Page 52 of Ruthless Rustanovs

SAM didn’t know how to feel about Nikolai Rustanov staring down at her. Confusion, relief, and defensiveness were all putting in bids to be her main emotion. But in the end it came down to Pavel.

She fell to her knees in front of him, hugging the little boy to her.

“Are you okay?” she asked him.

“I’m fine, Mama. The bad guy didn’t get me because Uncle Nik came and chased him away.” His eyes filled up with delight as he informed her, “Mount Nik is my uncle! I can’t believe it.”

“Me either,” Sam said, trying to keep her shit together. Was it true? Were they really both still here, alive and totally unharmed? She hugged Pavel to her again. She couldn’t believe how close she’d come to losing him tonight. “How lucky your uncle came here to meet you.”

She could feel Nikolai’s angry eyes watching her hug his nephew and knew he must be jumping to all sorts of conclusions about her fitness as even a temporary custodian.

“Why don’t we all go inside Ruth’s House,” she suggested.

“Call the police and maybe we can talk while we wait for them to get here.”

But Pavel pulled back, still stuck on the whole uncle reveal. “Papa said Mount Nik was his brother, but I thought he was lying. If my uncle was a famous hockey player with lots of money, why…”

He didn’t seem to know how to finish that sentence.

But he didn’t have to. The haunted look in his eyes said more about what he had been through as the neglected son of a drug addict than words ever could.

His eyes filled with tears and he buried his head in Sam’s shoulder, turning them both so his back was to his uncle.

His uncle, who he didn’t want to see him cry.

Sam’s heart broke for the boy. She’d never seen him shed as much as a tear in all that had happened and she wrapped her arms around him tight, wanting to reassure with hugs that everything would be all right.

Back Up apparently felt the same way. But since she didn’t have a pair of arms she could wrap around the little boy, she settled for gently nudging his back with her wedge-shaped forehead.

“I did not know.” The words came hard and flat from above them. “Your father did not tell me.”

Pavel shook his head against Sam’s shoulder, refusing to look up at his uncle. “I prayed for him to be real. I prayed for him to be the truth. But Mount Nik never came for me.”

“Pavel…” Sam started.

“Now I am here,” Nikolai said, his tone impatient. “And do not call me Mount Nik. You are my nephew. Not fan. You may call me Uncle Nikolai or Uncle, but not silly nickname.”

Sam glared over Pavel’s shoulder at him. Was he seriously quibbling about what Pavel called him after all he’d been through?

As if to confirm her suspicions about his abject unfitness to parent a traumatized child, Nikolai said, “You will stop crying and come now to my home. Your proper home.”

Sam scrunched her face, not bothering to hide her irritation from Nikolai.

“He’s been through a lot tonight,” she informed the large hockey player. “He can cry if he wants to.”

“It is not Russian way to cry so many tears.” He frowned down at Pavel. “I see Fedya did not teach you to be man in all things. This is something I will correct.”

What. The. Hell.

“Are you kidding me with this man BS?” she hissed at Nikolai. “He’s been through more in four days than most kids go through in a lifetime! You might want to cut him a little slack.”

Something ticked in Nikolai’s jaw, but to his credit he abandoned the subject of his eight-year-old nephew’s masculinity… in favor of the subject of her guardianship.

“This should not have happened. You did not keep him safe.”

Pavel stiffened inside Sam’s embrace and pulled away from her so he could address his uncle. “Mama was only trying to protect me. You can’t be mad at her.”

A new tension entered the air and Nikolai’s eyes turned to her. “Why he is calling you mama?” he asked.

Okay, and now she was embarrassed on top of feeling defensive.

“Because… Well, I’m not exactly sure, but it’s one of the things I definitely plan to address as we progress with his healing. You see I’ve been counseling Pavel in the aftermath of this traumatic event and—”

Nikolai cut her off with a dismissive sound. “You Americans and your therapy.”

Sam came to her feet then, no longer able to keep herself from fully confronting this asshole. “So what? You want him to stay traumatized?” she asked him.

“I want him to be safe!” Nikolai roared, coming toward her with his finger pointed down at the ground. “Do you know what could have happened to both of you if I not come here?”

“It’s not her fault, Uncle!” Pavel insisted, coming forward to get in between Sam and Nikolai. “Don’t yell at her!”

“It’s okay, sweetie,” Sam said to Pavel, her heart beating faster as all the alternative scenarios of how this night could have ended unfolded inside her head. Both her and Pavel dead. No one to take care of Back Up. He was right. If he hadn’t come here…

An icy wind blew through their haphazard triangle and Sam shivered.

