When I said I thought Kazmir might be hungry again, Wellie made up an excuse to check something outside.
“Can I stay?” asked Darrow.
“Why would you leave?”
She shrugged. “I thought you might like privacy.”
“Only if it makes you uncomfortable.”
Darrow shook her head. “So my brother really didn’t know the baby was his until this afternoon? Is he really that daft? I thought the man was a spy.”
“I’ve been trying to tell him, but every time I planned to, something happened that prevented us from talking.”
“He didn’t know the minute he saw him?”
“To be honest, a lot of people have said Kazmir looks like me, but I don’t see it either.”
Darrow bit her bottom lip. “I’m not sure what I’m permitted to ask.”
“You can ask whatever you’d like.”
“How did you and Thornton meet?”
I laughed.
“What?” pressed Darrow.
“It’s a long story.”
She punched in the pillow nearest her on the sofa and rested her head on it. “Okay, go.”
“I used to work for an organization called United Russia.”
Her eyes scrunched. “Are you Russian?”
I nodded.
“You don’t sound Russian.”
“I’ve worked hard not to.”
“While your accent is very hard to place, I never would’ve guessed Russian.”
“Part of what made me good at my job.”
Darrow cringed. “Which was?”
“I was an operative, but primarily an assassin.” I wasn’t sure what I expected her reaction to be, but I certainly expected the woman to have one. Instead, she rested her head back on the pillow.
“Go on,” she said, appearing nonchalant.
“Being able to speak with many different accents or dialects, made my infiltration of enemy organizations far easier.”
“You said you used to work for them. Who do you work for now?”
I leaned down and kissed Kazmir’s brow. “I am retired.”
Darrow smiled. “Okay, but you haven’t answered my original question. How did you and my brother meet?”
“I was hired to kill him.”
“I see. Well, I guess that didn’t happen.”
I laughed again. Darrow really wasn’t affected at all by what I was telling her, other than being amused. “No, it didn’t. What it did do was mark the beginning of the end of my career—almost my life.”
“Really?” She sat up and leaned forward with her elbows on the knees. “Why?”
“As evidenced by this little angel, your brother and I had an affair. One that began shortly after we first met, and carried on until UR put a ten-million-dollar bounty out on my head.”
“Oh. My. God. This is fascinating. Neither Sutton nor Thornton, nor even Axel, will ever tell me anything.”
“While I love Kazmir with every fiber of my being, I never planned to get pregnant. The last time your brother and I were together, we agreed that for my safety, we needed to end our affair. It wasn’t quite that simple…”
She sat back against the pillow and sighed. “Is it ever when men are involved?”
“I suppose not. But it does explain how I was able to keep the child from him.”
“Keep going.”
“I had already gone into hiding when I realized I was pregnant. Being so made it necessary for me to be more careful, move more often, cover my tracks better. It’s one thing for me to protect myself. It was another thing entirely for me to protect my unborn baby. After Kazmir was born, the need to stay underground intensified.”
“What happened next?” Darrow asked, eyes wide.
“Shiver negotiated the release of the bounty.”
She sat up again. “Wow. You’re joking.”
“I’m not. He didn’t do it alone. Both SIS and the CIA were involved. I don’t know all the details, but the person who was offered up in exchange was someone UR wanted far more than me.”
“Who was it?”
“A man named Makar Petrov. He had faked his death years before and had been living in America under an assumed identity. That of a man he’d murdered.”
“I am in awe of you right now.”
“I had nothing to do with it. You should be in awe of your brother.”
“Oh, I am. Both of them actually. I wish they could tell me more than they do.” She scrunched her brow. “You aren’t going to get in trouble with him for telling me this, are you?”
“I haven’t told you anything I shouldn’t have.”
“Okay. Good. Go on, then,” Darrow muttered.
“There was another assassin who was on UR’s hit list, someone who is a very dear friend of mine. More like a sister.” Kazmir fussed, and I moved him to my other breast. “Anyway, Shiver, along with some other people he works with Stateside, was able to deliver Petrov.”
“So United Russia no longer wanted you dead?”
“Oh, they wanted me dead all right. Probably still do, but they stand to lose a great deal of money if they kill me or my friend.”
“It must be quite a sum.”
“Billions.”
“Again, I’m in awe. You’re worth billions to them?”
“Not at all. It’s just part of the deal that was made. Again, nowhere near as simple as the story I’m telling you.”
“Understood.”
“At first, my excuse for not telling Shiver about the baby was that I was in hiding. He and I had agreed that until we figured out how to make UR’s bounty go away, we’d stay out of contact. Once it had been lifted, I stayed on the run. Both because I didn’t trust United Russia, and because of my baby.”
“You were hiding from Thornton too?”
I nodded. “After Kazmir was born, I was afraid he wouldn’t forgive me for keeping him a secret.”
“Did he?”
“I suppose you could say that. Your brother vowed to protect us, even before he knew Kazmir was his son.”
“He loves you.”
“I believe he does.”
“Do you love him?”
“With all my heart.”
Darrow put her hand on her own heart. “This is the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard. It should be a book, or better—a movie.”
“I don’t know about that.” I wondered if I was going too far, but given I was here, and likely bringing danger to Shiver’s family, I continued. “Shiver found me before your father died. Right after he did, he was called back to London. Once he was gone, someone planted a bomb where I was staying.”
Darrow sat straight up, no longer smiling or laughing. It was almost as though she had a personality change. “You and Kazmir could’ve been killed.”
She didn’t pose it as a question, but I nodded anyway. “We don’t know who was behind it, and that’s why I’m here.”
“My brother won’t let anything happen to the two of you. You know that. He’ll die first.”
Those were the words he’d used, not that I would tell Darrow that. There was no reason to; she knew her brother.
“Tell me what happened with our mother?”
I shrugged. “I got the impression she didn’t want us here. Perhaps she disapproves.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve got you beat. I’m sleeping with the groundskeeper’s son. Which reminds me, what’s happened to Wellie?”
“I have no idea.”
“I’ll be right back. I’m going to see if he’s still outside. It’s bloody cold, not that he’d think so.”
“He’s asleep,” I whispered, looking at my baby.
“I’ll be right back,” Darrow whispered too.