Page 38 of Ruthless Rustanovs

EVA must have been more wrecked by her cross-Atlantic trip than she thought, because she actually felt sorry for Alexei. He reacted as if she’d physically hit him again when she dropped the bomb about his uncle.

For what had to be at least a minute he said nothing, as if his brain had locked him in place while it tried to process what she’d told him. But then he took a step toward her and said, “You are saying my uncle came to our apartment and threatened to kill you if you did not leave me?”

“Yes,” she answered, realizing how unbelievable her story must sound to him.

“He said you were supposed to be the head of the family, not him, but you wanted to stay in America with me and he wanted you to come back. He also said a bunch of stuff about him not wanting you to marry a black girl, or even an American, but I’m pretty sure it was mostly because I was black. ”

“He did not know about you. I kept this from him.” Alexei said. “I only told him I did not want to return to Russia.”

“Well, he figured it out somehow because he was real clear about the fact that he would kill me if I didn’t leave that night. He even sent someone over to clean out my stuff and had it delivered to Layla’s apartment, though I never told anyone I was staying there.”

“So that is where you were hiding from me when I was trying to find you,” he said dully. “With Layla.”

“Yeah, I knew I had to go to someone you didn’t know then and she’s still the only person I’ve ever met who would take in a girl she’d met one time in a CPR seminar.

” She lowered her eyes, suddenly nervous about making a full confession about what she did and how she did it eight years later.

“Funny story, that’s actually how Aaron got his name.

Her middle name is Erin, so I named him after her—”

“Eva,” he said, cutting off her ramble, his voice harsh with anger. “You are telling me you did not leave me that night because I was poor or because you were pregnant, but because my uncle threatened you. This is what you are telling me.”

“Yes, that’s what I’m telling you. I didn’t even find out I was pregnant until, like, a month later and by then, I was way too scared of what your uncle might do to me if I told you.”

He blinked, his face becoming a cold mask, and when his eyes met hers Eva saw the other Alexei, the one she’d been told about.

In that moment, he wasn’t the passionate, intelligent, caring, and sexy Russian she’d thought he was when they first started dating.

Instead, he was the cold-blooded killer his uncle had described him as in their tiny little apartment.

“Stay here,” he said.

“What?”

“Stay here,” he repeated. He grabbed her by the wrist. “Look at me. If you try to run I will hunt you down. Do not make me do that. Your original plan was a bad one because there is nowhere you can hide from me.”

A chill ran down her back. It felt like she was talking to a total stranger. No, that wasn’t it. It felt like she was talking to Alexei’s uncle again. She shrank from him. “Let go of me.”

He did but not before saying, “stay here,” this time so viciously his words cut through the air like a knife.

Then he strode out of the room and out of the apartment, because Maria appeared just a few moments later and said, “Why does he not eat the pasta?” Then her eyes went to Eva’s full plate. “And you do not eat either?”

She looked positively crushed by their rejection of her food, but Eva was too confused to form a coherent answer.

What just happened? Over the past few weeks, Eva had spent an obscene amount of time running scenarios in which she told him the truth about what happened the night she left him.

She had imagined him yelling, she had imagined him accusing her of being a liar.

She’d even imagined he’d hug her, apologize, and tell her everything was going to be okay in more hopeful moments.

But never in her wildest dreams had she imagined he would bark a command at her and then just walk out.

“I’m sorry,” she said to Maria, trying to pull herself together. “It was a long trip and I’m too tired to eat.”

“Oh, you poor thing! Let me show you to Aaron’s room. You will sleep there.”

She let Maria mother hen her toward the apartment’s third bedroom where Aaron had stayed all summer, but then she remembered, “Wait, I need to talk to Aaron, to explain to him…”

“No, no. You need to sleep. You can talk to Aaron when you wake up.” Maria sat Eva on the side of the bed and pulled off her flip-flops.

As soon as she sat down on the bed, the jetlag and lack of food and rest kicked back in, all but erasing the adrenaline that had helped her get through her fight with Alexei. Maria’s twins were lucky to have such a nurturing and kind mother, Eva thought drowsily.

“Thank you,” Eva said, sleep pulling her down to the pillow, beckoning like a warm, insistent embrace she could no longer fight off. The waking world faded to black before Maria was even done tucking her in.

