Chapter 5
Kasimir~
Zoya Kuzmin didn’t like me, but it was hard to blame the woman when you considered that I’d been the one to show up at her mother’s house to announced that her uncle had been killed.
I also hadn’t softened the details, determined to find out what she and her mother had known about Armen Orlova’s plan to kill Aurora.
Now, while they hadn’t known anything, I still didn’t trust the two women.
Not only were they still Orlovas by blood, but after acting all scared and innocent, Darya Orlova had conspired with Aurora to lure Decio Fontana to his death, and so that didn’t seem so innocent to me.
Yeah, it’d been the mother while I’d held Zoya hostage in the kitchen, but that minor detail didn’t make a difference to me.
It also didn’t matter that Zoya’s actual last name was Kuzmin after her loser father.
Her mother and uncle were Orlovas, and that was reason enough for me to dislike the woman.
Nonetheless, I also couldn’t lie and say that Zoya’s spunk hadn’t intrigued me a bit. Oh, she’d been scared and confused when I had shown up at her mother’s house, but she hadn’t cowered, and for better or worse, that was an attractive trait for a man like me.
Plus, her looks were also something to appreciate, which I did.
Zoya was about only five-foot-three, and she had dark auburn hair, hazel eyes, and though a little on the slim side, she still had enough curves to make a man notice.
At thirty-years-old, it was also quite clear that she’d taken after her father in looks, which wasn’t a bad thing in the least. Darya Orlova had blonde hair and blue eyes, nothing like the sweet looks of her only daughter.
At any rate, after the fallout from Armen Orlova’s betrayal, I had used my last name to make Darya’s life a lot harder, and that included her daughter’s life as well.
If they didn’t have the sense to move out of Korolev territory after what Armen had done, then they could very well suffer the consequences of being so stupid.
So, here I was, walking into Ruby Red’s Diner, and all just to remind Zoya that the Korolevs hadn’t forgotten about her. I wanted Zoya and her mother to understand that us Korolevs had long memories, and that we were never going to forget what had happened to Aurora.
Now, because I always studied my enemies well, I knew which shift that Zoya worked, and I also knew that all the waitresses and waiters at Ruby’s had the same patron section.
It was the owner’s way of offering his customers that feeling of familiarity, and it seemed to work.
Ruby’s was one of the most popular diners in the city of St. Moran.
When the bell chimed over the doorway, I didn’t wait to be greeted.
Instead, I made my way over to Zoya’s section, then got comfortable in one of the booths, my back to the wall as always.
Luckily, I’d waited until after the dinner rush to torment the woman, so there was no crowd to have to deal with.
I also couldn’t help but smirk when Zoya finally noticed me, her feet stopping her in her tracks before quickly catching herself. I also knew that she had no choice but to wait on me. At this point, Zoya couldn’t afford to lose her job, and one negative word from me would do just that.
When Zoya finally reached my table, I grinned at her. “Have you missed me, lepestok?”
She didn’t comment on me calling her petal, but I was also aware that she wasn’t fluent in Russian, knowing only a few words here and there. I also knew that she’d rather die than ask me what the word meant, something that I could appreciate.
Ignoring me, she placed a lone menu on the table, asking, “Would you like to start with something to drink, or would you prefer a few moments with our menu, sir?”
“Ah, lepestok,” I drawled out. “No small talk? No asking me about the weather?”
Her prism-colored gaze flashed a bit, but the woman was good at controlling her temper. “I’ll leave you to look over the menu,” she said. “I’ll be back shortly.”
“No need,” I told her. “I’ll have the steak dinner, medium-rare, with broccoli and mash potatoes on the side. Pepsi for the drink. I’d also like a side of steamed vegetables and toast with a lot of butter.”
As she quickly wrote everything down, she asked, “Anything else?”
“When I’m finished with my meal, I will want dessert, but not the pies that have been sitting out all day,” I answered. “You will need to get me a fresh piece of dessert, and I don’t care how you have to do it. Am I clear about that?”
Those hazel eyes of hers flared again, but she didn’t back down. “Of course.”
Before I could say anything more to her, Zoya turned, then walked over to the counter to put in my order, something that was like clockwork for her now.
