Chapter 34 – Vivian
T here was a knock on the office door. Laurel and I looked up in unison.
“Who is it?” she called, while tapping on a tablet screen.
I peered around to see the security footage on her device.
“Austin, ma’am,” the bouncer called out.
“Come in,” Laurel said, pushing the button to remotely unlock the deadbolt.
Austin cracked the door, hovering on the threshold. “Sorry to disturb you, Mrs. Vlasova, but there’s a man here to see Miss Vivian.”
Alarm bells pealed in my mind. Even though the club opened an hour ago, there were few people who should know I was here. The idea of any of them knowing sent a wave of unease through me.
I frowned. “Did he give a name?”
Laurel tapped on the tablet again. Images from around the club flicked across the screen.
“Mr. Regis,” Austin answered.
The blood in my veins chilled. “I’ll be right down, thank you.”
“I’ll call Luka and Dimi,” Laurel said, phone already in her hand. “Want me to come down with you?”
I shook my head. “Thanks, but no,” I croaked.
“Austin needs to stay in your line of sight,” Laurel began, but then answered Dimitri in fluent Russian. I envied her for being able to speak like that with the others.
Peeling off the light-filtering glasses, I rubbed my hands over my face. They helped keep the fluorescent lights from bothering me, but my temples throbbed. It wasn’t the prelude to a migraine, but a regular headache would turn into one at the flip of a coin. I reached into my desk for some over-the-counter pain pills.
Snatching my glasses, I rose and hurried down to the lobby. Working at a club wasn’t the worst thing in the world. After we were done for the day, Laurel and I made a habit of eating takeout—and sometimes having a cocktail or two—in the VIP booths on the mezzanine, especially when our husbands worked late. Which was often. We weren’t allowed to dance unless the mobsters were around, but luckily Luka’s little stunt last week hadn’t made us lose our privileges. The others did not agree that we were in danger, because apparently no one was crazy enough to sneak slingshots into the club to attack the Russian Mob.
Much to my disappointment, I couldn’t work with Weston at the law firm. Luka wasn’t directly behind the order. The pakhan said it was a security risk. So I spent my days with Laurel in the office space in Club M?.
After two weeks, we were fast becoming friends. When I wasn’t otherwise engaged with legal briefs, I would help her with the monumental task of opening new businesses. It was a running joke that if I couldn’t get back in the good graces of the State of Illinois Bar Association, I could have my hands full running an empire with her.
It was tempting. Almost perfect.
But it wasn’t what my heart wanted.
“Austin, you need to stand guard just inside the door,” I instructed as I passed.
The meaty bouncer gave me a clipped nod.
With the faithful guard at my heels, I pushed into the lobby and came face to face with the reason for all my recent trouble. For a split second, the figure in a navy suit wasn’t the bad guy. He was the fun uncle who played with me. He was the warm embrace when I needed a shoulder to cry on after I became an orphan. He was… good.
Markem spun around. “Vi-Vi!”
That word alone had the power to snap my spine straight. I realized a few years ago that my guardian wasn’t everything he claimed to be. The moment I began to truly watch, I saw him for the chameleon he was. When I started to say no to his requests, things became ugly quickly.
My voice came out cold. “Hello, Mr. Markem.”
“Come on, Vivian. We’ve known each other all these years,” he protested.
I made a point of looking him up and down. He wasn’t horrid to look at. Not a Greek god, but he was average and not terrible. But I wasn’t a teen girl with a crush.
“You’re not even related to my father.” The truth slipped out, a sharp crack in the air.
His mouth hardened. “What have these gangsters been telling you?”
“I knew it years ago,” I said, letting pretense slip. “Why else would you be willing to kidnap me, force me into marriage, and claim I was unfit to manage my assets? If you were a relation, you couldn’t get my trust fund.”
Surprise flared in his eyes. No one had ever said that was his plan. A rocket scientist couldn’t fit the pieces together. But a lawyer could.
“Vi-Vi, you need to come with me. Now.” Markem shot a look over my head.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “No.”
Those serpentine eyes glared at me. “This organization is about to find itself in hot water. I’m sparing you the humiliation of falling with them.”
I held up my left hand, ring finger extended to the sky. The momentary wish that Luka’s mark was bigger flashed through my veins. “I eloped, uncle. You can send a card. We’re not registered anywhere, but you leaving me alone would be present enough. How else do you think I got access to my trust? My trust.” The one you stained your hands red to get!
With a cry of outrage, Markem sprang forward.
I stood my ground. Austin shouted from behind me in warning.
It wasn’t the guard who rushed past me in a blur to intercept the executor of my family’s estates. A war cry, wild and free, rang through the space.
Markem toppled backward, falling hard on his ass. Luka poised over him, pushing him to the floor, and pressed a knife to his throat.
Now panic flared through me. It wasn’t for my safety, or for the murderer squirming on the floor.
“No! Not here,” I gasped.
The meaning of those words rang through me a moment later. I considered my feelings and decided the initial outburst was valid. There was no objection to ending Markem. Just not in here—with witnesses.
The monster who slept beside me most nights lifted his gaze. It devoured me, protective and possessive. A shiver skated down my spine.
“Don’t worry, darlin, I’m not going to kill him,” Luka sang out, voice scarily calm.
The tip of his knife pulled down Markem’s throat. A red line trailed in its wake. I held my breath as the blade sliced through tie. Buttons snapped! Cloth tore. Pale skin glowed in the fluorescent flicker.
Holding Markem’s jaw in an unforgiving grasp, Luka turned his head to the side. “You bother my wife again—”
The blade slashed through the air.
“—and this is the spot my blade will find.”
Blood beaded along the X over Markem’s chest. His choked gasp filled the air.
Something raw and purely animalistic sang through my blood. A greedy little throb pulsed between my legs. Seeing this man, this underworld prince, bent over my one and only fear and so easily turning him into a sniveling mess did things to me.
“Luka,” the pakhan’s voice boomed.
I cut a short look to where Dimitri stood, Laurel peering out from behind him.
“Just marking the place for future target practice,” Luka said coolly as he pushed to his feet. “Now go away, comrade, if you know what’s good for you.”
Markem scrambled to his feet, clutching his open shirt around his middle. Hatred spewed from his eyes as he left. It was easy to see the bully behind the nightmare in the face of a true monster.
But what a jovial little psycho my monster was.
Luka flipped his knife through the air. He pinned me with a look, raw and dark. Hungry. Possessive.
Liquid heat pooled in my panties. “You do wash that thing, don’t you?”
He looked to the bloody knife in his hand. “Oh, most definitely,” he murmured, voice husky.
“Good, because the level of filth that thing sees is enough to cause the EPA to designate it a hotspot. Alligator blood, river mud, and now rat. It’s disgusting, mister.” I smiled dangerously up at the mobster, who was watching me with a conspiratorial grin curving his lips.
“What was that first one?” Dimitri interrupted, making me jump.
I’d been so into my husband that I forgot we weren’t alone. “Oh!” I said with a wave of my hand. “Just that he saved me from being an alligator’s swamp brunch.”
“I thought he made that up,” Dimitri breathed.
I frowned. “Why would he make that up?”
Dimitri let out a long breath. “Even for Luka, that story was farfetched.”
Cocking my head at my husband, I began to see things in a new light. If he told me such a fantastical tale right now, I would have believed him. “No, it’s par for the course with this lunatic.”
And then I slid my fingers around his wrist.
Luka inhaled deeply, his gaze darkening. “You’re done for the day.”
With that, he pulled me away, ignoring Dimitri’s protests about the work they had to do.