Page 88 of Born into Blood

“Nothing. I walked her to her door just like you asked, and I watched her go inside. I didn’t leave the hallway until the door was shut and I heard her lock it. There was no one around, no hint of anything suspicious.”

“She was fine,” Svetlana says. “I swear, Luka, there was nothing going on, and she was fine when we dropped her off—happy and safe. She wasn’t worried or scared when she walked into that apartment.”

I nod, trusting them both to have picked up on it if something was off. “Then they took her after you left, which means it’s only been about thirty minutes.”

Pip gives a soft meow, reminding me that I’m still holding him. I pass him to Svetlana, and she immediately cups his small body to her chest and kisses his head.

“Take care of him for me. Lara’s going to want him when she gets back.”

She nods at me, both of us refusing to believe that any other outcome besides her safe return is a possibility.

“Get my daughter’s ass out of here, Vitya,” my Uncle Vitaly says as he walks over to us. “I don’t want her anywhere near this. Take her back to the apartment. Stay there and don’t let her or my wife out of your sight.” He gives his daughter a hug and kisses her head. “Listen to him, Sveta. Now is not the time to be stubborn.”

“I know the drill, Dad.” She hugs him back and then goes to stand by Vitya. She likes to test boundaries and push buttons, but we all know how serious this is, and Sveta is a lot of things, but she’s not stupid. She remembers the last time we went through this, when Natalya was taken and Vitya was almost killed, and she knows our focus needs to be on finding Lara and not worrying about whether or not she’s going to listen and stay inside where it’s safe.

She looks at me and pets Pip’s head. “I’ll keep him safe for Lara.”

“Thanks, Sveta,” I tell her before Vitya grabs her arm and leads her back to the SUV.

They drive away as my Uncle Danil walks over to a line of cars and starts looking around. He squats, glancing under a green Toyota, and when he stands back up, he’s holding a phone. I don’t need to get closer to know it’s Lara’s. A sinking feeling hits my chest. My dad grips my shoulder, squeezing it and reminding me to keep it together.

My Uncle Lev asks, “Can you think of anyone who might have something to do with this?”

I nod. “Yeah, someone in the Lebedev family, someone who might’ve survived.”

“Impossible,” my Uncle Matvey says as my Uncle Danil looks up from his computer and shakes his head at me and says, “No way, Luka. We killed them all. We made damn sure of it.”

“But you didn’t know about Lara,” I tell them, and I can tell by the way my dad looks away and my Uncle Matvey curses under his breath that they’re not happy about having missed something.

“The Lebedev Bratva is dead,” my Uncle Vitaly insists. “The reason we never noticed Lara is because she was raised in secret and had nothing to do with her dad’s business or Bratva. Had she been, we would’ve found her a long time ago.”

“And killed her?” I can’t help but ask.

“Yes,” my Uncle Matvey says without hesitation.

“If she was running his Bratva,” my dad clarifies. “And if she was, then she wouldn’t be the girl you fell in love with, Luka, so stop looking at us like that. You have no idea what her dad and uncle have done to this family. Just because we told you the story doesn’t mean you know all the details, and it sure as hell doesn’t mean you know what Alina looked like when we found her or how long it took before she could even sleep through the night without waking up screaming.”

“Or how long it took before she could even eat or feed herself,” Uncle Matvey says, looking at me. “Even now, after two decades, she still has the occasional nightmare. There’s a lot of things that he did to her that you don’t know about, Luka. You’re just going to have to trust me when I say it’s worse than you could ever imagine.”

“Okay, so if it’s not the Lebedev Bratva, then who could it be?” Val asks, trying to diffuse the situation.

“I don’t know,” my dad admits. “We haven’t seen any signs of there being another Bratva in the city, and as far as I know, no one else knows about Lara being Osip’s daughter.”

As soon as he says it, I remember our visit to Lou’s. “Someone else knows,” I quickly say, and when they all turn to stare at me, I add, “Lara found a business card in her mom’s closet. It was to a topless bar near Pink, and we went there asking questions. She was desperate to find out who her dad was, and we thought this guy might have some answers.”

“Did he?” my dad asks, and I can tell he isn’t thrilled about me questioning some guy without backup, but in my defense I’d had no fucking clue her dad was a goddamn sex trafficker. I’d had every reason to believe he’d just been a guy who’d gotten Lara’s mom pregnant and then died. There was absolutely no reason to involve the Bratva.

“He remembered her mom,” I tell them, “and her dad. All he knew was that Osip did something that put him on your radar and that you killed them all for it. He said he didn’t want to know what it was, that he wanted nothing to do with any of it.”

“Do you believe him?” my dad asks.

“Yeah, he was scared shitless, even after all these years, but it’s possible he knows more,” I admit. I’m pretty good at judging when someone is lying to me, but maybe I’m wrong, maybe I missed something and Lara is paying the price for my mistake. The thought sickens me.

My dad pins me in one of his don’t bullshit me stares and asks, “Did you know who Osip really was before we told you about him tonight?”

I have no desire to lie to my dad again, but I’m also not going to waste precious time filling him in on details that can easily be explained later. “I found out tonight, just a few hours before you told us.”

He raises a brow at that but knows better than to press for more information right now. Instead he just says, “We’re not done talking about this, Son. After we get Lara back, we’re having a family meeting.”

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