“I need to think for just a moment,” she told Vic, who left her alone while she pulled herself together and made a plan.
When she was ready, she drew Seth off to the side. “This is between Seth and Rachel right now, okay?”
He agreed and she began to tell him her plans.
When he left, she motioned Vic over.
“Are you cold? Do you want to go back inside? We can use the restaurant to deal with him and you won’t be out in the open air.”
Why was he always so perfectly sweet at exactly the right moment? Like magic.
“Thank you. I’m good. This is a warm coat and we shouldn’t be out here much longer. Look, I think you should leave. At least keep out of earshot.”
He raised both brows. “Why?”
“If I told you it would negate the whole idea of having you leave.”
“I’m not going so just tell me what you’re up to so I can help you,” he told her, clearly not planning to give an inch. Which was adorable, but a pain in her ass.
“I’m trying really hard not to make you an accessory here.”
“I told you, I love you. Those aren’t idle words for me. They’re not just things to say so I can fuck you. I’m in. All the way.”
She had to be ice-cold so she packed up how warm and fuzzy he made her and put her control back on. She’d keep what he knew up front to a minimum. “Just follow my lead and do what I say.”
“Mmm. All right then.” He gave her a sexy grin before he kissed her hand and let her go face this mess head-on.
“Thank goodness we aren’t on the waterfront, huh?” she asked her father as she finally gave him her attention. Seth had left but would be a phone call away if necessary.
“You can’t keep me here,” he said.
She ignored the comment. “Conspiracy is one of those things that messes people up every time. I’m disappointed you seem to have forgotten that from your time on the force. I’m pretty sure your friends who drove off are going to be pissed off at you for getting them into this mess. And they will be pulled in, Richard. I promise you that.”
He began to sputter and she let him for a minute or so.
“Here’s how this is going to work.”
“He’s using you and you’re so crazy you can’t even see it,” her father yelled out, interrupting her.
“Using me for what? You’ve been bringing up that line for months and months about not just Vic, but Alexsei and the whole family. What are they using me for? His house is nicer than mine. He owns his own business that he runs with his family.”
“So he doesn’t need money. Yet. The drug dealer your sister is sleeping with will probably need help sometime so don’t forget that. But he needs to stay here in the country.”
“You must have been sleeping with someone to keep your job as long as you did. You know Alexsei owns a business. You also know Vic and his family are all citizens,” she gritted out.
“That visitor they have is married to some scumbag mob boss back home in Russia,” her father tossed back.
“If that’s so, what’s she trying to use me for? More money?”
“I saw you buying expensive things for her at that fancy place at the mall. She comes to visit and gets herself a bunch of pretty presents and some more potential contacts for her illegal activities.”
Rachel knew someone had been watching!
“Alexsei paid for those presents. She’s his mother. None of them need money and if they did, I’m not the person to get it from. You seem to think I’ve got millions stashed away. Spoiler alert. I don’t.”
“They need connections to get green cards and work visas.”
She just stared at him. “You don’t need a green card if you’re a citizen. I’ve explained to you that they’re all citizens except for the one who is visiting now and she has no plans to move here. So. We’re back to square one. Just admit it. You have nothing.”
“I won’t let these people drag you down.”
That he’d say that as he dragged her down snapped something inside her. “You’re going to shut up and listen to me really carefully. You aren’t going to contact me again. You aren’t going to contact Maybe again. No more following me or any of my friends. No more calls to my old office. No more threats. Nothing. We’re done as of now.”
“I’ve already told you, I’m not going to let them hurt you.”
“You listen here.” She leaned in a little. “Tonight you and your friends committed multiple crimes. I’ve got video of your little buddy pretend-Haskell and of the license plates of the other SUVs. If you don’t care about yourself, think of those jerkoffs you brought out here tonight. You think they want to go down for you? You want to be the cause of them losing everything? Houses, marriages, whatever? All gone because you can’t get off on your own merits and you’ve been riding my coattails since birth. And still you won’t control me. I will do what I want with who I want how I want. You get no say. You get nothing but a cup of stay-out-of-my-life.”
“You can’t be serious.” But his tone said he was finally beginning to hear it and understand just how serious she was.
“I’ve never in my life been more serious. I will turn you in if you continue to stalk, threaten and harass me and my friends. You have no idea what you’ve awakened so let me be clear. I will destroy each and every one of those guys and knowing it’s all your fault as it happened would be icing on the cake. I can do it. I will do it. Your idiotic bullying has given me what I need to get you off my back. Oh, and Rich?”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Listen carefully. I’m going to track down the identity of those two meatheads who were here tonight. And I’m going to have a talk with them too. Just so they know what’s going on. Just so we can all be on the same page and avoid any misunderstandings that could end up getting people in a bad way. You got me?” She snapped her fingers in his face, a thing he used to do to other people when he was being an ass.
She turned her back and took Vic’s hand, allowing him to lead her back to his car.
