by Roxie Rivera
I will. Slowly. Painfully.
Fucking Ruby. That girl was a goddamn menace. He didn’t even want to imagine what kind of bullshit she had gotten tangled up in while doing her time. Couldn’t she go one single fucking year without putting Erin in danger?
He shoved down the fury that threatened to erupt and focused only on Erin. She didn’t need the mean, savage side of him right now. She needed comfort and love and the protection and security of his arms around her. Drawing her in closer, he nuzzled her ear and neck. He would do anything to make her stop crying. It was tearing out his fucking heart to hear it and to know she had been so scared and so hurt.
He shifted onto the uncomfortable hospital bed and dragged her onto his lap, draping her legs sideways across his thighs. He cradled her closely, tugging the hoodie she had borrowed from his closet over her legs to keep her warm. As he gently stroked her back, she nestled in, sliding her arms around his neck and crying softly.
He couldn’t stop the painful thoughts racing through his mind. Having been abandoned as a child, he had always been plagued with the very real belief that he wasn’t good enough for anyone to love. He had always believed something inside him was rotten and unlovable. He had considered himself unworthy of a wife and family.
Until Erin.
She loved him unconditionally. From the first moment she stepped into his life, she had accepted him and his faults and his murky past. She had soothed that raw, festering wound deep inside him and helped him believe that he was worthy of all the things he had always wanted.
Yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had ruined her life. He had dragged her into the seedy underbelly he could never escape, and now she was suffering the consequences of associating with him.
As if the universe wanted to kick him square in the balls and make him feel even worse, the curtain closing off her emergency room cubicle shifted aside and none other than Detective Eric Santos stepped into the space. Ivan silently cursed the arrival of the nosy detective. The last thing Erin needed was to be questioned relentlessly by someone who hated him and the crime family he had once served.
“Erin,” Detective Santos greeted with a nod. He glanced briefly in Ivan’s direction. “Ivan.”
Ivan had never wanted to be on a first name basis with a cop, but here they were. “Detective,” he said with a grunt of annoyance.
“I know you’re about to be discharged, but I wanted to ask you a few questions before you leave,” Detective Santos explained. “Is that okay?”
Erin nodded. “Sure.”
Eric’s gaze shifted to Ivan who still held his wife across his lap. “I want to speak with her alone.”
Ivan started to protest, but Erin touched his jaw. She held his gaze, silently communicating with him in the way that husbands and wives often did. He understood and nodded stiffly before moving her off his lap and onto the bed. He tenderly kissed her. “I’ll be right outside if you need me.”
On his way out of the room, he fixed the detective with a warning glare. He closed the curtain behind him and leaned against the wall, arms crossed as he listened to whatever Santos had to say to his wife.
“Why are you here?” Erin asked testily. “I’ve already spoken to the officers who responded and to the other robbery detective who came to see me. I thought you were in guns and gangs or something like that.”
“I am,” Santos confirmed. “I suspect this robbery and assault may have ties to a gang. Or,” he added, “that it may be connected to your husband’s ties to a certain criminal organization.”
“My husband owns and operates an elite MMA training camp and gym, Detective Santos. There’s nothing criminal about our business.”
“If you say so,” Santos replied in that rude fucking way of his. “I’ve already spoken to your friend, Zoya. She didn’t have anything to add to her statement she gave police at the scene, but she did mention that one of the men seemed to be talking to you when he had you pressed up against your car. Can you tell me what he said?”
“I’d rather not.”
“Why?”
“Because.”
“Because you’re trying to protect your husband? Or maybe your friends and their husbands?”
“No,” Erin snapped. “I’d rather not relive the moment when a disgusting stranger put his hand between my legs and told me what he was going to do to me.”
Santos was silent for a long moment. “I’m sorry, Erin. I didn’t know about that part of the assault. It wasn’t in the report I got from the officers on the scene.”
