Chapter Twenty-Two
Igor
“This is still what you want to do?” Maxim’s question pulled me from my own musings as we sat inside one of the many empty warehouses where I conducted the type of business that didn’t need prying eyes. It was cold and blank and spacious, big enough to hold vehicles and product.
I nodded and gripped the door handle. “This is what I am going to do.”
“Okay.” Maxim nodded and stepped from the car, his face twisted in a bland expression that hid the intensity beneath. He motioned to the van behind us and quickly Mikhail and two others began to unload the wooden crates. “Darius and his crew will be here shortly.”
I looked around the room where more men were positioned just in case this friendly business agreement turned into something more, as it often did when firearms were involved. “Everything looks good.”
“Just as you wanted it, Igor.”
The roar of half a dozen motorcycles cut through the silence, signaling the arrival of Darius and his men, the Road Kings MC. “Those things are so fucking loud. Might as well just do business in front of the police station.”
Maxim smiled. “But they are cool,” he offered with an unapologetic shrug.
“I guess.” I had no love for bikers and usually I wouldn’t do business with them because they didn’t know the meaning of the word discretion. But this was a strategic business move meant to fuck with Voronov.
The doors opened and Darius and his five soldiers walked their bikes inside, wearing wide grins. “Igor, my man. What’s up?”
I put on my best smile. “Darius, it’s a lovely day to do business, isn’t it?”
“Damn straight,” he clapped his hands together and rubbed greedily. “You got the product?”
I nodded. “You got my money?”
Darius snapped his fingers and his VP appeared with a big bag of cash.
I nodded to Maxim, and he made a show of using a crowbar to open one of the crates. Maxim pulled out one of the weapons and walked it across the room before he handed it to Darius.
“Damn these Makarovs are the real deal, yeah?” he held it and tested the weight with a wide grin. “You got the AKs too?”
“I do.”
Darius nodded to his VP once again and once again the man dropped a giant bag of cash. “I want them all.”
With a short nod from me, Maxim took the cash and counted it while one of Darius’ men checked the crates. “That’s a lot of guns.”
He shrugged. “I always need guns. Enemies are everywhere, something you know all about.”
The way he said those words or maybe his tone gave me pause. “Do I now?”
Darius shrugged. “Word on the street is you’re a dead man walking.”
I laughed at that. “No doubt that particular word came from Voronov.”
He confirmed it with a nod. “Him and anyone else dumb enough to believe his shit.”
“Not a fan?”
He shrugged casually but I didn’t miss the tension in his jaw. “Fucker doesn’t do business with Black people, what the fuck do you think?”
“Dmitry is old school. You and I don’t run in the same circles so I have no concern these guns will be used against me. Your money is as green as the next, even if your mode of transportation leaves much to be desired.”
Darius’ lips parted into a grin. “I’ll let that slide because bikin’ ain’t for everybody. And because this metal is beautiful.” He stroked the Makarov before tucking it into his jacket. “Voronov is gonna shit.”
“Good.” Anything I could do to mind fuck Dmitry would help him spin and spin until the moment I had him in my clutches, watching as life drained out of his old, miserable body. “It’s a pleasure doing business with you.”
Darius accepted my handshake while his men loaded the crates into a black van. “I won’t forget this, Igor. You ever need weed, girls, or backup, hit me up.”
His offer surprised me, but I accepted his gratitude with a tighter grip. “Watch out for the cops.”
Darius grinned. “We got our white boy driving the van, but thanks.”
Ten minutes later business was done, and the money was on its way to get cleaned before being put into circulation, and Maxim and I were headed back to the compound.
“Is everything okay Igor?”
“Of course. What have you heard?”
He opened his mouth and then sighed without a word. He did it again before he finally spoke. “I overheard Mikhail talking about finding you half naked in April’s room.”
“What is your point?” I didn’t like the idea of my men speaking of me behind my back at all, but especially my personal life.
“No point, just checking to make sure you’re okay. You seem agitated and distracted.”
My frown intensified. “You think I’m not focused on my business?”
“No, I think you have something else on your mind, and I am merely asking if you want to talk about it.” Maxim never spoke to me that way and I knew I had offended him.
“Don’t even know where to begin if I am being honest.” That was the fucking truth. “I like her which is stupid and ridiculous. I have turned her whole life upside down and paid her an obscene amount of money.”
Maxim nodded, his gaze steady on the road. “It isn’t as if she’s using that money to buy designer handbags. What’s the problem?”
I barked out a laugh. “The problem is that she’s carrying my baby, and her life is in danger.” But knowing all that I couldn’t stay away from her, and I couldn’t stop thinking about her telling me that if she loved me, she would have my child even knowing the danger. “It seems untenable.”
Maxim shrugged. “You lead an unorthodox life, Igor so why would love or romance, or whatever this is, be any different?”
It was an excellent point. “It’s complicated.”
“So is life,” he shot back with a smile. “She’s making you work for it?”
“It’s not that and I don’t know what the fuck it is but the fact that I care is driving me crazy.” I don’t make time for women because I don’t have the time to give for games and emotions. And because as long as Voronov drew breath, any woman would be in danger. Like Maria.
“You didn’t ask for my advice, but I’d say that you should let it be her choice. Complicated or not, she’s with you because she wants to be.”
“Or because she’s lonely.”
Maxim laughed. “In a house filled with people.”
“Servants,” I shot back.
“Servants are people,” he clarified with another smile. “Focus on Voronov first then. Take him off the board and see if you still want her when there’s no danger.”
“I like it.” It meant I didn’t have to make a choice now and I still had time to see if April would be interested in taking care of my baby. “We will see.” As soon as we arrived at home, I made my way upstairs to see the woman who was starting to mean too much to me.
But when she smiled at me? I didn’t give a fuck about any of the reasons why we were a bad idea.
All I cared about was her.