Vic opened her door and got her settled before she remembered she still had her father’s keys.
* * *
“I’LL TAKE THEM BACK,” Vic said.
“I’ve got him wedged into a place where I’ve got the upper hand,” she said, asking him not to fuck this up.
“I understand.” He took the keys she’d handed him and got his breath back under control as the rain let up a little.
He wasn’t going to let his ego get in the way of some true peace for the Dolan sisters. And that she achieved it by this nifty bit of badassery only made him love her more fiercely.
But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to have his say in some way.
Vic held up the keys as he approached but didn’t hand them back right away.
“Before you get on your way, I thought I should properly introduce myself. I’m Vicktor Orlov. I’m the man your daughter Rachel will marry and have children with. You could maybe have been part of it at some point in the future but then you made my mother cry. You made my mother cry and remember a time she crossed the world to escape from a life where she was in fear all the time. I won’t forget that. And I won’t forget how you tried to cage my Rachel. I’ll make sure she never does either.”
He tossed the keys and turned his back with a sneer and went to Rachel.
“You let me hold your hand back there. When we walked away from him,” Vic said as he drove them back home.
“Of course I did.”
What did that mean?
“Are you mad I didn’t punch him? Because I really wanted to but then that would have given him leverage against you,” Vic told her. “Like I really wanted to plant my fist in his face and make him hurt as much as he thought to hurt you and my parents. And Maybe. Mostly you.”
“I
’m not mad at you at all. You’re kind of perfect for me and I’m freaked out. But you’re also the aforementioned perfect so I’m working through it. I’m glad you wanted to punch him but I’m also glad you didn’t.”
They were quiet awhile. “Are you really going to find out who the other guys are?” he asked her. “Hypothetically speaking, I mean.”
“Hypothetically speaking, someone in my position would want to ascertain who these guys from tonight are. And naturally, understanding who they are will enable said hypothetical person to know all weak and pressure points so they could be exploited.” She paused, chewing her lip. “I’m going to track them down, Vic. Then I’m going to pay a visit to the one who made your mother cry tonight just to go ahead and outline the situation the way I did for my father. I don’t think there’ll be any more trouble after that. My father might think it’s totally fine to mess over other people’s lives. But those guys he had with him? Pretend-Haskell is going to feel totally differently. He’ll provide the incentive for Richard Dolan to keep the hell away.”
“You can be stone-cold scary sometimes.”
She searched for negativity in the words but found none. All she could hear was his admiration and some of the anger he still had rattling around inside.
He pulled into her driveway with Maybe’s car to the other side. “Go. Check on your parents. I need to...gather myself a moment or two.”
“You sure?”
Rachel kept her hands tightly clasped in her lap. “I’m worried about your mother but I have to be totally honest and say if I deal with her face-to-face tonight I might cry and that’s the last thing anyone needs right now.”
“You have no idea how much control I’m using not to grab you and run for the hills where we could stay in a hotel and hide out awhile. All this is upsetting and you’re at the center of it and I worry for you more than anyone else. My mother is strong and she’s got my dad and aunt and Evie.”
“You’re her son. She loves you and counts on you. Go on. I’m just going to have to deal with Maybe a bit and then you can come back—if you want—and sleep over. If you don’t I totally understand.” And she did. Sometimes she had to be alone because it was the only way she could manage to work through something.
“I’ll be back. First let’s get you in the house and then I’ll pop next door to check in on my folks.”
Before she could argue, he was out and on his way around to her door.
“Do you think I’m a terrible person?” she asked him suddenly.
Taken aback, he shook his head. “Not at all. What makes you ask such questions? Have I done something wrong?”
“No. Not at all. It’s me. I just...well, basically I blackmailed my father. I threatened to ruin other people’s lives, Vic.”
She’d do it again to protect her sister and the family they’d both made in Seattle.
“And I don’t feel guilt about it.”
“Why would you? They’re the ones who need to feel guilty, Rachel. They’re in the wrong. They’re trying to hurt you and Maybe and your lives. Don’t ever forget that. You’re allowed to defend yourself.”
Rachel reached up to brush her thumb over his cheekbone.
“More than that, if you hadn’t defended yourself I’d have been pissed as hell. He needed to be stopped. You did that. You did absolutely nothing wrong. In fact, you did everything right. You were a warrior tonight.”
She managed to quirk a smile at his words. “Thanks.”
He kissed her quickly. “Always. I’ll be back shortly and most likely with more food.” And with one last careful look at her, he dashed off.
Maybe waited on the couch in the living room and she knew she’d done the right thing for them both.
“So, let me tell you what I did tonight,” Rachel said as she plopped down next to her sister.
“Cone of silence and secrecy engaged.” Maybe made the universal take a lock to the mouth and toss the key away I won’t tell anyone motion with her hand.
She told her sister everything that had happened after they’d left with everyone else.