The sun was setting when Eva woke up, painting the Italian sky outside her window a dark purple mixed with the bright orange of the horizon.

If the sun was just now going down, then she’d been asleep for at least six hours—which was good because she really needed it.

She found a cotton dress, a new sports bra, a package of underwear, a towel, and a wash cloth on a wooden chair near the bed.

She assumed these items were there for her by her ever-thoughtful sister-in-law.

And she couldn’t help but feel a pin prick of jealousy for her brother who had not only become a Foreign Service officer, but had also gotten the cream of the crop as far as life mates went.

Still, by the time Eva emerged from the shower she felt completely restored. She was done feeling sorry for herself and ready to fight Alexei’s uncle and Alexei himself if she had to. Eva refused to let his last threat deter her from keeping her son safe.

She pulled her hair back into a large puff as she strode down the hallway toward the living room making plans.

First, she’d need to convince Steve to get her and Aaron fake IDs, then she’d run to some place like California where a single black mother with a light-skinned child wouldn’t stand out so much.

Once there, she’d put together a new plan for what to do if they were discovered—

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of children giggling in the family room accompanied by male laughter.

And that was how she found Alexei, of all people, on the floor pretending Aaron and Steve’s two-year-old twins had him completely pinned down.

But the game ended abruptly when Aaron saw her standing in the doorway. “Mama! Mama!”

The twins who were already in their pajamas, abandoned their positions on Alexei’s chest, and jumped up and down. “Auntie Eba! Auntie Eba!” they cheered, ridiculously cute in their matching PJs and box braids.

Aaron rushed over and threw his arms around her waist. “You’re up!”

She rubbed his back, a little nonplussed at his enthusiasm.

Her confusion must have shown on her face because Alexei sat up and said, “You’ve been asleep for over twenty-four hours.”

“What?” She searched for and found a wall clock. “It’s only 9:30 P.M.!”

“9:30 P.M. the night after you arrived. Aaron was worried about you, but Maria and I told him to let you sleep.”

As if on cue, Maria appeared behind her. “You are awake! Good, good, you can finally eat.”

The way Maria fussed over her for the next half-hour made it seem like the worst thing in the world that could happen was not to eat for twenty-four hours.

And Maria would not be satisfied until Eva had eaten several mouthfuls of linguine and a slice of the fresh bread she’d made.

Steve was working late at the consulate and the others had already eaten, so Maria fixed bowls of gelato for Aaron and Alexei who remained at the table after she left to put the twins down.

Eva hadn’t realized how hungry she was until she took the first bite of Maria’s food.

After that, getting the pasta into her stomach became her main focus so she wasn’t exactly contributing much in terms of conversation.

But as it turned out, she didn’t need to say a word.

Because Alexei and Aaron kept up a steady stream of chit-chat on topics that included Aaron’s soccer team, Aaron’s dead bug collection, and Aaron’s trips to Disneyland Paris and Disneyland.

Aaron couldn’t believe Alexei had never been to Disneyland and Alexei gravely promised to remedy the situation as soon as possible. “But maybe I will need someone to show me around. I hear Disneyland is a very large park.”

“Mama and me can show you,” Aaron told him, just as gravely. “Maybe we can even go to Disneyworld in Florida next time. But we’re going to have to wait awhile for me to get enough money in my vacation fund.”

Now Eva paused in her eating, waiting to hear Alexei’s response.

He could easily afford to whisk Aaron away to Disneyworld if he wanted to, while she’d have to focus doubly hard on replenishing their vacation fund after her unexpected trip to Italy and all the international calls she’d made on that pay-as-you-go phone for two weeks straight.

Alexei raised an eyebrow. “You have a vacation fund? Maybe you are very good with money, da?”

“Mama makes me put ten percent of my allowance in savings, ten percent in a college fund, and ten percent in a vacation fund so I have money to spend when we go on vacation.”

“That is very smart. How long do you think it will take you to save for Disneyworld?”

Aaron calculated in his head. “At least until Christmas.”

Again Eva held her breath, waiting for Alexei to supersede the rules she’d put in place with Aaron, but he just nodded. “Then we will go during your Christmas break.”

“Do you think you can save up enough money by then, Mama?”