Page 60 of The Pakhan’s Hidden Heir

My pulse hammers so hard I’m sure he can see it jumping in my throat. “What?” I mumble, fear surging through every vein in my body.

“I mean...if you want to vanish.” Akim’s head dips and a sinister grin stretches across his face. “I can make it happen. You have money to pay for it now too. A new identity, a home somewhere he can’t find you. A new life, outside his reach.”

It’s the exact thing I’ve been turning over in my head for a week—my desperation for something to end my suffering, a way out of here.

Then I look down at Felix and sigh.

He’s so little and he needs so much care. I can’t leave him behind no matter what agreement I’ve made.

I’m sick of being a prisoner. I need my friends. I need freedom to move around and do things.

And I need someone who cares for me, not a hostile taskmaster who demands I do everything he says exactly right.

Plus, the thought of what Felix may become if I stay frightens me.

Had I known who Bastian was when I signed that agreement, I, like Lada, would’ve feared it. I’d have run for the hills immediately.

I don’t want my son to be a mobster.

“Felix comes with me.” I lift my chin and purse my lips. “I’m not leaving my son behind for Bastian or for anyone else in this house.”

The interest drains out of Akim’s face as fast as it came into it. “That’s another matter entirely.”

“Well that’s my one condition.” I straighten more, gathering Felix closer. “Keep your papers and your freedom. I leave with my son in my arms, or I stay right here.”

His forehead furrows and he scowls at me. “You’re asking me to lift the boss’s heir out from under his nose.” He shakes his head, clenching his jaw. “Do you have the faintest idea what he’d do to me if he finds out? What he’d do to you when he caught up? It’s a near-impossible thing you’re asking, girl.”

“Then you’ll find a way to make it possible.” I hold steady and won’t be the one to look away first. He’s sparked a hope to life in my chest and I suddenly want it to stay lit. I want out of here. “You want me out of this house. That’s the price. My son, or nothing.”

Akim stands, scrubbing a hand down his face as he glowers at me. “I’ll consider it,” he says finally, drawing his jacket straight. “But if it’s going to happen, it happens soon.

Under three months. Past that, the window shuts for good because Bastian will be watching too much. Do you follow me?”

I don’t know what might happen in three months’ time, but maybe there’s some project that Bastian is working on keeping him distracted right now.

It’s fine with me, though, if he wants me to be gone in three months. The sooner the better.

I think I changed my mind somewhere around the first trimester when I learned who Bastian really is.

I never stopped loving him—god that part is awful—but I did stop needing him. Now I need freedom more than anything.

“Do it or get out of my room.”

Akim glowers at me but he stalks away without saying anything else. I get the feeling he’s going to really try to get me away from here; I just don’t know if I can trust him. I don’t know who I trust anymore.

But the idea of staying here even a few more months feels like torture.

And for what?

Eventually Bastian will say Felix is big enough to be on his own and kick me out anyway. I have to leave before that happens.

I won’t lose my son.

23

BASTIAN

Alcohol has been my escape for a week now, drawing me into its heavy depths as soon as my work for the day is finished.