Saving Anya (21 page)

Renee looked over at Vasily, who only slightly pulled down his newspaper and grinned at her. They had a quiet relationship, where Vasily was seen not heard. But he knew everything, every argument, every love session, every decision. Yet with everything that he knew, he never said a word, at least not to her. He may very well report every last movement to Anatoly, but he never let on about it.

“
Will Ana be here soon?” Renee asked him as she poured a cup of coffee.

“
You know as much as I do,” Vasily answered, pulling the paper back up where she couldn’t see his face. He had, because of their long times together, figured out that Renee was now able to read his facial expressions and extract the truth from it.

So in situations like this when he knew that he was lying, he had to hide his face from her.

“
I highly doubt that,” Renee said, pursing her lips together. “You always know more than you lead on about.” She eyed the newspaper and burned her sight through it.

Vasily checked his phone when he felt Renee still looking him and gave an irritated sigh. “He’ll be here in a minute. He’s held up with something,” he finally said, feeling uncomfortable about giving up information on his boss to his other half.

“
Thank you,” Renee said, pouring cream into her coffee, “for being as vague as humanly possible.”

“
My pleasure,” Vasily mocked. “Anytime.”

“
Anatoly used to be like that,” Royal said to Renee about Vasily as she listened on.

Briggy turned around curiously again.

“
Anatoly used to watch you?” she asked Royal in shock that the man hadn’t always been in his position.

Royal smirked. “He used to be
Vasily
, just smaller.”

“
Easy now,” Renee joked. “You know how he feels about his size.”

“
He’s six-one. That’s not short by normal standards, but in this family…” Royal shrugged. “You know what I mean.”

And they all did.

“
How tall are you, Vasily?” Renee asked, pulling him into the conversation.

“
Six feet, four inches, 287 pounds,” Vasily quoted in a flat tone.

“
See what I mean,” Royal said. “They are all giants.”

Vasily smiled behind the paper, but made sure that no one saw him. He rather liked being compared or even considered a Medlov. It was an honor that he quietly held close to him. The men of this family had always treated him like family and he hoped in the future to become to Anatoly what Davyd had become to Dmitry. There was no higher honor he could obtain in the Vory.

“
My baby is huge,” Renee said, taking up for Anatoly’s size. “Muscle from head to toe. And I mean that in all ways possible”

“
We don’t want to know,” Royal cringed as she threw up a hand in protest.

“
Well at least I can reach him,” Renee said, sipping her coffee. “Gabriel and Dmitry are so tall, you have to climb up to get some.”

“
Goodness,” Stepan said, putting the bread on the counter. He shook his head emphatically. “Is there anything else I can do somewhere else, mistress?” His cheeks were blood red with embarrassment.

The women all laughed again. Briggy burned with blush.

“
We’re sorry, Stepan,” Royal apologized. “We’ll hold it down. I really need you here to help me fix up breakfast for all the men.”

“
Very well,” Stepan said deflated. He turned again to his chores.

Royal picked up a towel and wiped off her hands. Gratefully, she gazed over at her small family and smiled. For a minute that had helped ease the discomfort of her present situation. All of them in a different way provided support.

“
No matter what happens, we must be loyal to each other,” she said abruptly.

Everyone turned to look at her.

She stood in the middle of the floor with glassy eyes. “We have to prove to those who would seek to destroy us that we are stronger and that we stick together.”

Renee lifted her chin and nodded. “We will survive this, Royal. Anatoly and Gabriel will bring Anya home.”

“
I know,” Royal said, her voice trailing off. “Dmitry won’t sleep until he has seen it done.”

“
Neither will they,” Briggy answered. “When Gabriel laid eyes on your beautiful boys, it gave him new purpose. I know that I’m not family like all of you, but I can assure you that it doesn’t stop me and him from feeling totally committed.”

Royal narrowed her eyes. “Briggy, you’re as much family as the rest of us. Gabriel loves you. He sacrificed everything to be with you. Anatoly went against the code for Renee, and Dmitry did the same for me. Vasily has put his life on the line every day since he took up service to the Vor. Stepan is a captain for goodness sake, yet he is also the key to keeping the house running. And Davyd,” Royal wiped a tear from her face. “Davyd died for Anya. We are all family. All of us.”

Each person in the room was moved. There was a unified, yet quiet, agreement that this was their home and if one had been offended, all had.

Briggy, hearing the confirmation that she needed, also felt renewal. The men and women of this house were all that she had as well. She remembered still how Royal had been there for her during her mother’s passing nearly a year and a half ago, even though Royal herself was going through a difficult time. She also remembered how Dmitry had given her words of comfort when his own son had discarded her after their relationship ended.

Overwhelmed, Briggy walked over to Royal and wrapped her arms around her. Hugging her tight, she rubbed her long, inky mane and buried her face in her shoulder. Renee quickly followed. And they were all three joined in one tight embrace. However the men in the room, while moved, looked on without words of comfort.

Vasily watched all three and knew why Anatoly had made him stay here instead of going with him and Gabriel. The men’s most precious possessions were here – their children, their women, their hopes and dreams. And he would guard them with his life.

Just like Davyd and Stepan, Vasily had watched quietly in the shadows as Anya had grown up at the chateau guarded by her father’s love and her brother’s admiration. He had watched first had as Renee grew from a mouthy shop girl to a seasoned and classy woman capable of handling the Czar of the Medlov Crime Family.

And while he still did not understand the Medlov men’s fascination with black women, he did clearly understand their love for these particular women. What was their not to love?

