Page 37 of Ruthless Rustanovs

EVA hadn’t been able to sleep at all on the flights from Dallas to London and then to Milan.

As a result, she hadn’t slept in almost twenty-four hours.

She also hadn’t eaten anything and that had been a mistake, because by the time Alexei showed up the only things keeping her on her feet were adrenaline and fear.

Perhaps because of this, when he’d started throwing around threats and accusations like she knew he would back when she was actually considering telling him the truth, she rapidly moved past trying to reason with him to screaming at him before straight-up punching him.

At first it felt good to finally be able to hit back at him after keeping her real emotions under lock and key for weeks.

But then Aaron came out of nowhere and started throwing wild punches of his own at Alexei, and the world suddenly went into slow motion.

Luckily for Aaron, Alexei was so stunned by his son’s sudden appearance that he froze and didn’t respond to the attack in any way that might hurt Aaron.

“Aaron, no!” Eva pulled him away from Alexei and said. “Run back into the apartment. He can’t go in there. That’s the only place you’ll be safe.”

“No!” Aaron said with a stubborn shake of his head. “I can’t let him hurt you.”

“He’s not—” Flustered, she got down on her knees in front of him on the narrow stone sidewalk. “He’s not going to hurt me.”

“Then why did you yell at him and punch him?” Aaron asked, still breathing hard. “You never yell. Or hit.”

“Aaron, remember when we talked about how if something dangerous happened you’d have to listen to me and do everything I said, no questions asked?

” Eva held back her tears, not wanting to scare Aaron any more than she already had.

“This is one of those times. Now, please go back into the apartment building.”

Aaron’s response was to throw his arms around her neck. “No, Mama. I’m not leaving you.”

He began to cry which destroyed what was left of her frayed nerves and made her start to cry, too, because she couldn’t figure a way out of this.

Even if she managed to get Aaron back inside, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to keep him safe from Alexei or his uncle.

However, she knew if she didn’t run with Aaron, she’d have to give Alexei full custody.

If she didn’t, either he or his uncle would have her taken care of and give Aaron some bullshit story about how she’d met with a tragic accident.

So, she cried into her son’s soft curls because she didn’t know how to protect him or how to keep him with her.

And she was so tired and sick to death of being confused and scared all the time.

It felt like she was having a nervous breakdown.

And she couldn’t even begin to make herself stop crying, even for Aaron’s sake.

Suddenly, strong arms wrapped around them both and the next thing she knew, she and Aaron were pulled as a unit into Alexei’s lap. “Stop crying,” he whispered in that stern way of his. “Stop crying.”

God help her, his arms were like a blanket of comfort and just like his embrace had quelled her panic attack in the hotel suite, she immediately began to calm down, sniffling like a baby against his shoulder until she and Aaron both stopped crying.

As soon as they did, Steve came to stand above them, his mouth in a terse line. “Can we move this situation into the apartment now? All the neighbors are looking out their windows at us.”

Alexei still wasn’t quite sure what happened. One minute, he was determined to snatch Aaron away from his duplicitous witch of a mother. And the next, they were in his arms.

He’d seen Eva get angry. He’d seen her laugh uncontrollably.

But he had never seen her cry before. Especially not like this, with huge sobs that ripped through his heart.

He couldn’t take it, couldn’t stand to see both her and his son in pain, and the need to comfort them both overwhelmed any desire he had to punish Eva.

Then, somehow he ended up in the living room of Steven’s apartment, sitting in a wing-backed leather chair with a plate of homemade pasta in red sauce on his lap.

Across from him on a beige couch sat Eva who he couldn’t help but notice sported dark circles under her eyes and looked much more tired and withdrawn than the last time he’d seen her.

He suppressed his first instinct to worry about her and wondered if he’d ever be able to reconcile all the opposing feelings she dredged up in him: anger, pity, hate, love.

She had him flipping back and forth seemingly every other minute.

And at that moment, he wanted to both hurt and protect her.

“Here you go, Eva,” Maria said to her sister-in-law as she handed her a plate of homemade pasta.

The small African-Italian woman had a round moon-like face and a heavy accent that matched her overall nurturing demeanor.

But most telling about her personality was despite what had just happened outside, Maria’s first order of business was to set everyone up with plates of her fresh pasta, even after Steve explained he and Eva wouldn’t be joining them for lunch because they “need to talk.”

“Really, Maria, you didn’t have to do this,” Eva said.

“Yes, of course I must do this! You are very hungry after all the crying, no?” Apparently, Eva’s sister-in-law had been one of the people watching the scene unfold from the window.

But unlike Steve who had made his embarrassment clear, Maria patted Eva on the shoulder.

“I am Italiana. I have seen much worse. Do not listen to Steve. He is the one always insisting on feeling embarrassed. We Italianos? We are happy to make a show!”

Maria’s words were kind but did not in any way seem to alleviate Eva’s discomfort.

She changed the subject, leaning hard on her friendly Texas accent when she said, “Well, I’m just going to apologize for all of that and say I’m happy to finally have a plate of your homemade pasta.

Aaron’s been going on and on about it for weeks. ”

“If I had known he would be such big fan I would have made it for him all the time! I am glad you are here with us to taste it.”

At the mention of Aaron’s name, Alexei’s eyes drifted back to the gangly boy with the café au lait-skin standing in the doorway.

Even if Alexei hadn’t known of Aaron’s existence before meeting him, he would have known the boy was his son.

He had many of Eva’s features, but his green eyes and the way he carried himself was like interacting with a bi-racial version of Alexei at seven-years old.

Pride swelled in Alexei’s chest as he thought about how the boy came to his mother’s defense and refused to leave her even when she begged him to.

That alone told him everything he needed to know to love him.

