Chapter Twenty
Igor
“You’re upset.” It wasn’t a question. It was clear when April locked herself in the bathroom under the guise of cleaning up that she was upset I hadn’t shared with her how I’d gotten the bruises and cuts on my body. I didn’t want to upset her, but I didn’t want to frighten her further.
When Maxim told me that she hadn’t left her room in days and had returned each tray of food with just enough missing to stay healthy, I knew something was wrong.
No, not just something though, I knew exactly what was wrong.
The shooting. This wasn’t her life, and she’d probably never been shot at before—most normal people hadn’t—and it would make sense that it stayed with her for a while.
I shouldn’t give a damn whether or not she was upset but I did.
“No,” April sighed and pushed her body to an upright position. “I’m not upset.” Her green eyes were clear and guileless. “My instinct was to be worried when I saw the bruises but that’s all it was, instinct.”
I studied her carefully. She was working hard to make me believe it wasn’t an issue.
Or maybe she was trying to make herself believe.
“There are things that I simply cannot share with you, April. Not because I’m hiding things from you or because I don’t trust you, just the opposite. It is for your safety.”
She nodded easily as if she understood, but how could she? Even my mother had often complained of my father’s secretive nature, and she knew exactly what she was getting into when she married the head of the Romanov Bratva. “You don’t owe me an explanation, Igor.”
“I don’t owe anyone an explanation, not ever, but I am trying to explain things to you. What happened at the restaurant required a response.” I hoped she wouldn’t ask for details because she wouldn’t get them.
Her eyes flashed wide and then she swallowed. Hard. I couldn’t tell if the fear in her eyes was aimed at me or the situation. “Oh. Okay.” A shaky sigh escaped, and she flashed a nervous smile. “Will there be more?”
“Likely, yes. Voronov is a man possessed, he’s so fucking eaten up by his desire for revenge that he won’t stop until he’s achieved his goal which is to kill me and my baby, or until I kill him.”
She wasn’t put off by my words, and her easy acceptance started a warm feeling deep in my chest that I refused to think about too carefully. “And that’s your plan now that I’m pregnant, to kill him?”
“I have to. He will not stop until one of us is dead and it damn sure won’t be me.” Dmitry’s days were numbered he just didn’t know it yet or maybe he knew it was coming and simply refused to accept it.
Five door shaking knocks pounded on the door and April gasped in response while I groaned my annoyance at the interruption.
I wasn’t interested in anything at the moment other than spending more time with April, buried deep inside her sweet pussy while she cried out her pleasure and scraped her nails down my back, sank her teeth into the flesh of my arms. “One second.” I stepped into my pants and went to open the door. “Mikhail, what is it?”
His blank blue stare and stern expression put me on alert. “We have a problem.”
I waited for him to continue but he paused for dramatic effect, and my patience was thin. “Well?”
He sighed heavily and shrugged. “There was a fire at one of our stash houses.”
“Fuck. Which one?”
Mikhail shrugged again. “Maxim didn’t say.” The young soldier let his curiosity get the better of him and peeked over my shoulder, a small smirk appeared on his face immediately afterwards.
“You didn’t ask,” I shot back and snapped my fingers in his face. “Eyes here,” I snapped at the idea he’d just seen April in a vulnerable position. “Anything else?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Good.” I stepped back and slammed the door before I turned to April. She was sexy and beautiful, sweetly rumpled under the sheets. “I have to go.”
“I heard.” There was no emotion to her tone. No judgment or disappointment, not even a hint of curiosity. “That seems like a mild response, doesn’t it?”
I frowned. “What?”
April shrugged and looked away. “It’s none of my business but I happen to love gangster flicks and if you kill one man the other guy kills two.
Based on your body,” she said and motioned to my chest with both hands, “this wasn’t property damage so why meet injury with damage?
” she shook her head. “Sorry. I guess I’m getting a little carried away.
My imagination is running wild probably from the lack of sleep and other things. ” She looked away.
“The shooting is still causing you distress.”
She nodded. “Be safe Igor.” The sincerity in her tone gave me pause and I stared at her.
It was rare that the people in my life would issue such a phrase.
Sure there were men who cared whether I lived or died but mostly they depended on me to survive.
The rest wanted me dead so they could pick my carcass clean and take what was mine.
“You mean that?” I asked.
“Of course I do,” she frowned in confusion as if she didn’t quite understand the question which only magnified the different worlds from which we hailed.
