Chapter 9
I used to be sorry for everything, but not anymore. I wish I acted worse.
— Dima to Shasha
DIMA
I listened to my brother and Keely’s brothers talk for an hour as I drove back home.
I’d intended to stay in the area a little bit longer to sell the lie I’d given to Shasha , but found myself unable to concentrate being that far away from Keely .
When I arrived home an hour later, the brothers had left the apartment, Shasha had gone to work, and Keely was sound asleep in bed, a small smile on her face.
I replayed her excitement from earlier at hearing that Pettigrew was dead.
Excitement would be too small of a word, really.
She was euphoric.
Overjoyed .
Which made me feel like I was on top of the world.
Not that she would ever know that it was me.
Sure , Shasha had told them that the coincidences were there, but they didn’t have confirmation.
I wasn’t sure that I’d ever give her confirmation.
The less she knew, the better.
And not because I didn’t want her to know, but because it’d keep her safer in the end.
My house was dark and quiet by the time that I pulled into my garage and shut the door behind me.
It was always dark and quiet, but there was something off by the time I made it inside and shut the door.
Someone had been in my home and…cooked.
I rolled my eyes at the cinnamon rolls on my counter.
I moved closer so I could read the note that was set beside them.
Dima ,
Vivi wanted to make these for you, and she forced me to make them in your oven so your house would smell good. Hope I didn’t overstep.
Brecken
I sighed.
Milena , Nastya , Vivi and now Brecken .
I really needed to get a better system.
Or , possibly, lock my doors.
Not that that would matter, seeing as they all had keys.
Taking one of the middle cinnamon rolls, I shoved half of it in my mouth while I headed for the shower.
I hadn’t stayed with my friend.
I’d moved positions and watched the drama unfold.
Cops and FBI agents had swarmed the location, locking everything down and pretty much forcing their way into businesses and homes to ask who’d seen anything.
None of them had, according to the news and police bands.
Once I was sure that I’d been careful enough, I headed out and hadn’t found a place to stop for a shower in twenty-four hours.
I needed a shower and sleep, fast.
After shoving the last of the roll in my mouth, I took a quick, scalding hot shower at the temperature that I noticed my girl liked to keep her water on—yes, I’d tested the temperature of her apartment’s shower when she turned the water on exactly where she liked it.
Though the water burned my skin off, I quickly acclimated enough to speed through my shower.
I did feel a lot cleaner at the temperature of hell than I did at my usual temperature, though.
I had to laugh at the scald marks on my chest and back and went to bed completely naked a couple of minutes later.
When I next opened my eyes, it was twilight, and I reached for my phone to check out the cameras.
Keely didn’t work today, but she did have plans with her friend, Dorie , again at her apartment.
I’d scoped out the place by asking Lev to get me access to the traffic cams on that street and found that the apartment Dorie and her boyfriend lived in was in the less desirable part of town.
Last night when I was reviewing the footage, I decided that I agreed with Dorie’s boyfriend.
Her walking alone at night in that seedy part of town worried even me, and I had nothing to do with her. I’d seen no less than five crackheads follow her movements the entire way home. I was sure that her boyfriend freaked out when he found out that she walked alone to work through those dangerous streets.
He had a reason to be worried, and if Dorie couldn’t see that, she was dumb. Inconsiderate and dumb.
After an hour playing on my phone and computer, I was able to access the cameras that were set up outside the apartment’s main doors.
Sure , it would’ve taken less time if I’d asked Lev to do it, but I had to be careful what I asked of him because he would certainly ask questions. And eventually, those questions would make their way back to my brother, who would in turn have more questions.
I watched for her to show up for what felt like forever, going from camera angle to camera angle, until finally I spotted her parking her car a couple blocks away from Dorie’s place.
I followed her movements until she made it to her friend’s place and disappeared inside.
Then the waiting game began, and I had to sit on my hands and wait to see her again.
Except …something was telling me that I should go there and observe in person…just in case.
An hour later I climbed up the fire escapes until I reached the one for Dorie and her boyfriend.
When I got there, I took a seat on the padded bench outside and looked in, making sure to keep myself in the shadows.
There she was, flesh and blood, laughing at a joke that another one of her friends—two that I hadn’t known would be there and didn’t know their names—had just told.
