Saving Anya (26 page)

Running a tattooed hand over his hair, he paused at the dresser as he looked over his massive cologne selection and picked out the bottle furthest to the back of the silver tray, Ralph Lauren Black. Without grace, he sprayed it on his chest and then down in the curly napes of hair on his genitals before setting it back down in its exact place.

Renee watched him carefully, waiting like a school girl for the moment when he would drop his towel and reveal his rock-hard backside.

Anatoly did not disappoint.

Yanking at the towel, he dropped it to his feet and pulled the top drawer out to look for underwear.

“
Leave it,” she ordered from across the room. Her voice echoed up in the loft.

Turning towards her, he cracked a naughty grin before he quickly jumped into the bed like a school boy and got under the heavy comforter to snuggle beside her. The warmth of the bed felt like magic against his skin and the softness of the mattress begged him to finally rest his aching body. Letting out a sigh of utter exhaustion, he reached out his arm so that she could move under him. As he did so, she smelled his freshly applied deodorant.

He looked down at the crown of her head and kissed her where her part in the top of her long tendrils ended.

“
I’m glad you’re back,” Renee said, raking her nails over his smooth skin. Goose bumps formed on his arm.

“
I’m glad to finally be back. Too bad it’s so short lived,” he grunted as he reached over and touched her stomach. His minty breath rushed up to tickle her nose. “The big question is why are you still dressed?” He tugged at her mute colored cotton dress.

“
It’s only temporary,” she said, sitting up to pull it off.

He helped her out of her clothing with a crooked grin on his rose-colored lips. When she was completely exposed, he marveled like normal at her dark smooth skin. Pulling her by her small waist to the center of the bed, he moved on top of her and made his way to her stomach. Her deep belly button called out to him and he reached in to give it a delicate kiss, then stuck the point of his tongue inside of it.

She giggled instantly and flapped her bright, almond-shaped eyes closed.

“
Are we finally going to talk about the baby?” Renee asked as she watched him pull her panties down inch by inch past her knees to her ankles and finally off her body.

Their eyes met before Anatoly looked back down at her stomach, this time with more serious concentration as he clutched her satin underwear in his right hand. “Do you see what you’re going to have to put up with?” he asked the small being he had created. He touched her stomach carefully and frowned. “Can it hear me yet?”

“
No,” Renee said, getting some kind of weird satisfaction from his acknowledgement of their baby. “But I can.” She lifted his chin to see his eyes gaze at her with a heady mix of lust and love. “Talk to me. Please.”

Anatoly let out a sigh before he rose up on his hands and took his place back beside her. Hitting his pillow and sinking down, he cleared this throat. “Okay. Let’s talk.”

She turned and put her chin on his chest. Biting her lip, she wondered what to pick from all of her thousands of thoughts to say first. It would, after all, be a part of their history together forever. Raising her brow, she traced a finger around one of his tattoos on his chest and finally spoke. “Why are you so opposed to having this baby?”

Anatoly watched her quietly. His eyes spoke volumes, like he had answered her already before he ever spoke. Swallowing hard, he shook his head. “You don’t plan on making this easy, do you?”

Renee couldn’t help but chuckle. “Do I ever make things easy?”

“
I remember when
yes,
you did.” He laughed also. “Okay.” He scratched the side of his nose. “It’s not that I’m opposed to the baby. I’m opposed to the timing.”

“
Explain,” she said, eyeing him.

Anatoly laid his head back on the pillow and looked up at the top of the canopy bed. “I know that you know what I am, Renee. You know what I do. And right now, I’m trying so hard to prove myself to my father, the council, the men who work for me…myself.”

“
Me?” Renee interjected.

“
Well, you’re the only person that I’ve never had to prove myself to.”

She relaxed her tense shoulders. “Good, but I mean, why would a baby hurt you with everyone else.”

“
Because I’m not that guy. I’m not the guy who walks around with that baby pack on his chest and drives the fucking station wagon and you know…the dude on the fucking IKEA commercials.”

Renee laughed. “No, you’re definitely not that guy.”

“
Exactly.” Anatoly sucked his bottom lip. “I’m afraid of not getting it right, and bombing miserably in front of the world. Plus, I know that you’re going to always judge me according to how Royal and my father are raising their kids. And maybe even how Briggy and Gabriel raise their kids. You’re going to hate me for missing birthdays, for missing first steps and first teeth and first fucking words. You’re going to resent me for giving more time to the Vory instead of you and the baby.”

Renee put her index finger over Anatoly to silence him. She could see that he was getting worked up – far more worked up than he had ever been before. It was then that she realized that he had thought about this possibly more than she had. “Baby, I thought we agreed that we were going to do us,” she reminded.

“
We did agree. But I know you.” His eyes were sincere. “I’m not going to get this right.” It was the first time in his adult life that he had ever admitted to not being able to do something and it even shocked him to hear it come out of his mouth.

Renee’s worry began to ease. “So all of this is because you are worried about being a good father?”

“
All of this is because I know that he or she will deserve a hell of a lot more than what I can give. I mean, I love Anya and I treat her like a princess, but I don’t have to watch her. I don’t have to see her more than ten times a year. And now, with this kidnapping shit, I’m going to have a paramilitary force watching you and this kid every day.”

Renee laughed. “Ana…” she shook her head. “You’re going to do fine, baby. We’re going to do fine. No parent is perfect. I’m going to miss the mark just like you, but the most important thing is that we are here for this little person, no matter what.”

