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“Okay. That’s a bit of an exaggeration.” He laughs. “I wasn’t a nerd. I played football, baseball, and even ice hockey at one stage.”
“What?” I say in mock surprise. “No Lacrosse?”
“I never understood the lure of that game.” Andrey shakes his head. “I did play basketball when I was a lot younger.”
“So you’re a super jock then?”
“Not really.” He shrugs. “I went to private schools, and I think most of the principals knew exactly who my father was, so many doors were opened to me.”
“Now that I know who my father is, a lot of things have started to make sense to me.” My brow furrows. “My teachers were always overly nice and accommodating to me.” My eyes close, and I shake my head. “I thought it was because I was such a good student, and they liked me. Now, I think it was more to do with my father being a mob boss.”
“No!” He shakes his head, disagreeing with me. “Unless you were jumping out the windows of your classrooms and trying to escape them.” Andrey teases. “I’m sure they liked you, and you were probably the model student.”
“A nerd, you mean.” I laugh. “So college… Let me guess—Harvard!”
“Did the T-shirt I loaned you the first night in my apartment give me away?” He looks at me with a grin.
“That and the fact that Harvard is one of the best medical schools in the country.”
“True.” He nods in agreement. “But it was also in Boston, so not too far from the family if they needed me.”
“Convenience.”
“Yes.” He sighs. “I was four months into my surgical residency when Lev was attacked, and as you know, we thought he was dead.”
“Do you know I don’t even know how old you are?” I sit up so fast that I make myself queasy, but I breathe through it.
“You didn’t look at my date of birth on our marriage certificate or in the passports?” His brows furrow.
“No.” My face scrunches. “Sorry.”
“I’ll be twenty-six in six months,” Andrey tells me. “I’ve been out of medicine for just over a year.”
“Did you have to give up your career to become Pakhan?”
“Yeah.” He nods. “There are numerous reasons why. While I wasn’t Pakhan, I could still have another life.” Andrey runs his hand through his hair. “But taking over the Belov Bratva brings a lot of ethical conflicts, legal risks, and not to mention the time constraints.”
“That’s such a shame.” My voice is soft. “You did all that work for nothing.”
“I was in a weird position.” His eyes meet mine. “I was going full steam ahead to become a surgeon. But it was like I was doing it as a backup career. It’s kind of like an understudy learning a few parts of a play. There are two roles you could potentially play.”
“So you were Lev’s understudy.” I nod, understanding. “If he had to come back to the family business, would you give up being the Pakhan?”
Andrey’s brows shoot up as he looks at me, and I know the answer before he replies. My stomach knots for a moment, as I wanted to believe otherwise. The truth is that Andrey enjoys his life as Pakhan.
“My brother knows he can’t do that,” Andrey explains. “The only way would be for me to step down or die. And to be honest. Until I forced my father to relinquish the kingdom to me, I didn’t know how much I actually wanted to be Pakhan.”
My heart squeezes, and I feel a crack in it. For all of a couple of hours, I wanted to believe Andrey was someone he wasn’t—a brilliant surgeon living above the criminal line with me and our twins. That would be my ideal life with Andrey!
Glancing out the window, watching the train speed into the early morning on our way to Ottawa, I know that Andrey and I can never be. This world of cat and mouse, lies and deceit, bending the rules, and all the bloodshed—that’s not the life I want.
My hand falls on my stomach. It’s not the life I want for my twins, either. My heart squeezes a bit more as I know, without a shadow of a doubt, when this is over, what I’m going to have to do—for my kids and my own peace of mind!
I turn and look at Andrey, counting the cash we have left in his wallet. Fuck, he is so handsome and caring when he wants to be. If nothing else, being on the run showed me a side of him I’d probably never have otherwise seen. But it’s a side I know will disappear as soon as whoever’s trying to take his throne is dealt with and we find out what’s waiting for us at the end of this trip.
Chapter 16
ANDREY
