She gave him a confused smile. “Yeah, why would you think it wasn’t?”
“Cuz I called Isaac like you told me to, and he made it sound like I didn’t have to worry about it.”
Alarm bells went off in Sam’s head. “So Isaac hasn’t found a replacement? He told me he was working on it.”
Dirk just shrugged. “I dunno. I guess call Isaac—hey Pav!” he called out when the little boy came out of the house and down the red brick steps with Back Up close at his heels. “What’s up, little man?”
Conversation over, Sam thought. But she’d for sure be calling Isaac as soon as she got into work that day. Meanwhile, she grabbed Back Up by the collar and took her up the stairs to the porch as the town car rolled away. She’d learned the hard way that Back Up would run after the limo if she wasn’t physically held back. Despite having only known each other for less than two months, she and Pavel shared a special connection.
Best friends, she thought with a pang of guilt for splitting them up.
“Bye, Mama!” Pavel called out the open window as the car rolled away.
She waved back, reminding herself that him calling her his mother was not healthy. For either of them. This was definitely the best thing to do. Definitely. Her heart just had to catch up with her mind in this case.
She started to go into the house with Back Up, but stopped when she saw a white BMW come through the open gates, passing by Dirk’s town car before it eventually came to a stop under the porte-cochère.
An older man in glasses and a black suit climbed out of the car and asked, “Is it okay to park here?”
Despite standing a few feet away, she could smell the overbearing stench of his cologne all the way from the porch.
Sam visibly recoiled. “Kevin, what are you doing here?” she asked.
Pavel had been wrong about her being nice to everyone but his uncle. She and Kevin Boatman had met a couple of times on the wrong side of his conference room table. He was one of Indianapolis’s top family court attorneys, and he had a reputation for fighting extremely dirty. She hadn’t been allowed to sit in on either of the actual proceedings for her intakes, but she’d dealt with the damage afterwards. And in both cases the women had decided to go back to their abusive husbands rather than risk the things Kevin had threatened them with behind closed doors. She didn’t need much more than that to truly hate the man.
But he wasn’t in his law offices now. He was here at Nikolai’s house. At the front door, so someone must have buzzed him through the gate. But that didn’t make any sense, because none of Nikolai’s household staff were going through custody proceedings as far as she knew, and even if they were, they wouldn’t be able to afford Kevin.
Which only left…
A chill of foreboding ran down her back, and she sensed someone now standing directly behind her. Someone who was usually long gone by now.
When she turned around, there was Nikolai, big as his nickname, his face stony and hard, like an iced over statue in the Kremlin’s front yard.
23
Nikolai watched Samantha closely as she sat down across from him in one of the study’s leather guest chairs. It was her second visit to his study, but this time there was no awe in her expression as she took her seat. No bright smile dimpling her face either.
In fact, her angry eyes stayed on the lawyer, as if Nikolai had brought a lethal snake into his study, even as she spoke to him. “Why are you doing this?” she asked Nikolai.
The sincere note of hurt in her voice irritated him. She acted as if she hadn’t been the one to start this, the one who’d decided to leave, taking his baby with her.
Kevin, who’d chosen to remain standing, stepped in smoothly to answer that question for him.
“As you know, Ms. McKinley, I handle all matters involving family law, which this falls under since you are pregnant with Mr. Rustanov’s child.”
Samantha shook her head at Kevin. “I’m only a few weeks pregnant, and he’s already calling in a shark like you?”
If Kevin was insulted by her words, it didn’t show on his face. “Mr. Rustanov has concerns about your future plans. You’ve insinuated that you plan to retain full custody of his child.”
Now Samantha looked from Kevin to Nikolai, like they were both crazy. “Yes, I’m going to retain full custody because I’m the baby’s mother and because he,” she shot an angry glance at Nikolai, “and I barely know each other.”
“Be that as it may, if your plan is to remove yourself from this residence, then you’ll need to establish a custody agreement with Mr. Rustanov before you do so.”
Sam darted another disbelieving look towards Nikolai, this one soaked with derision. Then she crossed her arms over her chest and said, “Fine. What does he want? Holidays, Birthdays, every other weekend? Would he like me to arrange for a nanny for this child, too, so the baby can spend all of Mr. Rustanov’s agreed upon custodial time with her?”
Nikolai flinched at her harsh assessment of his parenting skills, but her words bounced of Kevin as if the lawyer was made of Teflon.
“Actually, he’ll be taking full custody of the child, and you’ll be the one who needs to decide whether you’ll cooperate with us.”
Kevin brought up his leather briefcase and pulled out a sheaf of papers. “If you sign this custody agreement now, we’ll guarantee you weekends and holidays. If you force us to take this case to a judge after the child is born, then we won’t feel obligated to give you any access to the child at all.”
“What?” Samantha asked, her voice hot with anger. “Okay, I understand Nikolai’s good at hockey or whatever, but there’s no way in hell a judge is ever going to give him full custody of a child. This isn’t Pavel. I’m this baby’s biological mother!”
“Sure, sure,” Kevin said, folding his arms. “And you’ve done a lot of good work at your shelter.”
“Shelters,” she corrected. “I’ve opened two. My plan is to establish a Ruth’s House in every state before I die.”
“That’s very noble,” Kevin said with a patronizing nod. “Especially considering your background.”
Samantha froze and Nikolai could see her struggling to keep her face composed as she said, “You mean the fact that I’m from Detroit? I know it’s not the most upstanding city in the world, but that’s not enough of a reason to deny me custody of my child.”