So fucking sweet. Fully dressed, I crossed the room and leaned over April, staring down into her sparkling green eyes and pouty lips.
“Thank you for worrying about me.” I speared one hand through her already mussed locks and pressed my lips to hers.
It was meant to be a quick kiss, just one last taste before I headed out to deal with the aftermath of what I was sure was another Voronov problem, but her tongue darted out and swept back and forth across the seam of my lips and my control snapped.
My tongue plunged the depths of her mouth in a demanding pace that stole her breath.
April sucked my tongue and ran her hands all over my chest as if she too couldn’t get enough. She moaned and arched into me, making my cock stiffen instantly.
I pulled back and sucked down a deep breath. “I have to go.”
“I know.” Her lips curled into a shy smile. “That got really hot very quickly.”
“If only I had time to take it to its natural conclusion. Later,” I promised and pressed another quick kiss to her lips. “Get some rest if you can.”
“I’m sure I’ll get a good sleep,” she replied with a smile as she nestled back down under the cotton sheet and laid her head on the pillow. She looked peaceful and the small smile that tipped up her lips was the last thing I saw before I left to deal with business.
Fucking Voronov.
“You want me to go with you?” Mikhail called out the question.
“No. I have something else I need you to do when I get back.”
***
Maxim was already at the stash house, so I hopped into my sporty BMW and weaved through the streets of Atlanta until I arrived at the two story mid-century home that was perfectly nondescript.
I expected to see black clouds billowing high into the sky, the chaos of lights and sirens. But there was none. The neighborhood was perfectly quiet. Perfectly boring.
“Maxim.”
He stood on the porch with his gaze going up and down the block in search of anything that was out of place. When he spotted me, he jogged down to meet me. “Igor,” he sighed, and his shoulders slumped forward. “You didn’t have to rush over but I thought you should know what was happening.”
“You did the right thing,” I assured him. “What happened?”
“The fire didn’t have time to do much damage.”
“Lucky for us,” I grumbled.
“Not luck,” he answered. “The mechanic who owns that blue ranch house over there gave me a call. Said some shady looking fuckers were milling around the house and they didn’t look like any of our regulars.”
The key to a good stash house was keeping it routine in residential neighborhoods. It was what people expected, and it kept the neighbors from becoming too concerned. “Give him my thanks.”
“The garage was the point of origin, but it didn’t even do much damage in there,” Maxim explained and pointed to the attached garage. “Some smoke damage but the boys managed to put it out before the cops or fire department arrived. Come on.”
I followed him inside the house where we checked on our products—guns headed to Europe and drugs bound for the West Coast—to make sure everything was accounted for. “Nothing is missing.”
“Not one fucking gram,” Ivan assured me. “We weighed the bricks and counted the cash. Took stock of all the crates and it’s all here.” The relief in his voice was palpable.
“That’s good,” Maxim said more to himself than to the rest of us. “I still think we should move the product early.”
I thought about Maxim’s advice. It was smart and pragmatic just like the man, but it felt like a kneejerk reaction. “I’m not sure that’s necessary. I think Dmitry did this just to prove that he could get to me and my product.”
“I agree,” Maxim replied with a nod. “But there’s also the possibility that he was hoping the fire would send the cops sniffing around which would be bad for business. And our freedom.”
I weighed his words carefully. I couldn’t put anything past Dmitry and the idea of me in handcuffs probably got the motherfucker giddy with excitement.
It was no secret that he had many soldiers locked up and held influence inside the prison system, which would put me at a distinct advantage.
“Okay. Pack it up and move it. I’ll talk to our buyers and see if they can receive it early. ”
“On it.” Determined strides carried Ivan from the room.
I turned to Maxim. “We should beef up security on the other houses as well for the foreseeable future. Give instructions to shoot on sight. No civilians.”
Maxim nodded. “I don’t like this Igor. It feels off, almost too petty to be Igor.”
“Agreed. This seems like a mild response to losing yet another man. Then again, maybe he hasn’t discovered Vlad yet.”
Maxim smiled. “I would call that unlikely. Someone will have discovered a pool filled with blood. Neighbors in America are not so different from Russians. Nosy as fucking hell.”
I laughed despite myself. “Then we should brace ourselves for something bigger. This might be to piss me off or something as stupid as a kid’s prank.
” I couldn’t make the mistake of assuming that every attack or perceived attack was from Voronov.
He was just a man and not even a particularly smart man, which meant I needed to stay focused and remember that Dmitry Voronov wasn’t my only enemy.
He was just the most annoying of them all.