Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
DEMITRI
Life has settled into this weird little calm that I don’t trust. I’ve returned to the garage for the most part, Mia drives herself to and from work, and I only come in a few nights for a bite to eat and to check in with whoever’s on watch before I go back to Mia’s and crash. We stopped at my place last weekend and it looks like it’s abandoned. There was so much dust piled up that I had to wash clean clothes before I could wear them.
I held my tongue, but Mia told me to pack all my shit and make it real. As tempted as I am by the idea of fully moving in with her, I’m still not a hundred percent sure that she’s not going to regret it all and demand I get out of her space. I told her that if we were moving in with each other, we needed to move to something ‘ours’ to keep the balance even. She didn’t like my answer, but after thinking about it some, I think she understood where I was coming from.
I stick around after hours to work on this cherry fifty-seven Chevy Bel-Air. When we’re done with her, she’ll be the envy of everyone around. She’s already a beauty, but we’re going to make her purr like a kitten. My stomach growls and I realize it’s time to go.
I’m closing down the back office when I hear noises and a hushed conversation outside the office window. I leave the lights as they are and slide up to the window as quietly as I can. The voices are Russian, and my skin crawls. I close my eyes to concentrate on what they are saying.
“I swear I saw him the other day. It’s him, no doubt about it.”
“We can’t just go to her and say we found him. We need proof.”
“How are we going to get that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe something in the office will give us the guy’s name.”
“How are we going to get into the office?”
“Are you fucking stupid? We break in, idiot.”
“I don’t know about that, man.”
“Look, Luka. You’re in or you’re out. You have to choose.”
“What happens if I want out?”
“You run. You know she’ll kill you if you don’t.”
“She’ll kill me if I do.”
“Then I guess you’re in.”
“The lights are still on. Let’s come back when we know the place is empty. I don’t want to have to hurt anyone just on a whim that this guy is Mr. Pavlov.”
“Fuck you, I know who I saw, and it was him. Bet everything I have on it.”
“Still think we should wait until we know the building’s empty if you’re so sure of everything.”
“Fine. But I’m telling Ms. Pavlov if you pussy out. Let’s get some food and come back, see if it’s empty then.”
Mr. Pavlov was my father. Not me. And there isn’t anything here that would tie that name to the family. I rack my brain trying to remember a Luka. The only one I can think of was just a kid when I checked out. He wasn’t too into anything back then, either. Where’s he been the last few years since my father died? Why’s he back?
I’m asking myself a million questions that I don’t know the answers to as I listen to them scurry away like the rats they are. Think they can come into my place of business on a hunch and destroy what I’ve worked so hard to build? No, they didn’t talk about doing that, but these are Pavlov men. They can’t quietly go in, get the information they want, and get out. They have to create chaos and destruction on their way.
I pull out my phone.
Demitri: Have eyes on the garage?
Joker: I can. What’s up?
Demitri: Two of the family. Want to break in and verify who I am. Need IDs on them if you can. One of them is Luka Novikov, I’m sure of it.
Joker: What do you want to do?
Demitri: Stick around here until they come back and teach them a lesson?
Joker: What are you going to do?
Demitri: Give you the information and let you handle it?
Joker: That’s the right answer. We’ll take care of it.
Demitri: Going to the bar.
Joker: Grady’s on duty.
Demitri: Why is it just Aiden and Grady pulling bar duty?
Joker: Have to ask them, man. They keep volunteering for it.
Demitri: They’re insane. That’s the only thing I can figure out.
Joker: No argument on that. I think we all have to be a little crazy to work here.
Demitri: I need to get to the bar. If they think they know who I really am, I need to stay close to Mia.
Joker: No worries. I got this.
Demitri: Let them in before you do anything. I want to talk to Luka.
Joker: You got it.
I put my phone in my pocket and grab the keys off my desk. I bypass the bay with my truck in it and go to the far wall. Pulling the cover off the car, I grin to myself, thinking about Mia’s face when she sees it. My own ‘Elenore’, a completely restored and mint condition sixty-seven Ford Shelby GT. It’s the first car I ever restored on my own. Found on my father’s property, abandoned and forgotten after what I can only assume was a small fender bender. I had it transferred to John Smith’s name as soon as I had the identification to do so, further removing it from the Pavlov family. Little known fact, my father loved cars. Loved them and left them as soon as he was tired of them. He also had a secret alias he used to procure the cars, and this one could never be traced to the Pavlov name.
I open up the bay door and slide behind the wheel, my hands gripping the steering wheel before sliding my fingers along the buttery soft leather encasing it. I look over to the passenger seat and briefly think I see Mika sitting here, smiling, the wind blowing her hair around her face through the open windows. I blink, and she’s gone. This car is beautiful. But she’s also haunted. Memories of days gone by, before my world crashed around me, assault me for a few more minutes. When I open my eyes, all the past thoughts disappear to be replaced with Mia’s smiling face.
Sometimes you have to face the fact that it’s time to move forward. To put the past where it belongs, to find your happiness in your future. I loved Mika. I’ll never forget her. Or the pain her death caused me. But that love? It’s not the same. It’s not as big as the love I have for Mia. That might be because our opportunity for love was cut short, or it might be the realization that can only come with age. Regardless, I feel like I’m ready now. Ready to move on, to move forward. And in order to do that, I have to also be ready to move on from this car. I know of a buyer in Diamond Cove, some billionaire who runs a company with his brothers.
It’s time to make the call. Time to move forward. Time to tell Mia what she means to me.
The bar is sleepy this Wednesday night. Grady is at his post in the far corner, a discarded basket and half empty pitcher of beer on the table. I slide in and look at him. He’s obviously tired, like he should be sleeping instead of sitting here.
“Why are you doing this?” Skipping the greeting, I go right into the questions.
“Hello to you, too. Hope you had a great day. I see you survived. You’re welcome for making sure your girlfriend is safe and no boogiemen are coming after her.” He raises a brow at me.
“Yeah, yeah, I appreciate you, but you look like shit, friend. You need a real meal and sleep. So what’s the deal?”
“You asking cause you care about me?” He smirks.
“Yeah, let’s go with that. I care about you, Grady. Now spill the beans.”
“The young people these days call it tea. You’re showing your age with beans.”
“Deflection. Stop with the bullshit.”
“I’m here because I have to be.” He sighs. “I’m here because I can’t be anywhere else.”
“Why? Why you and Aiden? Don’t you fuckers have a whole staff under you that could do this?”
“Besides the point. We have to do this because we do.”
I stare at him and replay what he said with what he didn’t. There’s more he isn’t saying, but what is it? I follow his eyes to the bar and the empty corner where Mia’s friends usually sit, and it hits me like a truck. Aiden’s reluctance to talk about his secret obsession. Grady’s insistence that he personally be here.
“I get it now.”
He stares at me, trying to figure out if I’m the one bullshitting, but nods when he realizes I’m not.
“We all have our crosses to bear,” he quietly states. “This is ours.”
I don’t ask him questions about which girl caught his eye. Not my business, and when or if he wants to talk about it, he will. We sit in silence, Grady’s eyes constantly roaming the room, mine never straying far from watching Mia do what she does best.
Grady gets a text and reads it before looking up at me, a hardness to his features I’ve only seen a few times before.
“They have your guys. Caught them red-handed and incapacitated them.”
“Where are they?”
“Place on the edge of town. Aiden’s on his way here so we can go get answers.”
“You’re going, too?”
“I’m the one who gets the answers.”