Harper rolled her eyes and waved a hand dismissively. “Po-ta-toe, po-tah-toe. Whatever. The point is, I’m here and he isn’t. So, I win.”
Benny frowned. “What does that even mean, anyway? Does anyone really say po-tah-toe? I never understood that saying.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Mischa said. “She’d use any argument to claim a victory, no matter how stupid it sounds. I don’t even know why he’d ever disagree with her to begin with.”
“Good point,” Riddick mumbled.
Harper snorted. “About time you see things my way. I was getting ready to cancel sexy naked fun time.”
He raised a brow at her.
She sighed. “OK, so that’s not true. But it totally could’ve been true. You’re not irresistible to me, you know!”
The brow went a little higher until Harper groaned and said, “Fine. You’re irresistible to me, but it’s still rude to throw past questionable decisions up in my face.”
“That’s as close as you’ll ever get to an admission of wrongdoing,” Mischa told Riddick. “I’d take it if I were you.”
He kept his eyes trained on his wife as he said, “Oh, I intend to take it, all right.”
The dirty emphasis he put on the word “take” had Harper’s cheeks pinking up in a way that told Violet sexy naked fun time had never really been off the table and they both knew it.
God, what it must be like to have someone in your life that supported and wanted you no matter what. Someone who knew the real you and overlooked—celebrated, even—your every foible and flaw. Someone who…
“Oh, my God!” Violet cried out, causing Benny to spill his coffee all over his shirt.
“Jesus, doc,” he grumbled, grabbing a handful of napkins off the table to mop up the mess on his T-shirt. “What the fuck?”
When she’d almost blurted out that she loved Nikolai yesterday, she’d really meant it! It hadn’t been a sexual thing at all. And who was she to judge how soon was too soon to love someone? There was no reason in hell to make him say it first, either. What a stupid, old-fashioned notion. She’d been an idiot not to tell him how she’d felt in that moment.
Then, a horrifying thought occurred to her. They never really got around to talking more. What if he thought last night had been about nothing but sex for her? Just scratching her itch?
“I have to go,” Violet blurted. “Right now. I need someone to take me to Nikolai. Right now.”
Riddick, Mischa, and Benny looked confused, but after a moment of loaded silence, Harper grinned at her. “Oh, I know that look.” She gestured to Violet’s face. “You have epiphany face.” Then, to Riddick, she smugly added, “There’s a certain hot Russian who’s about to have his happy ending.”
Riddick grimaced. “Did I mention I really don’t want to hear about Violet’s sex life?”
Harper elbowed him in the gut. “Not that kind of happy ending. I’m talking about the big love declaration.”
He frowned as if thinking about it, then said, “No, I don’t really want to hear about that, either.”
Mischa rolled her eyes. “Ugh. Forget these dumbasses, Vi. I’ll take you to Nikolai. Don’t worry about it.”
Harper made a rude noise. “No fucking way. I wanna see the love declaration. We’re all going.”
Benny stopped wiping at the coffee on his shirt and stood up. “Yeah, I’m in. I love a good love declaration.”
“I still don’t give a fuck,” Riddick said with a shrug. “But I go where Harper goes.”
Harper clapped her hands together. “Great! Then we’re all in agreement.” She glanced at her watch. “I’ve only got a few hours before I have to pick up the munchkin at my mom’s, so let’s hit the road.”
Any other day, Violet would be mortified at the thought of showing up to tell a man she loved him with an audience. Especially this audience. But today? The only thing that mattered was getting to Nikolai and telling him what she should have told him last night—what she’d been too damn blind to see until this moment.
“Fine,” Violet said through gritted teeth. “But we take the fastest car with the fastest driver.”
Harper’s grin was way too innocent for Violet’s liking. “I guess that’d be me.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Nikolai was just stepping out of his PO’s office when Seven’s voice stopped him.
“Meeting up with your babysitter?” she asked with a grin.
He grimaced. He’d never enjoy hearing that word, even though it seemed to give Seven great joy to say it. But, he was in far too good a mood today—and way too anxious to get back to Violet, if he was being honest with himself—to argue with anyone.
