okay.”
“Good.”
This was probably the longest conversation she had ever had with the woman. She was hyperaware of her family, who had all turned into statues as they watched the exchange happening between her and Zoya. She didn’t know what to tell them. The fact that they assumed they understood her complex feelings or opinions about this woman, or anything else for that matter, wasn’t her problem.
“Someone will be watching Zoya as well,” Konstantin said. “That was already decided a while ago.”
“Even though she didn’t want that,” Amelia, Konstantin’s wife, added. “He does account for others, Viktoria, even if you think he doesn’t.”
She passed Amelia a look.
“I’m aware,” she replied dully.
It wasn’t that she disliked Amelia, because she did like her, in a way. She simply found that when someone—but especially a woman—was similar to her own self in ways, they could easily rub her the wrong way.
“Come on,” Pav murmured behind her, his hand coming to lock around her wrist. “Let’s go sit back in the room and relax.”
That sounded perfect.
“In a second,” she told him.
He nodded but not before dragging her a little closer to him. She didn’t mind that—being tucked into his chest, as one of his arms locked around her waist and his lips rested at the back of her head while he breathed in deep. It reminded her, for the moment, that she was safe.
What more could she want?
“Move her out of the city,” Kolya said, gesturing at Viktoria. “We can move the others, too.”
“I’m not leaving the city.”
Konstantin looked her way, shaking his head. “That’s dangerous. It would be better if you—”
“I’m not running anymore.”
That was her hard line.
“I’ll be with her,” Pav murmured against her hair. “I’ll keep her out of sight, and there’ll be men posted here. If you think about it, someone could still find her outside of the city. At least here, we can control how difficult it is to get to her. Away from here, there are too many unknowns and variables that could cause issues should something happen.”
Konstantin sighed. “He’s right.”
Viktoria was still staring at Zoya. She knew the girl had fucked up feelings about their father—the same way Viktoria did, but for entirely different reasons. Zoya felt like she’d missed out on a father because Vadim had always kept her and her mother a secret. He was around just long enough to toss money at them and keep them out of sight. He never gave a fuck.
“You didn’t miss out on anything, you know,” Viktoria said.
Zoya arched a brow. “I’m sorry?”
“Vadim.” Viktoria shrugged and smirked a little. Bitterly. “You didn’t miss out on anything where he was concerned. He didn’t know how to be a father, Zoya, he only knew how to be the illusion of one. And it’s become painfully clear to me that no father at all would have been far better than the one I never really had.”
The room quieted.
Truth might silence.
But truth was power.
Viktoria went back to the bedroom.
Pav followed behind.
14.
PAV ADMIRED the sway of Viktoria’s hips as she paced from one side of the hotel room to the other. He could get up, distract her long enough to stop the pacing, and deal with it that way, but he figured this was more entertaining for him. He was able to watch all of her curves and the way that she moved in her frustration while he stayed shadowed on the chair in the corner near the heavy drapery.
It wasn’t like she didn’t know he was there. She watched him go sit down, of course. He wasn’t attempting to sneak up on her again—he knew better than to do that; she didn’t like it very much, even if he found it highly amusing. He was simply letting her work out this restlessness on her own.
And he got a good show with it.
Mostly.
“This is driving me crazy,” Viktoria muttered, her pacing coming to an abrupt stop in front of his chair. He tipped his head back to stare up at her. “Doesn’t it bother you to just … sit here and wait for something to happen?”
Pav smiled a bit. “Not particularly, no.”
Viktoria gave him a look.
Pav only shrugged.
He wasn’t lying.
“Besides, didn’t you mostly just stay hidden in your house a good portion of the time?” he asked, arching a brow when she looked away from him. “And now when you actually need to stay hidden away, you want to be restless. Think about it.”
Viktoria exhaled loudly. “It’s because I’m waiting for something to happen, but