Apart from when Zoya had delivered my drink, she ignored me in favor of her other two patrons, but once my food was ready, she had no choice but to see to my needs once again, and I’d feel sorry for the woman if her family hadn’t tried to kill my sister-in-law.
Plus, sympathy wasn’t an emotion that I was really familiar with, so I wouldn’t even know what to do if I was capable of feeling sorry for her.
Once all the food was placed in front of me, I pushed my drink to the side, then stood up. Zoya looked a bit surprised at me standing, but she didn’t say anything as she stepped back, making room for me, and her next move was going to prove just how strong her self-preservation really was.
“Is everything okay?”
I cocked my head as I looked down at her.
“Did you honestly believe that I’d eat anything that you would deliver to my table?
” Zoya blinked her eyes as her head reared back a little, shocked that I would ever accuse her of such a thing.
“At the very least, I’d hate to bite into a juicy steak just to taste your spit.
After all, I can think of far more enjoyable ways to find out what you taste like, lepestok. ”
“What...what am I supposed to do with all this...this food?” she asked, her tone incredulous.
“Eat it, throw it in the trash, or give it to the homeless...I really don’t care,” I told her. “Consider this a lesson in na?veté.”
Zoya’s back snapped as she asked, “And what of the bill?”
I arched a brow. “I’m sure that you’ll figure it out, lepestok.”
Nothing more was said as I exited the diner without paying for the wasted food, and Zoya was so pissed that she didn’t even notice how I had stepped back into the shadows to watch what she’d do next.
After all, that was all a part of studying the enemy.
You needed to anticipate what they were capable of, and the only way to do that was to see how they reacted in uncomfortable situations.
So, I watched as Zoya pulled all the food off the table, then take it back to the counter. However, instead of throwing it in the trash, she carefully packed it up like it was a to-go order, and then she tucked it underneath the counter for whatever she planned on doing with it later.
After that, I saw her digging into her apron, and something suddenly hit my chest as I watched her counting out all her bills and change.
When she was finished gathering up enough money to pay for what I had ordered, she stuffed one single bill and a few coins back in her apron, and for the first time in my life, I felt something besides a bloodthirst for someone who I considered an enemy.
Once she paid for the meal, I watched as Zoya went back to her other two patrons, and the smile on her face was nothing short of incredible.
After what I’d just done to her, leaving her with almost nothing in tips for the night, instead of falling apart or causing a scene, she was burying her rage deep enough to get her through the rest of her evening, and it was something that I could have gone the rest of my life never witnessing.
Two hours later, the sign on the door was being flipped, and the staff was beginning to clean up, no one else left inside the diner. However, instead of leaving to go about my business, I continued to ignore my phone as I watched Zoya help clean up.
When they were all finally ready to leave, all the other employees headed towards the parking lot, whereas Zoya began walking home on her own.
It wasn’t until she had separated from the group that one of the guys called out to her.
After a quick exchange, he walked over to her, threw his arm around her shoulder, then ushered her along, the both of them heading towards his car now, and a spike of adrenaline shot up my spine, a sensation that I refused to explore at the moment.
Eyeing them in the car, I quickly made my way to my own vehicle, and I ignored the low hum of that lyrical melody that I knew as well as I knew my own name.
I followed the car until it pulled up to Darya Orlova’s house, and I had to grit my teeth as the jackass who’d driven Zoya home got out of the car, then walked around to open the door for her.
I watched as she smiled up at him as he helped her out of the car, and my hand itched to pull my gun from my jacket to kill the sonofabitch. Though the interaction was completely innocent, she was smiling up at him, and the smile reached her eyes, a genuine show of appreciation.
My irritation flared a bit more as he didn’t leave until Zoya had made it safely inside her home, and while that had been the decent thing to do, I still didn’t like it.
Not only should Zoya be suffering for her uncle’s sins, but I definitely didn’t need to murder someone for trying to be her unsung hero.
I wasn’t sure how long I sat in my car, singing quietly, but once I felt my pulse return to normal, I drove away from Darya Orlova’s home, then decided to get back to work, finally answering all the calls and texts that I had ignored for two fucking hours.
Two fucking hours of watching a woman that I was supposed to hate.