by Roxie Rivera
"So what? Something happened seven years ago that set her off? The money is still coming, right? Wouldn't he have stopped sending it once he found out she had betrayed him with this?"
"But nothing happened," Nikolai insisted. "Eric didn't use the file to come after me. Maksim wasn't implicated in anything. As far as he knows, this doesn't exist."
I blanched. "What happens when he finds out?"
"This woman had better hope she's still skilled at her tradecraft," he murmured darkly. "As for me? I'm just a pawn," Nikolai said. "She wants Maksim. I'm just a piece she wants to push around the chessboard to exert pressure on him, but it didn't work because Eric didn't take the bait until it was too late. Most of the people in these files are dead or in prison. There are details in here that I would prefer not to have widely known—"
"Like the fact that Maksim is your father?"
"Like that," he agreed. "But I'm not as concerned as I was before Eric gave this to you. We can manage this."
I started to ask him how but stopped the thought before it ever made it out of my mouth. Even though we had an open policy between us, there really were some things I didn't want to know. I had a feeling this was one of them.
Nikolai placed the stack of files aside and leaned down to grab the basket holding the chess pieces. I made a face. "Kolya, I'm really not in the mood for a game of chess. I'm so sucky at it."
He frowned. "You're not sucky."
"I've never won a single game. Not one. Ever. My grandfather, you, Lena—you've all throttled me."
"You need to practice more."
"I need to stick to checkers."
He laughed and started placing the pieces on the board. "We aren't playing chess tonight."
"Then what are we doing?"
"I'm educating you."
"On?"
"My world."
"Oh."
Nikolai grouped pieces together on separate corners of the board. He started touching the pieces and giving them names. "Besian and his Albanians; the cartel; Lalo Contreras, Diego and the Hermanos; Nicky Jackson; the Red Baron and his skinheads; Mr. Lu and the Asian syndicate; Romero and the Calaveras." He touched a black king and a white queen. "Us."
"Lorenzo Guzman," he picked up the white king and gave it a shake, "won't be around much longer. One way or another, he's going to be replaced. If he's smart, he'll step down when he pressure gets too high. He'll take the money and run." Nikolai knocked the drug lord's piece off the table and onto the floor. He pushed two white nights forward. "Hector Salas and Lalo Contreras will step into his place."
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"It could go either way. It depends on the alliances they make. Your father and his motorcycle crew have aligned themselves with Hector and Lalo. It's a perfect match. They all want the same thing."
"Money?" I guessed.
"Money," he confirmed. "Your father wants to control all the steel—the guns—south of the border and into Central America. Maksim wants Romero to succeed. He has more weapons than he can unload, but he needs higher bidders. Romero is the key to that. And Hector? Hector has big dreams. He wants to get product into far flung corners of the world."
"But he needs a way to move it," I said, as everything started to make sense. I picked up the piece he had designated as Mr. Lu. "When I was at that house with the judge, I thought it was strange that Bobby Pham had his hands on all of that llelo."
Nikolai smiled at my choice of word. "Hector and Lalo thought Bobby was the perfect answer. He handled all the counterfeit imports so he would have had very little trouble moving product out of Mexico and into Southeast Asia."
"But now he's dead. Who will they use now?"
"Zec," he said moving a white bishop onto the board. "Luka will jump at the chance to get a discount product and steel."
A sour feeling made my stomach ache. "Doesn't it ever bother you? Do you ever sit back and think about all the people who get hurt because of those guns? Or the people like Ruby or the judge's daughter who get hooked on these drugs and ruin their lives?"
"I did. Once," Nikolai admitted. "The days of feeling guilty are long gone for me, sladkaya. I am what I am. I accepted that long ago." He started rearranging pieces on the board. "I've pulled as far away from this world as I can, but I won't ever be able to get both feet out of it. Frankly, it's too dangerous for me to even try to get out. To keep my family safe? I have to be in it. I have to have both feet planted on the dirty side of the line." He hesitated. "Does that answer disappoint you?"
"Honestly?"
He nodded.
"A little," I admitted. "I don't like thinking that we live in this beautiful home and have this luxurious life because of guns and drugs and God only knows what else."
"This house and the life you enjoy is paid for by legitimate money, Vee. The dirty money? It goes someplace else."
"Where?"
"Evgeni."
"I don't understand."
"He's very good at taking dirty money and making it clean."
"How?"
"Financial alchemy." Nikolai shrugged. "I don't ask those sorts of questions. I just make sure the money gets into his hands. He washes it a few times, and it comes back to me all neat and clean."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that." He bent down to pick up Lorenzo's king. Gesturing to the chessboard, he explained, "The problem I face right now is where to stand while this shit goes down."
He moved his piece in front of mine and backed it into a corner. "Lorenzo isn't stupid. He knows that there's a coup in the works. He knows his days are numbered. He's going to grow paranoid. He'll do something stupid."
