Cyrus's eyes widened as he shook his head and reached for his trembling mate. "Good thing you guys know better than to pack heat when you visit me. Just think how bad you would've felt if you'd shot me right then, Ivan."
I shook my head, not even wanting to think about that and instead turned to hug Tanner and make sure he was okay. He leapt into my arms, wrapping his arms around my neck and his legs around my waist as he clung to me. He was talking so fast it took me a few seconds to make sense of it.
"The human head remains conscious for about fifteen to twenty seconds after it's been decapitated. Human feet have fifty-two bones, so that means we're held up by one quarter of our bodies’ bones."
Hugging him tight, I brushed a kiss against his temple. "Don't worry, Facts. The car was empty, so there aren't any severed heads or random bones that need counting. We are okay… everyone is okay."
Thankfully.
A crowd of people had spilled out of the restaurant to gape at the burning car. Angelina rushed over, her eyes filled with fear as she shook her head. "This wasn't us, I swear. Call my grandfather and he'll confirm. No harm comes to our customers. Even if you had done us wrong, you shoulda been safe here. Trust me, this wasn't done by any member of the Salvatori family."
Cyrus walked over with his notepad in hand. "We believe you, Angelina. If you have a moment, I would like to get a few phone numbers from you and the footage from your parking lot cameras." He glanced over at Vasily. "Sorry, brother. This happened on my watch, so now I'm involved. Deal with it."
When Vasily started to argue, I turned to Joey. I figured Cyrus and Vasily could measure dick sizes on their own. Right now, I needed to get my mate out of here. "Do me a favor and call Pops. Since we all came in your SUV, we’ll need a ride anyway." I wasn't worried about stepping on Vasily's toes when I gave the order because he was too focused on whatever Cyrus and Angelina were saying.
They started to follow her inside when Cyrus stopped and turned. He looked worried as he glanced at Leaf. River went over and put an arm around his brother. "You and Vasily go check out the cameras, Cyrus. I'll get Leaf home and stay with him until you get there."
Leaf frowned, shaking his head. "I don't need a babysitter, River. I'm small, but mighty, and perfectly capable of protecting myself and the kids."
River rolled his eyes. "No, you're really not. Now quit fighting it, because you and I both know I'll win. If you're nice, I might even let you braid my hair."
Leaf darted forward to give Cyrus a kiss. "Go ahead, papa bear. You heard my brother, I get to do something with that mop he calls hair." When he turned back around and chortled to himself while he looked at River, I couldn't help but be grateful for the two of them and how easily they rolled with whatever happened.
Tanner had squirmed down and was watching the pair of brothers with fresh interest. And even better? He wasn't shaking with fear anymore.
I shoved my hands in my pockets, rocking back on my heels as I leaned back and took a calming breath. Shit was getting real. But… as scary as it was, we were all okay.
Now we just needed to stay that way. And find whoever was trying to turn our precariously balanced city into a war zone.
11
Tanner
I bounced happily beside Ivan. “It’s so nice to get out of the house for once. Thank you for arranging this for me.”
Ivan squeezed my hand as we stepped into the attached garage where the SUVs were parked. Normally he had a driver bring them around to the front, but these weren’t normal times. The tensions between the families, the gangs, the cops, literally everyone in Chicago, had become so thick you could practically cut the air with a rusty cleaver.
All of my baby appointments had been conducted at home. I worked from home. We ate at home. I hadn’t left the house since someone blew Joey’s car up. But ever since I’d slipped out of the headache-plagued first third of my pregnancy a couple weeks ago, I’d been getting antsy. And I knew an antsy me was difficult to live with. I knew Ivan wanted to do something to help ease my frustration, my cabin fever, but nothing felt safe anymore.
“I feel more secure with five SUVs full of bodyguards accompanying us to the baby store,” Ivan said as if he could hear my thoughts.
“Me too. But we could have bought everything online, if we needed to.” As happy as I was to get out of the house, I hated to cause him more stress.
Ivan brushed a kiss on the top of my head. “Yes, we could have, but I figure that even the assholes trying to take Chicago down would show a little respect where babies were concerned. And if not, they’d show a little caution when faced with two dozen Russian bears loaded for… well, bear.”
I could agree with that. Even though I’d come to know most of the guys getting into matching SUVs around us, they still looked scary to me.
“Good evening, guv’nors,” Misha said in a terrible attempt at a Cockney accent as we climbed into our car. “Where I be takin’ ye today?” He’d even found some kind of corny chauffeur's hat.
Ivan slapped it down over his eyes. “You need practice, bro. You’re worse than Dick Van Dyke.”
“You don’t like my disguise?” Thankfully, he used his normal voice.
“I think a disguise is pretty fucking useless when we’re going to roll up to a suburban shopping mall looking like the president is in town.”
“Fine. Be boring. I was just trying to have a little fun. God knows we haven’t had much of that lately.”
Ivan sighed and pulled his buckle over his shoulder. I did the same, grunting a little as I had to adjust it for my belly. It wasn’t super big yet, but it was there.
“Just keep your eyes open on the drive. We can have ‘fun’ at the store.”
“Yeah, it’s gonna be a lotta fun picking out baby stuff and dealing with the serious choices. You know, shit like whether you need the blue ducky or the orange ducky,” Misha grumbled. “A real party.”
“Hey, it’s a store for children. You should fit right at home.” Ivan tapped the back of Misha’s hat.
Misha hissed and adjusted the hat, throwing his brother the middle finger. “I’ll keep an eye on the road, you keep an eye on your mate and kid.”
“Oh, don’t worry.” Ivan brought my fingers to his lips and kissed them. “I will.”
Would this fluttery feeling ever go away? Would he ever stop looking at me like that? I sure hoped not.
“Here we go,” Misha said as the garage door slowly opened two cars ahead of us. There was a tense moment as we pulled out. I’d overheard Ivan talking to someone about that being our most vulnerable point, but within seconds we were on the road.
“See?” Ivan smiled, but his shoulders were still tense. “No problems.”
I bit my tongue to keep from saying he was the one who was stressed, not me. But not literally. I sucked at keeping my mouth shut. “Did you know that the Anglo-Zanzibar war was the shortest recorded war? It was between the UK and the Zanzibar Sultanate and it lasted only thirty-eight minutes.”
“Here we go again,” Misha groaned.