by Ava Bloom
I had the sickening thought that something must have happened to someone in the family. But who? Maybe Nikolay or one of the others had gotten into some trouble on the way home the night before. It was no secret that Audaz was trying to claw their way back into power there in the city. We had the authorities on our side, bribed and happy—for now. But there were plenty of dark alleyways and other places for a lonely Russian to disappear…
I dressed quickly, all thoughts of Vitoria gone from my mind, and rushed over to headquarters. Sergei was in his office, and I was almost instantly relieved to see that he was alone. It couldn’t be something to do with the family, then, or I would have run into the others waiting for news of their own.
I frowned. Maybe he had an assignment for me? But if so, how could it be so important that he had to drag me out of bed so early on a Sunday morning, without any warning?
Sergei slapped a photo of me onto the desk between us—a photo of me and Vitoria. I blushed crimson even though going to bed with a hot, young Spanish woman was nothing to be ashamed of.
“Do you know who this is?” Sergei asked, his voice dangerous.
I rolled my eyes. “I know I have a reputation for sleeping around, but I’d like to think I’d at least remember the name of the woman I fucked just two nights ago,” I told him.
“This is Vitoria Mata,” Sergei said, as though I hadn’t spoken. He tapped a finger against her picture. “Does that name ring any bells?”
“No,” I said sullenly, folding my arms across my chest and scowling at him. “You had me followed.”
“Dmitry, you should know that for the safety of the whole family, the business of every member of our group is carefully scrutinized,” Sergei said, acting like it didn’t matter. “Anyway, I didn’t have you followed. One of the other members of the Volkov syndicate happened to notice you headed down to the pier with the girl. And it’s a good thing that he did!”
“Oh really? And why is that?” I snapped. “What was so important that you had to haul me out of bed at the crack of dawn on a Sunday? Are you afraid that I’ll quit taking on assignments—that I’ll be compromised? That I’ll let feelings for her get in the way of my sense of duty?” I sneered at him. “You should know it’s not that serious. It never is, for me.”
“The girl, Dmitry,” Sergei said impatiently. “Vitoria Mata. She comes from a very old Catalan family. She has ties with Audaz.”
I frowned at him, considering this new information. I was tempted to bluff and say that I already knew it, but I had a feeling Sergei wouldn’t believe me. Anyway, it wouldn’t matter; they had clearly already made their minds up about her.
“It’s nothing serious,” I said through clenched teeth. “She’s just some fuck.” Even as I said it, I felt guilty. I had intended for Vitoria to be just another Spanish girl. But there was something about her that intrigued me. She had a fire that I didn’t find in a lot of women. Sure, it had been easy enough to get her to sleep with me. But I felt like we were doing things on her terms, and not just because of the way that she was urging me on.
I hated to sound just as cheesy as the lines that I liked to use on the women, but it felt like we’d had some sort of connection. She wasn’t just some fuck.
But she also wasn’t my girlfriend.
I shook my head. “It’s none of your business what I do with her, anyway. She doesn’t know who I am. For all she knows, I’m just another Russian who moved to Spain to escape the cold and dreary grey of Moscow. Hell, I told her I’m just here for the beaches and the girls.” That wasn’t strictly true; I had told her my name and that I was involved in the family business, without specifying what the family business really was.
If she really had ties with Audaz, she would have recognized those details. But I had seen nothing in her eyes to say that she was surprised.
“Besides,” I continued, “it’s not up to you to control every aspect of my life just because I’m a member of this family. I get the job done. I’m not about to go spilling secrets to some girl just because.”
“These women, they have their ways,” Sergei said, slamming his fist down on the desk. “You might act like a cocky little shit, but it doesn’t mean she won’t have you twisted around her finger in no time at all. And then who knows what you could say. You’re compromised.”
“Fuck you,” I snarled, getting to my feet. But I knew that my anger wasn’t only directed at him. I was angry at myself for not realizing who she really was. I was angry at Vitoria for not telling me. Still- “What, you think she’s just trying to get close to me as a ploy to find out our secrets?” I asked.
