CHAPTER 26
Zinovy
“Move an inch, and I’ll knock your brains out through your ears!” Petal’s threat has me freezing with my back to the room, facing the alarm control panel.
If any of the boeviks who report to me were here, they’d never let me live down my absolute failure at a silent entry into the house.
I freeze, my hand poised over the green backlit number panel of the alarm system.
The shrill beeping of its countdown is agonizing after hours of listening to Jordan Drury’s screams for mercy.
Mercy I took great pleasure in denying him. Naturally.
“It’s me. Zinovy. Petal, you have nothing to fear,” I say without thinking.
Then flinch at the memory of when she last spoke to me, and I gave her much reason to fear.
Thanks to my clumsiness and lack of experience reining in my fury.
I allowed my rage that a man would lay his hands on her to leak out onto her, my soft and tender little bird.
“Ha. That’s funny. You’re a killer comedian, Zinovy.” She doesn’t sound amused.
“I would cut off my hand before I ever raise it to you, my Petal. If you believe nothing else, believe that. I will never harm you intentionally.”
Silence meets my proclamation.
“And I will do my damnedest to make sure I never carelessly cause you pain like the other night again.”
“Turn off the alarm before you have the company sending the cops, Zinovy. The beeping is making my brain cringe.” This is not an acceptance of my apology, but at least, she’s not bashing my brains as she threatened before learning it was me entering the house.
I key in the alarm code, three, zero, one, zero, her birthday. Then I lift my hands back into the air, giving her my surrender if it fosters a sense of safety for her. Whatever it takes to rebuild the trust I broke when I manhandled her so recklessly the other night, I will do it.
“I’m turning on the lights. Stay where you are. I mean it. Just because you’re not a burglar doesn’t mean I won’t brain you with this pan!”
She means it, as much as she can. I think we both know I could easily overpower her. Only I know I’d die first. If slamming a skillet into my skull is what it takes, well, I’ve had worse injuries. The bright chandelier lights up the foyer. Petal must have found the switch in the near darkness.
“Zinovy! What happened to you? We need to get you to a hospital!”
I do not need a hospital. But if she continues raising octaves the way she is right now, the supersonic damage she’ll do to both our eardrums may create such a need.
“Calm down, moya malen’kaya pitschka. I am fine. Most of the blood is not mine.” I knew it would be smarter to shower at the warehouse where I’d slaughtered Jordan Drury. Impatience had overruled common sense, and I’d only cleaned up enough to ensure I wouldn’t attract attention as I drove here.
Cameras and microphones allowing me to see Petal through a screen and hear her through speakers no longer satisfies my irrational need to be in her presence.
I could not wait even long enough to cleanse away the evidence of my actions while I was away from her.
Besides, it is a stroke to my battered ego to hear how frantic she is to ensure my wellbeing.
She would not be so overwrought if she had no care for me.
I slowly turn to face her, tucking my right hand into the pocket of my slacks. Of all the blood visible, only the blood on my mangled right hand belongs to me. The rest is all his. That fucker will never lay a hand on a woman, or in fact anyone, ever again.
“So what’s the protocol here? You disappear only to come back covered in blood. And I, what? Ignore it? Don’t ask any questions about it, so you can preserve your big bad mafia man secrets?” Sarcasm drips from her words.
“Bratva man, not mafia. I am no Italian, malyshka,” I respond.
“Tomato tomahto. Points are points, Zinovy.” She’s like a kitten woken from a dream about saucers of milk. All disgruntled and fussy. It’s precious. And it’s arousing as fuck seeing her stand her ground in her cute little pajama shorts and a tank.
“You can ask me anything, Petal. And I will tell you if it is my business to tell. But I am thinking you do not need to know all of the things I do for my Pakhan. No?” I shudder to think of the look of revulsion she’d surely turn on me were she to know the details of so many things I must do for Anatoly.
“No, I don’t need to know the nitty gritty gross stuff. But where have you been? Can I at least ask that? We were fighting. I was mad. Then you left and were gone. I didn’t know if you were coming back.” Hurt takes over from the sarcasm, and I feel like a piece of garbage for upsetting her again.
“I will give you my number so you can reach me, no matter what is going on. I am sorry to have worried you. I did bring you a gift, though,” I offer.
“I don’t need more presents, Zinovy! Look around at all the things you’ve already given me.
And I’ll go out on a limb here… I’m guessing I have you to thank for the warm coat that was delivered to Pete’s with my name on the bag?
” She is so smart. I am so fortunate to have discovered such an observant and logical woman.
“Yes, but this is not like that. This is a very personal gift.” I pull the lighter from my pocket and gesture with my chin to my outstretched hand. Blood drips from my shredded knuckles onto the hardwood floor, but I will clean that up later.
“A Zippo? I don’t get it. I don’t smoke?” she says.
“Do you recognize it?” I nod to where she’s taken it into her delicate hand, smears of my blood on her unblemished fingers sending a surge of primal lust through me.
“It looks like one Jordan always carried, but that’s…” Her voice trails off as she turns it this way and that, the ornate design and personalized Drury etched on the top catching the light.
“Yes. I have taken the liberty of removing it from his person, much like I removed his existence from this earth.”
“I’ll unpack that later, but Zinovy, look at your hand! We need to take care of that right away. You might need a doctor, after all.”
She takes me by the wrist and pulls me into the kitchen. I sit on a stool at the counter where she pushes at my shoulders to sit and let her fuss over me. I will wait until she’s had her fill of playing nursemaid before I allow her to ask all the questions I see tumbling through her mind.
I am home. I am home, and my woman has welcomed me when I worried it would take much more to convince her to allow me to stay. Tonight has been a good night, painfully mangled hand be damned.