Chapter 27
SERGEI
“What the hell is he doing here?”
To say Maxim was livid at seeing Leo was an understatement.
No sooner had Leo and I arrived than he pulled me to the side, though I had no idea why he bothered.
It wasn’t as if he was lowering his voice to spare Leo’s feelings.
I’d hoped that he would wait until we were alone to bring up his concerns.
I was wrong.
At least Leo was pretending not to hear as he checked on the patient.
Arkady’s son—Dmitry, according to the name on the ID inside his wallet that I’d taken off him—had woken up earlier and tried to use his IV needle to stab Dezi, who’d managed to fend him off and strap him down to the bed when he attempted to leave.
For a man who’d been half dead last night, he was sure persistent.
“Leo was the one who took care of him last night,” I said.
Maxim shifted from one foot to the other. “That doesn’t answer the question. We already have a doctor on payroll you could get in touch with. Why didn’t you?”
“Leo’s better.” I shrugged, which only made the vein in his forehead throb more wildly. “At first, I didn’t care one way or the other, but then I found his ID in his wallet and realized he could be an asset.”
“Exactly who the fuck is he? You said he was important.”
I dug into my pocket, took out the young man’s ID, and gave it to Maxim. I didn’t need the card anymore. The details were already etched into my head.
Dmitry Arkady.
Date of birth: March 14.
Place of birth: St. Petersburg.
Height: 6’1”.
Eyes: gray.
Maxim’s eyes flicked over the card, his jaw tightening with every second that passed.
“Arkady’s son?” he muttered. “I don’t recall Arkady having a son named Dmitry.”
“Yeah, he is.”
Silence stretched between us as Maxim became lost in whatever thought was running through his head.
On the other side of the room, Leo adjusted the IV line with steady hands, like none of this had anything to do with him.
I felt proud of him. It couldn’t have been easy for him to be in the same room as Maxim, given the hatred he felt for my boss.
Would Leo ever learn to let it go? Bradley was already dead. Nothing we could do would bring him back. He was smarter than the rest of us—more practical—and should be able to understand that.
Maxim exhaled slowly, but there was nothing calm about it. “If Arkady’s son is here, and Arkady’s after you…” His gaze snapped back to mine. “Then he’s not just sniffing around. He’s involved. And yet you haven’t found anything tying him to our club?”
“Nothing concrete yet.” My gaze drifted to the bed.
Dmitry lay still now, but there was tension in his shoulders, in the way his fingers flexed against the restraints.
He had insider knowledge of his father’s operation.
If we could get something tangible out of him, we could deal with our Arkady problem once and for all.
Our rival Bratva Pakhan had been lingering in the background for far too long.
“I’ll get answers,” I said, lowering my voice. “So far, we have a dead nurse, an unknown drug in our territory that’s not ours, a dead distributor who would not give us any answers, and the attack on me last night. We’ll get answers out of Dmitry if it’s the last thing we do.”
Maxim didn’t respond. Instead, his attention shifted across the room to where Leo stood, talking to his patient in a voice that was too low for us to hear.
“What is he to you, Sergei?”
The pulse in my neck jumped wildly, and my heart skipped a beat. Technically, he could be referring to either of the two men, but I didn’t bother to seek clarification. There was no use pretending I didn’t understand the question.
Maxim’s gaze turned to me, and he shoved his hands into the pockets of his ankle-length black cloak. “I see.”
I clenched my jaw, not wanting to hear what I was certain would come. Nik already made it clear I was delusional for thinking Leo could feel the same way about me.
“You can be with anyone,” Maxim continued, his voice low but cutting, “anyone you want. I don’t give a damn. But not him.”
My head snapped up. “That’s not your decision to make.”
“The hell it’s not.” His voice came out loud, and Leo turned his head toward us. “He can never be trusted.”
“You trusted him enough with Wren’s life,” I pointed out, my chest aching from panic. I’d never wanted anything in my life. Never asked Maxim for anything, but I was a second away from dropping to my knees and begging him to let me keep Leo.
“Because I had no other choice.” Maxim’s expression didn’t soften. Not even a fraction. “You may not want to face it, Sergei, but he’s a wild card we can’t depend on.”
“He’s a doctor,” I countered. “He can be a great asset to us. Just give me time to convince him that—”
“He’s a liability,” Maxim said, his tone final. “You already fucked up by letting him know of this place. Now this site is compromised, and we’ll have to find somewhere else.”
