by Roxie Rivera
Seconds later, we were in the elevator and zooming up eleven floors. Alexei stepped into a beautifully decorated hall and carried me to a door at the far end of the hall. “Will you grab the keys from my pants pocket?”
I swallowed nervously and carefully dipped my hand into the front pocket of his trousers. I refused to meet his heated gaze as I retrieved them and did my very best not to touch anything except for the cold metal and plastic. Though I had dated a lot of nice guys, I had never stuck my hand in one of their pockets or gotten that close to…well…you know.
“You keep that up, and I’m going to make you buy me dinner.”
Mortified by his teasing, I quickly retrieved the keys and studiously avoided his sinful grin. “Which one?”
“The silver key with the red dot on it.” I held it up to be sure, and he confirmed it. “Yes.”
After I unlocked and opened the door, he carried me inside and slapped the light switch in the foyer. A warm light illuminated the entryway and part of the living area. Floor to ceiling windows lined the exterior wall of the unit. I suspected the downtown views would be breathtakingly perfect come morning.
“Sit still,” he ordered as he placed me on the marble slab covering the oversized kitchen island. His gym bag was dropped on the floor, and he started rifling through the cabinets and refrigerator. He found ice, a bowl, a dish towel and a small first aid kit under the sink but he wasn’t satisfied with that. He placed a call down to the building’s concierge and gave him a short list of groceries he wanted delivered as quickly as possible.
I waited until he had returned the phone to its cradle on the counter before pointing out the obvious. “It’s, like, one in the morning, Alexei.”
“And?” He turned on the faucet and wet one end of the dish towel.
Incredulous, I waved my hands. “And you’re asking that poor guy to go buy groceries?”
“That’s his job.” Alexei wrung out the fluffy cloth and brought an armload of supplies to the island. “This building has round-the-clock staff for a reason.”
“Still…”
Alexei moved to stand in front of me. For the first time ever, we were the same height. A small bruise had already formed from the contact his forehead had made with that man’s nose. This close, I could see that his eyes were actually a mix of green and brown. The fine lines around them were crinkled with the hint of a smile. I wanted to reach up and run my fingers along them, to trace the line of his strong jaw to the barely visible cleft in his chin. “Will you feel better if I give him a big tip?
“Yes.”
“Fine. That’s settled.” He unbuttoned his cuffs and rolled up his sleeves. I tried not to stare at the new swaths of Russian mafia tattoos revealed to me. Under this brighter light, the blood spatter on his shirt was clearly visible. Following my gaze, he frowned. “We’ve got to get rid of all this. Everything you’re wearing tonight has to be destroyed. As soon as I’m done getting you cleaned up and in bed, I’ll take care of everything.”
It was such a sordid, dirty thing but I understood he was just being practical. He seemed so calm about it though. “Have you done this a lot?”
To his credit, Alexei didn’t lie. “What you saw tonight? That was my old job. I was a street soldier and an enforcer.”
“Oh.” I tried to wrap my head around the idea of Alexei beating the crap out of people to make them pay protection money or to force them to toe the family line.
His peered down at me, his jaw tight and his eyes slightly narrowed. “Are you afraid of me now?”
“No!”
“You probably should be,” he grumbled. “I’m not a very nice man, not when you get right down to it.”
“I don’t believe that.”
He expelled a harsh breath. “Then you are more naïve than I ever imagined.”
His remark pissed me right off. After everything I had been through tonight, I wasn’t going to take that kind of crap from a friend. “Don’t talk to me like that!”
Taken aback by my outburst, he dropped his gaze and seemed instantly chastised. He leaned forward and shocked me by pressing his forehead to mine. With that bruise there, it must have hurt him but he didn’t flinch. “I’m sorry, Shay.” He pulled back slowly. “That was a dick thing for me to say.”
“Then why did you say it?”
