Scandalous Heroes Box Set (104 page)

Lilly knew that he was telling the truth.  She also knew that him coming to get her was a blessing.  It was just that it had been so many years since she had been able to depend on any man for anything until it was hard to accept his protection. And she hated herself for it. 

Cutting her eyes over to his hands, she twisted up her mouth.  “I don’t want to fight,” she said a little softer.  “I never meant for you to find out this way.  I had it all played out in my mind and it wasn’t like this.  You have to believe me.”

He took his eyes off the road for a brief moment and looked over at her.  He could see the determination in her eyes, the will to survive. 
How could he not respect that?
With a nod, he focused back on the road.  “
Da, da
. I know.”

That small recognition was enough to satisfy Lilly, if only for the moment.  Uncrossing her arms, she reached for the radio.  “Do you mind?” she asked.  The silence of the ride was forcing her to talk and at the moment that was the last thing that she needed to do.  Maybe the music would lighten the mood and give her time to think about something that was not stupid or callous to say. 

“Net,” Vasily answered.  “Help yourself.”

As she turned on the radio, she was hit with another untimely coincidence.  Marvin Gaye’s
Distant Lover
played, taunting them both with not only the gravity of their current situation but also the reminder of how Dylan got here in the first place. 

Shaking her head, she sat back in the seat and looked out the window with a condescending smirk. 

What a day?

***

It was time for his dogs’ midnight snack, and he couldn’t stand the idea of someone else feeding them.  It was his only time to relax and do something that he enjoyed that didn’t require an army around him or interaction with other asshole humans.  Making his way out to the kennels, not far from the patio area of his massive lawn, Anatoly trotted through the carefully manicured grass with his head down, dragging on a cigarette and enjoying the serene peacefulness. 

Of course, his men weren’t far.  They watched him from less than 50 feet away while he went about his business.  But at least they were not on his flank, which lately his father preferred. 

Anatoly had a rule about his backyard.  If his men were close enough to smell a fart, then they were too close.  But his father always worried about ambushes and felt that if they were too far away, then they couldn’t take a bullet for him.  Two schools of thought.  One family.  Such was the story of his life. 

Boris, the newly in-charge head of security, observed the most intently.  There was no way in hell that he was going to let anything happen to his boss on his watch.  Instead of hanging back, he walked toward his boss slowly, hoping that he wouldn’t notice him closing in. 

Anatoly did of course notice, but did not say anything.  He had been in Boris’ shoes not too long ago in his life and knew what the job was like. 

As he opened the kennel, one of his larger German Shepard’s leaped out into his arms, excited to see his master after many hours. Hugging and kissing his canine companion, he suddenly felt his phone vibrate in the back pocket of his jeans.  Considering his wife, cousin and his father were inside the compound, he was certain it was only one person at this time of night.

“You find her?” he asked as he answered his phone.

Vasily watched Lilly and Dylan as they were escorted up the steps and then inside the jet. “Da, boss.  But there is a glitch.”  He smacked his lips together.  “She’s got a kid.”

“How’s that a glitch? Just put them both up somewhere until this blows over.”

“It’s my kid,” Vasily answered more specifically.

Anatoly paused.  He wanted to laugh at the irony, but opted not to. 

“That kind of glitch, eh?” Anatoly took another drag of his cigarette and looked up at the clear night’s sky.  “Alright. Bring them here.”

“Are you sure?”  Vasily was expecting to be sent to Miami or even to Denver, but he wasn’t expecting his boss to open up his home.

“
Brat
, we’re family.  Now, if the kid wasn’t yours, I’d tell you to take them somewhere else, but…” he hesitated.  “Wait are you sure he’s yours?” Anatoly couldn’t help his cynicism.  He didn’t trust anyone but family. 

“It’s a good possibility.”

“Does he look like you?  Is the timeline right?” Anatoly hated to ask, but he had had more than a few experiences with desperate women and their lies.

“Timeline’s right.  He looks like his mother.”  Vasily grunted.  “And a little like my father.”

“Ouch.  That’s gotta suck,” Anatoly cracked.  He exhaled a deep breath.  “Bring them here.  I’ll tell papa.  We’ll figure out the rest when you get here.”

