10. Rurik
10
RURIK
F eeling Kelly’s small hand within mine soothed a part of me that I didn’t know was broken. This petite woman had so much power over me, and I doubted she realized it.
The triumph of killing that man would stay with me for a long time. The elation of being the one to come to her rescue wouldn’t fade soon, either. But the instant trust she’d placed in me, to follow me without question, gave me hope that I couldn’t be wrong about her.
After I hurried her to my car, dismissing the protests of my shoulder burning in pain from overusing it too soon—twice in two fights tonight—I registered how quiet she’d gotten.
She hadn’t argued once. She didn’t say a single word.
I knew she was aloof, but this…
“Kelly?” I asked once we reached my car. I opened the door for her and watched her get in, mute and stiff, not making eye contact with me. Not really pivoting to face me, she stared ahead and offered a hum of acknowledgment.
“Hmm?” No smile. No look up at me.
Fuck. I hated the chance that she only seemed aloof because she forced herself to look so strong that no one would think she needed comfort. If this brave face was all an act, she wouldn’t dupe me with it anymore.
I rested one hand on the roof of the car, standing in the space between her and the open door. Then I lowered my other hand to reach for her chin. She had a perfect heart-shaped face with a little pointed chin below those plump lips I’d thought about way too often. Right now, they were thinned in a fine line of stress. Touching my finger and thumb to the underside of her chin, I encouraged her to make eye contact with me.
“Kelly.”
She faced me and released a long exhale. “Yeah?”
“You’ll be all right,” I said, at a loss for knowing what else to tell her.
“Oh.”
I furrowed my brow, watching her buckle in and break eye contact. That was odd. Did she not believe me? Did she doubt that I could see to her wellbeing and safety? Or did she not want anything to do with me? When she first looked at me, before I shot that man in the head, I noticed the surprise and awe in her expression. She’d seemed happy—grateful, even—to see me.
Now, she was cool. Too aloof.
I shut her door and rounded the car, promising to myself that she would not be able to keep me away again. I wouldn’t let myself stay away from her this time.
“Eva’s been anxious to see you again,” I said, hoping that mentioning her would loosen Kelly up. I started the car and sped out of the lot, trying to figure out how to play this with Kelly. If she was scared and traumatized by being followed then attacked, that would make sense. But that didn’t seem to be the case. She wasn’t numb, like her body had frozen up and shut her down. If she was nervous and hesitant to be near me after a couple of months apart, that would make sense too. We’d allowed too big of a gap to wedge between us to be instant friends or acquaintances now. When I’d first caught a glimpse of her, when Eva started her classes last semester, Kelly and I hadn’t ever really had many chances to truly get to know each other. She knew of me, and that was good enough.
She still didn’t reply.
“I’m taking you there now, so you can see her.”
Her jaw slid as she ground her teeth. “I thought you were transporting me somewhere so you could get answers.”
It sounded too clinical when she said it.
“I am, but you can see Eva first.”
“What’s the point?” she asked.
I scowled. “What do you mean, what’s the point? She thinks you could still be friends.”
“I don’t make a habit of socializing with Mafia members.”
I huffed a laugh. “No? But you allow a habit to form of having men follow you in the dark?” Stopped at a light, I reached over to grip her chin again and make her face me. Her cheek was still pink from that man backhanding her. “You’ll tolerate a habit of strange men hitting you?”
Even though she was safe in the car with me, anger resurfaced. I wanted to kill that man all over again for hurting her.
She didn’t push my hand away but ducked to evade my touch. I hated the troubled look in her eyes as she put up distance between us. “No. I don’t make a habit of inviting any man near me. Ever. I don’t make a habit of letting men think they can follow me or hit me.”
While the news of her not letting any man near her lifted my spirits, I wondered if she meant that about me, too.
“Eva may be a member of the Baranov Family, but that has never stood in the way of her wanting to be your friend.”
She crossed her arms. “And that’s supposed to explain how and why you were near me when I was attacked?”
Not once, but twice. The first man hadn’t reached her to hurt her, but I had no doubt that was what he’d intended to do with her. What I needed to figure out was if they were working together or if those were isolated incidents. “No.” I’d be honest about this. “Eva asked me to come to campus specifically to check on you.”
“Really?” Now she faced me as I drove. In my peripheral vision, I noticed her raising her brows, like she couldn’t believe that.
“Yes. She’s worried about your going no-contact with her. We’re aware of the drugs distributed on campus still, even after Eva stopped her enrollment at the school. She asked me to come check on you. When I did, I heard some news about other Families operating in the area, and the Boss wanted me to head up the surveillance again.”
“So, you came to spy on the drug dealers and other Mafia thugs on campus.”
“No.”
“That’s what you just said.”
“I’m there for both, Kelly. Eva tasked me with making sure you are okay, and the Boss asked me to spy on some individuals for more intel.”