“Well, now you know.” She sighed loudly. “Listen, there’s nothing sinister or nefarious happening here. Okay? It was just a robbery. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“If it was just a robbery, why did they burn your car?”
“Probably because they had their hands all over it? They wanted to destroy evidence. I don’t know. I’m not a criminal. I don’t have any answers for their behavior.”
“Bullshit,” Santos protested. “I think you’re lying to me, Erin. I think something else happened in that parking lot. Whatever you’re hiding—whoever you’re trying to protect—I’ll figure it out. I can promise you that. When you’re ready to talk, to be honest with me, you know where to find me.”
The curtain jerked open as Ivan shoved off the wall, ready to give Eric a piece of his mind. The detective turned back toward Erin and said, “Tell your sister I said, ‘Hi.’ I’m sure I’ll be seeing her again soon. From what I've heard about her time in jail, she’s one stumble away from picking up that nasty habit of hers.”
“Fuck. You.” Erin glared at the detective. “You come near my sister or try to harass her in any way, and I’ll make your life a living hell.”
Santos laughed. “I’m sure you’ll try.”
Ivan clenched his fists at his sides. He wanted nothing more than to slam his fist into Eric’s smug face, but he wrestled the urge down and simply stared down the detective until he pivoted on his heel and left. The last thing he needed was to catch a charge for knocking out a detective. Once Eric was gone, Ivan stepped into the room and closed the curtain. Erin held out her hand, and he took it. “I’m sorry, angel moy.”
“Don’t apologize for him. He’s such a dick.”
“He is, but he’s taking out his frustration with me on you. That’s not right.”
“No, it’s not, but it is what it is.” She placed her hands on his waist and tugged him closer. She placed her cheek against his chest and ran her fingers up and down his lower spine. “Please don’t ask me to put Ruby on the streets instead of in our house when she gets released.”
Taken aback, he said, “I wouldn’t ask you to do that.”
“I know how much you two dislike each other,” she replied, soothing him with her stroking fingers.
Dislike was a tame word for what he felt for her older sister. Still, he said, “You let Ten stay with us even after they raided the house and tossed his room.”
“I was pretty upset,” she reminded him. “It’s hypocritical of me to ask you not to refuse to let Ruby stay with us.”
“You’re her sister. You’re family.” He tilted her chin up and gazed down into her beautiful eyes. “We’re family.”
She smiled up at him, her expression soft and loving. “Thank you.”
He brushed his thumb along her cheek. Even though it aggravated him that yet again they had to clean up one of Ruby’s messes, he said, “Because we’re family, I’ll find out what trouble she’s in and handle it if I can.”
“Ivan, you don’t need to do that. You’ve already done so much for her and for me.”
“You’re my wife, Erin.” He traced her lower lip with his thumb, letting it linger on the swollen edge and feeling another flare of anger that someone had dared to touch her. “I’ll do whatever is necessary to keep you safe. I swore to you after the kidnapping this shit would never happen again—but here we are.”
“This isn’t your fault.”
> “It is.”
“How?”
“If I was still in, no one would ever think to come after you.”
“If you were still in,” she emphasized to let him know that she understood that he meant the mafia, “we wouldn’t be together. You would have never have let me get close to you.”
She was right. He wouldn’t have. He would have helped her with Ruby and then sent her on her way. He would have watched after her from afar and fantasized about what sort of life he might have with a girl like her.
“Maybe it’s a scam,” she offered, dragging him away from those maudlin thoughts. “Maybe what happened today is someone trying to set up a blackmail type scenario to get money out of us.”
“Do you think your sister would be in on something like that?” He thought Ruby absolutely would try to fuck him that way, but he wasn’t sure that she would have allowed someone to hurt Erin like this. Throughout her time in jail, Ruby had shown actual remorse for the way she had put Erin in danger.
“No,” Erin answered immediately. “Whatever her faults—and she has a lot—she would never do something like this for money. She would come straight out and ask.”
