His (Ties That Bind 2)

“Go on,” Gleb orders.

“Then one day, out of the blue, Vasily tells me I need to take care of her. That she’s a problem. So that’s exactly what I went to do.”

Gleb’s fingers tighten around his glass, and I feel my own muscles responding in kind as Maxim rushes to get the rest out.

“But then I saw her, and I couldn’t do it. No fucking way. I didn’t like to run jobs on women, and excuse me for what I’m about to say, but I was tired of Vasily’s shit. Every other week, someone new was marked for death.”

“What happened to her?” Gleb growls.

“I spoke to her,” Maxim says. “Told her to get the fuck out of town. I explained to her that I wouldn’t be the only one Vasily would send. She understood that. And that’s when she gave me these.”

Maxim retrieves the photocopies of the notes he took last night, pulling them from his jacket and setting them onto the bar in front of Gleb. For a minute, Gleb just stares at them, thumbing through them before he closes his eyes, revealing an obvious shudder when he speaks.

“She betrayed me.”

“At first,” Maxim concedes. “That was her intention. But I think what you had with her was real. In the end, she didn’t want to hurt you anymore. She felt trapped, and she was too afraid to come to you and too afraid to stay. So, she gave me these and told me to keep them safe. That maybe one day, you could understand.”

“I always understood.” Gleb sighs. “I suspected she was running information back to someone in the Vory, I just didn’t know who. When I confronted her with it, she denied it. I went out to do a job that day, and when I got back, she was gone. I never saw her again, but I’ve been looking all these years.”

“I’m sorry to tell you that Vasily got to her,” Maxim says. “Just a couple of years after she took off.”

Gleb hangs his head, and even from where I’m sitting, I can feel the pain radiating from him. It’s obvious that despite what Ciara did, what they had was real, and Gleb has never gotten over it.

“Vasily did this?” he asks, with a haunting finality.

“Yes,” I answer.

He tilts his head up to meet my gaze. “And what does any of this have to do with you? Why would you betray your uncle to come here with this information? You aren’t even inducted. You owe me nothing.”

He’s suspicious of me, and I can’t say that I blame him. But I lay it all out for him.

“I have a few reasons to care,” I say. “The first being that he murdered my mother, and I suspect my father too. The police said he was mugged, but it just seems too coincidental.”

“And the third reason?” Gleb presses.

I look at Maxim, my chest constricting as I make the biggest gamble I’ve ever made in my life. “They are twofold actually. And I hope you can understand why I’m hesitant to tell you. But what you felt for Ciara? I feel that way about her daughter.”

“Daughter?” Gleb’s eyes shoot up, bouncing between Maxim and me. “What… daughter?”

“I suspect that would be your daughter,” Maxim answers. “Or at least, that’s what I concluded when I saw her with the baby after she ran out on you.”

The room falls silent for a long moment, and I know there’s nothing else I can say right now. Gleb is digesting the information, turning it over in his mind, trying to make heads or tails of it. It’s a situation I can relate to well, considering my own circumstances when I found Kat.

“I find it difficult to believe,” he says finally.

“I thought you might.” I remove the fake driver’s license Kat used in Colorado, sliding it across the bar toward him. “But genes don’t lie.”

His finger moves over her face, examining her, and he shakes his head, his voice fracturing when he speaks. “It’s like seeing a ghost.”

“I can bring her to meet you,” I tell him. “If that’s what you want. I think she has a few things she’d like to tell you herself.”

He downs the glass of vodka in front of him and stares at the wall ahead to hide his emotion. “I would like that very much.”

“I need your assurances that she will be safe,” I tell him. “I intend to make her my wife. And I’m not letting her go.”

Gleb glances at me, and the smallest glimpse of respect flashes in his eyes. He’s not used to anyone speaking to him this way. He gives the orders. He tells other people how things will go. But when it comes to Kat, I’m not willing to concede on this.

“She will be safe,” he answers. “And the other part, well time will tell if you are worthy.”