12. Rurik
12
RURIK
I n the morning, I woke to Kelly sleeping in my arms. I spooned her, hugging her naked body against mine.
And it was fucking perfect.
I drew in a deep breath, relishing the utter peace I felt at having her in my arms, her soft skin against mine, those soft curves warm in my embrace.
She stirred, waking up, but I hugged her tighter and stopped her from rolling away. “No. Don’t go.”
Feeling the rise of her cheek against my arm that she used as a pillow, I grinned at her smiling.
“Just like my dreams.”
Oh, fuck yeah. Her admission cheered me up. “You’ve dreamed of me?”
“I’ve dreamed of you and I’ve dreamed of this . Lying here like this.”
I stroked my hand down her side and sighed. “I couldn’t get you out of my mind, Kelly. Ever since I was told to pull back from the duties on campus because the security needs weren’t there without Eva, I missed you.”
She reached up and caressed my cheek. “I missed you too.”
“Why didn’t you talk to Eva? Or anything?”
“She was so happy with Lev. I didn’t want to be a third wheel.”
I could understand that. “But you could’ve contacted her when you needed help, right?”
She spun to face me, frowning. “I don’t want to be associated with the Baranov Family and become a target.”
I sighed, understanding why and how she’d think that. We did have a lot of enemies. “But if you are associated with us, then you’ll have the benefit of our protection.”
She lowered her gaze. “That may be true?—”
“It is true. We look after our own.”
“But I don’t have a lot of faith in counting on others to protect me. I grew up without a real family. I grew up without any people of authority ever looking out for me. It’s always just been me. I can count on myself.”
I kissed her quickly. “And like last night, you can count on me.”
She frowned again. “Thank you, if I haven’t made that clear. Thank you for intervening when you did.”
I kissed her again, savoring how she caressed my cheek and made the kiss last longer.
“What was that all about?” I asked. “Is that the first time that those guys stalked you?”
She shrugged. “Yes and no. There’s a guy I used to know from the foster system who has shown up on campus. He deals drugs.”
“For whom?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Since I’ve spotted him on campus, I’ve tried to avoid running into him.”
“But was he one of the guys who followed you?” I asked.
She shook her head. “The first one was one of his friends. But the second man… I don’t know who that man was that you killed.”
I watched her for a long moment, curious about how she worded that. She wasn’t appalled. She wasn’t freaking out that I had killed someone. Sure, she knew I was a member of the Baranov Mafia. She had to have a general understanding that I was a lethal person and that my job expectations could fall under the category of being a killer.
And it didn’t seem to faze her.
Was she so indifferent to the concept of how I’d killed that man because it was done in her defense? Or because she expected that kind of darkness from me? Or because it wasn’t her first time witnessing someone being killed?
Too many questions filled my mind, but I had to pace myself. I was determined to keep her with me. Now that I’d had her, I refused to let her go. I couldn’t imagine going through my life without her again. But I couldn’t bombard her with too many questions at once. She was already aloof and quiet to begin with, so I had to be careful.
“I’m sorry that you felt worried about me to rush back to find me. And that it made you not be at that meeting where your boss expected you to be.”
“It’s not your fault. I had two objectives to deal with at once and I chose my actions the best I could according to the information I had at the moment.”
“But this man was killed and…”
I shrugged. “I wouldn’t have protected him. I wouldn’t have done a single damn thing but see who’d killed him and bring that intel back to the Boss. We’d use that intel to stay one step ahead of our enemies. Nothing more.”
She opened her mouth but closed it without speaking. “But?—”
I kissed her quiet. “I know it has to be hard to trust me, but can you consider taking a chance on me to keep you safe? Not only me, but all the Baranovs with me?”
She had evidence of how much I could prove it last night. I wasn’t just talking the talk. I’d shown her how deadly I was last night. Words wouldn’t make a difference to her, but my actions should.
“I know. But it’s a lot to adjust to.”
At the sound of my phone buzzing with a text, I sat and rolled to the edge of the bed to get up. Aches and pains spread through me at the overuse from last night, both from fighting those men and having sex with Kelly. Strenuous exercise wasn’t smart right now, but I didn’t regret a moment of it.
“What is it?” Kelly asked, yawning as she sat up and held the sheets to her chest.
“Oleg. The Boss. He wants to talk to us.”
She sighed heavily, slumping back on the bed and covering her face with her hands. I tugged them off and used them to gently pull her back upright. She laughed, slumping back down as soon as I released her, and we went like this back and forth for a while until I moved too quickly and a twinge of pain streaked down my arm. “Ow.”
