Chapter 29
I’m sitting on the floor of the stock room with the six new boxes of books that arrived this morning. I’m ignoring them for the moment, focusing instead on the credit report I’ve pulled up for myself on my phone.
Lev was right. There’s a credit card and personal loan on this report that I didn’t open. The balance is over fifteen thousand.
I’m trying to digest this information when Serafina pops her head in.
“Whoa, all that has to go out on the floor?” Her eyes go wide.
“Yes.” I sigh, looking around at the stock. “Your uncle ordered more inventory for the religion section.”
“Religion? But we barely sell anything from that section.” She frowns. “That man has no idea what he’s doing around here. He’s lucky you’re saving his ass.”
I smile, taking a little joy in her compliment.
“We can make it work. We’ll have to go through what’s there already and thin out what’s not selling.
We can probably get most of the money back with the return to the publishers, but a lot of that stock your uncle bought through distributors and not the publishing houses.
Which means we’ll take a small hit. But I guess we could look into selling them to a discount store, or one of those used bookstores.
Compare the money we could get, then decide. ”
Serafina’s grinning by the time I’m finished thinking out loud.
“What?” I run my hand over my cheek. “Do I have chocolate on my face?”
I’ve been indulging in the homemade fudge she’d brought in this morning.
She laughs. “No. I was thinking, you know a hell of a lot more about all this than my uncle does. It’s good to see someone actually care about this place making money.”
“Well, if it makes money, maybe he’ll pay us more.”
“Yeah, I doubt that.” Her smile falls. “But anyway, I came back here because there’s two guys up front asking about you.”
“Two guys?” I place the inventory list on top of a box and push up to my feet. “Is Dmitri up there?”
“That hot guy with all the muscles and tattoos that makes my mouth, and my panties wet? Yeah. He’s still up there.” She fans herself. “He’s not talking to them, though, so I don’t think he knows them. They’re twins, though.”
“Twins?” I wipe my hands on my pants, my heart racing. “My brothers!”
I hurry through the store to the front where both of them are flipping through the newest fashion magazine together.
“Keith! Joey!” I don’t even bother to control my volume, I’m too relieved and happy to see them.
They’re barely turned toward me before I wrap my arms around them, pulling them both into me. Keith is the first to react, pushing me back from him.
“Max, control yourself. Damn.” He retreats a step, rubbing his hand down the suit jacket he’s wearing.
They’re both in suits.
Nice ones, too. They look tailored and expensive. Their even wearing ties, and their shoes are polished.
“Why are you dressed up?” I ask, giving them some space.
“A man needs to look his best.” Keith tugs on the lapels of his jacket. “Man, if that old bat, Ingles, could see us. She’d shit a brick.”
“Yeah.” I glance over my shoulder. Dmitri’s drinking a coffee, scrolling through his phone in the same corner he hangs out in every day. He can see the whole store from there, he says.
“Where have you guys been? I mean, I know where you were, but why were you in Italy?”
“How do you know we were in Italy?” Keith’s eye narrow.
“You’ve been gone for weeks. Lev pulled some strings and found out your passports were used there.” It’s a simplification, but enough for now.
“Lev? The Bratva guy is looking for us?” Paranoia underlines Keith’s question.
“No, I was worried. He was doing me a favor.”
“A favor?” Keith repeats. “And what are you doing for him in return for these favors?”
“Keith, shut up. Don’t say things like that.”
“What? We should know if she’s fucking a mobster, right?”
“Keith, stop.” I frown. “I was worried. I went to your apartment and found another of those guns, and then I was arrested, and then there were the creepy men staring in my windows. He was only helping me.”
Even when he had no real reason to step in. I was nothing to him. A girl who was friendly with his sister. It’s not like I was best friends with Nicolette for years. They barely knew me, and he took me in. Protected me.
And then lied to me about my brothers.
The anger at his keeping things from me reignites.
“Creepy men?” Keith questions.
“Nothing.” I wave a hand. “It doesn’t matter. You’re back, and looking like you’ve taken new jobs?”
“We’re working, yeah.” Joey answers with a nod, lifting his chin with pride.
“For?”
“What?”
“What company are you working for?”
“Not a company.” Joey smiles. “It’s okay, Max. It’s going to be good, this thing we got going.”
