Chapter 9 - Maksim
I’ve spent three days keeping a respectful distance from the woman sleeping under my roof, and it’s about to drive me completely insane.
I watch Alyssa from the doorway of the breakfast room, noting the way she picks at her eggs Benedict as she scrolls through her phone.
Ever since the jewelry store incident, she’s been guarded, like she’s evaluating everything I say for hidden meanings.
Which, to be fair, she probably should be doing.
The problem is that I miss her. I miss the easy conversation we had in the kitchen that night, the way she looked at me in the pool before my brother’s call interrupted everything. Now she treats me like a riddle she’s not sure she wants to solve.
“Good morning,” I announce as I step into the room.
She glances up from her phone with a smile that doesn’t feel genuine. “Morning. You’re up early.”
“I have a proposition for you.”
“Oh?” One eyebrow arches before she asks, “What kind of proposition?”
“The kind that involves hiking boots and fresh mountain terrain. I thought you might like to get out of the house for a while.”
Her face lights up for the first time in days. “Hiking?”
“There’s a trail about an hour north of here that offers some incredible views. Perfect for someone with your outdoor interests.”
She sets down her fork and tilts her head. “You want to take me hiking. Why?”
“Because you’ve been miserable for three days, and I’m the reason for it.”
“I haven’t been miserable.”
“You’ve been polite,” I counter, moving closer to her chair. “Which is worse.”
That earns me a genuine laugh, the first I’ve heard from her since Troy grabbed her arm on that sidewalk. The sound does something to my chest that I’m not prepared to analyze.
“Fine,” she concedes. “But I’m choosing the trail difficulty level.”
“Deal.”
Two hours later, we’re halfway up a mountain path that’s testing the limits of my cardiovascular fitness. Alyssa moves ahead of me with the confidence of someone who’s actually done this before, while I try not to let her see how much I’m struggling to keep up.
“You know,” she calls over her shoulder, “for someone who has the body of a weightlifter, you’re surprisingly out of shape.”
“I prefer my exercise to involve less… elevation.”
“What kind of exercise do you prefer?”
The innocent way she asks the question doesn’t fool me for a second. There’s mischief in her voice that makes me want to tackle her onto the nearest flat surface and show her exactly what kind of exercise I have in mind.
“The kind that requires a partner,” I reply instead.
“Like tennis?”
“Sure. Tennis.”
She stops walking and turns to face me with a grin that could power the entire city. “You’re terrible at this whole hiking thing, aren’t you?”
“I’m terrible at a lot of things. Hiking, cooking, pretending I’m not completely obsessed with the woman I’m supposedly protecting.”
The last part slips out before I can stop it, and it loiters between us like a confession neither of us expected. Her grin fades into something more serious, more wary.
“Maksim…”
“I know. Wrong time, wrong circumstances, wrong everything.” I gesture to the trail ahead of us. “Keep walking. I promise to behave myself.”
“That’s not what I was going to say.”
“What were you going to say?”
She doesn’t answer immediately and instead chooses to resume climbing. I follow behind her, admiring the view and trying not to think about how perfectly her hiking pants showcase her curves.
“I was going to say the obsession is mutual,” she finally admits without turning around.
The words stop me dead in my tracks. “Alyssa.”
“Don’t read too much into it. I’m just acknowledging that this situation is trickier than either of us planned.”
Tricky. That’s one way to put it.
We hike in comfortable silence for the next twenty minutes, and the tension between us settles into something manageable. When we reach a clearing with a panoramic view of the valley below, she finally stops to rest on a fallen log.
“This is beautiful,” she breathes as she surveys the landscape spread out beneath us.
“Not as beautiful as you.”
She rolls her eyes at the line, but I catch the blush that colors her cheeks. “Do you use that on all the women you bring hiking?”
“I don’t bring women hiking. I don’t bring women anywhere, actually.”
She scrunches her nose and asks, “What do you usually do with women?”
“I have sex with them and never see them again.”
The blunt honesty makes her blink in surprise. “Well. That’s refreshingly direct.”
“I’m trying something new with you,” I admit as I rub the back of my neck. “It’s called telling the truth.”
“How’s that working out?”
“Terrifying, actually.”
She laughs again, and this time, there’s no distance in it. This is the woman I met at the club, the one who challenged me and made me work for her attention.
“Tell me about your family,” she suggests, changing the subject to safer territory. “You mentioned five brothers the other day.”