“I don’t know.” He rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head. “I could say that I’m tired but that’s just an excuse. Maybe I said it because I know what a shit person I was ten years ago and what an incredibly good and kind person you are and I know that eventually I’m going to hurt or disappoint you.”
The self-loathing filling his voice surprised. Gone was the powerful, confident man who ruled in business. Here was the man with the wounded soul who tried so hard to distance himself from feeling anything close to love. His insistence on keeping a mistress suddenly made sense to me. He didn’t want to expose himself to anything that might make him vulnerable.
“Maybe you were a terrible person ten years ago, Alexei, but you aren’t that terrible person tonight.” I reached for his closest hand. The mob ink decorating his skin no longer seemed as menacing as it once had. “You’ve never been anything but kind to me. Kind and generous and good. That’s the man I know. That’s the man I trust.” I squeezed his fingers and smiled up at him. “That’s the man who would die before he hurt me.”
“I won’t hurt you,” he promised. “I could never hurt you like this.” He brushed his hand along the bruise blossoming on my cheek. “But I will disappoint you.”
“All friendships have disappointing moments, Alexei. That’s just part of the deal.” I found myself leaning into his touch and wondered if it was simply the shock of the night causing me to seek out human contact or the feelings for this complicated Russian finally coming to a head. “Just be honest with me. Tell me the truth, Alexei. Always.”
He nodded stiffly and then carefully prodded the edges of the bruise forming on my cheek. “It’s not broken but you’re going to be swollen tomorrow.”
“I’ve had worse,” I muttered without thinking. Alexei visibly stiffened at the comment. Was he remembering what I had confessed to him last Christmas?
“I still think you should tell me the names of your mother’s old boyfriends so I can kick their asses for you.”
I quirked a smile at that. “Don’t tempt me.”
He murmured something in Russian, and I decided right then and there that I was going to have to track down some books and videos so I could learn his language.
“May I take this off?” He gestured to the jacket draped around my shoulders.
In any other setting, the question would have been followed by the promise of erotic possibilities. Right now, though, it was Alexei’s way of proving that he wasn’t going to hurt or take advantage of me. “Yes.”
He peeled the jacket off my bare shoulders and let it pool around my waist. The second I heard his sharp intake of breath, I knew that he had seen the bruises on my throat. Stepping forward, he insinuated his trim hips between my knees and gently clasped my chin in one big hand. He carefully tilted my face to the side and examined the marks that Lalo’s mean hand had left behind. When he snarled in his mother tongue, I decided it was a good thing I couldn’t understand him. He was furious.
“Shay, did you lose consciousness when he choked you?” Alexei’s eyes were dark with worry and anger.
“No.” I inhaled a shuddery breath when Alexei’s fingertips ghosted over the sore spots developing on my throat. “He didn’t squeeze that hard. He…”
“He what?” Alexei asked when my voice trailed off to nothing. “Tell me what happened, Shay.” He cupped my face between his palms and brushed his thumbs across my cheeks. “You’ll feel better if you get it out.”
My eyes prickled with hot tears as I tearfully told everything. He didn’t interrupt or comment as I described arriving at the Arena and the harrowing moments inside that office when Lalo had tried to rape me.
When I was finished, Alexei wrapped his powerful arms around me and pulled me into a comforting, secure embrace. I closed my eyes and found comfort in the strength surrounding me.
“You’re all right now.” He rubbed my back with languid circles. “No one will ever touch you again, Shay. I swear it.”
I didn’t know how he was going to pull off that promise but if anyone could do it? Alexei was that man.
A long time later, Alexei finally unwound his arms. Wordlessly, he picked up the damp cloth and cleaned my face. He bundled up some ice and pressed the cold pack against my swollen cheek. “Hold this.”
I held the ice pack in place while Alexei tugged the jacket he had given me back up around my shoulders. He pulled it tightly closed in front before crouching down to dig through his gym bag. He retrieved a folded shirt and put it on the counter next to me. The logo for Ivan Markovic’s acclaimed MMA fighting gym was emblazoned on the front.
