Chapter 33
Chapter thirty-three
Alisa
Natalya’s eyes lit up the moment she spied Dmitri. I squirmed in my seat, but she didn’t even spare me a glance.
Dmitri’s heated expression turned dull when he set eyes on Natalya. She bit down on her lip as she stood behind us.
“Good to see you,” I said, hating the gruff sound of my voice.
Dmitri snorted at my reaction. Even in my mind, I couldn’t come up with a good excuse as to why I was irritated.
“I’m sorry, I don’t believe we’ve met,” Natalya said to me. Once again, my friends didn’t recognize me. How the hell had Dmitri?
“It’s Alisa,” I said.
“Oh wow. Good disguise.” Natalya tilted her head to the side, and examined me for a moment….
Before immediately locking her attention back on Dmitri.
Suddenly, I was reminded of our last conversation where she’d proclaimed that if I didn’t fuck Dmitri she’d claim him for herself.
“It’s good to see you, Dmitri,” she purred.
When she arched her back slightly, humiliation speared me. She was going to try to take him right in front of me. Even though she didn’t know we’d hooked up, an unhinged part of me wanted to claw her eyes out.
And a deeper part of me was scared it would work on him.
“Do I know you?” Dmitri said boredly.
“Oh,” she laughed. “I guess we haven’t been formally introduced. I’m Natalya. I’ve been dying to meet you.” She punctuated the word by swiping her tongue across her upper lip.
A sour sensation filled my throat as I waited for Dmitri’s response.
“Is that so,” he said flatly. He turned away from her.
“Yeah!” She leaned in closer to him. “There’s-”
“I don’t care.”
It was like watching a balloon pop under pressure. The air slowly sank out of Natalya, but she quickly masked it with an overly bright smile.
While Dmitri continued to ignore her, she glanced between us. As if in search of a clue as to why Dmitri wasn’t riveted by her despite her signature fuck me heels.
I swallowed. Hopefully, she wouldn’t catch onto what was going on between us. If anyone in the Bratva found out we’d hooked up…
Well, we all knew it wouldn’t be his reputation that was damaged.
“What are you doing here, Natalya?” I asked, a hint of unease working its way through my system. Dmitri hadn’t told me who the target was.
Could it be her?
I shook that thought away. My luck couldn’t be so terrible that the Pakhan would order me to murder another person I cared about. Yes, I was irritated that she’d tried to seduce Dmitri right in front of me, but she was still my friend.
So when Dmitri casually surveyed the room that anxiety softened.
No, it had to be someone else.
“I’m waiting on my date,” she said, sticking her chest out a little.
But I knew that response wasn’t for my benefit. Her eyes were glued to Dmitri’s expression as if waiting for a hint of jealousy.
He didn’t even bother glancing at her, still presumably looking for our target.
“There you are, Natalya,” a deep voice said behind me.
I immediately whipped around, my heart shuddering in my chest. I locked eyes with the monster who’d been haunting my dreams. Memories flickered across my mind. And just like that night at the party, I froze.
“What are you doing here, Novikov?” Roman Komarov asked, zeroing in on Dmitri like I didn’t even exist.
I was grateful for the disguise. He’d murdered a part of my soul that night, I never wanted his attention again.
Dmitri glanced at him boredly. Then continued checking across the bar for our target as if Roman’s existence wasn’t worth his time.
Roman’s jaw tightened at the slight, and it brought me back to that night when I’d whispered for him to stop. Roman hadn’t even reacted to the word. Just grunted in irritation that he was struggling with my pants.
Involuntarily, my body inched closer to Dmitri. I could taste the irony that the man who’d murdered my brother was now my only respite from the frozen chill running through my veins.
Dmitri’s gaze flicked to me, a questioning look in his eyes. I swallowed unsteadily. After a moment, he stood up, obviously expecting me to follow him. Never in my life had I been so relieved to let Dmitri take the lead.
Unable to summon words past the knot in my throat, I silently waved goodbye to Natalya.
I found my voice when we were halfway across the room. “Did you find the target?”
Dmitri nodded.
“You okay?” he asked quietly.
“Peachy,” I said, plastering a smile on my face.
Dmitri’s gaze seemed to penetrate me for a moment, rooting around silently for some sort of answer. But I allowed nothing to show on my face.
“It’s the older man heading towards the bathroom,” he said. “Follow my lead.”
“Gladly,” I replied as we shadowed the man to the bathroom.
I shot one last glance over my shoulder at Natalya and Roman cuddled up against the bar. The overly bright smile on Natalya’s face had been replaced with something akin to softness.
I turned back towards the target. Even if I could find the words to warn Natalya, I couldn’t do it now.
Dmitri might have treated Roman like he wasn’t worth breathing the same airspace as him, but Roman ranked number two in our competition.
His reputation might not be as notorious as Dmitri’s, but even before that night I’d always felt a sense of foreboding when he’d looked in my general direction.
Timing. That’d be the key to warning Natalya.
Our target ducked into the bathroom. Dmitri followed behind, grabbing my wrist to keep me close.
The second the door snicked shut behind us, Dmitri released my hand and silently locked the three of us in. As if sensing Dmitri’s dangerous energy, our target’s head turned towards us. Without preamble, Dmitri snatched him up by the throat and slammed him against the white tile wall.
I jerked backwards, surprised at the sudden violence. Dmitri slammed the man’s head against the wall until red mixed with white. I stood there while the life drained out of the man’s eyes.
When our target was staring blankly up at the ceiling, Dmitri began nonchalantly texting on his phone. He was completely unconcerned that a man was lying in a bloody pile at his feet.
While Dmitri was casually washing his hands of the blood, I said, “Shouldn’t we-”
“Kitten, I told you I’d handle everything.”
And I believed him.