14. Pasha
Fyodor’s Rules #20 - Learn to read body language. It often speaks louder than words.
For two days, I stared at the business card the mystery woman had slipped me before I did anything. I knew it was most likely a trap. She had turned to me after having Lukas in her face, like she was trying to drive a wedge between us. I would not let her use me to bring the others down.
But I would be lying if I said I wasn’t intrigued by her. The way she’d moved, she had a fluid, almost serpentine grace. I had always found confidence unbelievably sexy, and she had it in spades. Besides, it was always fun when I found someone new to talk to and play with. Plus, she was new in town, I would have noticed her before now if she had been at any of the other parties.
I hadn’t told the others that she had approached me, not even that night when they were all talking about her. I had thought about it, when my hand was in my pocket, and my fingers ran over her business card like it held the answers. Maybe it did. I was good at talking to people, and getting information was a skill of mine, although I went about it in a much more pleasurable way than Alexei. Maybe I could find out what they wanted to know.
I knew my brothers appreciated what I contributed to the group. Despite what outsiders may think, I wasn’t the weak link; I was as loyal to my brothers as they were to me. And we’d all had more than enough training when we were young on how to keep our mouths shut. Fyodor had been hard on all of us, but especially on me. He knew it was in my nature to be a social creature, that I craved the attention of people, and he did not want it to be a weakness. Of the four of us, I was the second most likely to stand up to torture. And that was only because Alexei usually enjoyed whatever was being done to him, meaning that most interrogators would stop in confusion. I was a masochist myself, but he just delighted in making people uncomfortable.
If this woman was trying to play me against the others, I wanted to know why. I wanted to know how much she already knew about us. She had Nikolai’s interest, and Lukas was almost beside himself with curiosity. If we weren’t careful, it was going to shift into a full-on obsession, and no one wanted that.
I didn’t want to seem too eager, or for her to think she had caught me easily. So once two days had passed, I sent her a text asking her to join me for a drink. I didn’t invite her to the hotel, as I didn’t want Nikolai to catch sight of her. He would recognize her on the security feeds—even without the mask—that he often streamed into his office while he worked. It made him feel like he was keeping an eye on things.
I knew plenty of other places in the city, though, and suggested a bar in neutral territory. It was in the middle of the city, a central ground no one had claimed because everyone needed to access it. I’d chosen an upscale cocktail bar, with dim lights and high-backed booths, which were great for privacy. It was the kind of place where I didn’t have to worry that everyone was trying to listen in. The music was just loud enough to create a background hum, but not loud enough that you needed to shout to be heard.
This was actually one of my favorite places to take dates when I was still wooing them. I could flash a little money around and the drinks were always great. It allowed me to be charming, but to see if the person I was interested in was actually worth the effort of bringing home, or if I should settle for a blowjob in the alley.
I hadn’t dressed up too much for our date, this wasn’t the Masquerade, and I didn’t need to wear a suit. Instead, I was in a nice pair of slacks and a tailored shirt with the sleeves rolled up over my forearms, showing a small tease of the galaxies inked down the lengths of both my arms. My hair was slicked back; I didn’t want to be fussing with it all night.
Even though I hadn’t seen her face the night of the ball, I still recognized her when she walked in. Maybe it was the movement of her hips—serpentine and predatory—or maybe it was the way she walked straight towards me like she knew exactly who I was. She didn’t gaze around nervously, wondering if I was here or who I was without my mask. All actions that didn’t ease my suspicions about her.
I stood, because even though I grew up without a mother figure, I still knew how to treat a lady. As I kissed her cheek before she sat down, I noticed the way she tensed minutely. Interesting, maybe she didn’t like to be touched, but that would be odd given that she previously touched both Lukas and I.
“What would you like to drink?” I flagged down a server, alcohol would give both of us something to do with our hands and lubricate the conversation. I didn’t want to get her drunk, just relaxed. She picked up the menu, looking it over, and I took the time to order a simple old-fashioned.
As I watched her, studying her features, I realized she reminded me of Yana a little. It was in the way she held her mouth, although she had dark hair, and her eyes were the wrong color. Maybe I was just feeling nostalgic tonight. She looked up and ordered a blackcurrant gin sour, breaking my moment of contemplation. Once we were alone again, I relaxed and leaned back in the booth, my ankle coming up to rest on my knee.
“You know, draga, you made quite an impression at the Masquerade. Almost as though that was your whole reason for attending.” A slow smile crept across her lips at my observation, and I found myself curious to know more.
“There were far more important things going on that night than my arrival, I am sure.” She was only playing at being demure, trying to get me to change the subject, or maybe trying to draw me in. It could really go either way.
“Mmm, that depends on who you were there with, really? Rumors are that you didn’t leave on the arm of anyone. Which makes me curious if you arrived alone as well. Chicago isn’t known to be a welcoming city to outsiders. It’s hard to make it on your own here.”
