hed. “Ah. Well, mom, Samira’s my wife. We got married in Las Vegas…”
“I hope we have your blessing, Mrs. Quinlan,” Samira said, nervously.
Mrs. Quinlan jiggled Quin on her hip, making him giggle. “Of course, sweetheart. I can see from looking at my son that you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to him. It’s nice to see he’s bothering to shave again! And this little one is a blessing on our entire family.” She glanced at her daughter and the three girlfriends. “I do hope he’s the eldest of many grandkids.”
The other women chuckled – some more nervously than others.
“But, Ivan,” Mrs. Quinlan said, passing Quin back to his mother. “This is a male-free zone. You need to go join your brothers and your father in the den – where you’ll undoubtedly find them drinking beer and playing poker.”
Ivan kissed Samira. “Will you be okay?”
“She’ll be fine,” Amy called over. “We promise we’ll take good care of her.”
Samira smiled shyly and nodded. “I’ll be okay.”
Ivan winked at his mother. “And what about Quin? He’s male, so I’ll just take him along with me to the man-cave, shall I?”
Mrs. Quinlan stuck her arm between Ivan and Samira to prevent him from taking the baby. “No, we make exceptions for males as cute as this little one.”
“Alright. I leave you ladies to compare notes on which of us is best.”
Sarah scoffed. “Hardly, Ivan! We’ll be talking about work and politics.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said, with a chuckle. He smiled at Samira. “I’ll take care of the suitcase, okay. I’ll put it under the bed.”
She nodded, not wanting to give anything away to the others. He kissed her and Quin, then he strolled back out to the hallway, heading in the direction of the den – but there was a knock at the front door so he wheeled back to answer it.
He was assaulted with a worried thought that this could be Langdon or his associates coming for their drugs, but he pushed it away. Surely it would take them longer to track him down than that... unless Jake had betrayed him. But he wouldn’t, would he?
Ivan really had no idea what to do with the drugs yet, but he wanted to get Adam’s wedding out the way smoothly before making a plan to go back and confront Langdon…
He opened the door and was surprised to see Jake leaning against the doorframe, smoking a cigarette. “Hey, big brother.”
Ivan’s muscles tensed, ready to pick him up and throw him off their property. “You agreed to stay away from my family until I had the chance to check your intentions. It’s Adam’s wedding tomorrow – you need to leave right now.”
Jake dropped his cigarette to the doorstep and ground it out with his boot. “I’m not here to cause you any trouble. But I do need to talk with you.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“I thought we’d been through this, Ivan… Langdon confessed to me that he still has Samira’s passport – but that’s not the worst of it. Can I come in? Please?”
Ivan stepped out the way. “Alright, come into the kitchen. But if anyone sees you, you tell them you’re just a buddy of mine, right.”
“Sure.”
Ivan led him through to the kitchen – where the suitcase was still sitting on the kitchen table – now with the lid tightly shut.
“Where’s Samira?” Jake asked.
“With the other women. Like I said, it’s Adam and Amy’s wedding tomorrow, so we’re celebrating. And I’m keen to join them. What’s this all about?”
“Right. Look, I’ll be totally frank with you. Langdon wants Samira dead.”
Ivan froze, letting this sink in. He realized Jake probably was still on his side – otherwise why would he be sneaking behind Langdon’s back like this? Ivan gestured to the suitcase. “Actually, we’ve got bigger problems than that.”
Jake’s jaw dropped open. “Didn’t you hear me? He wants her dead!”
“No one’s hurting Samira – not while I’m living and breathing. But look…”