands are shaking. I press them flat against the wood to steady them. “No.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know yet.”