“You can wear this after your shower. It’s clean,” he added with a smile.
“Thank you.”
“Let’s check out your arms, okay? They had you tied up so tight.” Very gently, he grasped my right wrist and lifted my arm. He rotated my hand and checked my fingers before meticulously working his way to my shoulder. After I switched hands holding the ice pack, he repeated the process on my left arm. He asked me to take deep breaths and watched my face for any sign of pain. “How does your back feel?”
“Fine.” Thinking of the old scars crisscrossing my back, I was glad there was no reason for him to investigate. If he had felt them earlier when he was hugging me, he hadn’t mentioned it. After talking about what Lalo had tried to do to me, I really didn’t want to unearth old, buried history from my childhood.
“And here?” He touched my thighs. “Did you get kicked? Did you trip?”
“No.” I tried to concentrate on my limbs instead of the unbelievable body heat that radiated from his larger frame or that incredible scent that followed him everywhere. “I might have bruised them a little when they made me kneel.”
“I’ll put some antibiotic ointment in the bathroom. If you need it after your shower, use it.”
“I will.”
“Can you walk?”
Even though the prospect of having him carry me again sent a bright frisson of excitement through my body, I nodded. “I can walk. Just point me in the right direction.”
Alexei eased me off the kitchen island and gave me a short tour of the apartment. No longer dazed, I took in the sleek, modern furnishings and the art adorning the walls. The place was much bigger than I had realized with three bedrooms and two bathrooms plus a separate office and a generously sized balcony off the master suite.
But as I walked through the rooms with Alexei at my side, I sensed that he spent very little time in this place. Though it was beautifully and professionally decorated, it wasn’t a home. Eyeing the massive bed and the sumptuous linens, I couldn’t help but wonder how many women had tumbled onto it with him.
Jealousy and sadness dueled inside me. The type of women who would be comfortable in a place like this were women I couldn’t compete with in a million years. It was easy enough to imagine the richly dressed, ultra-classy women with perfect manners Alexei chose to play the role of his mistress. They were the types of women who moved easily in the social circles he inhabited. They were the types of women who were confident and sexy and knew how to please a man.
And that isn’t you, I thought sadly.
Alexei stepped ahead of me and switched on the lights to the master bathroom. After placing the gym shirt on the counter, he moved back outside the door and waved me inside. “There are towels and travel-sized toiletries in the cabinet. I’ll be in the living room if you need me.”
Grasping his jacket tightly to my nearly-naked body, I grew insanely aware of how close we were standing. “Okay.”
“Bring your clothes to me when you’re done. I’ll get rid of them.” He started to back away but stopped. “Where are your keys?”
“To the house? In my purse. Why?”
“I’ll need you to give them to me so I can stop by your place to get your things.”
The idea of Alexei going through my bedroom and picking through my drawer of boring undies wasn’t one that I relished. “I can pack my own things.”
“That’s not happening.”
“But—”
“Shay, you aren’t leaving this apartment until I’ve secured your safety. Whatever you need? It comes through me.” He must have sensed that I wanted to argue with him because he quickly changed the subject. “Come find me when you’re done.”
Left alone in the master suite, I walked into the bathroom and closed the door. After stripping out of my clothes and his jacket, I stood in front of the marble vanity and stared at my reflection. My face wasn’t as badly bruised as I had feared it would be but my throat would bear Lalo’s marks for days.
I ran my fingers over the marred skin but it wasn’t the phantom sensation of Lalo’s ugly hands that caused goose bumps to rise on my flesh. No, it was the memory of the way Alexei’s hands had felt on me. A part of me despaired at the notion he might not ever touch me like that again.
“So what happens now?” My whispered question barely registered in my ears.
What would happen with Shannon? Would Lalo’s men come after me? What about those skinheads who had tied me up and planned to leave me beaten and bloodied in that parking lot as a message to my sister?
