~Fourteen~
I didn’t know if this story could have gotten any crazier. There was no way that I could ever believe that Kyle and Tessa were brother and sister, but when I questioned him about it, he had the evidence to prove it. In his hand was the birth certificate, written in Russian, with the name of the father being Viktor Sokolov and the mother being Natalia Sokolov. It could have been a fake, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that Kyle would have had to go through a lot of work to dummy documents to prove his relationship with Jonathan and Tessa.
Knowing him as well as I did, I realized sooner or later I needed to put my guard down and start trusting him. I wasn’t ready to trust him completely, at least not until I did my own investigation. There was one thing I knew for sure, I wasn’t going to let him know that I knew where Tessa was, even though he knew I was behind keeping her safe.
Even though it had been a couple of hours since Kyle’s confession, I couldn’t get what he told me out of my head. I knew there would be one person who would know the truth about Kyle, aka Nikolai Sokolov.
~*~*~*~
Packing what I needed for the trip, I got in my new Range Rover Velar and head towards Big Bear Lake. I tried to get in touch with Jonathan to let him know that I was on my way up, but the call went to voice mail. Leaving several messages, I decided to contact Tessa. Once again, the call went to voicemail. There was no need for concern only because I knew that Tessa was safe for the time being. Knowing that I would soon be out of cell signal until I got to the cabin, I placed my cell on the leather seat and concentrated on the road. It was a good two-hour drive up the mountain, so I tried to hurry every chance I had while trying not to get a speeding ticket.
By the time I got to the cabin, there were still a few hours of daylight before the sun would set. When I pulled up to the drive, there was no sign of Jonathan’s car, unless he had driven it inside the four-car garage. Parking my Rover near the entrance, I grabbed my duffel bag from the back seat and proceeded to the front door. I knew that Agnes would be here cooking up something mouthwatering, so when Tessa answered the door instead, I was a bit surprised.
Leaning into her small frame, I gave her a long, wet kiss that was very much needed on my end. Tearing my lips from hers, I asked as I kept my mouth close to hers, “Miss me, baby?”
“Like crazy,” she responded, pressing her lips to mine.
I could have kissed her for days, right where we stood, just like this, but I knew sooner or later we needed to move. Smoothing my thumb across her cheek, I picked up my bag that I dropped in the heat of passion and headed inside the house. The most amazing scent teased my senses and my stomach began to protest. “Wow… Agnes must be cooking up a storm.”
“Yeah… If I stay here much longer, I am going to be as big as a house,” Tessa confessed jokingly.
As we both laughed for a moment, Agnes appeared, drying her hands on a dish towel. “I thought I heard your voice. Come, dinner is ready.”
Leaving my bag at the bottom of the stairs, I took Tessa’s hand and followed Agnes into the dining room. The table looked amazing. I couldn’t get over how much food had been placed on the long table. There was enough to feed at least twenty people. Looking over to Tessa, her eyes were as big as the moon.
Agnes must have noticed our expression of surprise. In a small childlike giggle, she confessed, “I may have gone a little overboard on dinner. I hope you two are hungry.”
Waiting until Tessa sat first, I took a seat next to her, grabbed my cloth napkin, and placed it on my lap. The water glasses had already been filled, but the crystal wine glasses were still dry. Within moments of taking our seats, Agnes came back to the dining room holding a bottle of red wine, which looked to be very expensive.
Holding it elegantly in my line of vision she asked politely, “I hope this cabernet will be to your liking?”
Nodding my head, I smiled at her and said, “It will be just fine, Agnes. Thank you.”
The aroma of the wine filled the space between us as she began pouring us each a glass full. Tessa was the first to take a sip, and by the expression that was displayed across her face, I would have to guess that she wasn’t much of a wine drinker. Her eyes squinted shut and her lips puckered, crying for something else to quench her thirst. Reaching for her glass of water, she downed about half of it before setting it back on the table. Thank God that Agnes had already left the room. I was pretty sure that the last thing that Tessa wanted to do was to hurt her feelings about her choice of wines.
Taking a small sip myself, to be safe, I swished it in my mouth, coating my palate with the divine flavor of sun-ripened grapes. I swallowed it down feeling like my mouth had been greatly rewarded. The moment I placed my glass on the table, Tessa’s eyes were on me, probably wondering how I could consume such a piquant liquid.
With a half-smile, I said, “It is an acquired taste.”
~*~*~*~
Finishing our dinner, we both decided to go for a walk to work off some of the wonderful food we consumed. Letting Agnes know that we would be right back, we headed out of the cabin and down a walking path that Tessa had found during her stay at the cabin. The weather had been exceptionally nice considering that we were at a higher elevation than the city and the mountains tended to be ten to fifteen degrees colder.
