“Did you do it?” my brother asked.
I swallowed. “No, I didn’t. If he knew where I was, why didn’t he come after me himself?”
Harvey sighed into the phone. “Em, Dad is off the chain right now. Things are happening.”
“What kinds of things?”
“First,” Harvey said. “Tell me how you are.”
“I’m fine,” I told him. “Things are different here too, Harvey. Artem—he’s not what you would think.”
“Don’t tell me he’s talked you into caring for him.”
“He hasn’t talked me into anything,” I answered hotly. “And if you insinuate otherwise, then this call will end, and you will never hear from me again.”
“Okay, I’m sorry,” Harvey said immediately. “I don’t think I ever have heard you be so strong-willed about something before, Em.”
“I’m sorry,” I responded, placing a hand over my eyes. “I don’t know how I feel about Artem, but there are feelings, Harv. He’s not a bad guy.”
Harvey chuckled. “Oh, he is, Em, but if you like him, then it’s whatever you want in your life. I won’t try to stop you.”
“Thanks,” I said, glad to know that my brother was behind me and trusted in my judgment. “What’s going on with Dad?”
Harvey sighed into the phone. “It’s not good. There’s this probe into Dad’s finances going on. I don’t know how they even found out that he needed to be probed, but the news is full of our family’s dirty laundry every day. Dad has all these offshore accounts with a hell of a lot of money in them. I had to bail him out the other day, Em. He’s on house lockdown until the feds finish their investigation, but I think he’s going to go to jail.”
I couldn’t believe it. My father, going to jail for money laundering? I mean, we had nice things, a big mansion, expensive cars. We had never lacked for anything, but that money had come from my father’s ability to negotiate big deals and his success in stocks.
Well, at least that was what he had told us. “Is it true, Harvey?”
“Yeah, Em, it is,” Harvey sighed again. “I want to say that it’s a total lie, but Dad, he’s in a lot of trouble. I sent Mom to her sister’s just so she wouldn’t have to be hounded by the press. They are camping out at the gates. I can’t even order a fucking pizza without them trying to get in.”
“I’m so sorry,” I stammered. “I will ask Artem if I can come home.” It would tear me in two to do so, but my family needed me. My brother needed me.
“No, Em,” Harvey said after a moment. “There’s no reason for you to come here. There’s nothing to do until they finish with their investigation. Dad keeps himself locked in his office most days. I sent all the help home, and I spend most of my time trying not to believe it, but I think he did this. If you truly are happy with the Russian, then stay there. You deserve it.”
I bit my lip, wanting to tell Harvey that I needed to come home. If all that was going on, then I didn’t want to put myself in the midst of that and potentially expose where I had been all this time. I didn’t want to see Artem in handcuffs.
“There’s more, Em,” my brother said softly. “There’s rumors that Dad killed people back in the day. Two people, to be exact.”
I felt my heart fall out of my chest. “It’s true?”
“I don’t know what to believe,” Harvey said. “But if Dad was hiding this from us, then he’s probably hidden other things as well. You said that Krylov took you because Dad killed his parents, right? I think he might be telling the truth.”
I felt sick to my stomach. The rumors couldn’t be true, but deep down, I believed Harvey. If Dad had held this from us, then there might be a completely different side of my father’s past that he hadn’t shared with anyone.
The same past that was coming out and unraveling right before his eyes.
That, and Artem had every right to hate our family, every right to take me from my father and try to exact his revenge. I was the evil one, not him.
“Em?”
“I’m here,” I responded. I needed to tell Artem what was going on sooner than later and listen to his story about his version of that past. How could he not hate me for this?
“There’s more, Em.”
Oh God, I couldn’t take anything more. “What is it?”
“A few days ago, I heard Dad talking to someone on his cell. This was before the feds stepped in. And normally, I don’t listen to his calls, but he sounded pretty angry. He was talking about a grab job, and at first, I thought about you, but I don’t think it was you. Is anything going on there?”
Noah. Surely my dad wouldn’t have taken him. He had no reason to do so. “There’s a man that was taken,” I said slowly. “But he has no ties to Artem. I don’t know why he would take him.”
“Well, I don’t know who it was,” Harvey stated. “But I don’t think he was going to invite them over to dinner.”
“This number,” I said. “It’s my new cell phone. If you need to leave, you can come here.” I didn’t know how Artem would react to my brother being here, but I couldn’t just leave him to fend for himself and go about my life like nothing was going on. “I will talk to Artem.”
“I’m going to hang out just a little longer,” my brother responded. “And see what happens. The good news is that I’ve already been interviewed and passed the lie detector, so they aren’t after me. Mom did the same. They’ve asked about you, but I told them that you are out of the country for now. I mean, Alaska could be another country, right?”
My eyes teared again. “If I need to come home, I will, Harvey. You just say the word.”
“Nah, stay there for now. I’m happy that you are happy and safe. I think that Russian of yours will keep you away from this shit, and something tells me he doesn’t want to be exposed to it either. Just keep in touch, will you?”
“I will,” I replied, my voice cracking. “Be safe.”
He clicked off, and I threw the phone on the bed, letting the tears fall. My family was in shambles, and I was falling in love with my kidnapper. This was crazy.
But at least my brother was safe for now. I really wanted him to come here so that he could be removed from the ugliness that my father had caused, but Harvey knew what he was doing, and I had to trust in the fact that he would remain safe. I couldn’t lose him.
My father, on the other hand…I wasn’t so sure if I knew him at all.