I shifted in my seat and Keely’s head snapped up to look out the sliding door.
I knew she couldn’t see me.
But she was staring at me like she knew that I was there.
Her eyes narrowed, as if she was trying to see through the darkness.
But she gave up when her friend touched her arm and started to talk to her about work.
The only reason that I heard half of what was being discussed was due to the kitchen window over the sink being open.
“ Did you hear about Dr . McCinnish ?”
I saw the moment that the friend had her full attention. “ What about him?”
“ Well , from what I understand, he had a heart attack at work the other day. How have you not heard that?” she asked.
“ Kara ,” Keely said, getting me her friend’s name. “ Seriously . They never mentioned it once at work. Wouldn’t you think the other doctors would have?”
Kara shrugged. “ He was unliked. He also lay there for hours until one of the patients woke up from their sleep study since he wasn’t there to wake them.”
“ Are you saying it happened on the day that we left early, because he told us to, and no one told us?” Dorie asked in a slightly raised voice.
“ I guess.” Kara snorted. “ I say good riddance. That guy was a creep and an asshole. Two very awful combinations when it comes to personalities. I hated working with him.”
“ You’re not lying.” Keely gave an exaggerated shiver. “ There was this one time that I was in the middle of working with this kid, and I felt like he was super, duper asleep. To the point where it was unnatural. When I went in there to check to make sure his monitors were all connected correctly, he pretty much cornered me in the hall outside their room and told me to butt out. But the way he did it,” she sighed. “ I’ve never been alone with him since.”
“ There was this one time I caught him taking some pills that looked an awful lot like pain medication. I asked him if he was hurt, and he got this really weird look and said that he’d ‘sprained his ankle.’ But he definitely wasn’t limping,” Dorie said, then elbowed her boyfriend. “ Hey , maybe we should cook those hot dogs.”
“ I don’t really feel like cooking them on the grill,” he muttered. “ How about I make them inside?”
“ That’s fine, but they definitely taste better on the grill,” Dorie said, making her point known.
She wanted them grilled, and she wasn’t going to be happy with anything less.
I turned all the burners on high and didn’t bother to start it, listening as the gas escaped the propane tank.
I then got up and unscrewed the lightbulb.
When I was finished, I sat back down and twisted slightly to the side so that when he came out he wouldn’t see me unless he was looking.
And he did come out about ten minutes later, a pack of hot dogs in his hand.
The door opened, and he flipped a switch inside only to curse.
“ Hey , Dorie . Do we have any lightbulbs?” he asked.
“ Nope ,” she said. “ That was on our list of things to get the next time we went to a home improvement store.”
“ Shit ,” he said. “ Light’s out.”
“ Use your phone.”
He did, shining the phone on the grill in front of him.
He started to twist the knob to turn it on, then cursed. “ Hey , Dorie . We’re out of propane.”
“ How ?” she cried. “ We just got some like two weeks ago.”
“ The knobs were left on.” He tried to light the grill and nothing happened.
I smirked as he went back inside and shut the door.
For the next two hours I listened to them talk and Keely pretty much add in her two cents every once in a while.
After observing her over the last two weeks or so, I’d realized that she was a pretty quiet and reserved person. When she felt passionately about something, she was quite a bit more animated. But mostly, she stayed to herself and didn’t say all that much.
But when she did speak, what she said held substance.
I liked that she didn’t feel the need to add a lot of mindless commentary like her friends.
Every once in a while, I’d find her staring out into the darkness at me, but she never made a move toward me, always pulled back into conversations by her work friends.
By the time that the night had ended, I was more than ready to go home.
Dorie had worn on my last nerve, and I’d realized about two minutes into the night that Cutter had done a good job leaving her ass behind.
It was good to know that my brother-in-law had a brain in that thick skull of his.
“ I’ll walk Kara down,” Dorie’s boyfriend, Michel , said as he got up.
A look passed between Dorie and Michel that had my eyes narrowing.
“ Oh , I’m gonna go ahead and go…” Keely trailed off when Dorie said, “ Wait . Could you come look at this in my room?”
I frowned and waited for Michel and Kara to leave before heading into the kitchen to get a better listen.
