Chapter 29
SERGEI
“Holy shit. What happened here?”
I stood in the center of my bedroom and turned slowly to take in the mess I’d made searching for an SD card that was so small it could be hiding anywhere.
Well, there weren’t exactly many places to hide given the scarce furniture in the room.
Still, it had to be around somewhere, although I was sure I’d placed it in the duffel along with the money I was supposed to be dropping off from the club.
“Redecorating?” I suggested drily.
There was no way I was going to admit to Nik that I’d lost the SD card containing sensitive information. My one consolation was that the card was so tightly encrypted it would probably take army intelligence to pry its secrets out.
“You really ought to do something about this mess.” He carefully stepped over a pillow on the floor. I didn’t even know why I bothered shaking it out. It wasn’t as if the SD card could have walked out of the bag and crawled inside the pillowcase.
“I’ll clean it up after.”
I walked over to the table and picked up my cell phone. The device had vibrated fifteen minutes ago, but I’d ignored it in my hunt for the lost data. I had a message from Leo. Leo, who was the only one who’d been inside my house, which meant he’d taken the memory card.
Unless I’d been distracted, fucked up, and dropped it somewhere, which was highly unlikely, but I’d rather believe that than Leo two-timing me and proving Maxim right.
He’d forgiven me so quickly after being upset that I’d killed Arkady’s son.
At the time, I’d taken it as him finally acknowledging that fighting against his feelings for me was futile.
That, as much as he pushed me away, berated me, and fought me at every turn, he was as addicted to me as I was to him.
But all that might have been wishful thinking on my part.
“I gotta say, Sergei, you’ve got a decent house here, but you ought to do something with it. Why don’t you take a day off stalking your man and get the place properly furnished?”
“Leo’s helping me to pick out furniture this weekend,” I answered absentmindedly as I unlocked my phone and tapped his message open.
That’s right. If he truly had the SD card, he wouldn’t still hang around me. He has to be innocent. I want him to be innocent.
LEO:
Thanks for dinner.
I stared at the three words, feeling dismayed. I should be content that he’d texted me at least, but his message was so direct and dry. There was no affection in it at all. It was so…Leo. But I wanted more. I wanted him to show that he cared about me.
Fuck, this one-sided love was hard.
“How’s this thing going between you two anyway?”
“Nik, I have a question, but you have to promise not to laugh.”
“Alright then, we’re just going to ignore my question and ask one of your own. It’s all good. I promise not to laugh. Now shoot.”
I was already having second thoughts by the time Nik finished, but I pushed on nonetheless because I didn’t know what the fuck to do. Nik had bagged himself both Darius and Jess, so he had to at least have a better grasp on relationships than I did.
“How do you woo someone?”
“Woo someone?” Nik choked out.
“Yeah, you know. Date them. Get them to develop feelings for you and shit.”
“No, I know what it means.” He rubbed his forehead, looking dangerously close to laughing, but to give him credit, he was at least trying to hold it in. “I just haven’t heard the term in such a—well, ever. So you want to woo your doctor?”
Scowling, I shoved my phone into my pocket and stalked past him to the exit. “Forget it. I knew you were going to laugh.”
“I’m not.” Nik ran after me as I marched down the stairs. “I think it’s actually sweet that you want to er—court your doctor.”
“Leo. His name is Leo.”
“Yes, Leo, of course. What have you done so far? Have you taken him out?”
I stopped on the landing, and he ran into my back. “Out?”
“Yeah, like, on dates. You have taken him on at least one date. Haven’t you?”
“Nope. He’s been busy with work.”
“That’s the thing, Sergei. You gotta plan these things around his schedule. With the way you stalk—I mean, carefully keep a track of your Leo’s whereabouts, you must know when he’s available.”
“Well, he’s off this weekend, so we’re going shopping for furniture. Does that qualify?”
“I guess that can be a date, but I mean something more. Find out what he likes and start from there.”
“He likes expensive food.”
“There you go. Get dressed up in one of your dark and deadly suits and take him to the fanciest restaurant you can think of.”
I nodded slowly. From my time spent guarding Maxim, I knew all the best restaurants in the city. Maybe Leo would like flowers. Maxim always bought expensive gifts for his husband, and Wren seemed to love them. What would Leo like?
He still hasn’t replaced his car.