“What about you? We went to your apartment; it doesn’t look like you’ve been there since we left. The cat’s gone, too.”
“Marion’s fine. She’s at Lev’s place. We both are.”
“You’re living with him?” Keith’s voice takes on that ugly tone he has.
“No, not living with him. Just staying at his place.” In his bed.
A cloud of shame forms over me. I’ve let things get too far. And now, knowing Lev was withholding information about my brother’s whereabouts, it’s become obvious that it’s time to come to my senses. He’s not a knight in shining armor, and I’m nobody’s damsel.
I’ve always gotten us out of jams in the past. I’d forgotten that in my time with Lev. Leaning on his strength has made me complacent. It needs to stop.
“Why are you staying there?” Joey steps toward me. He’s visibly exhausted. Thick bags hang under his eyes, and he’s lost weight.
“Because I just told you, some things happened. He was helping me out.” I shake my head, not wanting to get into the details. “I was worried about you guys. You took off, and you wouldn’t answer my calls or my texts.”
“So worried, you jumped into bed with a Russian mobster,” Keith sneers. “You fucking him?”
“Keith!” Joey slaps his hand across Keith’s shoulder. “Fucking hell, man. Don’t talk to her like that.”
“She is.” Keith shakes his head. “Look at her, it’s written all over her face. And look at those glasses. Those aren’t hers. He buy them for you? And those clothes?”
“Knock it off.” Joey nudges him again.
“Did he?” Keith persists, and I take a step back.
“It doesn’t matter.” I dodge the question, because what does it mean that I’ve accepted the glasses, and the clothes, and the luxurious bed and accommodations over the past weeks?
When I should have been out searching for them, trying to find a way to help them, I’ve been living in the lap of luxury.
And the lap of an extremely sexy Russian mobster who would probably sooner see them served up to the Armenians on a platter than help them out of whatever trouble they’ve found themselves in.
“Oh, but it does.” Keith steps toward me, a sneer settling on his lips.
“Keith, you’re a real prick.” I snap. “I’m trying to help you. That’s all I’ve done. You brought all this into my life when you brought those guns into my apartment.”
I should ask them about the credit report. About the loan. But they’ve only just resurfaced. There’s time to work through that later. When things more are calm.
He takes a deep breath, his nostrils flaring a little with his exhale. A calm settles over his expression. His shoulders relax.
“You’re right. We brought that piece here. We shouldn’t have done that.” He rubs the back of his neck.
God, they look so tired. Like they’ve been stressed to the hilt and need time to rest, to heal, to get their heads on straight again.
“Look. Whatever’s going on, there has to be a way for you to get out of it, right? I mean you’ve always said, if there’s a way in, there’s a way out.” I hook my hands on my hips. “We just need to figure out what to do from here.”
“Here’s the thing, Max.” Keith takes measured steps to the couch and throws himself onto it, hooking his left foot over his left and laying back against the throw pillow. “We have a good thing going.”
“What does that mean?” The last time they had a ‘good thing going’, they were selling ripped off cellphones out of the trunk of their car senior year in high school.
They’d barely been able to avoid being arrested, thanks to the Dean at the school putting his neck out on their behalf. And he’d only done that because I’d gone to him begging for his help when I caught a glimpse of the patrol car rolling up to the parking lot.
“It means we’re in a position now to make serious money,” Keith shrugs.
“You were in Italy. Why?”
He narrows his eyes. “It seems like you already know. What happened, did your fucktoy have one of his guys tailing us?”
“Don’t talk about him like that. It’s gross the way you say it. And he was trying to help me because I was afraid for you. Now what were you doing there?”
“It’s okay, Max.” Joey squeezes my shoulder. “I know you worry, but you don’t have to this time. We know what we’re doing, and it’s going to be good. For all of us.”
“Yeah. It will be good for you, too.” Keith scratches behind his ear. “Look. We’ll tell you everything, but I’m starved. Let’s go get some dinner.”
“I still have an hour before we close.”
“Don’t worry! It’s slow; I’ll take care of it.” Serafina calls from behind the book rack.
I glance over at Dmitri again. He’s still scrolling through his phone, but he’s heard every word of this conversation, I’m sure of it. And by now he’s probably texted Lev to tell him my brothers are here.
Lev will hate me leaving with them. It will probably send him into a rage.
“Okay, sure. Let me grab my coat.”