by Lia Lee
Nika Sokolov wasn’t certain what disgusted her more. The enraptured expression on her sister Katrina’s face, or her father’s adoring smile. Katrina had always been Papa’s favorite. He’d spent a fortune sending her to the best schools in Miami. He had even gone in debt to Hollywood’s own Russian mafiya in order to pay for Katrina’s first college degree.
Denis Sokolov gave Katrina a beatific smile. “Ivan loves you very much, daughter. He will take good care of you.” Denis carefully fluffed an orchid before placing it inside a vase. “I’m certain your future will be filled with many wonderful vacations.”
Uh huh, yep, that was pretty much true and it pissed Nika off to no end. She loved her sister. There was only two years difference and they had been thick as thieves since their mother had died when they were little girls. They had played together in their father’s flower shop, pretending to be florists. Then Katrina had gone off to an exclusive private boarding school and Nika had stayed at the local public high school. Katrina had gone on to college. Nika had gotten stuck being a florist’s apprentice for crappy pay and even worse hours. Her father never seemed to think she might want more in life.
Katrina carefully brushed her finger over the purple fronds of the orchids her father was arranging. “I never thought I could love someone like Ivan. But he’s a good man even if he is a mafia boss.”
“He has certainly taken care of our family,” Papa agreed.
Nika made a face at her sister from a safe spot behind the mountain of red roses she was trimming. She was so sick and tired of her goody-two-shoes sister being the queen of the Petrov crime family. Katrina hadn’t even known anything about that life until she’d come home six months ago. It had been Nika negotiating with the Petrovs and trying to keep the shop above water even with the mafia thugs coming in and making constant threats.
A discreet cough reminded Nika that she wasn’t quite alone in the back of the store. Mortified by the childish mockery she’d just displayed, Nika peeked over her shoulder to see that Maksim Petrov was smiling at her. Smiling!
The oaf was Katrina’s boyfriend’s brother. Maksim was the second in command of all the Petrovs and a very important man in Hollywood, Florida. He was also a total ass. Nika had lost count of the number of times she’d watched him get right in her Papa’s face and demand money. Now they were just supposed to forget all of that had happened. Papa seemed to, but Nika could not.
Nika tried to ignore Maksim. Really she should be feeling sorry for him. Since he was a super important guy, he probably got a little tired of trailing around after Katrina like a guard dog. Ivan had decreed that ever since the Tretiak family had attempted to sell out the Petrovs to the cops, Katrina needed constant protection. That meant Maksim got to play babysitter.
A stubborn thorn pricked Nika’s finger. She shoved the offended digit into her mouth and sucked on it to take away the sting. The break gave her a moment to steal another glance at Maksim. He was awfully good-looking for an asshole. Not that she was really supposed to care.
Except Maksim was over six feet tall and so broad shouldered that he was a little hard to miss. His dark hair was shorn close to his scalp, and she could see a little bit of ink exposed on the back of his neck. Nika had always wondered what kind of tattoo a man like Maksim would have. She had often closed her eyes and tried to imagine scrollwork or words stretching across the expanse of his shoulders before drifting up his neck toward his hairline.
Nika clenched the shears in her hand and shifted uncomfortably on her stool. She was actually getting wet between her legs just thinking about the guy and she hated him. Well, theoretically she hated him. Maksim was one of the men responsible for all of the drama that had happened just over five months back. There had been cops everywhere and shootings that seemed random but likely weren’t. Nika didn’t know everything that had gone on, but she liked to think she knew enough about the mafia to realize when they were behind something.
Katrina’s laugh had the quality of a tinkling set of wind chimes. Sometimes it galled Nika to no end that her sister was tall and beautiful. They both had the Sokolov blond hair, but Katrina was slimmer in the hips and waist. Most days she looked like a storybook princess. Men had always flocked to Katrina, but she’d been too busy with her books and her studies to care. Nobody had ever looked twice at Nika even if she jumped up and down and screamed her head off. She was the wild one. Katrina was the good one.