“Are you my dad?” Aaron said as if reading his mind.

Eva froze, but Alexei looked his son in the eye and said, “Yes.”

Aaron took a few steps toward him, stopping at the edge of the red-and-gold Tuscan area rug. “And you were mad because Mama didn’t tell you about me?”

Alexei welcomed the hot rage that question rekindled. It reminded him why he was here and why he had no business feeling anything but disdain for Eva St. James. “Yes, that is true.”

“Maybe you weren’t old enough to hear the story,” Aaron said in a thoughtful voice. “It’s a long one.”

To his consternation, Alexei found himself fighting the urge to laugh. “Oh, is it?”

Aaron nodded somberly. “That’s what Mama told me. How old are you?”

“Old enough to hear the long story, I believe.”

Maria chose this moment to walk over to Aaron and guide him toward the door by the shoulders. “We will let your parents talk now, si?”

But Aaron didn’t go without one last question thrown over his shoulder, “You won’t hurt her, right?”

“No, I will not hurt her.” Not physically, at least, he thought to himself.

As soon as they were gone, Alexei set aside his plate and looked right at Eva.

“The only reason I am talking to you here as opposed to a room full of lawyers is because I have decided I do not want Aaron to grow up without a mother as I did.” He leaned forward in the chair.

“I will have my lawyers draw up papers to grant me full custody of him but provide you with an apartment below mine. If you sign these papers, you will be given occasional access to him at my discretion. If you do not, I will make sure you never see him again. This deal is only on the table for the next fifteen minutes so you will need to decide now.”

Her response was to set her plate down and quietly say, “Okay, you know what? I’m through with you and your threats and your blackmail. Just go ahead and kill me already.”

“What?”

“Take out your gun or send over your hit-man or give me some poisoned tea or whatever ya’ll do in your family when you want to get rid of somebody.

It’s obvious you only care about winning by stomping all over me so you can prove nobody can beat you.

So, I’m inviting you to either take your kill shot or stuff your custody agreement.

I’m not going to play your business games anymore and if you want to take my son away, you’re going to have to do it over my dead body. ”

“I am not trying to win or prove anything,” he said in anger, his Russian accent actually invading his speech.

And it was all he could do to keep his voice level so the others wouldn’t hear him in the dining room.

“You are one who lied. You are one who left with my baby inside you because I am not rich enough, and you are one who did not tell me about him even when I asked you who he is.”

“I didn’t tell you because I knew you would react exactly this way!

” she whisper-yelled back at him. “I knew you wouldn’t consider what was best for our son, only what was best for your ego.

You think he’s some pawn in this argument between you and me but he’s a little boy and he needs his mother!

The fact that you’re even talking about full custody tells me you still don’t get that he’s a human being, not some extension of Rustanov Enterprises. ”

He hated her at that moment. Hated her for keeping Aaron from him, and hated her even more for being right about his ego coming before his son. It was true, he wanted Aaron in his life and he wanted the boy to be happy, but he couldn’t stand the thought of Eva not suffering for what she’d done.

“Why?” he asked, still keeping his voice low, but coming to his feet.

“Why did you not tell me you were pregnant? I know I said I do not want children, but did you really think I would not have taken care of my responsibility? I would have dropped out of school and gotten a second job if that was what it took. I would have not turned away from you and my son. I thought you knew me better than that!”

She also stood, her movement stiff with anger. “I thought I knew you, too. But then I found out I didn’t know you at all.”

He shook his head, confused. “I do not understand your meaning.”

“My meaning is you keep asking me why I did this and why I didn’t do that, but you don’t hold yourself to the same standards.

” She paused, as if shoring up the courage to say what she said next, “Why didn’t you tell me back then you were supposed to be the next head of a Russian crime family and that you killed a man and only came to America to lay low? ”

He shook his head in confusion. “So, you read my Wikipedia page and now you think you can hold this against me? It will not hold up in a court of law. No judge will grant you full custody because of allegations of what I am only rumored to have done.”

She shook her head right back at him. “No, Alexei, I did not find out about it on your Wikipedia page—though trust me, that was an interesting bit of reading in itself. I discovered all of this back in grad school before you became famous and that’s why I left you.”

Alexei’s eyes narrowed. He had purposefully kept the truth from her back then, but now she claimed she had somehow found out. “No,” he said. “You are lying. You will do anything to get me to let you have Aaron to yourself. “

Her mouth fell open in offended shock. “Are you out your dingdang mind?! As much as I love being a mother, doing it by myself has been hard. Really hard! Even with a kid as great as Aaron. You know, my parents didn’t immediately take me back after what I pulled.

I was on my own for two years. And if you ever had to deal with back-to-back ear infections, explosive poop, and figuring out how to pay for full-time daycare, which you could barely afford on a social worker’s starting salary, you would never accuse me of trying to keep Aaron to myself.

Believe me, there were a lot of nights I had to stay up until the early morning hours with him crying because he was sick, and I’d start crying, too, because I was so tired and I needed someone to come in and relieve me.

But I couldn’t have that, could I, because you were his father. ”

Alexei pushed aside the guilt that sprang up when he thought of her crying while dealing with a sick baby by herself.

“You could have contacted me, even in Russia. You could have. Or better yet, you could have come to me as soon as your parents denied you. I would have forgiven you if I had known you were carrying my child.”

She looked at him, her face more angry and bitter than he had ever seen it.

“No, I couldn’t have. You want to know how I found out about all your interesting pre-college experiences in Russia?

Your uncle told me when he came to your apartment and threatened to kill me and make it look like an accident if I didn’t break-up with you! ”

Then she spat out, “When I found out you decided to break the news about our time in South Padre behind my back, I wasn’t just running away from you, I was trying to run away from your uncle, too.”