“You could say that,” he answered. “What about you? What are you doing here?”
She pointed to the building next door to his PO’s brownstone. “Checking on a lead for Harper. I won’t know for sure until Lucas checks things out at the station, but I have a good idea who Violet’s stalker is.”
Which was good, but once her stalker was found, Violet wouldn’t need him anymore. Would she even still want him? Last night made him think she would, but how could he be sure? He clearly felt a lot more for her than she felt for him. And who could blame her, really? With his past, with the way he was…being with him wouldn’t be easy. Would Violet be able to tolerate him for the long-haul?
“Seven, can I ask you something?”
She shrugged. “Sure.” Then as she thought for a moment, she looked nervous and added, “Unless you’re sad about something. I’m not very good at offering comfort. But I can call Harper if—”
Nikolai shuddered at the thought of ever being in sorry enough shape that he needed comfort from Harper Hall. “No, I’m not sad. I was just wondering…has it been…” Jesus, why was this so hard to explain? Seemed liked the right words were always just outside his reach. “…hard for you to adjust to life outside of Sentry? With normal people, I mean?”
“Am I ever with normal people?”
Touché. “I mean, how do you go about…”
Seven laid a hand on his shoulder. “Look, Nikolai, it’s me you’re talking to. You don’t have to beat around the bush. You know I won’t be offended by anything you want to ask like Mischa would be, and I won’t turn everything you say into a comedy bit like Harper and Benny would. You can say anything to me, OK?”
Well, you asked for it, he thought before he blurted, “How did you get Lucas to fall in love with you?”
A frown line creased her brow as she thought about the question. “I don’t know that I really did anything in particular to make him fall in love with me. He just did.”
Probably not a good comparison, he thought. Seven was beautiful and sweet-natured, despite her past with Sentry. She was loveable. Nikolai was, well, more complicated than that. “Forget I asked,” he said, struggling for a careless tone. “It’s not important.”
Her frown deepened. “Well, yes it is, because you just lied to me. I heard your breathing and heart rate increase.”
He sighed. “It’s not really a lie. It shouldn’t be important.”
“But it is. This is about Violet, isn’t it?”
Maybe he hadn’t done such a shit job communicating after all. Or, more likely, Seven was more perceptive than he’d given her credit for. He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “Yes. I’m just…”
She nodded when he trailed off. “I know this face you’re making. You’re feeling bad about your past and things you did when you were with Sentry, and you’re wondering how someone like Violet could ever really love you, right?”
“Well…yes,” he answered.
Sure, she’d given him access to her body, but could she ever give him her heart as easily? He just couldn’t see it happening.
“So, you’re kind of feeling sorry for yourself, right?”
Wow, he thought, she’d been right. She really wasn’t any good at offering comfort. “Seven, I’m hopelessly in love with the woman of my dreams and I have
no idea what she feels for me, or even if she could ever feel anything for me other than lust. So, yes, I think it’s safe to say I’m feeling a little sorry for myself.”
Seven seemed to have completely missed his decidedly grumpy tone, because she merely nodded again and said, “Sometimes I feel sorry for myself, too. Not often, but every now and then, I feel bad about my childhood, or about something I did when I was with Sentry, and I wonder if I really deserve all the good things I have in my life right now. And you know what? Harper’s sister Marina said something to me one time that really helped.”
Shit, he was almost afraid to ask. “What was it?”
“She said, ‘Suck it up, buttercup! You’ve got great hair, a perfect ass, and you’ve gotten laid recently—so from where I’m standing, you ain’t got it so bad! Quit bellyaching about your problems and worry about someone who really has it bad, heh?’”
Nikolai wasn’t sure if it was the words, or Seven’s spot-on mimic of Marina’s thick New York accent that struck him temporarily dumb and mute. But after he just stared at her for a few unblinking moments, she shrugged and added, “I figured since all that applied to you, too, it might be helpful.”
He finally found his voice and said, “Um…thank you?”
