Misha finally raises his head, glancing at me before looking around. Sasha’s absence is clear in the quiet of the house, and I can see hesitance in his eyes. “I don’t know if I can.”
“I’ll talk to your mom, don’t worry about it.” She may cut out my guts, but I think I can deal with it. “So, are you in?”
After a few seconds of hesitance, Misha nods.
He doesn’t trust me, though, that much is clear, and all the way to the pier he remains tense and quiet, just staring out the window with his hands clasped on his lap. I can’t blame him, of course-he barely knows me. But that’s exactly what I want to change today.
As soon as we arrive, I send a quick message to Sasha to let her know that we’re in the city. After all, making her lose her mind and getting all three of us in trouble are not my goals. But I switch my phone to airplane mode as soon as the message is delivered and put it in my pocket.
“So where do you want to go first?” I turn to Misha with a grin and gesture at the bright scenery behind the windshield.
The weather is warm and sunny for December, and there are plenty of tourists all over the place. But it’s not even half as bad as it usually is during the summer, and that’s good. I don’t want to overwhelm Misha with a crowd of strangers. The stalls with street food are exuding steam, the amusement rides are flashing with colors, and the water of Lake Michigan is as cold and calm as ever.
“I don’t know,” Misha mutters with his gaze darting all over the place. Of course he doesn’t. He’s never been here!
I demonstratively pat myself on the forehead, hoping to earn a chuckle from him, and look around. Well, the Children’s Museum would be a good place to start, right?
As it turns out, though, we had to make a reservation beforehand, and all tickets are sold out for today. It’s been a while since I wasn’t allowed to enter a place, but I’m not in the mood to show my gun in front of a bunch of kids, so I only glare at the cashier and walk away. Whatever. I’m sure there are better places around-and it doesn’t take long for us to find them.
It’s been a while since I visited Navy Pier, and it almost surprises me just how many attractions there are for children of all ages. Carousels, gardens, enormous cruise ships, stalls with toys and cotton candy, and of course, the amusement rides. At first, Misha only looks at them with big eyes but shakes his head whenever I invite him to take a ride, but after a long walk along the pier, I see that he’s starting to get used to it.
I don’t know if it’s the place, the sweet smells, the lively music, or the children running around, but Misha’s tension gradually weakens. Instead of staying glued to me, he starts exploring more and walking to the side of the pier to look at the dark water. He is a curious kid, so when he finally allows himself to show it, excitement quickly takes over.
Misha doesn’t yell or run around like the children around him, but he becomes more open and lively, and it warms my heart to watch him sigh with awe when we reach the end of the pier. The lake stretches in front of us all the way to the horizon, and waves gently beat against the cement blocks of the pier. It is quite a pretty sight.
“Do you like it here?” I ask when we finally turn back, and Misha finally smiles at me and nods. “Good! That’s good. Now, do you want to take a ride on this wheel?”
I point at the Centennial Wheel standing above the pier, and even though his eyes open wide and he bites his lip in uncertainty, Misha eventually agrees. But to get there, we have to survive a huge line of tourists, so I buy both of us corn dogs and ice cream and stand next to Misha so that the wind blowing from the lake doesn’t reach him. If I get him sick, Sasha will skin me alive.
“You know,” I mumble through a substantial bite of pistachio ice cream, looking at the sun slowly descending toward the horizon. “When I was two years older than you, Mom took me here for my birthday. I was training very hard at the time because I wanted to become a better Mafia member-at least, better than my best friend Riccardo.”
“Riccardo?” Misha repeats with a frown, and I guess the name is familiar even to him.
“Yes. He is the head of our family now, but it doesn’t matter. I’m still better than him.” I wave a hand, and Misha chuckles, munching on his cone. “But what I’m saying is that, when Mom and I were coming back home that day I told her that I wanted to be a pirate.”
He huffs and fixes his glasses. “Pirates aren’t real.”
“Oh, they are, but I didn’t know anything about them. All I wanted was to hop on a boat and sail to the horizon with my mom.”
“Isn’t it a lake?” Misha looks around with suspicion before looking up at me. “You wouldn’t sail far away.”
“You are too smart for your age, do you know that?” I quirk an eyebrow at him, and he huffs, but I can see a satisfied smile in the corner of his lips. Who would’ve thought it would be so easy to make him happy? “Alright, now, if you’re so smart do you see a trash bin anywhere near here?”
Misha immediately points at a bin just five feet away, and I chuckle, take a corn dog stick from his hand, and throw it away along with my napkins before returning to the line. Damn, it still looks enormous.
“Do you think we’re gonna get there today?” I glance at the setting sun before turning to Misha, and he shrugs.
“Maybe. We can always leave if it gets too late.”
I nod and push my hands into my pockets, looking around. I forgot how good of a place this is for kids. For an adult, it’s a little too noisy, but if you have a family to spend time with-
“Louis?” Misha tugs at my sleeve, and I immediately focus on him. What, did something happen? Does he want to pee? But he only looks at me for a moment and sighs with a serious frown. “I forgive you for killing Grandma.”
What?
“You seem nice, and to be honest, I don’t remember her that well anyway.”
What is he talking about? For a moment, I just stare at him with wide eyes and open mouth before I shake my head to come back to my senses. “What do you mean? I didn’t kill your Grandma!”
Perhaps it comes out a little too loud because the couple in front of us gives me quick looks over their shoulders. But I don’t care about that right now. I don’t even know who Misha’s grandmother is, and I know all of my victims by name. This must be a very bad fucking joke!