She sobered quickly, getting up and fussing over me. We showered together, another first for her, and I smiled at the thought that I could be her first and last of many things.
Watch it, man. Don’t get too far ahead of yourself.
I worried I already was too far ahead of myself, thinking in terms of forever with this woman who’d only just caved to me for now. We would need to discuss what we were doing later. Speaking with Oleg was the priority.
We headed down to this meeting he’d called. I let Kelly walk ahead of me, to be with Irina and Eva as they went.
“I can’t remember the last time I actually slept that solidly. Or for so long,” Kelly admitted when Eva asked how she’d slept.
“Oh?” Irina smiled at me. “That’s interesting. Eva was telling me that Rurik had the hots for you and?—”
Eva elbowed her. “Hush.”
“You were only sleeping last night?” Irina teased.
Kelly’s cheeks burned a bright pink. I slung my good arm around her shoulders and hugged her close to my side. As I tipped her chin up and kissed her deeply, I looked back at Irina and Eva and dared them to question it.
“Ooh,” Irina teased, laughing.
Eva smiled wide. “I knew it. I thought that you two had a crush on each other last semester.”
“A crush?” Irina huffed. “I doubt they’re in the realm of something as juvenile as that.”
Oleg cleared his throat, and that sound was all it took to make them stop giggling.
Having everyone in on these meetings was a new thing, but in this context, it made sense. All three women were familiar with the college issue.
“Marcus James was killed last night,” Oleg announced, “and many are eager to know who could’ve killed him.”
Irina crossed her arms and shrugged. “Easy. It was probably my father.”
“He wasn’t there,” Vik told her. “The spies we have on him would’ve told us.”
Irina shook her head. “I wouldn’t have put it past him to have a hit put on the politician, though. If he was favoring the other one.”
“Eric Benson,” Oleg said. “That was the other politician there last night.” He glanced at me. “We’ve confirmed that he was one of the men who spoke in that recording you took. So Benson was there before Marcus could’ve been.”
I felt like I was missing something. “So the assumption is that Benson killed Marcus James?” I supposed that was logical, since they had to be rivals or competitors as up-and-coming lawyers who wanted to rule politically.
“No. But my interest lies in whatever business Benson might be up to.” Oleg lit another cigar and puffed it before continuing. “His family is of interest. Eric’s father might have known something about Amelia’s and Sonya’s disappearances.”
I noticed the confusion on Kelly’s face and leaned in to explain with a whisper, “Eva’s mother and sister. They disappeared years ago.”
She winced and nodded.
I hated to tell her about Baranovs disappearing, even if Eva’s mother and sister had gone missing many years ago. It contradicted what I was telling Kelly earlier, that the Baranov legacy and name represented power and might. I had been trying to convince her that she could trust in me and my brothers to protect her if she were to be affiliated with the family. She already was, whether she knew it or wanted it or not. My act of killing her attacker last night held significance because I was a Baranov. I had acted in the name of the family by protecting her then, and depending on who that man was, his death could bring consequences for the family. Oleg didn’t seem bothered about the incident, and he really didn’t have any reason to be upset with me. He sure didn’t seem mad. He only seemed concerned about this Benson angle, and again, I got curious about why he was so obsessed with the cold case of investigating what had happened with Amelia and Sonya.
“I’ve never trusted that family,” Oleg said, “but since they’ve focused on politics and tried to appear as clean and scandal-free as possible, I’ve never been able to really get a good feel for what they might know.”
Unlike anyone in the Mafia, who we could torture and force to talk, the Bensons and other politicians had to be handled with care.
“But first, before I can address anything further about that meeting you unfortunately missed last night, I want to hear from you.” He looked at me, then Kelly. “I want to know why a dealer for the Petrov family was following you—the one Rurik left beaten nearly to death. And why a Petrov dealer thought he could attack you on your way to work. Both men have been identified since last night.”
Shit. I’d killed a Petrov. That would come with complications for the family.
The Boss must have noticed my cringe because he shook his head. “No worries about retaliation. That man was a former member of the Petrov family.”
Irina nodded. “Yeah, I heard this morning. Igor caught that man stealing a few years back and put an order for his men to kill him. He escaped and hid since then, so if anything”—she rolled her eyes and huffed—“you did him a favor.”
