“Yeah. It’s a 1984 Trans Am. I bought it from the father of a fighter I knew in Vegas for a song and fixed it up.” The truth was it was his most prized possession, and he’d sell off everything he owned and live out of it as a last resort any day.
She glanced out the window at the apartment building. “So this is where you live.”
He popped his seatbelt and got out to swing around to her side and open her door. “Yep. It’s not much.” Then he chuckled. “Well, compared to your place, I guess it’s a palace,” he teased, pulling her out by the hand, causing her to fly forward and land on his chest. He threaded his fingers in her hair, tipped her head back, and kissed her soundly.
She was breathless by the time he released her and led her toward the entrance, holding her hand. As he held the door open so she could cross under his arm, he continued, “Honestly, it’s more than we can afford. But we don’t trust that asshole we used to work for in Vegas, so we like to sleep somewhere we feel safe, especially now that we have Alena to consider.”
“Where was Alena before?”
“Russia. Abram found her and brought her over about a year ago.”
“Oh, wow. That must have been tough. How does she speak English so well?”
“Remember Lauren? Dmitry’s girlfriend?”
“Yes.”
“The four of them lived together when they first moved to Chicago. It’s a long story, but Lauren was in hiding from Anton Yenin—”
Katie shook her head. “Who’s Anton Yenin?”
He pushed the button for the elevator and faced her again. Lord, he hated getting into this with her. But it needed to be done. She needed to understand what was going on in Leo’s personal life. “He was our manager in Vegas before we moved here and switched to Abram Gromov. Yenin is not a good guy. He’s with the Russian Mafia—the Bratva.”
“The guy who was after Lauren and Dmitry,” she stated.
“The very one. Anyway, he had been in jail for a number of reasons—not an uncommon occurrence when you’re with the Russian Mafia—and he was sort of dating Lauren before that. He was pissed when she broke things off with him. Had his guys kidnap her. Dmitry was more pissed and kidnapped her back. He moved here with her to escape Anton’s father, Grigory Yenin, who came from the New York area Mafia to help out while Anton was in jail. Mikhail came soon after when Abram got Alena out of Russia.”
“All right. I think I got about half of that. I remember Abram from the night Dmitry got kicked in the kidney. And he was at the fight Friday night too, right?”
“Yes.”
“How did Mikhail know Abram while he was still in Vegas?”
“We all knew Abram. He’s well known in the business. He travels to Vegas sometimes. It wasn’t a random coincidence that we came here. We moved to Chicago because we knew he could set up gigs, and we’d have work.”
She stared at him. “This is all insane.”
“I know. It’s a lot to take in.” The elevator pinged, and Leo led her inside, stepping behind her and wrapping his arms protectively around her middle.
She leaned against him and sighed.
Good. If he could at least provide her with some sense of security or take her mind off the stress of someone murdering homeless people, he would do anything.
“So, how long have you lived here?”
“I got this place when I came here a few weeks before I met you. It was the only unit available at the time and too large for me. When Dmitry left the country with Lauren, Alena and Mikhail moved in with me. At least it bought some time. We were afraid Yenin knew where they were living.”
She twisted her neck to look up at him. “You don’t think he knows now?”
Leo hesitated. How much did he want to divulge at once without freaking her out? By the end of the day, he needed to break it to her that she could no longer stay alone in her apartment. “I’m sure he does.” He was certain Anton’s men were on them. “He has two idiots watching us.”
She jumped out of his arms. “Why?”
“That’s the million-dollar question. Could be the money we make him. Could be revenge for Lauren. Could be a threat or a warning to keep us from doing anything to retaliate for the way he held Lauren captive. Could be something we aren’t thinking of.”
“Could be the weird blood work…” she added softly.
He stiffened. She was catching on quick. “And then there’s that. Though I don’t see how the hell there’s any correlation.” That part was a fact. Leo had spent hours thinking about that angle. His contact had too. And probably ten other FBI agents by now.
