Chapter 159 166

Chapter 159 166
“How could I have been so blind?” Rob mumbles. “He was right in front of me…”

“This is not your fault, Rob,” Olivia says, always ready to forgive. “He fooled you. He fooled Mia—”

“Mia,” Rob groans. “Fuck. This is going to devastate her.”

“We can tell her together.”

“No,” he says, taking Olivia’s hand and kissing it gently. “No, I should be the one to tell her.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’ll head over there now.”

A voice interrupts. “Before you do, can we talk?”

Both Olivia and Rob turn to Jennifer. For the first time, Rob looks at her with an expression that isn’t bristling with a year’s worth of tortured hate.

He nods awkwardly and lets go of Olivia. “Let’s go somewhere quiet,” he suggests.

“After you,” Jennifer murmurs. The two of them leave the room.

I notice Demyan has already disappeared. That just leaves Olivia and me in a room full of feds.

She meets my eyes for a moment, and then I take her hand and lead her out through the doors, putting our backs on the bloody nightmare that has consumed the last year of my life.

The sky bar is deserted. I find a corner table that overlooks the city and pull a chair out for her to sit in.

We breathe in silence for a long time. I wait for her to speak first. It’s not like her to let the quiet persist.

When she finally turns to me, her liquid honey eyes are filled with relief and the last vestiges of sadness.

“All that… it really happened?” she asks. There’s a heartbreaking tremor in her voice.

I reach out and take her hand gently. She closes her eyes for a moment and then leans into me, settling into the crook of my arm.

Right where she belongs.

“It really happened,” I tell her softly.

“You killed your mother.”

“I know it’s a lot to accept,” I say. “Especially for a woman who holds family in such high esteem. Especially for a woman who loved her parents completely.”

She nods. “Yulia wasn’t a mother. She was… She was…”

“A monster,” I finish firmly. “Every bit as bad as Hargrove in her own way.”

A new realization makes her stiffen. “She groomed me, too, didn’t she?”

I hate the wince that follows. Like she’s lashing herself internally for falling victim to so many liars at once.

“Yes. That is what proved it to me. The last nail in her coffin.”

Olivia shakes her head. “She was just so… kind. So…”

“Maternal.”

“Yes, exactly.” Olivia nods. “She made you believe that she would never do anything to hurt you. She made me believe that she was the long-suffering mother and you were the…”

“Asshole son?”

She laughs, then cringes like laughing hurts her. “Yes. Your words, not mine. Well, actually, I might’ve said them at one point or another.”

“Not undeserved.” I sigh and add, “I don’t blame you, you know. The woman was a gifted con artist.”

“But you saw through her.”

“Because I’ve had a lifetime of practice,” I say. “And my trust in her was already compromised.”

“How long did you know about her involvement with Hargrove?”

“A few weeks now.”

“And you pretended like you didn’t know?”

I toy with the ring on her finger. The ring that marks her as mine, flashing under the fluorescent lights. “If I’d cornered her, she would have tipped him off. Even if she hadn’t been able to, her silence would have been tip enough for Hargrove. I needed to keep her in the game to make sure I could take them both down together.”

“And Kennedy?” Olivia asks. “How did that come about?”

“That was unexpected,” I explain. “He’s the one who made contact with me. Through Jennifer, actually.”

“And the two of you came up with this plan together?”

“Not exactly,” I say, remembering that contentious first meeting with him that changed everything. “It’s not exactly easy for a man like me to be working with the cops. We clashed a lot. The only thing we could agree on was catching Hargrove.”

“You said you think he likes you, and honestly, I kinda see it,” Olivia says with a sheepish, teasing grin. “Maybe it’s the start of a beautiful friendship.”

I suppress a laugh and shrug. “I have no use for friendships. Alliances are the only connections that are useful. Our alliance served its purpose. Now, it’s time to put it to rest.”

She nods and rests her head against my shoulder once more. “Can I ask you a question, Aleks?”

“Of course.”

“Why did you kill her like that?” Olivia asks. “Kennedy knew as much as you did, right? Or at the very least, he suspected what was going on. He would have arrested Yulia as well as Hargrove. So why kill her?”

“Because the case against Hargrove is going to be a disgusting spectacle. His name, along with everyone connected to him, is going to be dragged through the mud. If I’d let Kennedy arrest her, she’d have had a trial of her own. And the Bratva would have been roped into it. I’m not interested in fame, Olivia. Notoriety has its place in the underworld. But in the larger scheme of things, it’s inconvenient.”

She nods, taking that in, but she doesn’t seem wholly satisfied with the answer. “It’s more than that though, isn’t it? It’s the Bratva. Only blood can pay for blood. Haven’t you said that to me before?”

I smile down at her, marveling at how far she’s come in such a short time. “You’ve been paying attention.”

“I’m an artist,” she laughs. “Paying attention is what I’m supposed to do.”

I take her hand and our fingers wind together. “You need something to eat.”

“I couldn’t eat if you forced it down my throat,” she scoffs. “I just watched you shoot your mother dead. And as much as she may have deserved it, it still doesn’t really lend itself to hunger.”

“The baby—”

She places her hand over her belly. “The baby is fine. I’ll let you know when I’m hungry.”

I decide not to push it just now. I have to learn to trust her like she’s learned to trust me.

“I still can’t quite believe it,” she admits after a moment. “How could she do it? She was poaching vulnerable children from their homes so she could feed them to a shark.”

“Why is it so hard to believe?” I ask. “She was a shark herself.”

“But what was the goal?” Olivia counters. “What did she have to gain?”

“The Bratva.”

Olivia raises her eyebrows in shock. “Are you serious?”

He nods. “She fancied herself a great leader. She resented the power she lost when I came back from Russia. She wanted that control back.”

“And she figured, if you were in jail, she could take over?”

“What other choice would the Bratva have had?” I say. “She thought she had it all lined up.”