Chapter 16
I love a manly man. As long as it’s around the house fixing stuff.
— Brecken’s secret thoughts
brECKEN
“Kitten,” he growled. “ Why are you here? ”
I bit my lip and stood up from the desk, very aware that I’d just left a pool of juices on whoever’s desk we’d just fucked on.
“A teacher conference,” I explained. “Continuing education.”
I quickly dressed, using a tissue on the end of the desk to clean myself up as best as I could.
He watched me, heat in his eyes, and watched me get completely dressed before saying, “So you’re telling me that you just so happened to not only get into the city that I’m in, but you also come into the exact shop where I’m questioning someone?”
“Questioning?” I teased. “Was that what you were doing?”
And why wasn’t I affected by the fact that he was torturing someone when I’d come into the room?
Then again, I guess that’s what I get for being nosy.
“It’s all that you’re going to get,” he admitted as he finished getting himself situated. “This can’t happen again.”
I looked at him then, knowing that he was touched in the head if he thought I was going to believe him.
He might not want this to happen again, but it appeared that fate kept throwing us together for a reason.
“You’re a bad guy, I know,” I said instead of being embarrassed with how intensely he was watching me. “But no one said that bad guys can’t have good girls.”
“And you think that you…” The freezer door opened, and a pair of scared eyes peeked out from between the crack of the door and the wall.
Upon seeing us standing across the room in the small office, the door closed with a loud thud, and the lock engaged again.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said as he headed out of the office.
I caught up with his angry stride and walked with him side by side.
We made it out onto the sidewalk when he came to an abrupt halt with all the police vehicles and fire trucks came into view.
“What the fuck?” he asked.
“Someone pulled the fire alarm, boss,” the man I’d come to know as Artur, called out from his spot against the building.
“Where were you when this one slipped in?” Shasha asked Artur.
“You’ve spent the last week telling us to let her be. I thought this time was no different.” Artur shrugged. “Get any answers?”
The two men started to converse in Russian—at least I thought it was Russian—next, leaving me completely confused.
Artur took off a few seconds later, his phone to his ear.
“Is that where your conference is?” He jerked his chin toward the building that had official-looking people all over.
“Yes,” I said.
“Fuck,” he grumbled. “Let’s go.”
“I can’t go far,” I said. “I have to be back in thirtyish minutes.” I paused. “And I really need to find a bathroom. There are certain things that are leaking out of me that I’d rather not get all over my new dress.”
Shasha’s eyes scanned me from head to toe, taking in my dress, my thighs, and my hair.
“There’s a restaurant down the road that’s pretty good,” he said. “And they’re fast.”
I fell into step beside him and couldn’t stop myself from reaching for his hand.
He tensed, and I just knew he was about to pull away from me, but I leaned into him and said, “All these cops. I wonder if they’d be interested in knowing what you were just doing in there.”
He turned only his face toward me and said, “Are you blackmailing me to continue holding your hand?”
I shrugged, neither confirming nor denying. “Is it working?”
He tightened his hold on my hand, and I noticed, didn’t let it go.
I loved it.
The place he decided to take me was just down the street. Maybe about four blocks away.
I saw the line of people around the second block and groaned when I saw the sheer amount of people that would be ahead of us. “Shasha…”
Shasha ignored me and passed every single person that was standing there waiting.
Shasha held my hand and guided me to the front of the line, his chin jerking up toward the man in the back.
The man was in his late forties, early fifties, and had a scowl on his face that could rival Shasha’s. He came up to the front and grinned, completely transforming his face. “Hello, boy.”
Shasha shook the man’s hand and said, “Hello, old man. Miss me?”
The crowd behind us started murmuring in low voices, obviously wondering how the hell we’d been able to bypass a line that wrapped around the block.
The man rolled his eyes, then focused on me. “Who’s this?”
Shasha instinctively started to let my hand go, but I held on for dear life and said, “We’re engaged to be married.”
Shasha stiffened.
The old man’s eyes went from me to Shasha and back before he said, “I’m guessing it’s arranged based on how he’s acting right now. Don’t worry, he’s a good kid once you get past all the crust.”
My lips twitched. “I’ll remember that.”
“His mom tried to raise him correctly, but my sister could only handle so much,” the man continued. “Who are you?”
I held out my free hand to the man and said, “My name is Brecken.”
“Brecken,” he said. “Unusual name.”
“It’s actually the more tame of my siblings’ names, to be honest. My daddy is a rodeo man. All of his kids have a Western theme to their names. Mine, Brecken, is actually named after the town of Breckenridge, Colorado. Daddy tried to add the ‘ridge’ to my name, but Mom wouldn’t let him,” I announced.
His lips twitched as he shook my hand and said, “My name is Akim.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Akim,” I replied.
“Can you get us some food, quick? She has to be back at the conference center down the road in thirty minutes,” Shasha ordered.
“Sure.” He looked at me. “Go to the reserved table.”
Shasha didn’t ask for directions, instead taking me to a table in the back of the room that had no chairs around it.
I stood there, wondering how we were supposed to sit down and eat, when a kid came out from the back with two chairs.
He handed them over and left.
Shasha sat down, and I was forced to let him go.
The moment I did, I went to the bathroom to take care of my leaking problem.
When I got back, I took a seat at the opposite end of the table and said, “This is a cool place. I’m guessing it’s really good.”
“It’s fantastic,” he said. “Hence the line.”
