Chapter 16
R urik finishes getting dressed in record time. Once he has his shoes on, he disappears into the closet and comes out with a gun.
“What are you going to do, shoot the cops?”
He’s insane. I’ve been kidnapped by a complete crazy person.
“Stay here.” He points at me.
I roll my eyes. “Not on your life.”
“Mira.” He snaps my name, the sound of it sharp and lethal. Just like him. “Stay. Here.”
“You don’t think they’ll just come up here and get me if they want me?”
His jaw flexes. “They won’t come up here. They’re not getting to you.”
Panic forms. “You’re the mafia guy; why do you think they want me? Maybe they’re here for you.”
“Because I have informants who would have warned me if there was a chance of police involvement.” He opens the bedroom door. “Do I have to tie you up?”
“I don’t think them finding me bound to your bed is going to be a good look. If they are here for me, then just let me talk to them. You don’t have to solve every problem with bullets.” I breeze past him, expecting him to snatch me up before I even get to the stairs.
I’m surprised when he passes me and takes the lead, jogging down the stairs as pounding begins on the front door. When we get to the foyer, he stops and turns to me.
A part of him probably wants to drag me back to his room and follow through with his threat to tie me to the bed, but the rational part of him seems to be in control now. He sighs, a slow and deflated sound.
His phone buzzes, and he answers the call, granting me a short reprieve from his stifling attention.
As we walk down the hall to the front door, he’s on the phone having a tense conversation with someone in Russian. I really wish I could understand what the hell he was saying. The language is so coarse, I can’t tell if he’s angry or if it’s just the dialect.
Once we reach the front door, he’s off the call and has his phone stuffed into his back pocket. The gun remains in place at his back. It should frighten me, this little standoff he’s about to have with the police, but the confidence I have in him can’t be explained.
“You say nothing. You do nothing. Understand?” Rurik looks less than convinced I’m going to do any of that, which is probably the only reason he didn’t stop me from coming down.
“Sure. Whatever. I’m a fly on the wall.” I step away from him and nestle myself beside the console table.
Naturally my hip bumps into it, and the black vase wobbles. I catch it just before it tips over and carefully put it back in place.
More pounding on the door shakes my own confidence that I can let him deal with whatever is on the other side of the door.
Rurik opens the door, blocking the entrance with his body. It’s crowded, but I can manage to see at least three people standing on the other side of him. Two in uniforms and then one in a suit. I can’t see his face, but when he talks, I know his voice.
“Good evening, Mr. Mikhailov. My name is Detective Calloway. We’re looking for Mira Pierce.”
“What do you want with her?” Rurik’s back tenses.
“Is she here? Maybe we should come in?—”
Rurik crosses his arms over his chest, blocking any sort of attempt to cross the threshold.
“Here is fine.” Rurik remains the stone wall I’ve come to know over the past few days.
Detective Calloway’s heavy sigh reminds me of the disappointment he had the other times he cornered me into a conversation.
“Look. I know she’s here. She’s a person of interest in the homicide of Nico Mannetti and it’s in her best interest to speak to me. If she won’t, then I don’t have any choice but to arrest her and bring her to the station.”
Arrest me? I clench my jaw, doing my best to keep out of the conversation. But there’s no denying how shaky my legs are getting.
“You’re not arresting anyone. She hasn’t murdered anyone, and you know it.” How can he sound so bored?
A thin veil of sweat forms on my brow, and he’s over there sounding like he’s sitting on the beach asking for another Mai Thai.
“Well, I don’t know anything yet.” The detective doesn’t budge.
He’s a persistent little asshole; I can give him that much credit.
“There’s been a development in the case. DNA evidence places her with the body at the time of death.”
My blood freezes.
Nico and I had been together the entire day, my hair was probably all over his clothing. Other evidence might have been left on other parts of him, too.
“So? She was with a guy who got himself killed later. You’ll need more than that.” Rurik’s response comes straightaway, no hesitation.
My heart is going to break a speed record. Whatever he does to keep this calm, I need to learn the technique.
“It really is in her best interest to speak with me. ”
“You brought two uniforms with you to have a conversation?”
“Past conversations haven’t been productive. If she can’t answer my questions, we’ll need to take her to the station to detain her. I’m sure you understand the way these things go.”
“You’re going to want to answer that,” Rurik says, but I don’t hear anything.
A moment later, the detective answers his phone. He excuses himself, and steps away from the door. Once he’s further away, Rurik relaxes and leans his shoulder against the door frame. Giving me a better view of what’s happening.
