His (Ties That Bind #2) - Natasha Knight Page 0,20

something. In fact, you’re going to meet him tomorrow.”

We leave early the next morning. I’m anxious as we head out, glancing at every closed door of the hotel, wondering who is inside, peering into each car in the parking lot, and still thinking about those men from last night when we pass the still-closed Dairy Queen. On the sidewalk, I see the bag I dropped that had the leftover ice cream. Josh is busy with one of the new toy trucks Lev bought him, and I’m grateful he doesn’t mention our trip.

“So, you really think it was my mom on that list?” Lev’s cousin had figured out that the name Kieran March on the list was actually my mother, Ciara March. March not being an uncommon name, I had paused when I’d seen it myself on the file, but not for long since Kieran is a man’s name, and my mother had no connection to Vasily or anyone like him that I could imagine.

“Let’s hear Maxim out. Let him tell it.”

I meet his eyes. “So, we’re about to meet a man who knew my mother.”

Lev told me who Maxim was last night. Well, he gave me a brief history of his time together with him in Vasily’s organization and told me that Vasily thinks Maxim is dead.

He also told me he’d been the hitman hired by Vasily to kill my mother.

“She’d dyed her hair like mine. I know that’s a memory and not something I’m making up,” I tell Lev again. “You really think she did it because she was running from Vasily?”

“Running from Vasily Stanislov or Gleb Mikhailov or maybe both.”

“And Gleb is Vasily’s boss.”

“In a way, yes.”

“I don’t understand any of this.” I slide down a little in my seat and look out the window.

“I have to go potty, Mommy,” Josh’s little voice says from the back seat.

I turn to look back at him. “You just went at the hotel, remember?”

“I have to go again.”

I look at Lev. “There’s an exit in about ten minutes. You think you can hold it until then, buddy?”

He nods and returns to playing with his truck.

“It’s fine,” Lev says. “I need to fill the tank anyway. Why are you so uneasy?”

“I think it’s understandable, isn’t it?”

He squeezes my knee, then keeps his hand there. “I promise nothing is going to happen to you or Josh.”

“And what about you? What if something happens to you?”

He holds my gaze, then turns his out the window. “There’s one more bit of news you should know.”

“What?”

He glances in the rearview mirror, then turns to me. “Andrei isn’t dead,” he says quietly enough that Josh won’t hear.

“What?” I feel the blood drain from my face.

“I’m pretty sure he’s badly injured, and I’m going to take care of it, but I wanted you to know.”

“How? And…oh my God. He’s going to come after us too.”

“Mommy?”

“Stay calm, Kat. It’s going to be okay,” Lev tells me. “Do it for Josh.”

I press the heels of my hands into my eyes then turn to Josh.

“I really need to go.”

“Almost there, baby.”

Lev picks up speed, and we’re turning off the exit not ten minutes later. He drives right up to the service area.

“I’ll fill up the tank and come back for you. You stay inside until you see me.”

I nod, climb out, then get Josh out. He’s got Wally in one hand and the toy truck in the other.

“Should we leave those in the car?”

“No,” he says and waves at Lev with the truck-hand.

I don’t argue and walk in through the sliding glass doors and toward the ladies’ room. The center is busy, and we have to wait in line for a few minutes, but pretty soon, it’s our turn. When Josh is finished, I lift him up at the sink to wash his hands.

It’s when we walk out that I see them.

Josh must see them at the same time because he stops, then waves. He recognizes the men from last night. They’d returned his scarf.

“Let’s go,” I tell Josh, pulling him along toward the door where, through the glass, I can see Lev at the pump across the parking lot.

“We’ll use the other exit,” the man says near enough to my ear to make me shudder. His hand falls on my shoulder again, like last night, except that today, it’s heavier, and when I try to pull away, he shifts his grip to my upper arm, and I know he’s not going to let go.

“You were getting ice cream,” Josh says