Chapter 20 #2
“Since when do you want anything to do with the family business?” Ivan asks, keeping his voice level, but his fingertips drum on the table.
“I don’t.” She shrugs, but there’s a defensiveness to her tone and the stiffness of her shoulders.
“Maybe we can talk about the details of all this later.” Kaz reaches across the table, snatching one of the pastries from the plate. “I don’t think Maxine really wants to hear all this.”
I lift my gaze to him when I hear my name. He’s right.
This is a family discussion, and I’m not family. I’m an outsider.
Always the outsider.
“She can handle the conversation,” Lev defends.
Kaz meets Lev’s gaze. “I didn’t say she couldn’t handle it. Only that she probably doesn’t want to hear how Alexander wants to kill an entire family.”
“It’s all right,” I voice.
“Well, I don’t want to hear about it.” Elana smiles tensely.
“Should we go back to talking about your education?” Alexander suggests, his eyebrows raised.
“Alexander.” Kaz shakes his head. “Leave it alone for now.”
Elana’s cheeks redden, most likely from irritation if the glare she’s shooting at her oldest brother can be trusted.
“That’s it!” I burst out as the memory hits me. “That’s where I’ve seen you.”
Elana’s, and everyone else’s, eyes swing to me. “Seen me?”
“Yes!” I laugh. “I’ve been trying rack my brain. I mean, you looked familiar when I saw you at Nicolette’s dinner, but I couldn’t place it. But it finally hit me. You came into the store last week. With your boyfriend, or fiancé?”
Her eyes widen, and she pulls back slightly.
“A bookstore?”
“Yes, last week, you came in looking for a magazine. A wedding magazine…” My voice dies as dread washes over me.
I’ve ruined something.
“A wedding magazine?” Alexander questions, turning his gaze back on his little sister. “Why would you need a wedding magazine, Elana?”
“Shit,” Kaz whispers and shakes his head. “What’s going on, Elana?”
“Nothing.” She says forcefully, but there’s a little crack in her voice.
“Maybe I was wrong?” I sink back in my chair. “I see a lot of customers, maybe it was something else?”
This was a perfectly good family brunch, and I’ve ruined it for them.
“No. I was there.” Elana admits. “But the magazine wasn’t for me. It was for my friend Nicole. Her boyfriend is going to propose. I wanted to get her some stuff; you know for the planning.”
“Oh, that makes sense!” I laugh. It’s a horrible, awkward sound.
“What man were you with? Because Artem didn’t mention anything about a bookstore way on the west side of the city.” Alexander continues to push.
“Let it go,” Kaz waves a hand. “She was shopping. Leave it.”
“You have to stop defending her.” Alexander argues with Kaz.
“You have to stop treating her like she’s a piece of fragile china that will break if someone touches her. Leave it alone. She went shopping.”
“Without any security?” Ivan continues.
I glance at Megan, who looks like she’s trying to find a spot in the conversation to intervene, then to Elana who’s shooting daggers at her brothers with her eyes.
“They’re like this a lot when it comes to Elana,” Vee whispers in my ear. “Overprotective brothers. You know how they can be.”
Shouldn’t I?
“Yeah.” I roll my eyes, pretending as though I have every idea of what she’s talking about. But realistically, I can’t imagine Joey or Keith caring where I shopped or with who, or if I was in a safe neighborhood at the time.
Every family is different though, so I shouldn’t compare.
But there’s an ache that surprises me as I watch the Volkov siblings bicker back and forth. No matter how stern the brothers’ voices get, Elana rolls her eyes and absorbs it all. As though she’s used to this and is just waiting for the storm to pass through.
Beneath the jibes and arguments, a current of love runs deep. I can sense it, and I barely know them. They would kill for each other. And they’d die for them, too.
“You okay?” Lev asks, moving his arm to rest on the back of my chair. His fingers gently push a stray hair back behind my ear.
“Yeah. I’m fine.” I push on a smile. “Perfect.”
His eyes narrow, that damn lie detector of his is going off in his head, I’m sure.
“Max, don’t lie. They can be a lot when they all get going. If it’s too much, we can go home.” He keeps his voice down.
“No. I wanted to spend some time with Vee. I swear, I’m fine,” I reassure him.
He studies me, like he’s reading a book looking for the context clues.
“Okay, a little longer. Finish eating. You barely had breakfast.” He gives a pointed look at my plate.
“You know it’s creepy having your men spy on me and then report back to you. I bet you know exactly what I had for breakfast even though you weren’t around.”
He grins. “A yogurt and an apple.”
I roll my eyes. “See. Creepy.”
“I have something for you,” Vee interrupts us. “Come with me.”
“She needs to finish eating,” Lev grabs the back of my chair when I start to scoot back.
“I’ll finish when I get back.” I shove at his arm, and surprisingly, he relents.
“They’re not going to stop arguing for a few minutes, and I wanted to give you something before Ivan took me away.”
“It’s not forever, Vee.” I try to find some levity, but I can understand her fear.
The men who shot at me, thought they were shooting at her. It would make me frightened too.
She leads me up a set of stairs to the second floor. “Ivan brought us here yesterday after Lev called to tell him what had happened. There’s plenty of security at his place, but this place is a full-on fortress.”
“I noticed the guard tower at the gates.”
She laughs. “That’s only the start of it. There’re snipers on the damn roof. Snipers!” She shakes her head. “I really should think twice about being with him.”
She opens the door to a bedroom, and I follow her inside. I’m wrong. It’s not a bedroom. It’s a full suite. Similar in style to what Lev has at his place. A TV room attached to a bedroom.
“Ivan loves you,” I say as she unzips a duffel bag. “Besides, I don’t think he’d let you go now that he has you.”
She grins like a woman who’s found her true happiness. “No. He wouldn’t.”
“See. So I was right to nudge you in that direction.”
“And what about Lev?” She asks, still digging in the bag. “How’s that going? Still hate him?”
“I didn’t hate him. I just…”
“Thought he hated you, so it was best for you to be the first to strike?” She looks up from her search with a knowing grin. “See, I can see through you just as easily as you see through me.”
“Okay, so I don’t hate him. That doesn’t mean anything is going on.”
“So, that’s not his teeth marks in your neck?” She leans over and presses her finger against the spot where he sank his teeth into me.
I slap my hand over the spot, heat crawls over my face. “Didn’t you say you needed to give me something?”
She laughs. “Okay, we’ll talk about it later.”
Out of the bag, she pulls out a cellphone. “Ivan’s not going to let me use my usual number or to call your phone. So take this one. We’ll both have burners that we can talk on.”
“Oh, smart.” I take it from her.
“My number’s the only one programed in.” She taps the contact list. “I’ll let you know as soon as Ivan and I get to where we’re going. And you have to keep me informed of what’s happening here. Ivan will try to keep it from me if he thinks it’s going to worry me.”
“Overprotective oaf.” I sigh.
She laughs. “Yeah.”
As I’m tucking the phone into my back pocket the door opens. Ivan and Lev step inside.
“It’s time to go.”