“Your uncle’s just upset. As anyone would be if…” she trailed off, trying and failing to come up with some kind of silver lining for the situation. “But it’s okay now.”

Sam must not have been very convincing, though, because Back Up pushed her face into Sam’s legs, as she often did when she sensed Sam was troubled and might need a cuddle session with her favorite bullie.

“It’s okay,” she said, bending down to stroke Back Up’s short coat. “We’re all okay.”

Nikolai regarded her with those cold, green eyes. “My nephew will not stay here. You cannot keep him safe. Now he will come with me.”

“No! I want to stay here with Mama!” Pavel screeched. “And Back Up. I can’t go with you. I have to stay with Mama! I can’t...”

As much as Pavel seemed to relish having his favorite hockey player turn out to be his uncle, he now seemed on the verge of hyperventilating at the thought of being taken away from his new home.

His rising panic diverted all of Sam’s attention away from Nikolai and back to the little boy. She squatted down in front of him, looking directly into his stricken eyes.

“It’s okay, sweetie. It’s okay. Just breathe. Match what I’m doing.” She breathed deep, in and out through her nose. “Match my breath, honey. You can do it.”

The boy did as she said, his breaths coming out short and too fast. But eventually they slowed and deepened, the panic fading from his expression. Which Back Up took as an invitation to trot forward and begin licking the tears off his face.

“Back Up!” Pavel exclaimed with a laughing screech. “No, don’t lick me. Now isn’t the time for licking. Tell her, Mama.”

Sam shook her finger at her overly affectionate bullie. “You heard him. Back off, Back Up.”

Back Up whimpered, but her words sent Pavel into a fit of giggles, making him look his very young age.

“Back off, Back Up,” he repeated, appreciating the goofy word play in a way that only a child could.

She glanced at the hockey player who looked more than a little confused now, like he didn’t quite know what to make of the scene or how to handle it.

“You name dog Back Up. What sort of name is this?” he asked her.

Sam shook her head at him, truly disappointed. “You haven’t seen Veronica Mars either?!?! No wonder it got cancelled too soon.”

More confused looks, then Nikolai’s mouth drew back into an impatient sneer. “Pack his bag,” he snarled at her. “He will come with me.”

“No!” Pavel cried out. He clung to Sam’s neck. “Tell him he can’t take me from you, Mama!”

Sam took his hands before he could start panicking again. “Do you trust me?” she asked the little boy.

“But—” Pavel started.

“Pavel, it’s a yes or no question,” she said. “Do you trust me? Yes or no?”

A frown quivered on Pavel’s lips but nonetheless he answered, “Yes.”

Right answer. She gave him a reassuring smile and said, “Okay, good. Then stand by my side while I talk with your uncle.”

“Okay,” Pavel said, his voice still watery with tears.

This time when she stood up to talk to Nikolai Rustanov, she kept her arm around Pavel’s shoulder and she didn’t let the dark scowl on his outrageously handsome face intimidate her.

Pavel needed her and there was no way she was going to let him go home with a man who thought it was unmanly for a boy who just lost his father and had come close to being killed just a few minutes ago to cry.

To his credit, Pavel stayed quiet this time, burying his face in her waist.

As if to affirm her assessment of him, Nikolai said to Pavel. “Get your face out of her waist, boy. You are too old to hide in woman. I have much to teach you.” He said this with a sneer, like the sooner he got Pavel away from her, the better.

To Sam’s surprise, Pavel actually did as he said, standing up straight beside her like a soldier.

The whole situation made her want to cuss Nikolai out for being an insensitive bastard. But instead, she kept her hand on Pavel’s shoulder, letting him know he could lean on her whenever he needed.

“Tell me more about your house,” she said to Nikolai. “I know about the ridiculous gates, but I’m assuming you’ve got a state-of-the-art security system, too.”

“Da, I do. And you don’t,” he reminded her.

She just nodded with approval, refusing to let him bait her into another argument.

“And would you be willing to invest in a security guard, just until we can get the people who hurt Pavel’s father behind bars?”

He crooked his head and eyed her like he was trying to decide if she was being over protective or na?ve.

But in the end he said, “Of course, I will hire security guard to keep him safe when I cannot.”

“Sounds good to me,” she said, flashing him a bright and happy smile.

He did not smile back. In fact, there was a whole lot of suspicion in his eyes when he said, “So you agree? Pavel will come home with me now.”

“Alright, alright” she said, raising her hands in a gesture of surrender, like she’d finally decided to give in.

“You’ve made a strong case here today. We’ll all move in with you tonight, okay?

” She rushed on before he could protest. “But before I start packing I need to know, do you have stuff like dog food and a water bowl at your place, or should I just bring what I have?”