Ana stood in front of Siobhan’s door and smacked it with her fist. She’d been pressing the doorbell for several minutes with no response, and her frustration was deep. She raised her fist to bang on the door again when she heard a voice over her shoulder.
“No one’s home.”
She whirled to see Siobhan and Royal standing behind her. “Where is she?”
“Come inside,” Siobhan said, moving past her to put her key in the lock.
“No. You can answer my questions out here. Where is she?” Royal grabbed her arm, but she dug in her heels. “No.”
Siobhan waved Royal off. “I have something for you, but you have to come inside to get it. It’s from her.”
Ana sighed in resignation. It had been a week since the raid at the club. No one had heard from Mikhail, and when she tried to find Neal in the system it was like she’d vanished. Dominique was in federal custody and the only people who might have an idea of what had happened to Neal were standing in front of her. She was out of choices, and she knew it, so she followed them into the apartment.
“I didn’t want to come here, but you haven’t responded to my calls,” she said.
“Sit down,” Siobhan said. “Let’s talk.”
She followed Siobhan’s lead and settled onto the couch. She took a moment to catch her breath and glanced around to see the apartment was looking bare except for stacks of boxes lining the walls. “Are you moving?”
“Yes.”
“Into the Mancuso mansion?”
Siobhan’s expressed was pained. “No.” She reached for Royal’s hand. “We have other plans.”
Ana winced with her own pain. She’d had plans too until Neal disappeared off the face of the earth. Now she was hiding out from Mikhail instead of taking over his business, an avenue of escape now completely cut off from her since Mikhail’s men believed she’d betrayed him. She’d learned that her father had recalled Katia back to Russia, probably to grill her about what had been happening here, and once he learned of what he would deem her indiscretions, that home would be foreclosed to her as well. She’d spent a lifetime plotting her freedom, but she hadn’t expected it in such a dramatic package. At this point, she didn’t care about ruling an empire. All she wanted was the simple pleasures of a small, quiet house where she could live out her days with someone she loved, but even that wasn’t possible. Neal was gone, she was on the run, and there was no one she could turn to except the women seated with her now and they were on the way out. “You’re leaving.”
“Yes. We’re starting over. Somewhere new.”
“Where are you going?”
“Do you really want to know?” Siobhan asked. “Think carefully before you respond. Knowledge can make you a target.”
“Never mind,” Ana said, not bothering to hide her despair. “It doesn’t matter anyway.”
“Wait here.”
Siobhan stood abruptly and walked out of the room. Ana faced Royal, but when she saw pity reflected back at her, she looked away. She didn’t need pity, but she did need answers. When Siobhan returned, she was going to get some.
“This is for you,” Siobhan said as she walked back into the room. She handed over a folded piece of paper. “She made me promise to give it to you. I planned to find you before we left.”
Ana held it up but didn’t open it. “This is it? Where is she?”
“She’s gone. She didn’t have a choice.”
“Everyone has a choice.”
“It’s a nice sentiment, but not entirely true,” Siobhan said. “I would have lived my life differently had I known Don Carlo was my father, but since I didn’t know, I didn’t have a choice. You could have chosen not to marry Mikhail, but I expect you didn’t have other palatable options. Yes, we have choices, but circumstances often curtail the best ones, leaving us with no way out. Neal is gone and you should go too because if he finds you, he will kill you.”
She knew what Siobhan said was true, but she felt so lost and she couldn’t stop the feeling that if she could talk to Neal, she might be able to find peace. She looked at the paper in her hand. It wasn’t the same as talking to Neal, but perhaps reading her words might give her some form of closure, if not satisfaction. “I should go,” she said, not wanting to be alone again, but also not wanting to read Neal’s note until she was alone.
She walked a block and hailed a cab from a hotel nearby to take her across town to the room she’d rented for the week. It was dingy and dusty, and she hated it, but she’d told herself it was temporary, until she could find Neal and plan a future with her. Looking back, she’d been silly to think what they’d had was anything other than the attraction that comes from being thrown together by circumstance. It wasn’t lasting, it wasn’t true. Neal had left without a real good-bye, and she was left with nothing more than the note on the table in front of her.
Read it.
What was the point?
Read it.
Tired of battling the voice, she picked up the paper, skimmed it at first, and then settled in to study every word. She read it three times, each time taking a break in between to pace the small room. She scoured the words one more time before folding the paper back up and hiding it with the cash she’d managed to squirrel away before she’d gone on the run.