She slapped him in the shoulder hard enough to nearly topple him. “You’re welcome.”
It was in that moment he decided he’d just have to talk to Violet. Ask her how she felt. And if she didn’t love him the way he loved her, he’d just have to do whatever he could to change her mind. Make her see that he wasn’t going anywhere, even after her case was put to rest. He’d do whatever he could to…
The violent, incessant blare of a car horn jerked him from his musings. A blue Mustang screeched to a stop at the curb just a few feet from where Nikolai and Seven were chatting.
Nikolai recognized the car before the driver threw her door open and hopped out. After all, you never really forgot the first trunk you’d ever been stuffed into.
Harper waved and leaned into the car to flip the driver’s seat up so that Riddick, Benny and Mischa—Jesus, how had they all fit back there? It looked like they were shuffling out of a clown car—could climb out of the back seat. “Hi, guys! Comrade, this is your lucky day.”
Nikolai sighed. He’d probably never be able to convince her to stop calling him that, so why bother trying? Then Violet got out of the passenger seat and he quit caring about Harper and her silly nicknames for him.
Her eyes locked with his and relief smoothed out the lines of tension around her beautiful mouth. She looked troubled. Had she gotten another death threat? He was pretty much done waiting for Harper to solve the case. He’d just have to hunt the bastard down himself. And when he found him, that son of a bitch would beg for a quick death.
But that and pretty much every other thought in his head evaporated when Violet ran up and threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around him tight enough to make sucking in a deep breath impossible. Not that it mattered. If given the choice between air and Violet in his arms, he’d choose Violet every time.
Nikolai wrapped his arms around her and she sighed as she tucked her face into the spot where his neck and shoulder met. It was as if the spot had been crafted specifically for her.
“What’s the matter, kotehok? Did something happen? Your stalker?”
She tightened her grip on him. “No. I just had to talk to you.”
Nikolai had next to nothing in the way of experience with relationships, but from what he’d heard, when a woman wanted to talk to you and went out of her way to track you down, chances were you wouldn’t like what she had to say.
“Alright,” he said cautiously. “You can tell me anything.”
Even if all you need to tell me is that you don’t want me around anymore. It’ll feel about like having my heart ripped out, stomped into the dirt, and then thrown back in my face, but, sure, go ahead and tell me anything.
She took a deep breath and looked up at him. “I started to say something to you last night, but I didn’t let myself finish because…well, I was a coward, I guess. But today I’m not.”
He swallowed hard. “And?”
“And—”
“Nikolai Aleyev.”
Nikolai looked over the top of Violet’s head at the man who’d just shouldered past Mischa and Harper on the sidewalk to get to him. He squinted at him until recognition hit. “Detective Cunningham, yes?”
Cunningham nodded and hitched up his sagging pants. “I’m going to need you to come down to the station with me and answer a few questions.”
Violet didn’t let go of him, but glanced at Cunningham over her shoulder. “Is this about my case, Officer?”
“Yes, ma’am. It turns out there were several other homes vandalized in your neighborhood around the time of your break-in. We have an eyewitness who saw a man matching your description, Mr. Aleyev, fleeing one of those crime scenes.”
Violet sputtered. “You can’t be serious! You think Nikolai had something to do with my break-in? You think the man who’s been protecting me day and night might be the one who broke into my home and left me a death threat?”
Harper snorted. “You’re reaching so far on this one, Cunningham, you’re gonna throw your back out.”
The officer scowled at her. “I don’t recall asking for your opinion, Hall.”
She shrugged. “That’s never really stopped me before.”
Mischa stepped forward, hands on hips. “Cunningham, this man is a dhampyre. You know that. He has rights that are protected by the Council.” Her eyes narrowed on him. “And in case you’ve forgotten, I am part of the Council.”
Cunningham gulped, but held his ground. “Of course I know that. We’re not arresting Mr. Aleyev.”
Yet, Nikolai thought. Cunningham didn’t say it, but he heard it nonetheless. They had exactly one suspect at this point, and they intended to focus all their energy on proving his guilt. The human police in this town didn’t seem to look any further in front of them than the nearest vampire or dhampyre when crimes were unsolved for a certain amount of time.