“I can’t thank you enough,” Vasily answered as a thousand-pound weight lifted off his shoulders.

Anatoly was a little taken back although he didn’t say it.  Vasily had never once in all of his years said those words to him.  “We all have to take care of our own. Besides if my father protected that cop’s family a year ago, then we damn sure are going to protect our own now.”

Vasily raised a brow.  Anatoly had a point.  “I’ll be there in two hours,” he said, hanging up the phone.

***

It had been a long time since Lilly had been on a jet.  She sat back in the white leather seat with her son tucked beside her and waited as the attendant checked to ensure that they were locked in properly.  She noticed that even though the blond woman was extremely petite and pretty, she carried weapons in holsters like most women wore earrings.

Graceful in her movements, the stewardess gave them both warm assuring smiles

“Would you like anything to drink before we begin take off?” she asked Lilly.

“No,” she said, eyeing the guns again.  She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to explain this to Dylan later.  She rubbed his hand.  “Are you thirsty, baby?”

“I want a Sprite,” Dylan answered.  He rested his head on his mother’s arm and stared across the plane.  “Mommy, I’m scared.”

“Why?” she asked, voice pitched high.

“I’ve never been on a plane before. I’m scared of planes.  I saw one on the news that went down in the ocean.  Nobody lived,” Dylan answered. 

It explained why the boy hadn’t noticed the guns. 
Dylan was deathly afraid of heights.  He had turned pale as he approached the plane and deathly still as he boarded, but wrapped in her own worry, she hadn’t noticed. 

The stewardess in her kindest voice bent to him and rubbed his head.  “Well, you’re in luck.  You see, this isn’t a plane.  It’s a jet…a very good jet.  And I promise you that you sail through the sky without every knowing that you left the ground.  In fact, we’ll put on a fun movie for you. I’ll pop you some popcorn.”  Winking at Lilly, who smiled back at her gratefully, she went to the back of the plane and brought back a snow white bear that Dmitry’s daughter Anya played with often.

“Thank you,” Dylan said, taking the bear. He rubbed his fluffy fur and eased his shoulders. 

It was funny what a simple toy could do to change a child’s disposition. 

“His name is Goober,” the woman said.  “I’m sure that his former owner would like for you to have him.”

“Really?” he asked, eyes lighting up.

“Absolutely,” she said, rubbing through his curly locks. 

“Thank you,” Lilly mouthed as she eyed Vasily. 

He came onto the plan with a small black bag that he sat behind the cockpit door, then took a seat in the chair facing them.  Putting on his seat belt, he motioned for the attendant.  “Take us home,” he said, looking at Dylan. He noticed in his hand, he was holding Anya’s bear. 

The woman nodded and went to tell the pilot where their final destination would be. 

Finally alone and out of harm’s way, Vasily was able to focus on the two people in front of him.  Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, he spread his long muscular legs apart and placed his elbows on his knees. 

Lilly looked over at him with an intense glare, one arm draped over her son, waiting for him to say something.

Unfortunately, for Vasily, he didn’t know what to say. He was a man of very few words and used to keeping all of his emotions, both good and bad, to himself. 

“What’s your name again?” Dylan finally asked, breaking the thick layer of proverbial ice. 

“Vasily,” he answered slowly enough for the boy to understand it. 

“And you are my mother’s friend?” Dylan continued to probe as he held the bear tightly.

Vasily knitted his fingers tightly together.  “I am.”  He looked at Lilly again.  “He’s very handsome.”  His wonderment was endless.  He’d never seen that particular color of green eyes before, and he had traveled the world.  He was fascinated by his little raspy voice and his obvious protective instinct over his mother. 

“Thank you.  I’d like to think so,” she said proudly.  “He’s an honor student, too, very smart.” 

“Really?” Vasily sat back in his seat as the jet began to move down the tarmac. 

“Mr. Vasily?” Dylan said, lifting his chin.  His eyes sparkled. 

“Please, just Vasily,” he answered.  “I don’t like formalities.”              

“Why does everyone carry guns on this jet?” Dylan asked innocently.