"Like?"
"Strike out at Hector and Lalo here in Houston." He knocked over their pieces with the white king. "To stay in power, he'll have to cull the cartel of anyone with enough strength or power to rival him. He'll cripple his organization doing it, and he'll upset the power balance south of the border. It will be an unholy mess."
"But he won't stop there," Nikolai warned. "He'll strike out at your father." He knocked over my father's piece with Lorenzo's. "Romero has been poking his finger in Lorenzo's eye since the morning he was popped from prison. Lorenzo hasn't done anything to rein him in yet. He's turned a blind eye to your father building up his little army, but he can't afford to play nice any longer. After this bullshit with Julio, he'll have to show that he has the balls to lead the cartel."
"And when he's done going after those three, he'll come for us." He knocked over his black king but left my white queen standing. With great care, he picked up my piece and held it tightly in his hand. "Do you remember that morning in the apartment you shared with Lena when I told you that love is a weakness?"
I swallowed hard at that memory. "Yes."
"Lorenzo knows that I fucking adore you. He knows that I'll die before I let anyone touch you. When he finds out about the baby, he'll know exactly how to hurt me."
My hands moved to my stomach and covered my bump. "I won't let him hurt our baby."
"No, you won't." Nikolai placed my piece on the far side of the board, away from all the conflict. "You and the baby will be safe because you're going to run at the first sign of trouble."
"What?" I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. "I'm not leaving you behind!"
"Yes, you will," he stated calmly but firmly. "You have to think of our baby. I love you, and I love the baby, and I want you to live."
"Kolya…"
"No." He shook his head. "This isn't up for discussion. Over the next few days, I'm going to teach you how to disappear. I'll teach you how to get a clean name and how to build a new life. I'm going to show you where I keep our money. The cash and the diamonds," he clarified.
I blinked with confusion. "Diamonds?"
"They're light. They're easy to carry. They're untraceable. You can sell them anywhere. You'll need them when you run to one of the safe houses I own. I'll make sure you get more target practice at the range. I ha
ve to know you can defend yourself."
"Kolya…"
"Vee, you have to understand that you can trust no one. Not your friends, not my men, not your father—you will be on your own if something happens to me." His jaw tensed, and I could tell it killed him to tell me that. "Everyone has a price. Everyone has a weakness. If someone wants to get to us, they'll go through our friends. They'll kidnap one of them and hold them hostage until we're lured to a meeting where they'll kill us."
He must have seen how shaken I was by the dark turn of our discussion because he got out of his chair and knelt in front of me. He took my hands in his and kissed my fingers. "The only true allies we have are each other."
Terrified by the stark picture he had painted, I asked, "Will this ever stop?"
"Soon," he promised. "Very soon."
"What are we supposed to do until then?"
Nikolai cupped my face in one hand and caressed my jaw. "We wait."
Chapter Twenty-Five
The weeks crawled by slowly for Nikolai. Too slowly. The ball of tension in his gut expanded with every passing day. Constantly on edge, he developed a need for antacids that rivaled Vivian's. The only thing that lowered his blood pressure and eased the throbbing in his stomach was coming home to his wife.
He couldn't get her into bed fast enough most nights. There were evenings when he simply ambushed her in her home studio or in the kitchen. She obliged his increased desires without complaint and began to encourage them by sending racy texts throughout the day. The first one had been so unexpected and so arousing that he had cut out of Samovar during the lunch rush so he could race home and have her.
Needless to say, Ten and Boychenko quickly learned to make themselves scarce once he hit the backdoor. Ten and Vivian seemed to have finally settled into a routine that worked. Though he had never expected a friendship to blossom between the pair, he was glad to see one forming.
While he spent his nights at home enjoying his wife, he spent his days at Samovar or bouncing around Houston job sites to monitor his legitimate business interests. He kept an eye on the continuing escalation south of the border and quietly got his men ready for the inevitable showdown.
One by one, his underworld counterparts approached him to make deals and strengthen alliances. Most of them wanted something small in return for protection or assurances that the cartel wouldn't bring their brand of violence to the city. Besian was the only who asked for something very specific—revenge—but it was An who surprised him the most when she came asking for a meeting to be arranged with Hector Salas. He made that get-together happen but stayed far away from it. He didn't want any part of that arrangement. It was much too high profile and risky.
Before he knew it, August was drawing to an end. Sergei and Bianca would marry in a few days. Galina and Vladimir's entrance to the country had been quietly and secretly arranged. Yuri would be handling all of their travel arrangements to ensure they reached the church on time.
On a scorching hot August afternoon, Nikolai sat on a rolling stool next to Vivian as she reclined on an exam table in a cool room with very dim lighting. He hadn't missed a single one of her appointments since that first one. He had even been reading all the books she had purchased about pregnancy and raising children.