* * *
JUST A FEW minutes later, after he’d checked in on his mom and found her angry, but fine, Vic approached the Dolans’ front porch, not surprised to see Alexsei sitting out in the cold, smoking a stress cigarette. A bottle of beer sat nearby on the porch railing.
“Maybe and Rachel were talking and I didn’t want to interrupt,” Alexsei said. “How are your parents doing? I checked on them briefly but I wanted to be around for Maybe. She’s been waiting for her sister.”
The sisters had a deep, unbreakable connection. They were a force of their own, strong and loving. Anyone who wanted to be with one had to accept the other. Alexsei had learned that and Vic had, in turn, taken that lesson to heart and kept out from between the two.
Vic levered himself around his cousin and found his own place to sit. “Mom and Dad are all right. Worried for Rachel and Maybe. I think for Mom there’s some more to it. She grew up seeing a lot of authoritarian bullshit from the Soviet regime. She’s lost people. Hell, so has batya. Your mom too I’m sure. How is she?”
“Busily making it about herself I’m sure. She really didn’t know what was happening other than the general unpleasantness of the confrontation.” Alexsei raised one shoulder briefly.
Rachel had done a very good job at stepping between them all and the bullshit her father had put into motion.
“And Maybe?”
“I’m going to be totally selfish right now and say she’s doing better because she saw her sister physically step into the line of fire to protect her.”
“Rachel constantly puts herself between her sister and trouble,” Vic said defensively. “You have no idea how much guilt she carries for the things that happened to Maybe. But she was a kid too. And then she was off in college. She didn’t even know the whole of it until a few months ago. She will always feel like she didn’t do enough so fuck you for thinking she should feel even worse.”
Alexsei glared at him for long moments.
“Like I said, she saw her sister jumping to her defense and it made a difference to her. Don’t get so testy about me saying a positive thing.”
“It was a backhanded compliment and you know it,” Vic said.
Alexsei gave him a bland look—but didn’t deny Vic’s charge—before speaking again. “Maybe wants to protect Rachel. She’s spent the last several years making sure protecting Rachel was the central force in her life. I’m not taking a dig at Rachel. But I am all about Maybe. And that she’s actually seen her sister jump in the way she has been? The way she did tonight? It goes a long way. And when Maybe is happy, I’m happy.”
“Do you know what she did tonight really?” Vic challenged his cousin. “I understand and respect that you’re all about Maybe. You should be. But perhaps that’s blinded you to the fact that Rachel does more than you give her credit for.”
“I never said she does nothing. In fact I said she has been consistently working to protect her sister but you’re riled up and you want to start a fight with someone safe.”
“Eat shit. Tonight Rachel used every ounce of that protector’s brain of hers, along with a spine of steel, and she made a move that most likely will get them out of Maybe and Rachel’s life forever so hand over that other beer and settle in so I can tell you about it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
SHE WAS IN the bedroom by the time Vic came back inside. She’d known he was out on the porch with Alexsei. Had known the two of them also needed to check in and get things straight the same way she and Maybe needed to.
“As predicted, I’ve been instructed to bring you over some things to eat. My mother claims if you don’t eat them it’s somehow bad for the world or whatever guilt crap they use. She wants to love you. Food is how she loves.”
“Like we didn’t
just eat for like four hours?” she joked. But she smiled as she spoke because yes, it was Irena’s way of saying she loved you.
And it felt like a hug.
“How are they?” she asked.
“They’ve gone through a lot in their lives. So tonight was upsetting, but mainly because they care about you and your sister so much. To be honest, I do think it did trigger some stuff from when she was young.”
His mother had been livid. Outraged on Rachel and Maybe’s behalf. Proud that Rachel had stood up for them, protected them. Proud too, that Vic had stepped up, concerned for not just them, but Rachel.
Especially Rachel.
In his emotional reaction that night, his parents had understood what he hadn’t told them yet. He was in love with her.
His father had a different sort of respect in his tone as he’d urged Vic to get back over to Rachel instead of worrying about them. Didn’t Vic know Pavel was perfectly capable of handling his wife?
He’d winked behind Vic’s mom’s back as he’d shooed Vic out.
“My parents are fine. Tomorrow night they can ooh and aah over Cristian and Seth and we can let tonight just be a hilarious story we tell at parties. In a few years,” Vic added. “How are you?”
She sighed, climbing up onto her bed and tucking her feet under the blankets. “Before you, my greatest fears used to be simple. From ‘Will I pass this test?’ to ‘Will I escape this house of horrors alive?’ ‘Would I get the job?’ After I was held, that fear of losing control, of losing my freedom, that was my main focus.
“Getting better. Moving out here. Doing my apprenticeship time so I could start doing ink on my own. All so I could remain free. Independent. When I got here it was about settling in. Working. Doing art. Having a good life with Maybe and then Cora. And yet, until that first time you kissed me, everything in my life had felt like a reaction.”
She paused as she tried to find better words to explain herself. But it wasn’t simple. The revolution he’d brought to her life was beyond her ability to put into words to do it justice.