CHAPTER 21
Petal
A phone call puts a pin in our discussion. Zinovy produces the ringing phone from a high ledge in the shower room I hadn’t even noticed and answers it on the second ring.
“Zinovy here… Da… Nyet… There is not… Da… Da… Sergei is not problem any longer… Da... Da… One hour… Da.”
His end of the conversation leaves me in the dark. The low rumble of the man on the other end of the call sheds no light, either.
“What is one hour, Zinovy? And who is Sergei? Is that who kidnapped Hollis and Dru last night?” Curiosity killed the cat, but I’m his little bird, so I think I may be exempt.
Besides, he’s already told me a lot about his job and the mafia, er, bratva he works for.
I don’t think his boss, the Pakhan or whatever he is, would be happy to know Zinovy’s spilled so much to me.
“In one hour, the Pakhan wants me to bring you to meet him. Sergei is a traitor who brought only trouble and who exists only as a ghost of bad decisions now. The man who rescued your feisty friend and her child is Feliks.” Zinovy puts an emphasis on the word rescue, which tells me he doesn’t like being considered as a kidnapper.
But if this Feliks man took Hollis and Dru last night is one, Zinovy must be, too.
“They will be safe with him, and he will learn a valuable lesson in biting off more than he can chew with those two.” He smirks, and I know he’s already clocked how much more of a handful Hollis is than me.
She’s hardened by life experiences and wiser than the day is long from everything she’s been through.
I’m not sure how he can tell so much about her from such a short meeting, but knowing him, I don’t doubt he’s got spy tech in enough places he’s had more than just last night to observe her.
My stomach grinds at the idea of him stalking her the way he’s stalked me, and I find myself poking at the sore spot in my heart.
“You follow her and spy, too?” I pout.
“Of course not, moya malen’kaya pitschka. I vetted her like I did George and everyone else who spends any measurable time in your company. I must safeguard my treasure.”
Every time I build up a head of steam at his heavy handed tactics, he goes and says something carelessly endearing. Bastard.
Then the rest of the phone recap sinks in, and I realize what I’d failed to note.
Terror, real terror, not the halfway kind Zinovy has caused, freezes the blood in my veins.
My hands tremble and sweat stings my armpits at the way Zinovy just casually agreed to take me to meet the Pakhan of the entire United States Bratva.
“Um, I don’t think I can go with you to your boss’s house. I think I need to stay here. I think I’m coming down with something. Sick. I’m sick!” I babble.
Zinovy grins, a happy smile I haven’t seen in the time I’ve known him. The fierce set of his brow and the hard set of his jaw soften, excitement palpable in the lines of his body.
“You are not sick. And you should not be afraid. Anatoly Balakin is a man to be feared, absolutely. But you belong to me, malyshka. And I belong to him. He is not my papa, but he may as well have been. I owe my life and my loyalty to him. He wishes to meet the woman he has heard from Rurik, his second, that I have claimed as my own.” His pride and excitement feel a little contagious, and my anxiety at meeting such a powerful man ebbs somewhat.
“Who is Rurik? I feel like there are so many men I don’t know who know who I am.” I don’t think I’m being silly for being weirded out by that, but I somehow suspect it’s a reality I will have to adjust to if I stick around.
That thought brings me up short. If I stick around? When did that become an option? The plan was to lull Zinovy into relaxing his grip on my life and then escaping. A couple orgasms and a nap, and suddenly, I’m throwing around thoughts like maybe I’ll stick around?
This is a hallucination at its best. Like Zinovy has me dickmatized, and now, I’m willing to stay with a literal mobster who stalked and kidnapped me because he’s the best man I’ve ever been with? I feel like a psychiatrist would have a field day with me.
“You don’t need to know any man but me, my Petal.
Rurik is simply one of the Pakhan’s men.
He knows of you because he helped me hack your phone, and he’s a nosy bastard who wants the Pakhan to ignore his own off-books stalking.
So he tattle-tells my business to Anatoly as though I won’t happily bring you to meet him. ”
“Are you sure? Isn’t meeting him kind of, I don’t know, final? What happens if you change your mind about me? About us?” It seems a reasonable question to me, but Zinovy’s face loses the joy and becomes so fierce yesterday me would have shaken in my sneakers.
“Finally, you ask the real question I know you have been wrestling with. Petal St. Clare, you are mine. Yesterday. Today. Every day until the universe stops existing and time no longer continues.” The more he says these things, the more I begin to understand how surely he means them.
“Then I guess I’m meeting the leader of the the Russian mob today. I’m going to go out on a limb and expect you have clothes for me here already?” Judging by the fancy potions and soaps in the shower, I’m also betting the things he’s bought for me are luxurious on a level I’ve never experienced.
“Yes, and there’s just fifty minutes before we need to be there.
Can you get ready in thirty minutes? You should find an array of makeup in the bathroom cabinet closest to the bathtub as well.
” He really has prepared for every possible eventuality, and I’m not so stubborn as to refuse this fantasy chance to dress up and play with expensive makeup.
“Thirty minutes is plenty. Now, shoo so I can get ready!”
His affronted look at being ordered out of the bathroom for a second time makes me giggle, and he smiles back at me.
“I will shoo, my Petal, but only because you gift me your smile on the way out the door. Wear the green dress hanging by the door in the closet, please. It will make your eyes even more stunning.” He turns on his heel and makes good on his offer, pulling the door closed behind him.
If this is what being kidnapped by my stalker will be like, maybe I really should rethink my escape plan.