“He won’t say a word. We can trust him.”
“In case you forgot, I killed his husband,” he said. “You helped me clean up that mess. Do you honestly think he feels anything for you but contempt?”
All the times Leo had screamed at me, told me to fuck off—in less colorful words—and shoved me away, flashed through my mind. But that was before we kissed, and touched, and joined our bodies together.
“It’s not like that. He cares about me. I know he does.”
“Are you willing to bet my life on it?” Maxim took a step closer, his presence pressing in. “Sergei, your judgment is compromised.”
My hands curled into fists at my sides. “You think I don’t know what I’m doing?”
“I think that you’ve never had a relationship before, and you’re about to experience your first heartache. You don’t realize it, but you’re already changing.”
My chest tightened, making it difficult for me to breathe.
“You would’ve never brought an outsider here before,” he continued.
“Would’ve never stood here and argued with me over one, especially when it comes to my security.
You were dead set against me being with Wren because you saw him as a liability, yet you don’t see Leo as one.
Why’s that, Sergei? Can you answer that question honestly and swear your judgment isn’t impaired? ”
I held his gaze, refusing to look away. “You said it. When I cautioned you about Wren, did you stop feeling the way you did for him? No. Why can’t you understand it’s the same with Leo and me?
I can’t help the way I feel about him, but for what it’s worth, I trust him.
I would never put your life in jeopardy. ”
Maxim’s hand clamped down on my right shoulder, and he squeezed, his face grim. “For your sake, I hope I’m wrong.”
“I know I’m not.”
I’d spent decades in the criminal world, fighting like a dog in a ring before I met Maxim.
I’d seen the different faces of evil, and Leo didn’t fit any of them.
If he wanted to trick me, he wouldn’t have pushed me away for so long.
He wouldn’t have refrained from telling me he loved me back.
He would have done and said anything to get into my bed instead of making me sweat and work harder than I’d ever done to be with someone.
Maxim looked past me then, toward the bed. “Find out what Arkady’s planning from the son. And I still need that assessment of the other three brigadiers.”
Maxim signaled to Darius that he was leaving, but he’d only taken a step when he shifted back to say, “It’s a good thing you’re not the head of security anymore. I never thought I’d have to be on my guard because of you, Sergei.”
His words cut deep, and denial sprang to my lips.
How could he hint that I would betray him because of Leo?
After everything we’d been through? After the bullet I’d taken while protecting him?
But he had Wren, and Nik and Darius were allowed to be with their woman.
Why was it a problem for me to be with the person I cared about?
I watched Darius and Maxim walk out of the warehouse, followed by two other bodyguards.
More men waited on the outside. Archie was dead, but his chilling last message that this wasn’t the end lingered in our minds.
Archie had accomplices we didn’t know about, and we needed to find out who they were before they struck again.
I need to get answers so Maxim can stop doubting me. I need to prove my loyalty hasn’t wavered.
My gaze trailed across the room to where Leo stood at the bedside, his attention fixed on Dmitry as though everything else had faded into the background.
His movements were steady, his fingers careful as he checked the bandage at Dmitry’s throat, adjusting it with the kind of steadiness that came from years of training.
Your judgment is compromised.
Maxim’s words echoed in my head, and the need to prove him wrong. Being with Leo didn’t change anything about me.
I pushed away from the wall, the decision settling in my chest with cold certainty before I even reached the bed.
Leo didn’t look up at first when I approached. He was still focused on Dmitry, his voice low and clinical. “You’re very lucky,” he was saying, fingers pressing lightly along the wound. “The blade missed the main artery by millimeters. If it had gone any deeper—”
“Why were you trying to kill me?”
The question cut through the room, cutting Leo off. Leo stilled, his hand pausing against Dmitry’s throat as he turned his head slowly toward me. There was confusion in his eyes, a flicker of warning in the way his body shifted.
“Sergei, can this wait? He’s still weak from the loss of blood.”
“Yeah, I’m not buying it.” I pulled Leo gently away from the bed despite his protests and took over. “If you don’t talk, I can make your stay here a lot more uncomfortable.”
Dmitry laughed, the sound weak from his injury, but the smugness behind it was unmistakable, and it scraped across my nerves like a blade.