Chapter 31
Chapter thirty-one
Alisa
Gemma giggled as she leaned on the arm of a hard-looking man. I ducked my head and hoped that my disguise would hold up against my best friend.
How had Dmitri seen through it? I discreetly tugged on the wig, confirming it was still in place.
Gemma slipped into a seat at the end of the bar with her mystery man. I swallowed and pivoted my attention back to the two men sitting on either side of me.
My mind was screaming at me to abort this mission and try again tomorrow. There were just too many unforeseen variables and complications.
I stifled my groan. This was supposed to be an easy mission. A simple night to get my mind off everything. Yet everyone in my life seemed eager to disrupt it.
“Would you prefer something else to drink?” Charles asked, his gaze finally leaving my chest long enough to realize that my drink was still full.
I took a deep breath and made the decision. I wasn’t going to run from this. I’d clawed my way into my ranking in the competition, and I refused to let Dmitri’s presence put that into jeopardy. He might’ve fucked my body into submission, but I refused to let him fuck my mind.
“Sure,” I said, openly smiling at Charles.
Charles shot a triumphant glance at Dmitri.
I held back a laugh at the way Charles’ chest puffed up. I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed it, if Dmitri’s growing smirk was any indication.
“Are you going to introduce me to your friend, kotenok?” Dmitri asked, bracing his arm against the bar.
I resisted shooting a glare at him. He clearly knew that Charles was not my friend. But the real question was: Why was Dmitri sitting here when he could tell I was in the middle of a mission?
What was he playing at?
“Undecided,” I said, taking the offered drink from the bartender.
I set it down without sipping from it.
Dmitri chuckled, and Charles shot him a glare. But this was an opportunity. While Charles might appear irritated that he had competition, he’d subconsciously inched towards me ever since Dmitri had arrived. His jealousy was just reeling him further into my web.
And if Charles was distracted by trying to ‘win’ me? Well, it’d just be easier to do my job while he was busy glaring at Dmitri.
“How do you two know each other?” Charles asked, his eyes narrowing on Dmitri.
A dangerous question, and from the flicker of sadism in Dmitri’s eyes, one I needed to answer first.
“Work,” I said before Dmitri could open his mouth.
“Yes,” Dmitri said, his eyes darkening. “I taught her so much last week.”
Immediately my mind rewound to the darkness in Dmitri’s eyes as he made that wicked promise. Then the violent thrusting of hips… while our hands had squeezed together around Jayden’s throat in a seriously fucked up version of holding hands.
Shit, now my thighs were clenching together in a futile attempt to soften the arousal. Two pairs of eyes zeroed in on the movement.
“Sounds like interesting work,” Charles said.
Dmitri chuckled darkly, and I knew whatever came out of his mouth next would not be good.
“What do you do, Charles?” I said quickly.
His shoulders straightened as he launched into a diatribe about the stock market. Of course, Charles left out the part where he was under investigation for insider trading. The entire reason I was here.
Charles’ company didn’t believe he’d keep his mouth shut with the feds, and by how easily he was revealing corporate secrets, I didn’t blame them.
Dmitri leaned forward, invading my space. The crisp scent of snowfall threaded into the air, and enveloped me.
“Hurry up and kill him, so I can finish you off,” he whispered roughly, his gaze locked on my firmly clenched thighs.
“What makes you think you’ll ever get the opportunity to do that again?” I whispered back.
He raised a knowing eyebrow and then brushed his hand along the shoulder he’d marked.
My mouth dried as all the liquids in my body soared south. My skin pulsed beneath his touch, and I was reminded that he’d not only been the first man to ever get me off, but he’d done it multiple times.
While my body was entirely on board, my mind sensed danger. Even before we’d hooked up, whenever we were in the same room, everything seemed to tilt off-kilter.
And now?
Charles’ chatter was muffled by Dmitri’s dangerous energy. Fantasies of what Dmitri would do with those skillful fingers that were now tapping against the backrest of my barstool…
When his finger casually brushed against my back, my skin burned. It spread outward, scorching across my body. He’d barely touched me, and yet he’d taken up nearly all of my brain’s bandwidth.
But a movement at the end of the bar had my heart thumping for an entirely different reason.
Gemma’s date scratched at his wrist, revealing the hint of a very familiar tattoo.
He pushed his sleeve back down, but I knew what I saw. And it couldn’t be a coincidence that the man who’d stalked Gemma also had the exact same tattoo. I’d stupidly hoped that we were free and clear after Dmitri had dealt with Igor.
I swallowed down all the emotions swirling through my veins and came up with a plan.
While Charles continued to drone on about his work, I flicked a powder into his drink that would send his heart into overdrive.
The timer was on.