“
If anything ever happened to him or her, like what just happened to Anya, I would…”

“
Do everything that your father is doing. It happens to people all over the world. People with no money at all get their kids stolen every day. Anya is lucky to have parents with means.”

Anatoly couldn’t argue. Taking a deep breath, he looked over at her then threw his hands up. “I hate trying to be right with you.”

“
Looks like now, we’re going to have to be right with each other.” Laying her had down on his chest, she pursed her lips. “Are you happy at all about it?”

Anatoly rubbed through her hair. He knew that he had not done a good job so far of welcoming this new life into their lives, but he vowed quietly to begin to try. “We’ve created something special, something that is a part of you and me, my mother, my father, your mother, your father. We’ve created life. And for a man who has only taken it, I can say that I’m undeservingly happy.”

Renee looked up at him with a tear in her eye. “Really, baby?”

Anatoly pulled her up to him and kissed her lips softly. “Really,” he whispered, holding on her plump backside. He moved his head so that he could take a closer look at what he was holding on to and squeezed it tighter. “Do you feel that?” he asked, pushing his erection in between them.

“
How could I not feel that?” she asked, undulating over him. Kissing the mole on his neck, she purred in his ear. “We’re down to one hour and fifteen minutes.”

“
Fuck the clock. I’ll be down when I’m done,” he said, rolling her over in the bed. “I guess there is no point in using a condom now.”

Chapter 22

Dmitry hated to use top-dollar assassins to dig holes, but considering that he had sent all staff away from the house except Stepan, who was too old to be outside performing manual labor, he had no choice.

Near a large lonely oak tree lining the crystal blue lake about a mile from the chateau where he had impregnated Royal nearly a year ago, there was a singular stone, unmarked but intentionally placed.

For years, it had been groomed to make sure that no weeds grew around it, but no one knew the reason for the marking. The grounds workers had speculated, but no one had got it right in their guessing.

Some had said that it was Dmitry’s former wife, but she had in fact been buried in her family plot in London. Some had said that it was the burial plot for Ivan, but there was an urn that was in Dmitry’s study that held his ashes. He guarded it carefully and never let anyone, especially Royal, near it.

No one had ever guessed the real body that lay unmarked under the tree. It was Boss Evgeny Smirnov. The man who had run the Vory underworld for over thirty years and the man whom Dmitry had assassinated by an eager young girl over twenty years ago in the study that he now uses daily. No one had guessed that it was Dmitry’s father. Many found it amazing that the man even had a father.

Now beside Evgeny’s last resting place there was another hole being prepared for Davyd. As three men dug into the earth, six feet deep, Dmitry watched from the hill with a stone look of grave pain on his face.

When he had buried his father, he had felt only relief, but the agony that he suffered silently as he put his dearest friend into the ground now brought him nothing but despair and an unquenchable desire to get revenge.

Two hours after Dmitry had dismissed his son and nephew, they emerged on the landing, walking side-by-side in the breaking sunlight. The rain had stopped and the clouds parted to reveal a bright day with deep blue skies.

Dmitry took it as a sign of hope.

The boys were too tired to notice, however, because to them the days were starting to run together.

Unsure of why the old man wanted to meet outside and still exhausted from their lack of rest, they approached quietly dragging along one step at a time.

Dmitry turned, wind in his blonde locks streaked with silver and watched them approach. He wore dark shades to fight the cold winds that ripped past him and to hide the occasional tear that dripped on his marble skin.

As the boys got closer, a strange pride consumed him followed by solemn envy. How he wished that he and his brother could have had a second chance at things in another life where they were not sworn enemies set on a collision course to kill each other. How he wished that none of this blood feud had ever happened. He wished that Ivan could have seen what a fine boy he had helped conceive and the heights in which he would take him. Cutting off his emotions before they got too close, he took a deep breath and exhaled his thoughts.

Drugging through the wet grass, Gabriel felt shabby in his black tactical gear in comparison to his uncle who stood a few feet from him looking like the poster child for GQ. Tugging at his black top, he looked over at Anatoly and smirked. “Does he always dress like that?” he asked.

“
Always,” Anatoly answered.

“
Why?” Gabriel probed. “Is it to intimidate? It fucking works.”

Anatoly chuckled. “Just the way that he is,” he said, reaching into his pocket to pull out of stick of gum.

Anatoly was always comfortable in his jeans, in fact, he preferred them. But his father insisted that he dress more appropriately, thus the more-often-than-not suits and dress pants that he wore when he wasn’t gallivanting around the globe chasing kidnappers and killing pedophiles.

Today, however, he wore the tactical gear with ease, like an athlete in a sweat suit. It was a break to him from the normal bullshit. It made him remember when he was just a soldier in his father’s army. Life was simpler then. He didn’t have to think so much, be responsible for so much. Now, it felt like the entire world was on his shoulders.

Meeting Dmitry at the top of the hill, they looked west to see what Dmitry was staring attentively at.
Davyd’s final resting place.
The realization made Anatoly sick to his stomach. Davyd had been like his grandfather. Every memory of his father had Davyd somewhere in the background even when he was here holding down the European front when Dmitry was in the states courting Royal.

“
Damn shame,” Gabriel said, squinting in the sunlight. His green eyes flickered as he gazed across the serene landscape of snow-capped mountains in the backdrop and hills surrounding them in the valley. It was like someone had painted the place on a canvas and they had walked into a vision.