I grinned and slapped Nik on the shoulder twice. “Thanks, man. That actually helps.”
Nik shook his head. “So, you’ve been sleeping with Leo all this time and haven’t even taken him out on a date yet? I thought you said he wasn’t easy.”
At the front door, I held it open for him to exit ahead of me and couldn’t help teasing him. “If you had a taste of this, you might keep coming back too.”
Nik made a sound between a sputter and a choke. “Well, if this ain’t proof a good dick is all it takes. Someone’s getting sassy. Does this mean Leo’s good in bed then?”
I locked the door behind us and stepped past him, heading for the Mercedes-Benz G-Class parked out front.
After discussing it with Maxim, we’d agreed it was best to get rid of my truck to cut the link tying me to Arkady’s missing son.
The G-Wagon waited in matte black, armored, with glass thick enough to take a hit and an engine tuned to outrun most problems before they got close.
Leo hadn’t seen it yet since I’d only picked it up earlier, but given the kind of car he used to drive, he appreciated fine craftsmanship and a quiet kind of luxury.
I couldn’t wait to get his opinion.
“Sergei, you can’t leave me hanging, man.”
Nik hopped into the SUV alongside me, and I groaned as I turned on the ignition. I’d forgotten I’d told him we would ride together tonight, so I wouldn’t be able to escape his questions about my sex life.
“What do you want me to say? We have sex.”
“But what kind of sex? It’s only fair. We let you listen in on us doing it. You owe me one.”
“I didn’t ask to hear what you were doing with Jess and Darius. You could have told me you were busy. Better yet, do not open the door when you’re in the middle of sex. I would have taken the hint and left.”
Nik buckled his seatbelt with great malice. “I want to be upset, but I think that’s the most sentences I’ve ever heard you speak outside of discussing work, so I’ll let it slide.”
I should have known better than to trust that he would let it go. We were on our way, five minutes later, when he angled his body against the door to face me.
“So on a scale of one to ten, how hot is the doc in bed?”
“Leo! His name is Leo.”
“How hot?”
“I’m not going to answer that.”
“Just pick a number from one to ten.”
“He’s a fucking ten! There! Are you happy?”
“Well, fuck me. That’s what I’m talking about. You deserve a good dicking, Sergei, and I’m glad Leo’s giving it to you just right.”
He slapped me so hard across the arm that the SUV swerved.
I righted the vehicle and gave him a glare for a millisecond before returning my gaze to the road.
Nik and Darius always talked openly about sex even before they became partners, along with Jess.
They were always competitive about their sexual exploits in bed, and most of it seemed to be a game with them.
Naturally, Nik was comfortable openly discussing his sex life because of that, but I never talked about mine. I doubted any of them even knew I had a preference before my obsession with Leo started.
Nik was impossible to ignore, so I answered his questions as briefly as possible.
It was either that or toss him out of the SUV, and I needed him to have my back tonight.
I didn’t need to be on Darius’s bad side either, and something told me Jess wouldn’t hesitate to beat me to death with the same red bottoms I’d bought her.
She didn’t play about either of her men.
The farther we drove from the city center and the closer we got to our destination, the less Nik talked.
Not because he’d lost the ability to run his mouth.
He could talk for hours and never get tired of his own voice, but he knew as well as I did that tonight required our undivided attention.
It was dangerous to think we were no longer being targeted because we had Arkady’s son.
If anything, they might be lying in wait to get their hands on one of us to use as a bargaining chip.
A trade for a trade. The oldest trick in the book.
I kept my hands steady on the wheel, but my mind still drifted to Leo.
Though initially upset when I’d nearly taken Arkady’s son’s life, he’d come around.
He didn’t ice me out as I thought he would have done, although it was still frustrating how little of himself he gave me.
The sex was better than I’d told Nik, but I wanted more from him.
I wanted to know what it was like for someone to love me back. And I wanted that someone to be Leo.
“You’re thinking about your doctor again. Aren’t you?” Nik’s voice broke my train of thought as I entered the boundary of Gusev’s territory.
“No.”
“Liar. You have that look.”
“What look?”
“The one where you stare off into space and concentrate really hard while frowning like you’re either about to kill somebody or write poetry about your doctor.”
Nik was so fucking ridiculous at times. “I don’t write poetry.”
“Shame. I bet it’d be tragic as fuck.”
I ignored him as I turned off the main road.