“Maybe,” Sergei said. “It would be an easy plan, don’t you think? And you seem to have fallen for it.”
“I haven’t fallen for anything, and least of all for her,” I said acidly, already starting for the door. “Stay out of my business.”
“Dmitry Nikolayevich Volkov,” Sergei said warningly, invoking my full name. He stalked around the desk towards me, putting his hand on the door before I could pull it open. “I’m sure you don’t need me to remind you that you’re fully replaceable, with any other idiot who can handle a pitchfork,” he said in a dangerous voice. “Trust me when I say, you don’t want me to bring this to your uncle’s attention—not now, with our attack on the Audaz headquarters coming up so soon. If I catch wind of you anywhere near this girl again…”
I glared at him for a long moment, but in the end, I was forced to look away. For all that I sometimes missed life in Russia, I didn’t want to be sent back there, especially not in disgrace. Especially not over some girl.
The problem, I thought as I walked back to my beachfront mansion, was that I didn’t want to be through with Vitoria. Her infectious laugh, the way she gave herself over to her passion… These were things that no woman had ever shown me before. There was something special about her.
But maybe I didn’t know anything about her at all. I hadn’t even known her last name—not that I recognized the name ‘Mata.’ Her family couldn’t be too powerful within Audaz. Surely it couldn’t matter that she knew I was a Volkov. She wasn’t just doing this to use me. Barcelona was a big city, but it wasn’t impossible that we might have just happened to run into one another there in the market where I frequently shopped, and she frequently cut through on her way to classes…
I had to talk to her, I decided. Despite what Sergei had said about how I was never to be seen around her again. And I had no doubt that he would be having me followed now.
But I knew a thing or two about getting away from trackers. And I couldn’t just forget about her.
I nodded a little to myself, my mind made up, and changed direction, heading towards the confusing streets of the older sections of the city.
5
Vitoria
I went for a long run on Sunday morning, trying to clear my head. And to get away from my phone, which I kept glancing at every other minute. Like I expected him to call.
I snorted, feeling exasperated with that stupid part of my brain that insisted he would call. But I knew the truth. Dmitry wasn’t going to call me. Dmitry had probably already moved on to the next girl. He’d taken me out on a Friday night, after all; he would have gone out clubbing on Saturday night, found a hot girl, bought her some drinks and taken her home to bed. I was just another notch in the bedpost for him, after all.
I didn’t know why that thought left such a bitter feeling in my gut. After all, I was the one using him.
Only I had botched that one, I guessed.
Someone fell into step beside me, and I didn’t have to look over to know that it was Roberto. I swallowed hard, unconsciously speeding up a little as though I could outrun him. But Roberto, with his longer legs, easily kept abreast of me, until I was forced to slow down and catch my breath.
I finally quit running, knowing that I needed to have my full concentration on this conversation, or else I would say something stupid, tell him that I’d blown it already.
&nbs
p; Roberto raised an eyebrow at me. “How’s it going this lovely morning, carinyo?”
I grimaced and wiped sweat off my brow. “It’s hot,” I complained, as though I thought he might be there just to talk about the weather.
Roberto gave me an unimpressed look. “The Volkov boy—I hear he took you out on his yacht the other night,” he said in an undertone.
I gave him a surprised look. “How did you know that?” I asked. I hadn’t told anyone, not even my parents.
Especially not my parents.
Roberto just shrugged. “I have my sources,” he said.
I shook my head. Of course he did. But that didn’t mean I had to tell him everything. I shrugged as well. “It was his idea, but I liked the privacy,” I said.
“Hmm,” Roberto said, his eyes gleaming. “And tell me, did you use this privacy to your advantage?”
I thought about what we’d done on the deck. It hadn’t even really been all that private… But Roberto didn’t need to know about that. “If you’re asking if he’s spilled all the Volkov family secrets, the answer is…not yet,” I admitted.