I shrugged. I didn’t give a shit about what Igor Petrov wanted or what would please him, but I was glad that I hadn’t caused more trouble with that kill.
Once more, I studied Kelly. She still didn’t seem fazed by the concept of killing people, and I had to wonder again if that was because she realized life in the Mafia was deadly like this or if she had been exposed up close to death and killers before.
Everyone looked at Kelly, putting her on the spot. She didn’t blush, like she had when Irina teased her about not getting much sleep with me last night. Holding her hands on her lap and looking as neutral as possible, she appeared collected and ready. As if this wasn’t her first time being interrogated.
For almost twenty minutes, Kelly explained without many interruptions of how she knew Jerome Parson from years ago. She shared details about how sketchy of a guy he was and why she wanted to avoid him now, when she was working so hard to start a new life for herself with a career and an education.
Irina and Vik asked questions when Kelly mentioned her student worker position in the admin building. I didn’t think it escaped anyone’s notice how shocked she seemed when we explained that the meeting I was supposed to spy on, the one where Marcus was killed, had happened very close to where she usually acted like a preliminary office and customer service member in front of someone named Jasmine.
“I’ve only done it for a while. I took the position because the college will lower my tuition with a discount.”
After she finished speaking, I shared a look with Lev. Then Vik. And lastly, Eva. All of them wore a similar expression of doubt and skepticism, as if they, like me, were unconvinced that was the full story. Kelly had been thorough, open with the details about what happened last night and the facts that could set the background for why she was aware of the location of that meeting and also how she knew Jerome.
She’s hiding something. I could just tell. That inner sixth sense flared with suspicion when she remained quiet again, as if she felt she’d done her duty and told us what she thought we wanted to know.
But what?
She had to have experienced a hell of a past in the foster system. Things couldn’t have been easy, bouncing around from one home to another. But I wanted to hope that her interactions with deadbeat troublemakers like Jerome Parson had been limited.
We waited for Oleg to speak up while Kelly and Eva talked about the courses they’d taken. It sounded like Kelly was serious about getting a degree whereas Eva openly admitted she’d only gone to college for the experience, to get out and feel like she was “normal” and like any other young twentysomething.
“Perhaps you can help us, then,” Oleg told her at last, seeming to have come to a conclusion with this news.
“Me?” Kelly pointed to herself and glanced at me.
“Yes, you. You could do us a favor,” he suggested.
Again, I fought the urge to cringe. I’d been implying that she wouldn’t need to worry about repaying the favor to me for saving her life, twice. It was simply what kind of a man I was, what kind of an organization the Baranovs represented.
“A favor because I owe you?” Kelly asked, defensive.
“Who was talking about owing anyone?” the Boss countered. “It seems that you are in a unique position, and it would be beneficial for all of us if you cooperated with an idea that hit me.”
“Me?” she asked again, sounding more incredulous this time.
“Yes. Because you seem to loosely know this Jerome who’s dealing for one or perhaps both of our rivals. And also, because you are already placed at and familiar with the location where members of the administration or the dean meet.”
I didn’t react, making sure that I didn’t look bothered by this idea he’d brainstormed so quickly. I could guess where this was going, and I didn’t like this suggestion at all.
“We could have you see what’s going on in those offices. You'd be our spy to see if the Petrovs or Ilyins are at fault for Marcus James’s death.”
No. Hell no.
I didn’t want Kelly to feel indebted to us or expected to help. After her admission that she’d never had anyone to rely on or depend on for anything in her life, I hated the thought that she would have to “earn” her way into our family. I had already given her my protection and I wouldn’t retract that.
Kelly, surprisingly, seemed to debate it.
“No.” I lost my patience to bottle my frustration in. “I don’t like this idea at all.”
“But she is in a position to get information,” Irina said thoughtfully.
“You’re only saying that because your father conditioned you to assume you always need to be someone’s spy.”
She frowned.
“Hey,” Vik said. “Go easy on her. I agree. Kelly would be in a good position to get intel we might not hear otherwise.”
“And she could also be hurt.”
Oleg shook his head. “No, she wouldn’t.”
“How would you guarantee that, Uncle?” Eva asked with a furrowed brow. She wasn’t a fan of this idea either, looking out for her friend.
“Because he would be with her.” The Boss pointed at me. “You will work with her,” he instructed. “And you will keep her safe.”
Of course I would. No one—including Kelly—realized how head over heels I already felt about her. But that didn’t mean I wanted to have my feelings for her tested with a dangerous idea like her spying for us.