“Six of us total. I’m the fourth in line.” I settle beside her on the log, careful to maintain some distance. “Aleksei is the eldest, then Grigor, then Dimitri, me, Akim, and Nikolai.”
“That’s a lot of testosterone in one family.”
“You have no idea. Family dinners are like war councils, except with better food and more alcohol. We did have a sister, Anya, but she passed away.”
“Oh,” she says with a gasp. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay. Her death hit Aleksei the most, but we all miss her.”
“What are they like? Your brothers, I mean.”
The question makes me smile despite myself.
“Aleksei’s the responsible one, keeps us all in line when we get too carried away.
Dimitri’s the quiet one, and he has a different mother than the rest of us, but he can talk his way out of anything when he needs to.
Grigor’s the mediator of the group; he stays calm no matter what.
Akim’s the troublemaker, but he’s smart as a whip.
Nikolai’s the baby, though he would probably kill me for calling him that. ”
“You sound close,” she comments as the corner of her mouth lifts.
“We are. Growing up the way we did, we learned early that family is the only thing you can really count on. Everyone else will eventually disappoint you or betray you, but your brothers…” I trail off, realizing I’m revealing more about our background than I intended.
“Growing up how?”
“Let’s just say our father had an unconventional career path.”
She nods like she understands, and maybe she does. Maybe she’s pieced together enough clues to know that the Barkov family business isn’t exactly conventional, even though I haven’t outright said we’re in the Bratva.
“I always wanted siblings,” she admits. “Being an only child in my house was lonely. Having five brothers sounds chaotic but wonderful.”
“It is. They drive me crazy most of the time, but I’d do anything to protect them, kill anyone who tried to hurt them.”
“I believe that. You get this look in your eyes when you talk about protecting the people you care about. Like you’ve actually had to do it before.”
Perceptive little kitten, just as I suspected.
“Everyone’s had to protect someone at some point,” I deflect just as my phone rings. I glance at the display and curse under my breath when I see Akim’s name. “I have to take this.”
She rolls her eyes with a smirk and replies, “Of course you do.”
I walk a few yards away from the log before answering. “What’s up, Akim?”
“We need you back at the house,” he rushes out. “Now.”
“I’m busy.”
“With your houseguest, I know. But this can’t wait, and Ravenshollow is the closest secure location.”
Something in his tone gets my attention. “What’s going on?”
“We caught a break on those bodies. Got our hands on someone who might have answers, but he’s not talking voluntarily. Grigor thinks a change of scenery might loosen his tongue.”
Fuck. The last thing I need is my brothers conducting an interrogation at my house while Alyssa is there.
“Find somewhere else.”
“There’s no time. We need to do this now before his friends realize he’s missing.”
I look back at Alyssa, who’s pretending not to eavesdrop on my conversation while obviously hanging on every word.
“How long do you need?”
“However long it takes to get him talking. Could be an hour, could be all night.”
“Fine. But we stay in the east wing. She doesn’t need to know about this.”
“Understood.”
I end the call and return to Alyssa, who’s watching me with those too-knowing eyes.
“Family business again?” she asks.
“Something like that. We should head back.”
The drive home is quiet, both of us lost in our own thoughts. I spend most of it trying to figure out how to keep Alyssa occupied and away from whatever Akim has planned for our unwilling guest.
By the time we arrive at Ravenshollow, I’ve decided that the best strategy is distraction. I’ll have Harrison prepare dinner for her in the library, maybe suggest she spend the evening there with her book. Keep her as far away from the east wing as possible.
“Thank you,” she says as we walk toward the front entrance. “For today, I mean. I needed to get out of the house.”
“We should do it again soon.”
“I’d like that.”
The simple admission makes me want to cancel whatever Akim has planned and spend the rest of the day finding new ways to make her smile. But I know that’s not an option. Not with a prisoner just down the hall.
“I have some work to catch up on,” I tell her as we enter the foyer. “Will you be okay entertaining yourself for a few hours?”
“Of course. I’ve got that Tolstoy book to finish.”
“Perfect. I’ll see you at dinner.”
She heads toward the main staircase while I make my way to the back of the house, where Akim is waiting with a black sedan parked near the service entrance. He climbs out of the driver’s seat when he sees me approaching.
“Where is he?” I ask.
“Back seat. Unconscious but breathing.”