Roberto narrowed his eyes at me. “But you did learn something useful,” he surmised.
I bit my lower lip and then slowly shook my head. “Not yet,” I told him. “But it’s only a matter of time.”
Or it would be if I could ever convince Dmitry to see me again, but I felt like it might be an uphill battle on that one. I was going to have to be the one to call him, and somehow, I was going to have to resurrect the air of mystery. But I didn’t know what else I had to offer him that I hadn’t already given him the other night. There was nothing left to dangle in front of him. He had had it already.
I was such an idiot.
“It’s been a week,” Roberto said, and I could hear the thinly-veiled anger in his voice. “A week already that you’ve had this assignment, and you haven’t managed to get any information from the man.”
I scowled at him. “You have to give me time,” I told him. “I have to win his trust first. What’s the use of getting him to talk if I can’t get him to talk about any of the things that you actually want to know about?”
“A valid point, but I’m afraid we don’t have the time for you to get him to trust you,” Roberto said, and I realized suddenly that he wasn’t upset with me, per se, he was more just agitated. They must really be worried about this mob syndicate and whatever attack they might be planning.
I cocked my head to the side. “They have more forces than Audaz?” I asked. “Can’t you call on the rest of the group, bring in some of the guys from Madrid or somewhere else?”
“It’s not that simple,” Roberto snapped, his expression shuttering closed, until I questioned whether I’d seen that nervousness at all or just imagined it. “Audaz will come out on top either way. It’s just a matter of how many men we have to lose in the process.”
I swallowed hard at the sudden reminder that those lives were, in essence, in my hands. If I couldn’t deliver the information that Audaz needed, it wasn’t only my mother’s life that I would lose. It could be my father as well, or his friends and colleagues. The thought left me feeling ill.
“When is your next date?” Roberto asked. “Perhaps we can come up with some sort of plan. I’m sure there must be some sort of drug we could use. Slip it into his drink and have him spilling his deepest secrets in no time. Or perhaps you could get access to his computer, or his phone. There must be information in there, communications. You’d need a password, but…” Roberto trailed off, looking lost in thought.
I tried to think how to tell him that we didn’t have a next date planned, but I was still stuck on the thought of drugging Dmitry. Of course, it was just business. And was it really a bad thing, if it meant that I could save lives? But I felt horrible even thinking about it. I didn’t want to do this the underhanded way.
I wasn’t sure there was a way to do it that wasn’t underhanded.
“Well?” Roberto pressed. “When’s the next date? How long do we have to wait?”
“We…don’t have the next date planned yet,” I admitted.
Roberto looked as though he might explode. “Why not?” he asked darkly. “You haven’t lost his interest already, have you?”
I gave a nervous laugh. “It’s only the second day since our last date,” I pointed out. “He’s probably waiting to call today.”
“You’d better call him,” Roberto snarled. “None of this waiting around.” He smiled sweetly at me. “Or don’t you remember that the worse your mother’s condition gets, the less likely it is that she’ll ever make a full recovery?”
“I know,” I whispered, feeling tears prick the corners of my eyes.
“Good,” Roberto said, nodding at me. “I’ll look into things you could drug him with. In the meantime, consider yourself warned. This isn’t a game.”
“I know,” I murmured, ducking my head as he turned and jogged off.
Once he left, I practically collapsed onto a nearby bench, fighting back the tears. I pulled out my cellphone with shaking hands and dialed Dmitry’s number without even thinking.
To my surprise, he answered on the second ring. “Speak of the devil,” he said, something dark in his voice.
I didn’t have a chance to puzzle out what he meant before the tears started to choke me. “Dmitry? Can you meet me?”
There was a long pause, and for a moment, I thought that he’d hung up on me. “Where are you?” he finally asked, his voice low.
“Out for a run along Barceloneta beach,” I told him. “I’m a little ways past the beach clubs.”