“It’s no secret that she’s related to us,” he reasoned. “If someone she met on the inside thinks they can use her connection to us to get money, they might try it. People do crazy shit for cash.”
“That’s true,” she agreed. A moment later, she said, “Or...”
“Or?” He pulled back so he could look down at her. “What are you thinking?”
“What if someone is trying to drive a wedge between us? What if someone wants to poison us against Ruby? Or turn me against you by using my sister? Maybe something really bad is coming, and they want us vulnerable.”
He started to dismiss her worries, but experience made him reconsider. His past was murky and dark, filled with terrible misdeeds and crimes. Ruby’s past wasn’t quite as bad as his, but she had pissed off a lot of people in the Houston underworld. There was no shortage of bad characters who wanted to hurt him or Ruby. Hurting Erin was the easiest way to accomplish that.
Erin’s small hand touched his jaw, drawing his attention back to her. She smiled up at him. “Take me home?”
Nodding, he lowered his head and claimed her mouth in a gentle kiss. Once he had her safely at home, he would start calling in favors and markers until he got the names of the assholes who had hurt her. After that—all bets were off.
Chapter Three
“I’m fine!” I protested as Vivian fussed around me, tucking a blanket around my waist after handing me a cup of my favorite cinnamon spice tea. She had arrived on my doorstep almost as soon as we had and immediately started mothering me. If ever there was a woman born to nurture, it was Vivian. “If anyone needs to rest, it’s you.”
She followed my gaze to her baby bump. “I’m getting so much rest I’m going stir crazy. Nikolai has been impossible the last few days.”
“He just wants everything to be perfect,” Lena piped up from her spot by the fire. She had taken a very fussy Sophia (CHECK) from a harried Benny and played with her on the fluffy white rug there. “With everything that’s happened this year, our guys are on edge.” She made a silly face at Sophia who giggled gleefully and made silly baby sounds. “Yuri barely lets me out of his sight when we’re here. I have more freedom to roam when we’re back in Russia.”
“Dimitri added more cameras to our house.” Benny enjoyed her cup of tea while kicked back on the chair closest to her daughter. “He put in more at the bakery, too. He basically has eyes on me and Sophia day and night.”
“Sounds like the plot to a psycho husband thriller on Lifetime,” Lena remarked.
“I think it sounds like a loving father and husband doing his best to keep his family safe,” Vivian insisted before shooting Lena an annoyed look.
“It was weird, at first,” Benny admitted, “but there are apps on our phones that let us check in during the day. If I’m at the bakery, I can open the app and see the two of them having breakfast or playing. If he’s late coming home, he can check all the doors and windows and drop in on the nursery to watch our bedtime routine.”
“See?” Vivian’s brows arched as she pinned Lena in place. “Dimitri is a good dad and husband.”
Lena made a rude face at Vivian, causing Sophia to giggle. Distracted by the baby, she said, “Is Ivan going to allow your sister to come here when she gets out of jail?”
Remembering the shocked look on his face when I had asked that question earlier in the emergency room, I nodded. “We talked about it, and we’ve agreed she’s still coming here.”
“I think you’re making a mistake.” Lena gently tugged her hair from Sophia’s hand and gave her the chunky wooden bracelet from her wrist. “It’s a risk to let her back into your life.”
“She’s family,” Vivian argued. “We don’t turn our backs on family. If we did, all of us would be alone right now. All of us have had issues with our siblings or parents. None of us are perfect. Ruby made a mistake. She went to jail. She served her time. She deserves a chance to prove herself.”
“My brother turned his life around,” Benny interjected. “If she has the right support system, Ruby can make a change for the better.”
“Sure,” Lena agreed, “but Erin got attacked today because of something her sister did or knows. That’s not going to go away just because Ruby gets her life together.”