“Papa, I’m going to miss you while I’m gone.” Katrina put her arm around their father. “Is there anything you would like me to bring you back from my trip?”
Nika leaned sideways, watching their father place his hand on Katrina’s belly. “I would like a grandchild one of these days.”
Oh ick! Really? Nika scoffed as she considered how lame it was for her sister to try and play house with the mob boss of the Petrov family. Yes. Mafia men had families and children. Wasn’t that how the traditions were continued and control of the families was handed down? But Katrina was going to raise the next Petrov leader? Really?
Nika slammed her shears down on the worktable and got up. She shouldered her way past Maksim’s bulk. “I need to pee. Move it, Neanderthal man.”
***
Maksim had never met a ruder woman before in his life. So it made no sense that he also found Nika Sokolov to be the most fascinating woman of his acquaintance. There was something so absolutely unapologetic about her attitude that he couldn’t help but admire.
It had always surprised him that Katrina and Nika were sisters. Looks aside, he could not think of two more dissimilar personalities. Katrina was cool and logical. Nika was fire and spice. Plus she had the shorter, curvier body that Maksim would have loved to get his hands on.
He had never particularly enjoyed going into the shops and homes of people in his family’s territory and bullying them into paying for protection or settling up their debts. Now things were changing. Ivan didn’t run things the same way that their father had, and Maksim had hopes that his career as a mob enforcer was coming to an end. Until then he had what felt like a lifetime’s worth of memories that involved threats both real and imagined.
Maksim shook off his melancholy. This wasn’t the time to take a trip down memory lane. Still, it was difficult to be back in this shop and not recall the last time he’d come in here to get payment on the large debt that Denis Sokolov had once owed the Petrovs.
A grin played at the corners of Maksim’s mouth as he remembered Nika Sokolov picking up everything she could lay hands on in the shop and hurling it at him as though she were a big league pitcher. With her blue eyes crackling with fire and her blonde curls in disarray, she had treated him to one of the most stunning displays of temper he’d ever witnessed.
“Maksim?” Katrina’s tone was his first clue that something was up.
He strode to the front of the store, but couldn’t see an immediate threat. “What?”
“There are two policemen getting ready to walk in here. They’re doing something with their phones right out front, but the one guy had his hand on the door just a minute ago.”
“Then why are you still up here?” Maksim demanded crossly. Seriously, sometimes the woman had no sense. “Go to the back. Now.”
“But Papa is here alone,” she protested.
Denis gave Katrina a little shove. “Maksim is right, daughter. Go to the back and wait.”
Maksim nodded to the old man. He knew Denis was perfectly capable of deflecting a bunch of questions from the police. After Katrina and Ivan had become engaged, the Petrovs had no bigger fan than Denis Sokolov. He took family ties very seriously.
It practically took Maksim frog marching Katrina in front of him to get her to duck out of sight in the back of the shop. Maksim heard the bell at the front door jingle as the cops walked inside. He used the bulk of his body to push Katrina back into a supply closet. Then he waited for Nika to show herself. There was absolutely no need for her to wind up the target of some bogus police investigatio
n.
He smelled her spicy feminine scent before he saw her. Reaching out of the closet, he snatched Nika and dragged her into the dim, close space.
“Hey! What the hell?” Nika struggled against his grip. “Maksim?”
“There are cops in your father’s store.” Maksim kept his voice very low, but he knew Nika understood. She was an incredibly quick, clear, thinker in a crisis.
“Damn.” Nika shoved her way in front of him and pressed her face up to the door as if she intended to peek around the corner. “Is Papa all right?”
“He will be unless you go charging out there and give them a target,” Maksim snapped. “Will you get back?”
“No!”
Maksim used his bulk to bully her back behind him and then carefully leaned out as far as he dared to try and hear what was going on. Nika attempted to see around him. Maksim wrapped his arms around her curvy body and pinned her to his chest.
The instant response from his nervous system nearly made him forget what was happening out front. Everything inside him woke up. The sensation of Nika’s soft flesh pressed up against him was exquisite. She felt like silk. Her scent enveloped him and gave him decadent ideas of what it might be like to kiss her.
