CHAPTER 12
Zinovy
She wears the coat I purchased her. The gloves I tucked into each pocket with care protect her delicate fingers from the cold.
Warmth from the heaters I’ve installed in the units on either side of hers is being pushed through the thin walls to ensure her space is as warm as possible without giving away her secret.
If she suspects someone knows she’s been living in the storage facility, she could be spooked and try to run. I can’t have that.
The limitations on what I can do for her at this exact moment frustrate me. But it’s more important I ensure all preparations necessary for keeping her at my side are handled before I make my move. Something has scared her. Made her wary and skittish.
I don’t even know what the problem is, but I know it’s unacceptable.
Following her route home from a distance, seeing how she’s toasty warm because of the coat I gave her, has satisfaction raging through me.
That’s my woman. Provided for by my hand.
Possession surges inside my body, heating my blood and sending it racing to my cock.
Every heartbeat lengthens and thickens the monster behind my zipper, urging me to take what’s mine and claim her immediately.
Petal hums as she walks, a sweet lilting tune that seems to have no pattern.
I hear it, in stereo, through the earpiece that picks up every sound in range of her phone.
Her happiness tonight disproves Feliks’ naysaying and nagging that turning into a stalker for a woman is beneath a man of my position.
Following at a distance, so she doesn’t spot me, listening to everything she hears in real time, I’m able to ensure her safety.
Once she gets herself tucked away for the night, I’ll have to leave to attend to my duties.
For right now, I’m hers, though she doesn’t know it.
In my pocket, my work phone vibrates with an incoming text, distracting me from watching Petal. I growl at the screen when it lights up in my hand.
Sergei: Ongoing issues with the southwest investment property. Appears to be several K’s light this month. Sorry boss.
The lightly coded message is a bucket of ice water over the lust Petal causes simply by existing near me. Sergei has been one of my boeviks for many years. Was one for the avtoritet who held my role before me, in fact. And therein lies the problem. He forgets who he serves.
His failure in allowing Gleb to betray us has unveiled many shortcomings and problems I’d been unaware of.
Problems Anatoly had to deal with because rather than notify me of the issue as he should have, Sergei sought to undermine my leadership by reporting directly to the Pakhan.
His effort to curry favor turned foolish when Anatoly tasked me with resolving the issue rather than entrusting Sergei to handle it.
Now, not only is the Pakhan aware of Sergei’s failings, but we both are.
And the increased scrutiny calls his every decision into question.
If the men under him are making poor choices, there is a strong chance he is, as well.
Of course, because accountability flows up the chain, he casts a shadow on my felty to the Pakhan.
I have asked Rurik to make inquiries into Sergei’s activities, but tonight, Sergei has made an error I don’t need the hacker to uncover.
Me to Sergei: This is unacceptable. The costs are the costs. Either the investment satisfies its debts or you do. 3 hours. You know where to meet.
Greed is a terrible idol for a man to serve. Particularly, when he lacks the intelligence to do so wisely. At least, Gleb’s stupidity led me to my Petal. Which bought him leniency in the end. What has Sergei done besides undercut me and steal from my employer?
Me to Feliks: Eyes on Sergie’s footprints tonight. Alert me to changes.
Feliks: Glad to see you do more than stalk the girl.
Me to Feliks: Hafuckingha. Just wait. Your turn will come.
Feliks: Nope. I fuck them. I don’t let them fuck me.
I stifle the snort his message causes. He has no idea the bed he’s laying for himself. It’s amusing to think of him as a fuck boi, though, with his glasses and suspenders and obsession with avoiding messes. Watching him learn how easily he succumbs when the perfect woman shows up will be a joy.
But before joy comes pain, and tonight will bring a lot of it. Not for me, of course, although any time away from Petal’s unknowing presence is its own sort of agony. No, tonight is for Sergei’s pain. The pain of disloyalty. Of lies and greed come home to roost.
At the corner, I turn left while Petal continues forward on her path to the hovel where she currently lives not far from here.
I listen through her phone to ensure her safety, but I take comfort in the certainty whenever I can’t have my eyes on her, men who are actually loyal to me have her under their protection.
Work must be done, debts must be paid, and though my soul longs to remain in Petal’s shadow, my allegiance belongs to Anatoly Balakin.
Without him, I cannot be the protector my Petal deserves.
My footsteps echo loudly in the empty streets now that I no longer tread silently to stalk Petal.
By the time I reach my truck, I hear the sounds of her rattling the chain link fence surrounding the storage lot as she wheels the gate wide enough to slip through.
Her soft gasp of delight when she spots the freshly stocked basket of snacks I instructed Alevtina to make available brings a smile to my face while I drive to the meeting spot.
The warehouse is disturbingly close to where my little bird hides out, its proximity to the storage lot enough to cause problems at any other time.
But tonight, it will suit my purposes perfectly.
Technically, it’s owned by the Italians, but their presence in Lexen has been minimized since the old Don passed and left his much younger nephew running things.
The kid prefers drug trafficking to gambling and has a better market for it in the bigger cities of Seattle and Spokane.
These days his facilities in Lexen are virtually ghost towns, not that the mayor and his lapdog police believe it.
If Sergei’s body is found in a warehouse known to belong to the Italians, the cops will assume it’s the mob sorting shit out, and they’ll likely ignore it.
I stash the truck a short ways from the warehouse and make my way to it on foot, resisting the temptation to change directions and check on Petal instead.
There will be plenty of time for that when the work is done.