“And that’s what our men are discussing right now,” Vivian stated rather imperiously. “They’ll figure out the best way to handle it.” She tucked her skirt around her knees in a prim gesture. “Now,” she said in a tone that signaled the end of that line of discussion, “what are we going to do about Erin’s bruises and sutures? She can’t walk into Denim and Diamonds looking like she tussled in a cage match.”
Grateful for Vivian redirecting our discussion away from Ruby, I said, “I’ve been thinking about getting extensions. Maybe if one of the stylist’s at Allure can work me in, I can get them done before the gala.”
“You can have my appointment tomorrow afternoon with Nisha,” Lena offered. “I can hold off on my cut and color until her next opening.”
“Are you sure?” I knew how hard it was to get on Nisha’s book, and Lena had been going to her for years.
“Totally fine,” she said with a wave of her hand. “I’ll give her a call. If it’s okay with her, the appointment is yours.”
“Thank you.”
“Here.” Lena stood up and thrust Sophia at me. “You’re on baby duty while I make that call.”
Sophia happily clambered onto my lap, standing on my thighs to examine my face. Her big eyes took in my bruises, and she seemed to decide that pulling my hair or poking at me wasn’t the best idea. Instead, she wiggled around and plopped down on my lap, blowing raspberries and kicking her little feet. Her soft hair smelled of citrus and vanilla as I gently brushed my fingers through the wavy curls. After all the playful roughhousing with Lena, Sophia was sleepy and turned Enjoying every moment of baby snuggles, I listened as Vivian and Benny talked about their outfits for the gala.
My thoughts drifted toward Ivan and the men in his office. Whatever they were discussing, he would try to keep it from me. He always tried to shield me from that side of his life, and after the kidnapping that had happened right here on our front steps, he was paranoid about keeping me safe. Considering what had happened today, he would probably be consumed with worry.
My gaze drifted from the sweet armful of snuggly baby cuddled up against me to the entryway of the house. I tried not to think about the day Artyom had been shot and I had been taken. The memories made me feel panicked and anxious. They made me feel uncomfortable and nervous in our home.
That first day back in our home after the kidnapping, I had immediately wanted to sell. I wanted out of here. I wanted a new start in a new place without any bad memories, but I hadn’t been able to work up the courage to tell Ivan how I felt. I didn’t want to heap
anymore guilt on his shoulders, and I wasn’t sure he would understand why I wanted to go somewhere else.
He was the sort of person who always faced his fears. He wasn’t afraid to take on any enemy or threatening situation. I suspected his extremely difficult childhood had made him so brave and resolute. It was one of the things I loved most about him. He was utterly steadfast and true. There was nothing and no one he wouldn’t fight for me.
Except I didn’t want him to have to fight anyone ever again. Just as he wanted to keep me safe, I wanted the same for him. I wanted him to leave that part of his life where it belonged: in the past. If he went looking for trouble, he would find it—and then what? What would happen to the life we were building together? To our marriage? Our business? The children we wanted?
I couldn’t live with one foot in both worlds the way Vivian did. She seemed to have been born to be a mafia don’s wife. She moved elegantly and easily through her life as a wealthy businessman’s wife one minute and a ruthless mob boss’s woman the next. She kept a beautiful home, painted incredible works and loved her husband with the sort of fierceness that could be terrifying. There was a steely hardness to her that other people didn’t see. Nikolai might be the one who was known for his merciless control of the underworld, but it was Vivian who posed the greatest danger to anyone who threatened her family.
“Nisha is going to see us both at the same time,” Lena said as she slid onto the sofa in the space next to me. “She has a new girl she’s training who is going to take most of my appointment. She worked on my hair the last time I was in Nisha’s chair so I’m comfortable with it.”
“Thank you, Lena. I really appreciate it.”
“It’s the least I can do.” She reached out to swipe a beautifully manicured finger down Sophia’s chubby little cheek. “I think I might actually want to have more than one of these.”
I snorted softly. “You can’t even say the word baby?”