It couldn’t be a coincidence that Yenin brought over six seemingly random boys from all parts of Russia to train to fight and give a better life with no ulterior motive. He wasn’t an altruistic sort of guy.
But why, then?
No one could come up with an explanation for the weird blood samples. Perhaps it was simply the type of immunizations every orphanage in Russia used in the mid-eighties. Would they show up wonky on a blood test? Maybe there was a chance all Russians born in the eighties had funky blood that most people in the US would scratch their head over. He could dream.
They stepped off the elevator and turned to the left to get to Leo’s apartment. He unlocked the door, opened it, and then stepped back to let Katie in first.
He was surprised to see Ivan in the kitchen.
No. It was more than that. The man wasn’t simply in Leo’s apartment, he was cooking.
Alena sat on the counter to one side of the sink drinking a soda, and Ivan was stirring something over the stove. He turned around at the sound of the door and smiled.
The place smelled fantastic. Solyanka. Leo almost moaned as he closed his eyes, tipped his head back, and inhaled the scents of rich broth—cabbage, cucumbers, lemon… It had been a long time since he had a good hearty Russian soup. “Please tell me that’s sausage I smell and that you made enough for everyone.”
Ivan nodded. “Yep.”
“I didn’t know you could cook,” Leo said as he approached the large steaming pot and leaned over it to inhale closer. Heaven.
“Alena did most of it.”
She giggled. “Hardly. He wanted to learn. I sat right here and told him what to do.”
Katie wrapped her hand around Leo’s arm, lifted onto her tiptoes, and peered over the side. “What do you call it?”
“Solyanka,” Leo told her. “And it’s amazing. You’re in for a treat.”
“Can’t wait.” She turned toward Alena. “How’s your brother?”
“Better. We banned him from the kitchen. He’s lying on his bed surfing the channels and bitching.”
Leo took her hand and led her down the hall to Mikhail’s room. She was a doctor before all else. She would want to check on the patient first. Leo knocked on the door with the back of his knuckles.
“Come in.”
Indeed Mikhail was lying almost flat on the bed, his head propped up with several pillows and the remote aimed at the television. He hit mute as soon as they stepped inside.
“Wow. You look much better,” Katie said. She skirted around Leo and headed toward Mikhail. “May I?” she asked, her hands hovering over his ribs.
“Suit yourself.”
She prodded on him up and down the rib cage, her gaze on Mikhail’s face while her hands worked.
As far as Leo could tell, Mikhail didn’t even flinch. Either the bastard had taken a heavy painkiller, he was a masochist, or he had superhuman healing powers.
“Any pain?”
Mikhail shrugged. “Not much. I can tell where the breaks are, but it’s a lot better today than yesterday.”
“That makes no sense at all, you know.”
He shrugged again. “What can I say?” His wry smile went with his cocky attitude. “Would you please tell my sister I can get up and walk around now?”
Katie stepped back, her eyes wide as she lifted her hands, palms out. “Hey, you can do whatever activities you want as
long as it doesn’t hurt. The bones fused at an unusual rate, so there isn’t much chance of splintering, but take it easy. You can’t go back to fighting for six weeks. At least.”
Mikhail chuckled. “Whatever.”
“I’m serious. Broken ribs need to heal. If you reinjure them, you could do serious damage.”
Leo wrapped an arm around her waist and hauled her into his side. “We fighters don’t stay down long.”
“I see that. Learned that the night I met Dmitry. That fool was fighting with an injured kidney.”
Mikhail swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood with barely a wince. If someone didn’t know he’d broken four ribs two days ago, they would never suspect. “Starving.” He pushed past them and headed out the door.
Leo followed, letting his hand trail down to grab Katie’s and lead her back to the kitchen/living room area. The place wasn’t exciting. Leo had never done anything to decorate. He didn’t care much about that sort of thing, and besides, they didn’t have the money to waste on frivolous extras.