A man’s rough voice pulled Maksim back to the moment. “Come on, Sokolov. Tell us where your daughter’s mobster boyfriend is hiding.”
“We know you continue to stay in contact with Katrina.” The second voice was more cultured. “In the past you’ve been perfectly willing to give us information on the Petrovs. Don’t you want your daughter away from these criminals? We can help put Ivan Petrov away for good. He would be out of your daughter’s life and you’d have Katrina back.”
“I do not know what you are talking about.” There was a snip as Denis Sokolov continued to build the large floral arrangement he’d been working on earlier.
“Don’t give us that crap!” The first man was getting irritated.
Maksim’s gut tightened. He would have liked to go boot the bastards out of Denis’s shop, but it wasn’t his responsibility to do so. Plus he had Katrina and Nika to worry about. If Maksim went out there, Nika was going to be right on his heels in the thick of trouble.
“I told you. I don’t know where Ivan Petrov is. Nor would I tell you if I did.” Denis’s Russian accented words were strong and clear. “I think you will find that there are very few people in this neighborhood who will say a word against the Petrovs.”
“Bunch of stupid bastards!” the first man snarled.
There was a crash and the sound of glass shattering on the cement floor. Nika squirmed like mad against Maksim’s hold. He tightened his arms, lowering his face to the top of her head to keep her in place. The softness of her hair tickled his nose.
“We have to help him,” Nika insisted.
Maksim pursed his lips, hating the answer he had to give. “The best way to help him is to leave.”
With that he dragged a struggling Nika out the back of the shop, with Katrina following behind him.
Chapter Two
Nika would be the first one to say that she was extremely annoyed at being forcibly removed from her father’s shop. What if Papa was hurt and needed her help? It wasn’t as if Katrina was any use to him these days. The only thing Katrina thought about was her relationship with Ivan. She was so head over heels in love she couldn’t focus on anything else.
Yet when Maksim’s black SUV pulled up in front of a beach house only steps away from the ocean, Nika couldn’t help but be enthralled by the place. It looked like something out of a travel brochure. Flickering torches lit the wide circle drive. The twilight shadows were long on the front porch, and the plentiful windows were lit by a warm glow from within. It looked like Nika’s dream of a vacation destination.
Katrina sighed and exited the SUV. “It’s good to be here where it’s safe.”
“Excuse me?” Nika frowned. She didn’t quite understand the significance of this place.
“This is Ivan’s safe house,” Katrina explained. “Or at least it’s one of them.”
Nika took in the dense vegetation on all sides of the little bungalow and noticed a squat dwelling a few hundred yards from the main house. “Who lives there?”
Katrina shrugged, already starting to walk up to the front door. “Ivan’s men stay there.”
“So they don’t stay in the big house?” Nika wondered if her sister even got the significance of her choice of words.
“Of course not. There’s only one bedroom.” Katrina smiled and grabbed Nika’s hand. “Let’s go find Ivan.”
Nope. Katrina didn’t understand at all. When had her sister become so numb to the opulence of this lifestyle? If Nika had been allowed to live like this she would soak up every second of the luxury. Hell. Most days a hot shower would have been a luxury.
Katrina dropped Nika’s hand when she hit the front porch steps. Ivan was waiting in the open doorway. Katrina launched herself into his arms and the two embraced as if they hadn’t seen each other in centuries. Nika stopped walking. She really didn’t want to see this.
Maksim nudged her none too gently from behind. “Keep moving.”
“I’m good, thanks.” Nika thought about the fact that there was one bedroom in this place. She had no desire to listen to her sister and Ivan fuck like bunnies all night long.
“Inside you go, so I can shut the damn door,” Maksim growled.
Nika took one step past the doorway and glared at the big pain in her butt. “Here. Happy now?”
“Thrilled,” he retorted, slamming the door behind her.
“Come on in,” Katrina urged warmly. “I’ll show you around while the boys talk.”