“We just want to ask him a few questions,” Cunningham added. Then he smirked at Mischa and said, “Which I’m sure you know is perfectly within my rights as a lowly human public servant.”
Riddick snagged Mischa’s arm when she swayed forward, looking ready to rip into Cunningham, but he wasn’t able to stop her from hissing at the cop. The power she exuded with that one menacing hiss raised the tiny hairs on the back of Nikolai’s neck. If Cunningham knew what was good for him, he’d run. Mischa could probably kill the dumb bastard without laying a finger on him.
“Adouchenozzlesayswhat?” Benny asked Cunningham.
Cunningham frowned at him, confused. “What?”
Benny and Harper snickered, then fist-bumped like a couple of teenagers. Riddick face-palmed, and Mischa ignored them, keeping her narrow-eyed focus on Cunningham. “You can’t force him to do anything,” she said in a low, scary voice.
But Cunningham was either brave or stupid, because he lifted his chin and spat back, “I can have a chat with his PO. Jam him up pretty good if I want to. Could make it pretty hard for him to keep a job if the cops are always keeping an eye on him, wanting to question him. And you know that not being able to keep a job violates his parole.” He narrowed his eyes on Mischa. “Your better half wouldn’t have a choice but to force him to serve out his suspended sentence at Midvale.”
Well, that’s it, Nikolai thought. Mischa was going to annihilate this hapless little fuck. But it wasn’t Mischa who stepped between him and Cunningham. It was Seven.
Seven stood toe-to-toe with Cunningham, hands on her hips. And even though she was a good five inches shorter and a hundred pounds lighter, the cop paled a bit under the intensity of her stare. “Threatening my friend would be a mistake. The last you’d ever make.”
Cunningham hitched up his pants again and glared down at her. “Move, little girl, or I’ll move you.”
/> The smile Seven gave him was nothing short of bone-chilling. “I dare you,” she whispered.
Her tone left no doubt in Nikolai’s mind that if he needed her to, Seven would kill this man, disappear his corpse, and never speak of it again. But she wasn’t a killer anymore. She had a family and love and a real life. So did Mischa. There was no way he was going to let either of them sacrifice anything on his behalf.
While Cunningham visibly groped for a reply, Nikolai laid a hand on Seven’s shoulder and gave her a gentle shove into her brother’s arms before saying to Cunningham, “I’ll go with you and answer your questions.”
In his arms, Violet trembled, and he tightened his hold on her for a moment. She probably thought he was going to end up in Midvale when this was all done. She’d been instrumental in getting Seven out of Midvale, so she knew better than anyone what a hellhole it was. Roaches had better living conditions than the prisoners there.
He kissed the top of her head and tipped her chin up so that she was forced to look him in the eye. “Stay close to Harper or Riddick until I get back, yes?”
“Hey, what am I, chopped liver?” Benny muttered. “I’ve been known to kick ass a time or two myself, you know.”
Violet’s lower lip trembled, and he couldn’t stop himself capturing her mouth in a quick, hard kiss.
Cunningham grabbed his upper arm. “Come on, Casanova. Time to go.”
He offered Violet what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “We’ll talk tonight.”
She opened her mouth, looking like she was going to argue, but Riddick grabbed her arm and pulled her toward him so that she was on his left side, Seven on his right. He gave Nikolai a nod, which Nikolai took to mean that Violet was safe in his care for the time being.
“I’m calling Hunter,” Mischa grumbled. “I’m having him send a Council lawyer over right away.”
Cunningham rolled his eyes as he led Nikolai to his unmarked cruiser. “Yeah, you do that, girlie.”
This time it was Harper and Benny who grabbed Mischa’s arms and held her back when she lunged at the cop. But Nikolai ignored the creative threats she hurled at Cunningham. He held eye contact with Violet the whole time he was walked to the car and shoved into the back seat, telling her without words that everything was going to be fine.
Harper Hall Investigations Complete Series Page 93