I sighed. “You don’t have to be so grumpy all the time, Shasha.”
“You’re going to end up killed,” he told me bluntly. “I have a dangerous life, Kisa .”
Kisa .
Kitten.
Shit, that was sweet.
I wondered if he knew that I was taking it in a sweet way, and not in an insulting way—which was likely how he’d wanted it to sound.
“I’m an adult.” I shrugged. “You’re gonna die no matter what. Your way out of this life is already set in stone. Haven’t you seen Final Destination ? You can’t escape fate.”
He studied me for a long moment.
So long, in fact, that I was about to start wriggling in my seat under the scrutiny of his face when a woman cleared her throat next to me.
“Hey.” The woman, Addy, smiled. “I thought you were going to that egg place across the street?”
“I tried, but they weren’t serving any food,” I admitted. “So my man here decided we’d come here.”
Addy handled the introductions with the men who shook hands with each other.
Tiago and Shasha were studying each other intently.
“Do you think that they have videos in hidden places in that building?” Addy asked, clearly wondering if she should be worried about her husband getting arrested for pulling a fire alarm.
“No,” Shasha answered. “The whole place is outdated. They’re talking about doing a complete overhaul this coming summer because of so many wiring and flooding issues. The cameras they do have only face more populated areas.”
“How do you know that?” Addy asked.
“Because we do a lot of business there.” Shasha shrugged.
For that particular reason, I’d be willing to bet. It allowed him to have privacy for his nefarious activities.
Kettle tightened his arm around his wife’s hips and said, “Enjoy your lunch.”
He pulled his wife away, and I turned to watch them go before returning to my previous position and said, “What’s his problem?”
“He’s sane,” Shasha said. “You’re the one that doesn’t react right.”
I shrugged. “I grew up with parents that were gone more than they were home. A gang of brothers that were much the same, and two sisters that didn’t want anything to do with their older sister because she was ‘lame.’ I don’t react because I’ve had to live on my own pretty much my entire life. I’ve quit wondering about what people think a long time ago, and the least of my worries right now is staying away from you.”
His eyes narrowed. “What worries?”
“The kind where I have to work between two of the people I hate the most,” I admitted. “I’m considering quitting.”
His eyes went a little squirrelly. “I could handle that for you.”
I smiled. “I might let you.”
He tilted his head, and I could see that I’d clearly intrigued him. “What’s the temperature like in the school regarding them?”
“No one really knows what to do about it,” I said. “The teacher’s lounge is incredibly awkward. All of the students know now what happened, and ten students have already transferred out of their classrooms. They have like a fifth of the students that the rest of us teachers have. And the teachers that are having to take up slack for them aren’t happy, because their class sizes have increased by a third.”
“They should be fired,” he said. “There’s no reason that they should get to stay if that many issues are arising from having them there.”
“I agree,” I said. “But if they get fired, they’re gonna sue the school board again, and the school board is more worried about that than the mental health of their students and teachers.”
The door behind Shasha burst open and a kid with a basket of rolls and drinks came hurrying out.
“Papa sent out a snackatizer,” the kid said. “He wants your honest opinion on them. Also, we brought sweet tea.”
“Thanks, kid,” Shasha said as he picked the basket up and held it out to me.
“What is it?” I asked as I reached for a roll looking thing.
“It’s a beef pirozhki,” Shasha answered for the kid. “Pretty much what y’all would call a kolache.”
“Gotcha.” I said as I took a healthy bite.
The food melted in my mouth, and I groaned. “Oh, man. This is fantastic.”
Cheese gushed into my mouth, along with some flavorful juices.
It was one of the best things I’d ever had in my life.
Shasha took a roll himself and ate it in two bites.
“Tell him this one is perfect,” I said.
“Pops told me you would say that, and he told me to tell you to tell him truthfully. Not tell him it’s perfect, because you know it’s not,” the kid continued.
“Okay, well tell him the juices are a little too much, and the bread’s a bit soggy, but they complement each other well, and it’s still fantastic,” Shasha answered truthfully.
My lips twitched at his honesty.
I took another bite and moaned. “I think they’re perfect. Then again, I’ve never had anything like it, so I have nothing to compare it to.”
I took the last bite and savored it.
My eyes snagged on the third one in the basket, but Shasha beat me to it.
He looked at me unapologetically as he ate it in two bites.
I narrowed my eyes at him as the kid said, “I’ll tell Pops.”
Then he was gone, leaving us alone once again.
“You could’ve shared,” I pointed out.
“I could have, yes,” he agreed as he wiped his mouth with the napkin next to his plate. “But I didn’t want to.”
“Do you always do what you want?” I asked.
“Sure do.” He leaned back in his chair. “Once you stop caring what everyone thinks about you, the second half of your life begins.”
I studied him for a long second before saying, “I’m sure that this is how you’ve always been.”
“And why would you think that?” he asked.
Our food came and I didn’t have to answer.
It was excellent, and I now knew why the line extended out the door and around the block.
When I was finished, I reluctantly stood up and said, “I have to go.”
He didn’t stand up with me, indicating he had no intention of walking me back.
I felt a small pang in my heart, but chose not to study it too closely, and headed out of the restaurant.
When I got back to the hotel, it was to find everyone settling in for the second half of the day.
I went back to my original seat with the teachers I’d come with and then slugged through four more hours of useless information that could’ve been an email.
Oh, the joys of continuing education.