It was a newer building—less than five years old—done in gray tones with white cabinets, black counters, and gray speckled carpet.
“What are you two up to today?” Ivan asked. He leaned against the counter.
Alena jumped down from the surface and reached into the cabinet to grab some bowls. She proceeded to set the table.
“Errands. I’m going to stay with Katie for a while.” Leo tossed that information out as casually as possible, watching Katie out of the corner of his eye.
She flinched. “You are?”
Leo addressed the others, glancing around the room from Mikhail, who had lowered himself into a chair at the table, to Alena, who was frozen in the middle of the room with a handful of spoons, and Ivan, who had a smirk on his face a mile wide. “There’s been a number of homeless people found dead, their bodies abandoned in a dump on the southern edge of downtown. The area isn’t safe right now. It would be remiss of me to leave her there alone.”
She stepped in front of him, catching his gaze. “That isn’t necessary, you know. I’m perfectly fine on my own. I have locks.”
Leo shook his head. “Are you talking about that flimsy dead bolt on the glass door next to the wall of windows that were installed in the 1960s?”
“There’s an alarm.”
He rolled his eyes and threw his hands in the air. “Seriously? What year was that installed?”
She bit her lower lip between her teeth.
“Babe, someone could elbow their way into your clinic. That’s not a good enough alarm system.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ivan mouth the word “babe” at Alena with raised eyebrows.
Whatever. So what if Ivan, Alena, and Mikhail knew the score. It wasn’t a secret.
She released her lip. “The supply room has its own alarm, and it’s always locked.”
“Where the medicines are?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you normally sleep in that room?” he asked sarcastically.
“Of course not, but—”
Leo shook his head again. “Not safe. I wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing someone could so easily break in and do anything they wanted. Do you even own a gun?”
She gasped. “No. I don’t do weapons. I’m in the business of saving lives, not taking them.”
“Thanks for solidifying my stance.” He grinned.
“You can’t just move in with me. We’ve been…uh…you know…seeing each other for only a few days.” Her face turned red. As if everyone in the room didn’t think they were sleeping together.
“Nobody said anything about moving in. I’ll just pack a duffle bag with a few more things and set it in the corner. You’ll be safer. I’ll sleep better.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” she muttered, leaning into him.
He kissed her, an indulgent grin on his face, knowing he would do no such thing. She could talk all she wanted, but it wouldn’t change the fact that he was about to take up residence in her apartment.
She didn’t need to know yet it had little to do with missing homeless people and everything to do with the Russian mob trailing his ass.
Katie’s phone rang while she was rolling her eyes, breaking the standoff. She glanced at it, but then groaned and stuffed it back in her pocket.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Just my mother. Marshall probably got to her.”
“Shouldn’t you answer it?”
“Not right now. Unless you all want to be subjected to a grown woman being treated like a five-year-old for forty minutes. I’ll call her later.”
Ivan carried the huge pot over to the table and set it on a potholder. “Lunch is served,” he proclaimed.
∙•∙
Katie turned around and stepped away from Leo. Anything to put some distance between them. When he stood in her space, she couldn’t think. “I can’t wait.”
Leo pulled out a chair for her and then slid it back in as she took her seat at the table.
He hovered. Too close. His scent filled her every time she inhaled. His arm bulged at her side, making her want to crawl into his lap. And she wasn’t fond of the way her body reacted to him in front of his friends. It unnerved her.
Alena cleared her throat. Glad for the distraction, Katie turned to look at her, along with the three gigantic men who clearly adored her. The room was so filled with testosterone, you could cut the air with a knife, but when Alena spoke, everyone paid attention. “I’m going to get a job.”
As if rehearsed, and in amazing unison, all three men responded at once. “No. You’re not.”
She glared at them each in turn and sat up taller, as tall as her barely five-foot frame could pretend to be. “I am. I’m done hiding. I’ve been in the US a year. My English is perfect. I’m bored out of my mind. And no one has bothered any of you since Dmitry left town.”