“But I’m not Eva’s concern.”
I took her hand, refusing to let her slip out of my grasp. “You are. Whether you like it or not, you are her concern. She’s concerned about you.” At another light, I took the chance to look her in the eye, stealing this chance to marvel at the stubborn glint in her green gaze. “So am I.”
After a long, tense moment, she licked her lips and looked down at her lap. “You’re concerned about my having intel that pertains to Mafia business?”
“No.” I shifted my arm to maintain this hold on her hand. Driving with my wounded arm wasn’t ideal, but I couldn’t give up this touch. Twining our fingers together, I secured my grip on her. “I’m concerned about your ever being in danger like that. And I’m eager to know why you were.”
“It’s just the same old,” she said quietly. “Guys on campus wanting to take advantage of women.” She cleared her throat. “Just like before, when I was drugged and found unconscious.”
“But they ruled that out as your just passing out and hitting your head, not being attacked.”
She shrugged yet made no move to pull her hand from mine. I didn’t push her for any more answers, not with our being this close to the mansion. We’d arrived quickly, but at this late hour with minimal traffic on the road, it wasn’t that surprising that we’d made good time.
“Eva is anxious to see that you’re okay,” I told her after I parked.
“Then I’ll go in there, show her that I am, and I’ll be taken back home?”
I narrowed my eyes at her, trying to see through her and guess at why she wanted this distance. Was it me? Was it the fact that she was getting closer to the Mafia? Too many secrets lurked beneath the surface with her.
“We’ll figure it out as we go.” I released her hand to exit the car, but she didn’t stray from my side as we entered the house.
Eva was there, waiting at the front door. She had likely been alerted to the fact that I was coming here with Kelly. I’d slipped Lev a quick text on the way, when Kelly was quiet and staring out the window.
The moment the women saw each other, they broke out into a run. Meeting in the middle, they cried out in happiness and hugged each other tightly. Seeing their reunion, I knew that Kelly’s tough attitude about not mattering to Eva had been nothing more than fear talking. Kelly must have worried that Eva would’ve forgotten about her and moved on from their brief, danger-filled friendship.
Eva led her inside, hugging her as they walked, and I let the women catch up.
Lev spoke with me off to the side. I filled him in on how I’d found Kelly being followed not once, but twice.
“You killed him?” Lev asked plainly as I summed up how I’d handled the second man.
I nodded. “I called the closest man on the crew to start with the cleanup and to remove the body. Peter’s on it.”
“Hmm. But the first man walked away?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t linger to check. If he was still alive and able to get up, he didn’t come running to capture Kelly.”
“So they could’ve been working independently?” he guessed.
“Maybe. Maybe not. We’ll need to get answers from her.”
“Hold on.” Lev put his hand up. “Eventually, yes. Eva’s glad that she’s safe and that they’re together again, but it’s up to Kelly what she wants to do. If she’s in the position to write this incident off as men just being men, that’s her prerogative.”
I didn’t like the sound of this.
“Eva asked you to check on Kelly, and you did. You’ve done that, getting there at just the right moment. But she’s not our focus.”
He was right. Kelly wasn’t our focus. But she was definitely my focus.
“The Boss gave orders for you to listen in on that meeting between the dealers, though.” He furrowed his brow.
“Yeah. I know. I was multitasking.”
He set his hand on my injured shoulder and slightly squeezed until I groaned in pain. Grimacing, I shook him off.
“You can call it multitasking or whatever else you want. But it looks like you were not taking it easy and keeping your distance from watching Kelly. Look, I’m glad she’s fine and you helped her the way you did. But you were supposed to be in the background, spying on that meeting and watching her from afar. Not rushing into fights and potentially further damaging your still-healing shoulder.”
“No one else was there.” I sighed, glancing at Kelly seated on the sofa and talking to both Eva and Irina, who’d come out from her room to visit with Kelly when she heard she was here. “No one else was close enough to help her. I didn’t plan this. I didn’t think. I just reacted.”
Lev patted my back but shook his head. “I get it, but?—”
“I don’t think you do,” I argued. “But it’s not like I missed out on anything. When you texted me that the meeting was happening soon, I left the area near her apartment and hurried toward that building where the meeting was supposed to be held.” I hadn’t updated him on the little I’d recorded yet. That was how fast things had progressed today.
“But you clearly weren’t there when that meeting happened,” Lev said, arching a brow.
The room had gone silent, and with a glance to the side where the women were, I realized they were listening in.
“The meeting didn’t happen,” I replied. “I went to listen in and they were all splitting up because Marcus wasn’t there. He didn’t show up and the meeting was canceled. That was when I ran back to where I saw that first man following Kelly.”
Oleg spoke up from the other side of the room. He puffed his cigar, and with Vik at his side, he said, “Marcus was at that meeting because reports are coming in that he was killed at that meeting.”