“As it happens, I’m in that area myself,” Dmitry said, sighing. “I’ll be there in a moment.” He hung up before I could say anything else.
I sat there edgily, wondering at the tone of his voice. He didn’t sound happy to hear from me. In fact, he sounded frustrated with me. Like he was angry that I had called but felt like he couldn’t yell at me over the phone. I swallowed hard, hoping Roberto wasn’t still lurking in the area to see this.
A few minutes later, Dmitry hesitantly approached the bench that I was sitting on. “Vitoria?” he asked.
I barely restrained myself from jumping into his arms and clinging to him, but it was a near thing. I wanted nothing more at that moment than to bury my head against his neck and hide from the world. I couldn’t do this, this task for Audaz. But I had to. Somehow.
I drew in a shaky breath and dashed away the tears. “Sorry,” I told Dmitry, trying to think of a quick lie. I nodded towards the hospital. “My mother’s not doing so well.”
Dmitry’s eyes were immediately understanding. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said. He paused and then raised an eyebrow at me. “And I was the first person you thought to call?”
I blushed brilliantly, ducking my head. “I’m sorry. I know we aren’t… I mean, the other night was wonderful, but…” I tried to think of what I wanted to say. But with all my emotions tangled up inside me, it was impossible to sort the words out.
Dmitry reached over and ran his fingers through the hair at the nape of my neck, lightly scratching my scalp. “You need me to take your mind off it,” he said simply. “And fortunately, I know just the remedy.”
“You do?” I asked.
“I’ve been needing to get out of Barcelona anyway,” Dmitry said, standing up and holding out his hand to me. “You’ll need to direct me, though. I’ve hardly been anywhere in Spain outside of Barcelona and Madrid. I hear San Sebastian is nice?”
I shook my head at him. “You want to drive to San Sebastian for a day? By the time we got there, it would be time to turn around and come back.”
“No, I want to fly to San Sebastian for a day,” Dmitry said, grinning at me. “Or maybe two, if you don’t have classes tomorrow.” He shrugged. “You didn’t think the yacht was my only toy, did you?”
I snorted, impressed in spite of myself. And suddenly, it was as though all of my worries vanished. Dmitry might only be i
nviting me along on his day trip adventure out of pity for me, but it was definitely a step up from him never wanting to see me again.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, finding a smile for him. “All right,” I said. “Lead the way.”
“We’re not going to have a contingent from Audaz following us all day, are we?” Dmitry asked suddenly.
I paled, turning big eyes on him. “How do you know about Audaz?” I asked.
Dmitry snorted. “Don’t play dumb,” he chided. “It doesn’t suit you.” He paused. “I told you my last name. You know who the Volkovs are; you have to.”
I sighed. For some reason, the knowledge that I would have to lie to him made my gut churn. I didn’t like it. “I know who the Volkov family is,” I admitted. “To be honest, anyone who is from Barcelona knows something about the Volkov family—at least enough that they would recognize the name. You guys bought a lot of land and a lot of clubs. There’s a lot of talk about dirty money.”
“Because of course Audaz doesn’t do anything shady to get money,” Dmitry said, rolling his eyes.
“I don’t know what kinds of things they’re really involved with,” I said, shrugging. Lie. “My parents sent me away to school specifically so that I wouldn’t get involved in any of that stuff.” That, at least, is true.
I swallowed hard, wondering why it bothered me so much, pretending that I hadn’t cozied up to Dmitry specifically because of his involvement in the Volkov mob ring.
But Dmitry was all smiles again. “Well, good,” he said. “As long as you have nothing to do with them.” He paused. “Do you need to swing by your house first, or are you ready to go?”
I raised an eyebrow at him, trying to put thoughts of Audaz behind us. Today was about keeping Dmitry interested, and that meant having some fun with him for once. I was excited by the idea of that. “I guess I probably need a bathing suit—if I’m going to show you all that San Sebastian has to offer, we’re going to have to go surfing!”