“No,” Ivan declared gruffly, turning his attention to the soup in front of him as if the matter were closed.
Katie fought the urge to smile. Were all Russian men so incredibly dominant and obstinate? Or just the MMA fighters?
She glanced at Leo. Brooding. Intense. Sexier in his dominant he-man mode.
This was going to be interesting.
Alena didn’t back down. “You three really can’t stop me. We’re in the US now. I have a green card. It’s a free country.” She shrugged.
Ivan shot her a glare, setting his spoon down and putting his elbows on the table. “Alena, we have no idea who might be looking for you. Don’t forget that Abram hired men to snatch you from what essentially amounted to a Russian prison cell. We don’t know who was holding you. And we don’t know why. Could have been the government. Could have been the KGB. Could have been some secret department that works under the SVR or the FSB. We. Don’t. Know. It’s. Not. Safe.”
Alena leaned forward, getting in his face. “The KGB. You do realize they went down with the fall of the Soviet Union, right?”
He shrugged and took a bite. “Don’t care. Don’t trust them.”
“That was over twenty years ago, Ivan. I was a child.”
Mikhail spoke. “Alena, he’s right. I don’t trust a single faction of that government, neither the old one or the new. Someone was holding you. We don’t know who. And we can’t know they aren’t still looking.”
“Couldn’t it have been just some asshole with no relation to the government at all?”
Mikhail’s face stiffened. “You’re my sister. You were there. Did it seem like some shoddy situation to you? I distinctly remember every word you told me. And whatever you left out, Abram filled in from intel from the men who rescued you. It was a hidden building. Large. Concealed. Pristine. They held you for months.”
Alena winced.
Hell, listening to Mikhail tell the story made Katie cower too. Maybe Alena really was in danger.
Mikhail wasn’t done. He shouted the same word again. “Months. In a clean room with food, water, and fa
cilities. What did they do during that time? Keep you healthy? That’s it? Unless you have left out some detail, then I think we have no choice but to assume it was a government operation. Old or new regime, I don’t give a fuck. Your life is not your own. Not even on American soil.”
“I won’t live my entire life in fear. I’m done hiding.” Her voice wasn’t as strong, but she held her head high.
Leo cleared his throat. “I don’t want a repeat of what happened last year when Lauren decided she was done hiding and all hell broke loose. In fact,” he turned to face Ivan, “I was going to suggest you move in here while I’m at Katie’s. I don’t know what Boris and Erik are up to, but I do know they’re tracking us. I smell a rat.”
Katie flinched. He even knew the names of the guys he thought were watching them?
Mikhail nodded. “I’d feel safer with an extra man in the apartment.”
Katie watched Alena’s face flame a deep red. Her skin was usually so white there was no hiding it. Her eyes widened at Leo’s suggestion, and she glanced at Ivan. Her mouth fell open as if to speak, but instead she fidgeted in her seat.
Interesting. Were she and Ivan a thing? And if so, did anyone else know? It didn’t seem like it.
Finally Alena shook her head. “You’re all overreacting.”
Ivan and Mikhail spoke on top of each other.
Leo held up a hand. “Calm down. Everyone.” He turned toward Ivan again. “You move into my room for the time being. And as for Alena working, I’m sure we can think of something she could do that wouldn’t put her in extreme danger but would give her a bit of freedom.”
Katie sat up straighter, slapping at the hand Leo set on her thigh when he finished speaking. He was driving her mad with his touch. “How about my clinic? She could work there. Or volunteer if you prefer. I’m sure we can come up with something.”
Everyone turned to stare at her.
She hoped she wasn’t about to become the new focus of their intense wrath.
“It’s not a bad idea,” Leo said, his hand grasping her leg tighter and stroking too close to her pussy.
“We’ll think about it,” Mikhail said, closing the subject with his tone.
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