“You and your brothers seem to do well for yourselves.”
Ah, so she knew who we were, and she knew we didn’t have any affiliations. I wondered briefly if she was perhaps a cop, but it was too risky a strategy to attempt infiltrating the Underground as a solo player. Unless she was waiting to see who would take her in, who would take the bait and snare themselves in her web. Still, it didn’t seem like the kind of operation that would get signed off. Plus, there were no good cops left in Chicago. If there was going to be an undercover operation going ahead, we would already know about it. If there was one thing that all the families agreed on, it was that government attention was not wanted. Cops, FBI, IRS, none of them lasted very long. Most were sent back to their agencies with their tails between their legs, the unlucky in body bags.
Maybe she was from a new family, someone hoping to make inroads into Chicago, sent here as a representative to look for weaknesses or form alliances. She wouldn’t be the first to try, but she had a quality about her that said she might be more successful than those before her. Her accent was vaguely European, like either she had traveled a lot, or had attended one of those fancy schools that bored every piece of individuality out of their students.
“We are doing well for ourselves, that’s true, but we grew up here. The families know us, and even then, we had to fight for our place. We paid the price and lost people along the way.” As our drinks were set down, I took a small sip of my own, an internal salute to the family we’d lost. Fyodor would be proud of us, though, I think. Of what we had accomplished. He would tell us it wasn’t enough, but he had always been a hard bastard to please.
“Well, given what you’ve achieved—you’re well respected, with your own territory, and about to announce some very fortunate weddings—it seems like despite whoever you lost along the way, it was all worth it.” I felt myself bristling at her tone and her knowledge, but just shook my head, and hoped to change the subject.
“Talking about death isn’t the best way to start an evening, draga. Why don’t we talk about happier things? I want to know more about you. Where was home before Chicago?” I leaned forward, showing her my attention. And I was interested, but perhaps not for the reasons she thought. We were both here with our own agendas, that much was clear. I didn’t feel bad about leading her on a little, as she clearly planned the same thing for me.
“Oh, relax Pasha.”
I hadn’t told her my name, but I wasn’t surprised that she knew it. Even people outside of the Underground knew it, as I was a regular on the Chicago social scene and had a reputation I worked hard to maintain. Leaning back again, I exhaled as my shoulders dropped slightly. I wasn’t sure what I had been so tense about, but I was here with a pretty woman, and a good drink in my hand. She was right, I should relax.
“I don’t really want to talk about myself, I want to hear more about you and your brothers. You’re so fascinating, and have such an interesting story. I’d really like to hear more about your rise to power, maybe I can learn a thing or two and keep myself out of danger.”
It really was an interesting story, but I wasn’t sure how it would keep her out of danger. She didn’t look like the type to slaughter every bounty hunter and hitman in the city in one night. It had been no small feat for us to pull off, but with them all dead, it had made the likelihood of someone collecting the bounty on our heads much less probable. I was just about to tell her all about it when she slumped. I darted forward to catch her, but there was already a hand on her forehead, pushing her back into the booth as a large body slid in next to hers. My brow furrowed in confusion.
“Alexei? What are you doing here?” This wasn’t the sort of place he frequented. Alexei preferred to drink at home or in seedy bars where you were as likely to get stabbed as you were to get drunk.
“I knew you were coming to meet with the woman from the Masquerade. You were lucky I was here, Pasha, didn’t you hear her tone of voice change? She was digging her hooks into you.”
It felt like a slap in the face that he thought I would be so easily duped by a pretty woman. Wasn’t that exactly what I had spent so long proving wouldn’t happen? But instead of lashing out at him, I thought about his words. Had her tone of voice changed? Thinking back over the conversation, my eyes widened as I realized, when she had told me to relax, I had. I’d been about to tell her about my brothers, just because she’d asked.
A string of Romanian curses fell from my lips as I narrowed my eyes at the unconscious woman. “I’m a little out of practice at protecting myself from that sort of ability. There has been no one around who could do that since. . .” I let my voice trail off as I continued to look at her. “You don’t think she’s some relative of Yana’s, do you? Fyodor never said she had any siblings, but a cousin maybe?”
Alexei shrugged a shoulder as he reached over and picked up her drink, draining it in a single swallow. “I am not sure, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up. You know Sirens don’t leave their little island. Too many of them get kidnapped.”
We had searched after Yana had died, as we wanted her family informed of her passing. But there had been nothing in Fyodor’s possessions to even hint where he had bought her from, and no one in the Bratva had known. We’d followed rumors and stories until we had found out that almost all the Siren lineages lived on an island off the coast of Greece. We had sent them a letter but had never gotten a response. Honestly, we hadn’t expected one. They had sold her, after all. Why would they care she was dead?
I drained my glass and got to my feet. If Alexei was going to get answers from her, I wanted to be there. I needed to know her identity and why the hell she was here. And now I was pissed off, so his way of questioning her was how we were going to have to get them.