Misha seems to catch my shock because he studies me for a moment with a frown as if trying to decide if I’m genuine before shrugging. “Maybe you’re right, I don’t know. Grandpa told us you did it.” Us? I blink. Oh, shit. That explains a lot.
In the end, we do get to ride the Centennial Wheel even if slightly later than I expected. But it’s all worth it when I hear Misha laugh and wow in awe for the first time when we reach the peak of the wheel. I try to focus on his excitement and not my own gloomy thoughts, but it’s almost impossible at this point.
How can Sasha think that I killed her mom? The thought itself makes everything inside of me boil from anger and indignation. I just can’t believe it! And she’s never even talked to me about it! But I breathe out all of my frustration and focus on keeping the air light between Misha and me. Right now, this is way more important. I can’t ruin the end of the day with my own sour mood.
When we get down on the ground, I have a fleeting thought of taking him somewhere to have dinner together, but it’s already getting too dark, and the possibility of being tracked and killed by Sasha grows with every passing second. So instead, we grab some takeout pizza and drive home.
“Misha!” Sasha runs out of the house as soon as we turn into the driveway. Misha himself jumps up in his seat, tightening his grip on the toy ship I bought him, and his eyes light up with excitement. He’s no less happy to see her, and I have to admit it’s very cute.
“Mom!” He jumps out of the car as soon as I stop it and runs into her open arms. “I’m sorry I didn’t ask for your permission, but Louis said he’d tell you, and look, he got me a ship! We had corn dogs and ice cream, and we got on the wheel and went very-very high. I could see the whole city from there!”
While Misha is talking about our trip, Sasha is frantically groping him, checking if he’s alright. She looks scared out of her mind, and for the first time, I genuinely feel bad for making her worried. I knew she wouldn’t like it, but I didn’t realize that she would lose her mind with worry, and… yeah, well, that was a shitty thing to do.
“What wheel? Where have you been?” Sasha cups Misha’s cheeks, holding his face with a look of concern.
“At Navy Pier! Louis said he’ll take me there again, and maybe you could come with us.”
“Ah, of course, Louis told you this.”
Finally, Sasha’s attention switches to me, and I can literally see her eyes light up with fury. She immediately gets up on her feet, protectively holding Misha closer, and points at me, seething with anger.
“Have you lost your goddamn mind, Louis Messina? He is my son, and you have no right to take him away without my permission. I swear to god, if something like this happens again, I will kill you with my bare-”
“No, Mommy,” Misha says all of a sudden, tugging at the hem of her shirt with pleading eyes. “He’s good. We had so much fun!”
“I don’t care how much fun you had, you can’t just leave me like that!” Sasha bursts out, and I hear a distant hint of a frightened tremble in her voice. She probably catches it herself because she purses her lips and closes her eyes for a moment, cooling down.
Misha casts his gaze down, looking scolded, and I see the torment in Sasha’s eyes as she crouches down next to him. “Listen, teddy bear, I’m glad you had fun together, but I was losing my mind with worry. I was very very scared for you, baby.”
“I know, Mom. I’m sorry.” He nods and wraps his arms around her neck, but…ah, I can’t watch him take it on himself.
“It’s not his fault. I should’ve thought about it before taking him away.”
Sasha sharply turns to me with her jaw clenched and her eyes throwing daggers at me. “Yes, you should’ve.”
“Maybe next time, you could come with us?” Misha pulls back with hope in his voice, and Sasha and I exchange a quick glance before she sighs.
“Well, we’ll see. Now, go inside and change your clothes, we’re having dinner soon.”
“Oh, pizza?” Misha looks at me with excitement, and I look at Sasha with an awkward smile and shrug.
“Uh, we bought some, is that okay?”
She looks at me for a moment with pursed lips and nods. “Okay.”
Misha bounces in his spot before taking off toward the door of the house. He looks a little overstimulated, but it’s better than seeing him hidden behind the mask of indifference. Ten years of his childhood were taken away, so it’s time to bring some of it back. I watch him with a mindless smile when Sasha’s voice interrupts my thoughts.
“I was serious, Louis.” She crosses her arms, watching me with a squint. “If you do something like this again, I will kill you.”
Ah, hasn’t she promised that too many times already?
But her words remind me of Misha’s words from before, and as soon as she turns to the house, I hurry forward and catch her shoulder. “Wait, Sa
-”
She immediately spins around, and before I know it her dagger is already under my chin. Okay, got it. I let go of her shoulder and step back with my hands raised, holding her gaze.
“I didn’t mean to-ah, whatever. Do you really think that I killed your mother?”
Sasha’s eyes immediately widen, her grip on her dagger tightens, and for a moment it looks like she’s gonna slash my throat here and now.
But after a moment of tension, she breathes out and steps back, looking away.
“I know you did,” she says quietly, and my whole body warms up with a wave of protest.
“No, I didn’t! I swear, I’ve never touched your mother, I don’t even know who she is.”
“Who she was,” Sasha corrects me immediately and looks up, eyeing me with an unreadable gaze. “Of course you didn’t touch her. You had other people to do it for you.”
“What? No, it’s not that, I just-”
“Stop this bullshit,” Sasha cuts me off with a grimace of disgust. “God, you can’t even admit to your own crimes like a man. I can’t believe I used to love you.”
And for some reason, it goes straight into my chest, piercing my heart like a needle. I freeze in my place, silently watching her turn away and walk into the house. No, no, I don’t care how harsh that sounded, it can’t be real. I know she still has feelings for me, I just-
God, I really need someone to explain to me what’s going on.