Placing my hand in hers, I allowed her to lead us down the narrow path. As we were walking, it was a surprise how fresh the air was. Even with the difference in altitude, my lungs expanded with no problem, taking in every clean breath.
“There’s something I want to show you,” Tessa said, as she deviated from the trail into a congregation of trees. I wasn’t sure where she was taking me, but just being with her was all I needed. Even the slight touch of us holding hands had my mind thinking of all sorts of nasty things that I wanted to do with her. With the smell of pine mixed with her own botanical scent, my imagination was beginning to spin as I thought about how it would feel to be deep inside her. There were so many trees around us, some small and some large, that would be perfect for what I had planned.
My fantasy came to a halt when we came upon a clearing. Although not very large, it was just enough to house a fire pit, which was embedded in the dirt and surrounded by timber seating that was creatively constructed in a tiered fashion circling the pit.
Before I could suggest we go back to the house, Tessa was at the pit removing the grate resting on top, getting ready to light the wood and branches that had been inside the pit. Reaching out to her before she could strike the match that she had pulled from her pocket, I had to burst her bubble, because it was getting too late for a fire. “I don’t think that is a good idea, Tessa.”
A disappointing look appeared on her face. Not because she wouldn’t be able to have a fire to sit by, but because she had felt like she had done something wrong. Lowering to her knees, she placed her hands on her lap and said in a shallow voice, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to make you angry.”
My first thought was, “What the hell did that bastard do to her to make her act in this way?” Taking her gently by the arms, I lifted her to a standing position and looked at her with regret. “Tessa, why would you apologize to me? I only meant that it was getting late and if we start a fire now, it may cause Agnes to worry. Besides, Jonathan should be at the house by now.”
“So, you aren’t angry with me?” she asked.
“I could never be angry at you, baby.”
Giving her a long overdue kiss, we proceeded back to the house. It was beginning to get dark and the last thing that I wanted was for us to get lost in the woods, even if it meant being alone with her. As we continued walking, I wanted to know what her relationship was with Colin. I wasn’t sure if she would even tell me. Even though she admitted he was not the man she thought he was, I still believed that she felt connected to him. If he ever found her, I knew that she could never resist going back to him. I had this sick feeling that he had groomed her into being his submissive and she was aware of where the boundaries were with him. This would explain her odd behavior earlier. One thing was for sure, I would never make her feel like she had to be afraid of me.
When we finally made it to the house, it had turned dark and I couldn’t have been happier that we found our way. It was a good thing that Tessa knew her surroundings well enough to know that we ended up off the trail somehow. Luckily, she still had the matches and was able to see that we were walking in the wrong direction.
As I was getting ready to open the front door, it flew open and a very disgruntled Jonathan was on the other side. “I was worried sick about you, myshka.”
“It’s okay, Papa, we are here now,” Tessa replied, giving him a compassionate hug.
I had no idea that these two had gotten so close. I was beginning to think that bringing them together was the best idea I had. Even though my life was messed up, it was nice to see that Tessa could finally have the life she deserved. I just needed to make sure that Colin would never be a part of it.
As we entered the house, Tessa went upstairs to take a bath while Jonathan and I went into the living room to talk. I wasn’t sure how I was going to tell him about my new-found information, but I knew that he deserved to know the truth about Kyle. Before he took a seat, I suggested, “You may want to pour yourself a drink before our chat.” As he looked at me with confusion, I continued, “I’ll take one as well.”
When he handed me a tumbler of what appeared to be vodka, I proceeded to sit on the leather couch while Jonathan took a seat across from me, on the leather chair. Taking a large sip of liquid courage, I placed my glass on the small table and began explaining what I had learned. “What do you know about Kyle Lincoln?” I asked bluntly.
I gazed over at him, gauging his reaction to Kyle’s name. Either he was a great actor, or he had no clue who he was. “I have never heard of him. Should I somehow know this man?” he questioned.
“He seems to know who you are,” I admitted. “He has the notion that you are his father and Tessa is his sister.” There wasn’t even a flinch as I told Jonathan what I had found out.
“I think this Kyle person has received the wrong information,” Jonathan responded evenly.
“He had a birth certificate from Russia that proves it.”
“Anyone can forge a document these days. I wouldn’t be surprised if his entire identity is fake. There are many people in this world who hide behind a fake name to keep people away from knowing who they really are.”
I wasn’t sure what Jonathan was implying, but I felt as though his statement was aimed at me. There wasn’t any way that he could have known my true identity. I hardly knew the man and he certainly didn’t know me.
Assuming that he was talking about himself, I went along with what he was saying and offered a solution. “How about we test Mr. Lincoln’s theory and have a DNA test done like the one you did on Tessa?”
“I am for that. It would definitely put an end to this nonsense.”