Detective Calloway stands a few feet behind the two uniformed officers on the phone. He doesn’t look happy. In fact, he looks down right pissed. His face is turning a shade of red I haven’t seen before.
“Sorry about this, Mr. Mikhailov.” One of the officers says with a grimace.
“I understand.” Rurik gives a sharp nod. “You understand I can’t let you take her.”
Both officers nod in unison. “We didn’t think you’d let it come to that, no. Just here to be sure things don’t get out of hand.”
He knows these guys? Or they know him. I’m not sure if I’m more impressed or frightened by that realization. What I do know is that it’s sort of hot.
No. Absolutely not. I have to stop this way of thinking. Just because he seems to have the world by the balls everywhere he goes, does not mean he’s a good guy. In fact, I know he’s not. He shot that guy in the woods right between his eyes. That wasn’t a lucky shot, that was a finely honed skill.
He works for the mafia for shit’s sake. No, I will not find his skills attractive. And what happened upstairs before these cops showed up is never happening again. It messes with my brain when he is able to make my body sing so sweetly.
Yes. No more kisses. And absolutely no more sex.
“Let’s go.” The detective snaps after he ends his call. “I want her at the station tomorrow. She has information.”
“If Ms. Pierce wants to speak with you, she’ll let you know. In the morning, you will be talking to my attorney, however.”
“She has an attorney? Why would someone so innocent need a lawyer?” His whiny little voice hurts my ears.
“He’ll be addressing your conduct. Not hers. You’ve been fucking with phone calls and wire transfers, all without a warrant, I’m sure.” Rurik steps back into the penthouse and slams the door shut right in the bald-headed, beady-eyed detective’s face.
I’m all smiles when he turns around. I’ve never seen anything so fucking beautiful.
It’s short lived. My smiles. Because when his eyes hit mine, I can feel the tension.
“When I used my phone, he was able to tell where I was,” I say before he can start his lecture.
He nods, slow and barely a movement, but it counts as a nod. I think he doesn’t trust himself to say much right now .
“You said he was messing with the phones and the wires? How do you know that?” Maybe if I can keep him focused on the facts, he won’t blow his top.
He rolls his shoulders back and takes a deep breath. I think he’s counting under his breath.
“Yes.” He finally says. “He messed with Megan’s phone so that no unknown number would go through, or texts. Since your burner wasn’t in her contact list, you couldn’t get to her.”
My jaw drops. “They can do that?”
“They can do a lot of things. Like intercept wire transfers. I think he found the money being sent to Megan. Sasha’s doing a little more looking into that.”
He walks past me, down the hall, and disappears toward the kitchen.
“How did you know the police were here? That alarm, what was it?”
“I told you; I own the building. Men who work for me live here and also provide security. There’s an alert if the police ever try to enter the building.”
“Why didn’t security stop them downstairs then?”
We’d come up through the private elevator from the garage, so we didn’t pass any security desk. But in a luxury building like this, I’m betting there’s more than just a doorman down in the lobby.
“A conversation with the detective was inevitable, so my men knew to let him up if he arrived. That permission has been pulled. He won’t be back. ”
“What phone call did he get? How did you make him go away?”
“I have connections in every branch of the government.” He fills a glass with water and drinks half of it down.
“You have men who work for you, and you have government informants?” I sink back onto the stool I sat on earlier. “You said you didn’t work for the Volkov family.”
“I don’t. I work for myself. Occasionally that means doing a favor for a friend, like Alexander.”
“You’re an independent contractor for the mob.”
“The men who work for me help me with jobs I take. I’m not the head of a family. I do the jobs that pay well.”
“Like getting that iPad from that guy?”
He pauses then nods. “Information pays well.”
“You should have just left me with Megan. That guy is like a dog with a bone. He’s not going to stop just because you scared him tonight.”
“I’m going to find out what that bone is. Why does he want Marco so badly if he’s a homicide detective? Marco has influence with the police department; he can make shit like this go away with a snap of his finger. So what is this guy really after?”
A sour sensation hits my stomach. It would be smart to come clean now. Tell him everything and let the chips fall, but I’m not that brave.
“I’m tired. I think I’m going to go to bed.” I slide off the stool.
“Mira.” He calls to me when I’m at the stairs .
When I turn back to him, I’m sure he can see the guilt written all over my face.
“Good night.”
“Yeah. Good night,” I say, spinning on my heel and rushing back up the stairs.
I barely make to the bathroom before I vomit up my dinner.