“… Wanted you to look at my new scrubs. They’re fantastic. Feel the fabric,” Dorie said.
“ They are very nice,” Keely agreed. “ Did you get them online?”
“ Yeah ,” she said. “ These are a size too small for me, and they’re going to charge me fifteen dollars to send them back, so I was wondering if you wanted to keep them.”
“ Sure , I’d love to,” Keely said. “ Thank you.”
“ You’re welcome,” Dorie said as she came out of her room, Keely on her heels with a pair of what had to be the scrubs in her hands.
I disappeared back outside, closing the sliding glass door almost soundlessly behind me, and started making my way down the fire escape.
It must’ve taken me a bit longer than I’d thought because by the time I’d gotten to the other side of the building, Keely was already downstairs and walking to her car.
Anger rose up inside of me that Michel would walk Kara to her car, but not do the same for Keely .
I’d just taken a step in Keely’s direction when she passed an alley two away from the one I’d just come out of.
I watched in horror as a man came out of the shadows and wrapped Keely up in his arms and lifted her off of her feet.
Keely didn’t have time to even scream as she was pulled into a dark alley with the man’s hand wrapped around her mouth.
Keely fought hard, but like she’d been telling Dorie , she was no match for a man that wanted to take her and hurt her.
I started running before I realized I was even moving, making it to the alley in time to hear a scuffle.
I pulled out my gun, took aim at the only thing that was available, and fired.
The man holding Keely fell to the ground in pain, clutching his leg. Meanwhile , I walked right up to Keely and pulled her into my arms.
She was shaking like a leaf and frozen in fright.
“ Oh my god!” Dorie cried out. “ Michel !”
I backed away as Dorie came around the corner and screamed when she saw…
Yep , that was Michel on the fucking ground.
What in the actual fuck?
“ What did you do?” she screeched, dropping to her knees next to her bleeding man.
“ What did I do?” I laughed. “ I saved a woman that was getting kidnapped. What any normal, run-of-the-mill, red-blooded man would do.”
“ He was just playing a joke!” she cried out.
“ Fuck !” Michel cried. “ What the fuck, man?”
“ What the fuck?” I asked, anger starting to take root in my soul. “ What , exactly, did y’all think was going to happen?”
“ I didn’t think he’d get shot!” Dorie cried as she put pressure on the wound in her boyfriend’s lower leg.
I snorted. “ Well , now you know.”
“ You are going to jail, buddy!” She pointed at me.
“ No .” I laughed darkly. “ I’m not.”
“ You are!” she cried.
And since she couldn’t see me clearly due to the darkness and shadows, I disappeared with Keely in my arms.
Once I had her safely ensconced in my truck, the heater running despite it being fuckin’ eighty out, I went back to the scene of the crime.
I could hear sirens blaring in the distance as I walked back into the alley.
When I saw the phone lit up beside her bleeding man, I stomped on it and then bent down so that my face was inches from hers.
Before she could react, I wrapped my arms around her and allowed her to struggle.
I allowed this for several long seconds until her man started to realize what was happening.
When he began to crawl toward me, I said, “ You’ll say that this was a random accident and you don’t know who did it. You’d just walked your friend to her car and got shot. You don’t tell them why or how. You don’t tell them anything about the girl that I saved. In the meantime, I don’t fuck your life up so spectacularly that you won’t know how to live.”
There was silence as Dorie kept struggling.
When I’d finally proven my point, I let her go, allowing her to drop to the ground. She hit hard since her knees were in the air, her ass hitting concrete with a crack.
“ What the fuck!” Dorie cried out, lunging for me.
I lifted my boot, placing it square on her chest, and pushed her back down to the ground.
“ Let’s get something clear,” I asserted. “ You’re not stronger than a man. There are only a few very specific women in this world that are, and whatever stunt you pulled tonight to prove that you were one of them backfired. Learn from your mistakes and stop making your boyfriend worry about you because you’re a dumbass.”
With that, I left, not looking back.
The sirens got closer, and I passed a cop that was hauling ass toward the two idiots before I got to my truck.
Getting inside, I glanced over at Keely and saw her still withdrawn into herself.
So I did the smart thing and took her to my place.
Yep , definitely the smart thing.