Chapter 44 – Harley
“ D oes he want something to drink?” I asked Cami Joe in hushed tones.
Cami flicked a glance at the brutish fellow standing by the door, hair gelled back only to fall in ringlets near his shoulders. To anyone watching, he looked like he was up to no good, not fitting in well with the other university students filling the coffee shop.
“He’s fine,” Cami muttered.
Chewing contemplatively on the end of my pen, I watched. The guard must have felt my gaze, because his snapped to catch mine.
Warmth infused my cheeks. I flashed him a sheepish smile, which he returned with one of feline proportion.
“I know Kolya seems all quiet and harmless, but trust me, with these men, it’s the quiet ones to watch for,” Cami said without looking up. “If your man catches you grinning with another, even a brother-in-arms, he’ll likely gut poor Pavel.”
I wanted to protest, but judging from the way she spoke, that wasn’t an idle threat. “Has he gutted anyone before?” I asked, thinking of the deer we butchered after hunting season. While thinning the herds was important for conservationism, it still was sad to watch a knife slide through their soft bellies and their insides pulled out so the meat could be brought home to process.
“They call your man the Wraith . Don’t ever underestimate him as something cute and cuddly,” Cami deadpanned. “If he had a reason, even the good doctor over there wouldn’t be able to fight him off. Of course, then Kaz would have to go after Kolya for hurting his friend, and then Dimitri would have to go after Kaz. Basically, a whole big clusterfuck.”
“Don’t let your grandma hear,” I teased, wanting to lighten the mood.
Cami rolled her eyes. “Even nonna would use that term to describe the boys launching into one another.”
Yawning, I glanced at my watch. “I’m going to head back. You coming?”
Reluctantly, Cami pushed to her feet. Once we gathered our things, she walked out the door without sparing her shadow so much as a glance. Maybe she was used to having guards follow her. She brushed it off as if it were the most natural thing in the world to have a biker-looking dude follow us at a distance.
The drive back was mostly silent. Navigating the careful balance of caffeine and sleep took a toll on the nervous system.
By the time we arrived at the dorm parking lot, Pavel was already there, avoiding the cameras and checking dark corners for a threat.
“Damn, he’s good,” I said under my breath. “But why’s he here again?”
When we’d agreed to go study, I’d been surprised by the bodyguard’s appearance. To my knowledge, she hadn’t had one all semester.
“The guys stirred a hornet’s nest last night. Kazimir gave me the choice of a bodyguard or going back to the villa.” Cami watched me carefully as we hurried into our dorm building and took the stairs.
“What did they do? Kolya never said.” I chewed on that bit of information. Either he didn’t think it was a big deal, or he was keeping it from me?
“The thing about their business is that we’re the last ones to know what’s going on. I wouldn’t take it personally, Har.” Cami gave me a small squeeze as she passed me to go to the door of her suite. “Pavel is my babysitter, not yours.”
Well that just wasn’t going to work for me. I didn’t need to know everything, but if something was happening, Kolya was going to have to learn pretty darn fast to communicate. A noiseless laugh bubbled up my chest. Him, the quiet one, communicate. I swung my door open.
And squeaked.
On the floor was a plain sheet of paper with the word tick-tock scribbled over the center. A knife stabbed it to the floor.
Blood roared in my ears. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe! Someone had been in my room!
“Harley?” Cami appeared at my side.
Footsteps pounded down the hall.
“He can’t know!” I hissed. “Please, Cami, don’t tell the Russians about this!”
Thinking fast, Cami rushed inside my room, snatched the paper, and shoved it in her jeans pocket, while tossing the knife onto my bed. “He went that way!”
Pavel glared at us, peering into the room. “What was that scream for?”
“I squeaked, not screamed,” I gasped.
“That way!” Cami pointed at the wardrobe. “Pavel, can you move it?”
The bushy dark brows drew together. “Do you mind telling me why you want me to move the wardrobe?”
“There’s a bug.” Cami got on her hands and knees, flashing her cell light under the piece of furniture. “Harley, go into the bathroom, grab some tissue and cleaner spray. If I can spray him, he’ll leave.”
Robotically, I obeyed. She was thinking better under pressure than me. Come on, you’re going to be a vet.
“Do you two have this under control?” Pavel grumped. “Or do I need to call in the big guns?”
At those words, I froze. My foot was halfway over the bathroom threshold.
“We’re good, but you’re supposed to sweep our rooms before you go for the night,” Cami snapped.
Her sharp tone sent me rushing forward. I looked in the bathroom, glanced into her room on the other side, but didn’t see any more threatening notes. Pavel sauntered past me, throwing me a curious glance.
“There could be more bugs,” I gulped.
Pavel looked around, ascertained we were safe, and then left through Cami’s hall door.
I sagged against our double bathroom vanity.
Cami Joe padded forward. “So. Want to tell me what that was all about?”
I winced. “Someone threatened me.”
“Okay,” Cami said slowly. “Walk me through it.”
The whole story tumbled from my mouth. How I’d been snagged between classes. I described the cold man in the suit, who Cami didn’t recognize. Fresh dread slithered down my spine when I told her about his threat against my family.
Every day this week, I’d been on high alert. I kept close to groups of students when I traveled from class to class.
“I thought it was odd when you didn’t want to study at the library,” Cami muttered.
“Sorry,” I breathed. “But if Kolya knows he put me in danger, he’ll run again. That’s why he ended it before. I won’t tell him now.”
“But we need them to stop this.”
“I know!” I sank to the floor, dropping my hands into my head. “What am I going to do, Cami? I’m not good at fighting. I’m a fish out of water in this world. But I don’t want to lose Kolya again.”
“So here’s what you need to know about Kolya.”
A long, terrible tale tumbled from Cami’s mouth. Before the bratva, before she became a Vlasov, she was just a girl living in the ghetto, trying to survive a shitty school district high school, a junkie mom, and life on the wrong side of the tracks. Her saving grace were her cousins and grandmother. Then her beautiful, talented dancing ballerina of a cousin was abducted. They found out later she was thrown into a human trafficking ring. There had been no hope for Cady, no angel in the dark to save her.
“We had a funeral, and it nearly broke nonna. She wouldn’t come out of her room for days. Dani ghosted about life, but I noticed the day a fire lit in her eyes. She went to find her revenge, but knew she couldn’t fight the demons on her own. She went to the biggest, scariest man she could find.”
“Kazimir,” I guessed, and Cami nodded.
“He enlisted his military-trained cousin to hunt down the names Dani gave him. And although no one talks about it, because it’s a secret to protect Kolya’s missions, he hasn’t stopped hunting. So it’s very likely, whatever business this is, could have to do with that.”
He never told me.
Then again, I never thought to ask. Tipping my head back against the cabinet I stared hard at the wall. Everything from our dinner played through my mind. Kolya was honest and open.
But I was asking the questions, he was merely answering.
Oh, Kolya. It was his nature. And part of me already knew it. I’m not mad.
He was just going to have to learn to talk.
“Harley?”
I knew what she was going to say before she said it.
“You’re going to have to tell him,” Cami whispered.
And trust that he likes me enough not to leave.
“Give me some time to figure it out, but I’ll tell him,” I agreed.
Cami nodded. “You don’t have long.”