“If you finish up early, swing by the Flatiron apartment. I’ll be here all night.”
There was a tense moment of silence. “It is true then? I heard the boys say something about Anton being assigned to you because you were bringing your female back into the fold. I was on the phone and thought I had to be mistaken. What has happened?”
Almost feeling cruel, Alek kept it short. “We were at the restaurant and she walked in.” Sergei hadn’t come to the engagement party for obvious reasons. Watching a couple begin their new life together could only add insult to injury.
A thump sounded. “Just like that? You are kidding me. Are you with them now?”
“Who? The boys? Did you drop something?”
“Yes. My gun. I almost shot Reynard.” He chuckled tightly and Alek heard Sergei’s regular partner curse in the background. “Uh, yes, are the boys with you? Or her? Did you speak with her? What did she tell you?”
Knowing Sergei’s English suffered when he was agitated, Alek made sure to cover all the bases because he wasn’t sure what exactly he was being asked. “The boys are home, as far as I know, and Vasily just left. As for speaking to Sacha…” He hesitated when he felt something he hadn’t felt in well over a year. The stirrings of desire. Not a simple hard-on, but a rush of heat centered in his groin that grew in strength and hardened him to stone. Sacha. Sacha. By releasing her back into his consciousness, the woman was doing what she’d always effortlessly done; light him up.
He cleared the roughness he knew would be in his voice and went on. “We talked, and will do so again tomorrow. She was with someone.”
“Who? Did you see her? Meet her?”
“It wasn’t a woman friend; it was a man.”
“What! A man. What man? Are you certain they were together? That isn’t right!”
Sergei’s explosion came out in Russian and Alek was touched by the outrage he could hear in his cousin’s voice on his behalf. “My thoughts exactly. I plan on taking care of it tomorrow.”
“Alek, are you sure this is wise? You should think about this before you go any further. What if something happens? What if they are left unattended—?”
“I won’t allow anything to happen,” Alek cut in, then questioned, “Who’s ‘they’?”
“The family you must want with her!”
Fuck. Why had opened this can of worms? “Oh, right. I don’t have to think about this. I know now that I’ll do anything I have to do to protect them.” A family with her. Fuck, that sounded beautiful.
“Oh. Yes, I think I see now. You will not allow harm to come to them. You will do what you must to protect them.” Sarcasm dripped from his cousin’s words. “I see. So I allowed my wife and child to be chopped up by our uncle’s enemies. Having them live an hour outside the city and not returning home for sometimes days at a time when the family was on high alert was not protection enough.”
Alek’s spine shot straight. “No! Jesus Christ, Sergei. You know that’s not what I meant.”
“I heard you!” he shouted away from the receiver. “I have to go.”
“Hey. I never meant to imply you failed to do all you could for your family. I swear to God.”
A rough sigh came after a long moment. “I know you didn’t. Forgive me. My fuse is not what it used to be. I should not taint your reunion with the misery of my experience. I truly wish you well, cousin. And much luck to you. I think you will all need it.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Sergei Pivchenko slammed his phone so hard onto the bathroom counter the face cracked. He sucked in a few breaths, and when that did nothing to calm his racing heart, he grabbed the broken cell and banged his hand on the switch to kill the lights as he left the room.
The moment he reached the main floor of the house, he heard her screaming that name. Pounding down the stairs into the basement, he blew into her room, sending his guest stumbling back from where she’d been shouting and crying at the door.
Just as she did every time, she attempted to get around him and dart out. He easily clamped an arm around her waist to prevent her escape. She struggled like a little animal as he got her on her cot. Holding her there with a knee on her chest and a hand around her throat, he uncapped the syringe he’d snagged from the bookshelf just outside.
“No! Don’t! Please…stop…this…” she rasped, trying to breathe over the pressure he was exerting that must be crushing her lungs. He jerked her arm straight with more force than he normally used and jabbed the needle into her vein. “Let me…go…please…”