Vasily smiled and tugged at his suit jacket
.  The boy was very observant
.  “Well, we all work in security,” he said, trying to avoid a lie.  “We are like police officers.  In order to do our job, we need certain types of equipment.”  He moved his jacket for Dylan to see.  “Carrying the gun is just part of the job.  But don’t worry, you are completely safe.”

The answer seemed to sate Dylan’s growing curiosity. 

“Where are we going?” Lilly asked.

“Somewhere safe,” Vasily answered. “I’d rather not say in front of the…Dylan.”

Lilly twisted up her lip. 
Did he really expect her to wait until they arrived at where they were going for her to find out?
“
Nu, skazhite mne na russkom yazyke
,” she finally said, crossing her shapely legs.

The small motion caught Vasily’s attention, but he tried hard not to outright show his attraction. It was not fitting in this situation, and it might make them both way too uncomfortable, even for such a short flight.

“What did you just say, Mom?” Dylan asked.  He had never heard his mother speak in Russian before.

“Vasily understood me.  That’s all that is important.”

“
YA otvezu tebya v Memfise, v bezopasnoye mesto
, ” he answered, explaining that he was taking her to a safe place in Memphis.  

Vasily had forgotten that she spoke fluent Russian, but was glad that they had some barriers between themselves and the small child.  Surely things would come up very soon that would need to be addressed in his presence without him understanding. 

As the jet started to taxi down the runway, Dylan’s attention quickly shifted from his new fascination with his mother’s hidden language skills and Vasily’s gun to the uneasy feeling of moving at an rapid speed. 

“Mommy,” he said, fists balled up. 

“It will be okay, honey,” she promised.

But Dylan’s fear eroded all hopes of him staying calm.  Tears forming at the sides of his eyes, he quickly began to turn pale.

Vasily knew that he was supposed to stay in his seat, but he’d also made a million flights around the world both alone and for his boss on this very jet.  Unhooking himself, he moved over to Dylan, unlatched his seatbelt and picked him up.  Against the pressure of the plane ascending, he sat back down and locked Dylan into the seat with him.  Holding him close, he smiled.

“There, is that better?” Vasily asked, wiping Dylan’s tears.

Dylan nodded, holding the bear in a chokehold, and put his head against the man’s chest.

Vasily could feel his body heat, feel his heartbeat in his hands and smell the scent of innocence all about him.  It was a surreal experience.  This human being that he was cradling, this child who was so smart and so beautiful, was his.

He looked over at Lilly, who had stopped breathing all together at the sight of them and noticed the tears in her eyes. 

“It will be okay,” he said aloud for both Dylan and Lilly.  “I’ll keep you safe.”

She stared at him, tears flowing down her cheeks, hand clutching the armrests and tried to swallow down her sobs.  Trembling, she looked over at the stewardess as she came out of the cockpit once the jet leveled out.  “I’ll take a double scotch straight up if you have it,” she managed to bite out. 

Chapter Five

Memphis, TN

On the far side of the mansion, in his own private wing, the man of the house was far less stressed than his subordinates.  After a late dinner with the family and putting his children to sleep in their quarters, he made his way to his master bedroom, an almost vulgarly large space, decorated by the premier designer of the Western hemisphere and overseen by his better half. 

When Dmitry and his wife had decided to come back to the states for a while, she had redone the entire mansion to suit them, but spent an extra amount of care on their wing, which was easily 3,000 square feet for four rooms.  It was a hideaway from the world with every amenity possible, a place where he could take off his many hats and focusing on the sole job of being a husband.

In the custom-made king sized bed made for his exceptionally long body, Dmitry laid his head comfortably in his wife’s lap watching the 90 inch television across the room while she rubbed through his golden locks.  He stroked her arm gently and began to doze off when there was a knock on the door.

“Papa,” Anatoly said, waiting for his father to answer.

Dmitry looked at the door and then at the clock. With a huff, he rose up, muscles tensing in his six-pack of an abdomen and stretched.  “I’ll be out in a minute,” he said, throwing the sheets off his legs.  “What does that boy want now?”

His wife, Royal, rested back in the bed, her statuesque naked body giving off a silhouette in the dimly lit room.  Flashing lusty eyes at him, she arched her back and propped up her head on her hands.