“I didn’t realize you were in such a hurry to get me alone,” Dmitri drawled into my ear, his eyes flicking to Charles’ laced drink.
I ignored the goosebumps traveling from the shell of my ear down towards my warming center. If left unchecked, the sensations would flicker and flame until they exploded. I took another glance at the blissfully na?ve look on Gemma’s face.
“I need to use the restroom,” I said, anxiety coursing over me at leaving Dmitri alone with Charles.
I swallowed, second guessing my plan. But my decision was cemented when Gemma stood up from the bar with a stumble in her step.
I needed her away from that gangster at all costs, and I did not want her anywhere near Charles while he was dying.
I quickened my pace so I beat Gemma to the bathroom. Relief flooded through me when I found no one else inside. When Gemma stumbled inside the room, I discreetly locked the door behind her.
“Hey Gemma,” I said.
I was curious if she’d be able to see beyond my disguise now that we were only a foot away from each other.
Confusion skittered across her face. “Do I know you?” she asked, a slight slur in her voice.
I whipped off the wig, revealing my blonde hair.
“It’s me,” I said.
Only a blank look in response.
“It’s Alisa,” I said, gesturing at myself as if that would clarify it. “I was trying a new look.”
Gemma’s eyes widened. I wondered how my best friend couldn’t recognize me at point blank range, yet Dmitri had somehow known my identity.
“Holy shit, I never would've guessed.”
I glanced down at my phone. I needed to speed this up and get us out of here before Charles’ heart started convulsing. I pulled back on the wig and checked my image in the mirror.
“I’ll explain later. Anyway we’re heading out for a girls’ night,” I said, clutching her wrist and pulling her towards the door.
A frown graced her face. “I’m on a date,” she said, pulling her hand back.
Yeah, with a gangster. But I couldn’t exactly tell her that.
“Please, Gemma, I need a girls’ night.”
That was an understatement, I needed to get my mind off Dmitri. I’d spent the last week with him in my thoughts, and his imaginary hands down my panties while I got myself off. Shit, sometimes I swore I saw him in the crowd.
I shook my head. This physical draw was bordering on obsession. Another reason to forget everything with my best friend.
She chewed on her lip, but thankfully she agreed.
“Hey, Gemma,” I said softly, and she turned to look at me. “I got a bad vibe on that guy you’re with... Maybe you should steer clear of him in the future.”
“Really?”
My heart was pounding in my chest as I nodded. I needed her to be safe. She was my best friend. I refused to let anything happen to her, because of me.
“You’re probably right.” She sighed. “I have such shit choice in guys.”
Relief swelled through me as I led her to the backdoor of the bar I’d found while pouring over the floor plans. We slipped through the door, and a harsh flash of wind smacked against my cheek.
I stared into the shadows of the alley and froze when I spotted Dmitri leaning against a brick wall. Gemma glanced between us, a line forming between her brows.
“It’s not that easy to escape from me, Alisa.”
I was more than aware of that. Even when he wasn’t with me, he was present in my mind.
“Who is that?” Gemma asked, her shoulders tight.
Interesting. She’d gone on a date with a gangster and been as blissful as a butterfly fluttering towards a flower. But even someone as unfamiliar with the underworld as her could sense the special type of danger Dmitri possessed.
“No one,” I lied, and pulled her towards the head of the alley where threads of light were creeping past the tall buildings surrounding us.
“That’s not what you said last week,” Dmitri said. “In fact-”
I cut him off with an irritated noise, but my indignation was weakened by the blush currently rising up my cheeks. As much as I wished it were the case, my pink cheeks had nothing to do with the wind haphazardly whipping my skin.
“Last week?” Gemma said, and I didn’t like the way a light switch went off in her eyes. “Is this your co-worker?”
Dmitri’s eyes left my face for the first time since we’d stepped into the alley. He zeroed in on Gemma like she was a flailing sheep.
“So you’ve told your best friend about me? How sweet.” The tone he used had the blush stretching to my chest.
Something shifted in Gemma’s body language. As if Dmitri’s association with me made her rethink the danger she’d sensed from him. After all, how could someone who had such a boring job make her body shift into flight or fight?
How wrong she was.
“More like constantly complains about you,” Gemma said, throwing me a wink.
“Alisa’s a consistent pain in my ass. If anything, I should be the one complaining,” he said dryly.
“If I’m such a pain in the ass then why are you stalking me?” I threw back before I could think it through.
“How adorable. You actually think I came here just because I wanted to see you,” he said, his eyes dancing at some irony I wasn’t seeing.
Gemma threw me a glance, but I ignored it, my mind trying to twist out the meaning behind Dmitri’s words.
“We have work to do, kitten.”