Yes, Neal was gone, and she wasn’t coming back, but that didn’t mean she had to sit around in this dump and whine about it. She was Anastasia0 Petrov and she had choices to make.
* * *
“Same table?”
“Yes, please.” Neal slipped a twenty into the host’s hand as he led her to the table that gave her the best view of the front of the room. The same waiter who’d served her the past seven days approached with a smile.
“Good afternoon, ma’am.”
“Luke, when are you going to stop calling me that?” Neal grinned to soften the remark. “Seriously, I’ve been called a lot of things, but ma’am is the absolute worst.” She held out her hand. “It’s Darby. Darby Lassiter.” Her tongue tripped over her new name. Everything she’d read about witness protection said most people got to keep their first name, but her handler had made her change hers. Too distinctive, he said. She’d shrugged it off at the time and chosen a name that symbolized her newfound freedom, but she’d hardly used it at all since she’d arrived in New York City. It was time to try out her new self.
Except there was nothing new about her. She was the same person she’d been in Dallas, but jobless and alone except for the sister who didn’t even know she was there. She’d had no contact with Siobhan other than a package that had arrived the day before, full of cash and a typed note that told her to be patient, love would find her. It wasn’t like Siobhan to be so sentimental, but falling for Royal had changed her, softened her around the edges. Neal used to think that was a bad thing, but who was she to judge? If Siobhan was happy, then how she chose to move through life was entirely up to her.
But Siobhan had been wrong about love finding her. She’d come to this hotel for the last seven days, checked in for her reservation in the restaurant and taken high tea with women in furs, laden with shopping bags. They all sat in groups, giggling, gossiping, and gorging on three-tiered treats and glass after glass of champagne as if these indulgences were the only important things in the world. She didn’t belong here, and she didn’t belong with a woman who would want to be in this place. But day after day, she returned, hoping against hope Ana Petrov would walk through those doors and join her for tea. And whatever else life might hold.
“The usual?”
She looked up and took a moment to focus. She had to stop drifting off like that. She might be in witness protection, but she could still be in danger if she wasn’t careful. “Sorry. Yes, the Prince of Wales, please.” She’d felt silly at first, ordering high tea, but she’d come to love the assortment of sweets and savories. When she finally gave up on Ana, she’d have to find another spot to indulge her new habit since at a hundred bucks a pop, her money wasn’t going to last long here.
“I’ll be right back with your tea, ma’—sorry, Ms. Lassiter.”
She smiled at him as he started to walk away, but her smile froze when she spotted a woman grab his arm. She sprang out of her chair and started toward them, but the woman turned toward her and held up a hand to signal she should stop, and when she saw who it was she instantly obeyed.
“Luke, right?” Ana said.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“He calls everyone that,” Neal said. “Don’t take it personally.”
Ana smiled at her. “I kind of like it.”
“Duly noted.” Neal dropped her voice to a whisper. “You came.”
“I did. And I have things to say, but first I need to take care of something.” She turned back to Luke. “Change our order to the Tsar Nicholas II. We have many things to discuss, and we’ll be needing lots of champagne. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He scurried away as soon as she released him.
Neal took the opportunity to step closer. “You got my note.”
“I did.” Ana looked up and recited the words. “‘If only we’d had a chance to have tea at the Baccarat like you wanted.’”
“And that was enough to tell you where to find me?”
“It was the only clue I had.”
Neal led her back to the table, and once they were seated, she dove into the topic at the top of her mind. “We never talked about what would happen when you were free of Mikhail.” Her gut churned while she waited for Ana’s response.
“No, we didn’t.” Ana reached her hand across the table and threaded her fingers through Neal’s. “Did we need to?”
“I don’t.” She gripped Ana’s hand tighter. “I’m kind of a mess right now. Getting Sarah settled, and I don’t have a job, and I live in a tiny apartment, but I feel like I have a chance to start over, to find out who I am and who I can become. Does that make sense?”
“It does. I confess I feel the same. The question becomes is this a journey you want to take on your own or would you like some company?”
Neal stared into her eyes. She knew exactly what she wanted, and for the very first time in her life the choice wasn’t about duty or debt, but only about what she wanted. And she only wanted one thing.
“I want to build a new life with you. Please tell me that’s what you want too.”
Tears formed in Ana’s eyes, but the big smile signaled she was crying tears of happiness as she answered in the very best way. “You’re all I ever wanted. I love you, Neal, and I want to find happiness by your side.”
THE END