My reflection didn’t have the answers I wanted but I had no doubt Alexei would. If I wanted to get out of this mess alive, I had to trust him.
He’ll take care of you.
If you let him…
Chapter Six
Alexei closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the closed bedroom door. All that separated him from Shay, from the woman that had turned him inside out and left him craving the one thing he could never have, were two thin slabs of wood. Two simple, unlocked doors kept him from the woman he wanted more than anything in the whole wide world.
Leaving her alone in that bathroom had taken every ounce of his self-control. If it had been any other night, he would have stripped her bare and pulled her into a shower with him. He would have lathered up his palms and glided them over her supple curves and then carried her to bed. The very idea of learning every secret, ticklish place on her body with a swipe of his tongue left him lightheaded and aching.
But not tonight.
Tonight she had been through so much. She needed space to decompress. She needed to cleanse away the horror she had experienced. His only goal tonight was to make sure that Shay felt safe and secure. Whatever the cost, he would give that to her.
He pushed off the door and made his way to the office where he opened the safe hidden in the credenza and removed an envelope of cash. He tucked it into his back pocket, closed and locked the safe and left the office. Back in the kitchen, he washed his hands and treated the scrapes on his knuckles from that bastard’s teeth. As he rubbed in the ointment, he thought of all the ways his actions tonight might play out. Mueller might be a racist but he wasn’t stupid. He would try to leverage his threat against Shay to make a deal.
But Lalo? Lalo was the real problem. Newly anointed as the cartel’s top man in Houston, he had a taste for power and the added pressure to prove his worth as a boss. He wanted respect, and if it got out that a tiny little thing like Shay had knocked him the fuck out while his entire crew of thugs and enforcers stood outside? He was going to be a laughingstock.
Alexei placed both palms on the counter and leaned hard against it, dropping his head and closing his eyes as he tried to work out the angles. There was something else about Lalo that was even more dangerous. He wanted Shay. He wanted her in the most primal way a man could want a woman.
She’s mine. She belongs to me.
Shaking his head, Alexei let loose a dark laugh. Shay didn’t belong to him. She wasn’t his. She didn’t belong to any man. She was her own
person, independent and strong and ready to fight the world to find her own success.
But as much as he admired that tenacity, Alexei knew better than anyone that it made her vulnerable. She was alone in this world. She had no one to back her up and give her support when she needed it most.
I could be that support. I could have her back. I could be the man who—
“Alexei?”
The sound of Shay’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. She stood just inside the living area and clutched her dirty clothes to her chest in a neatly tied bundle. His jacket was draped across her shoulders and her shoes dangled from her fingers. The long damp strands of her coffee-colored hair had been combed back and left to air dry, but it was the sight of her in just his shirt that drove the air out of his lungs and made his blood run even hotter.
“Alexei, your phone is ringing.” Still standing there, she tilted her head to the side. “Are you going to answer it?”
He patted his pocket and felt the vibrating, chirping block hidden away there. He quickly answered it. “Hello?”
“We have a problem.” Mob boss Nikolai Kalasnikov didn’t sound happy. “I need to see you. Now.”
Glad that Shay didn’t understand a word of Russian, he cast a brief glance in her direction. He couldn’t leave her here alone, not right now and not even for his old boss. “I can’t get away from here.”
Nikolai sighed. “I’ll come to you.”
“I’m at the other place.”
“Yeah. I figured.” He paused. “Do you need anything?”
“Maid service would be nice.” He thought of the evidence that needed to be destroyed. The services of a cleaner like Kostya would come in handy right now.
“Our maid is out on sick leave, but I’ll put in a call with the company.”
The line went dead, and Alexei pocketed his phone. Getting into an argument with Nikolai was the last fucking thing he wanted to do tonight, but it was better to just get the ass chewing over with, pay whatever fee the boss demanded and move forward.