Chapter 18

Every family had its dark secrets. The Medlov family was no different in that respect, but Dmitry had done a good job until now with keeping the very mysteries that began his dynasty to himself. And the only people who knew the truth about his true origins were either dead or under his thumb. There were three in all
.
Ivan, his dead brother, who fell at Anatoly’s hand; Davyd, his best friend and right hand who was now dead by the kidnapper’s hand; and Khalid Sidorov, a man he regarded as a father figure in his life and one of the heads of his dwindling council.

However, he knew that in order to fix this, he would have to let others in on his secrets - Anatoly and Gabriel to start. Anatoly he could trust without worry, but Gabriel was a bit of a gamble. The more he had to reveal to the man about his past, the more of a threat he could become. Still, the boy had done nothing up until this point but serve as a benefit to the family. If he continued, he could end up being a true leader.

Royal was an entirely different story. While he had never been transparent in his marriage with her, he had always put her in enough light to see him as he truly was. And in turn, she had understood him in his truest essence as the leader of the Medlov Crime Family, a murderer, a mobster, an opportunist and even more as a husband.

All of that he could handle. However, telling his lovely wife that all of this came down to the murder of his father - which took place in this exact house over twenty years ago - was even more than he could handle.

So far, all he had painted of his family’s name was pain and a chaos. And now, he only had more hues of red to unveil on the bloody canvas of his family’s portrait. He simply was not ready to risk seeing her go back into a deep depression again, so he had to keep as much of this from her for as long as possible.

Royal had gone through enough because of him, and no matter what, he planned to protect whatever was left of her still innocent life. There were only two missions in his life now – to get his daughter back safely and to keep his wife and sons safe in this house.
Money, power and recognition held no meaning to him, unless it served in helping him secure his goals.

His mind went back to this morning’s meeting. A heady mix of determination, guilt and brute anger filled him.

The mysterious woman in the picture wasn’t unfamiliar to him in the least. He had seen her on two occasions in Prague over twenty years ago. Even then, he had known something was off with her, but until now, he had not been able to put the pieces together.

The first time he had met Manon was when she introduced herself as the manager of his father’s hotel, the Red Square. The second time was at a brief meeting in which he fired her from her position with a month’s wage severance. Both times he had been curt, due mostly to the unease she gave him when he looked into her eyes. He didn’t trust her then, and now he knew why.

Tracking her down would not be easy, especially if she was being protected by her father’s sympathizers, but he had some clever ideas on how to do so. While the world was vast, the underworld was much smaller. It was a place that money talked loudly, and could sometimes be the only reasonable voice in the room. With the right amount of bounty, she would and could be tracked down. But he didn’t want her killed.
Not right away.
He wanted to be there when she fell, to teach her one last lesson about crossing him and fucking with his family.

Anatoly and Gabriel walked into Dmitry’s study to debrief and found him behind his desk feverishly looking over the files that Langston had left. Papers were piled mile high along with two additional monitors that had been placed on his desk for him to watch the comings and goings of all the house guests. Three different cell phones sat in front of him along with the land line for Anya’s calls. In all, the appearance of the desk showed his complete entrenchment in the situation.

With the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up and his hands buried into the deep blonde curls of his hair, Dmitry carefully read word after word of how he had yet again been deceived – this time by his dear friend, Khalid. He was so engrossed until he did not know that he had an audience.

“
Papa,” Anatoly finally said to get Dmitry’s attention.

Dmitry looked up from the papers unhurriedly. His beautiful face was void of all color. “
Da
,” he answered gruffly. His eyes pierced through the boys as he made contact, and it was evident that murder was on his mind.

“
You look horrible. When was the last time you slept?” Anatoly asked as he walked over to the credenza in the corner of the room and poured his father a hot cup of black coffee. He looked over to see a bodyguard in the corner standing as still and quiet as a statue.
Barely seen; never heard
, was his father’s mantra for the hired help.

The bodyguard barely blinked as he watched Anatoly make the coffee. Gripping his semi-automatic weapon gracefully balanced over his arm, he turned his attention back to Dmitry and stepped further back into the shadows.

Closing the file, Dmitry stretched his arms out. “I haven’t slept since Anya was taken,” he answered with a stern expression. Motioning towards the high back leather chairs in front of his regal oak desk, he lifted an arched, blonde brow. “Have a seat. We have to talk,” he said in a cool voice.

For Dmitry to have been under such excruciating stress, he was impeccably groomed. He found it to be a necessary aide in his constant compulsion with controlling everything around him. Dressed in a dark gray, three piece suit, hair freshly cut and face clean shaven, one would not have been able to tell that he was sleep deprived and nearing a heart attack.

Severe, icy blue eyes swept over the two men dark with expression and discontented with the anxiety of his daughter’s absence. But he was not judging them, only checking them over to make sure that their last errand had not left them harmed in anyway.

Both looked fine, only exhausted.

Gabriel’s concern sincere, he cleared his throat, the Adam’s apple bobbing as he did so, and slid back in his chair. Long arms rested on the wood of the carefully crafted furniture as he languidly rested after a long night. His body ached as he took a deep breath, reminding him of how long he had been deprived of sleep. “You know, if you don’t get any rest, it will be hard for you to think on your feet. Essentially, you could be doing Anya’s cause more hurt than help if you’re not alert,” he warned.

His uncle eyed him again.

“
Just a suggestion,” Gabriel said, shrugging his shoulders at his uncle’s disapproval.

Dmitry’s eye twitched. “No. You’re right,” he conceded. “It’s just hard to rest when you know that your daughter has been abducted and is waiting on you to save her.” He waited with that statement on an update. Hopefully that declaration would be indication enough that he needed no reminder of his own state of health for the remainder of this very sensitive mission.