Nika stared at her sister, wondering if she was really as dense as she seemed, or if she was just that comfortable with this lifestyle. “The boys?”
Maksim took his surly self off after Ivan and the two men shut the double doors of what Nika could only assume was a den. She really would have rather listened in to their conversation. She wanted to know what was going on and what the plan was to keep her father safe. Instead she was relegated to submitting herself to her sister’s incessant hostess efforts.
“This living room is one of my favorite places to read.” Katrina ran her fingertips along the back of a white leather couch. “I swear Ivan has this same living room furniture in every one of his homes.”
“How many are there?” Nika asked, dumbfounded by the idea of having so many.
Katrina shrugged. “At least six that I know of.”
“Good God,” Nika breathed. “That’s crazy!”
“It really is,” Katrina said ruefully. She led the way into the open kitchen. “I keep telling him we should sell off some property, but he refuses. Something about tax shelters or some such nonsense.”
“Nonsense?” Nika demanded. “You do realize what he does for a living right? He needs to keep as little capital around as possible or risk the Feds stringing him up.”
“I suppose.” Katrina opened the fridge. “Would you like something to drink?”
Nika gazed around at the well-appointed kitchen with its airy light-blue walls, white cabinets, and gourmet appliances. If this place was a safe house they used only occasionally, she couldn’t imagine what one of his regular homes might be like. Gilded columns and cherubs painted on the ceilings maybe?
“Here. Have some tea. You look a little pale.” Katrina handed Nika a glass. “Papa is going to be fine, you know. He’s loyal to Ivan and Ivan protects the people in his territory.”
“What’s the deal with the cops anyway?” Nika wondered how much her sister actually did know. It wasn’t as if Katrina was stupid. The woman was getting a degree in diplomatic relations for goodness sake. Surely she knew something useful.
“Well.” Katrina took a long drink of her own iced tea and leaned back against the countertop. “Remember that disastrous brunch you and I had at Mamacita’s coffee shop?”
“The one where the police showed up a
nd pulled their guns?” Nika had been rather disappointed that she and her father had to flee before she got to see how it all ended.
“Yes. That one.” Katrina snorted. “Those were Hollywood PD, but there was also a man working on the police force who is related to the Tretiak family. He was working with one of Ivan’s men to get Ivan arrested.”
“But Ivan’s taken care of that by now. Right?” Nika couldn’t imagine letting some turd walk around after he’d threatened her life. And surely if Ivan wasn’t man enough to take care of it, Maksim would have. That guy had manliness to spare.
Katrina bobbed her head. “It was taken care of, but the cops are still dirty. And apparently they’ve decided our family is their ticket to taking down the Petrovs.”
***
Maksim was ready to take his brother’s man card away. “You cannot tell me that your answer to this entire situation is to take Katrina and go flee to your private fucking island in the Keys,” Maksim snarled.
Ivan rocked back in his leather chair and gazed up at Maksim with an expression of utter calm. “It’s the best solution.”
“It’s a stupid solution.”
“No. You’re being stupid.” Ivan’s gaze narrowed. “What has your panties in a wad over this anyway?”
“You’re leaving your future father-in-law to be bullied by a bunch of dirty cops and you think I’m the one overreacting?” Maksim rubbed his head, frustrated without actually knowing why.
“Denis knows the stakes. He’s not going to talk.” Maksim watched as Ivan swung his chair around and look out the window at the ocean. Night had nearly fallen and the sky looked almost bruised over the water. “He’s loyal to the Petrovs, Maksim. You don’t have to worry that he’ll sell us out.”
“I’m not worried he’ll sell us out,” Maksim argued. “I’m worried he’ll have to give his life in order not to.”
“No.” Ivan paused, probably for maximum impact. “You’re worried about Nika.”
“Someone should be. The girl is a complete loose cannon. You can’t trust her not to do something stupid and get herself killed.” Maksim thought about earlier, when he’d practically had to put her in a headlock to keep her under cover. “She was ready to charge out earlier and fight for her father’s safety.”