She had been talking about a natural birth, and he had to bite his tongue so he wouldn't beg her to take the drugs. The thought of Vivian suffering through agonizing pain for hours on end made him sweat and feel sick. He didn't know how the hell he was going to make it through her labor and delivery.
Nikolai reached out to sweep a lock of hair away from her cheek. He tucked it behind her ear and adjusted the long, jingling necklace that she had chosen to wear with her simple top. The silver baubles and teal feather now nestled enticingly in her cleavage. If there hadn't been an ultrasound technician in the room with them, he would have surrendered to the urge to bend down and nuzzle the creamy swell of soft flesh.
The technician had readied all of her equipment and waited for Vivian to pull up her shirt and bare her swollen belly. At five months pregnant, her baby bump had grown impossible to conceal. They had announced the pregnancy to friends not long after returning from Europe at a small, intimate dinner at the house. A few days later, Vivian had attended church and then Sunday dinner at Samovar wearing a dress that highlighted her new curves. The congratulations had poured in for two weeks. His office at Samovar and the living room of their home had been overflowing with flowers and gift baskets.
The most ostentatious display had been sent by Lorenzo. Nikolai had taken the message exactly as intended. Lorenzo was letting him know that Vivian and the baby were on his radar. At the first hint that Nikolai supported the coup that threatened to topple him, Lorenzo would strike out at her.
But not if I hit you first.
"This gel tends to get everywhere." The technician tucked a few paper towels into the waistband of his wife's skirt and under the neat folds her shirt. "I try to be as neat as possible, but just in case."
"Thanks." Vivian did that nervous thing where she rolled her lips under her teeth. He dragged his thumb across her mouth in a soothing gesture and coaxed her to stop. He clasped her hand between both of his. There was nothing to be nervous about, but she worried so much about the baby. She flashed him a grateful smile before turning her attention to the ultrasound screen.
After squirting an obscene amount of the gel onto Vivian's stomach, the technician picked up her wand and began to swirl it in slow circles. The image of his baby coming to life on the screen knocked the air out of his lungs. I made that.
It was the first purely good thing he had ever done in his life. This sweet, innocent baby—my baby—had been created in love. A powerful need to protect this precious life he had made with Vivian gripped his stomach. I'll do anything. Whatever it takes, I'll keep them safe.
His chest felt unnaturally tight. A ball of emotion clogged his throat. Nikolai tried to swallow around it. Vivian turned her hand and gripped his fingers. She turned her head to smile at him. He gazed at her with love and wonder. Everything that was beautiful and good in his life he had because of her.
Not caring about the technician seeing him, Nikolai leaned forward and kissed Vivian's forehead. She caressed his jaw and smiled shyly. After sharing their tender moment, they focused on the screen where their surprisingly active baby waved its arms and kicked its legs. Nikolai couldn't even imagine what that felt like for Vivian.
In the last three weeks, he had been lucky enough to catch the baby kicking and moving more frequently. He liked to keep his hand on Vivian's stomach while she slept. He tried to stay awake as long as possible so he could enjoy those private, touching moments with the baby.
The technician narrated her exam in a way that kept him interested. She estimated the baby's size and measured its head before checking its legs and arms. She spent more time on the baby's heart and stomach to get the right angles and images. Fascinated by the whole process, Nikolai sat quietly holding Vivian's hand.
"Do you want to know the gender?" The technician tapped away at her keyboard. "Some parents do, but some don't. I can finish the last of the exam without telling you."
"We want to know." Vivian looked giddy with excitement at the prospect of finding out whether she carried a boy or girl. She had held off on buying anything for the nursery until she knew the baby's sex. Now she was finally going to get her chance.
"I can tell you without looking again," the technician said. "I got a clear shot when I was measuring his legs."
"His?" Nikolai seized on the word. "We're having a boy?"
The technician smiled at them. "Yes, you are." She moved the wand low on the curve of Vivian's stomach and then pointed at the screen with her free hand. "There you go. That makes it a boy."
A son. I'm having a son. Flashes of an imagined future appeared before him. A little boy taking his first unsteady steps in the library. A little boy chasing after dragonflies in the garden. A little boy learn
ing to catch a baseball at the park. A little boy sitting on the corner of his desk at Samovar. A little boy with paint-covered fingers smearing color on a canvas.
He glanced at Vivian who grinned. She looked at him with teary eyes and blinked rapidly. "A boy."
"A boy." He kissed her sweetly. "Thank you."
The rest of the appointment was a blur for Nikolai. They left the hospital and made their way to the parking garage where Ten waited. They got into the backseat of the Land Rover. The enforcer twisted in his seat to speak with Vivian. "The baby is okay?"
"Yes," Vivian said with a bright smile. "He is doing great."
"He?" Ten's mouth lifted in a grin. "It's a boy? Congratulations, boss."
"Thank you."
"Hey!" Vivian leaned forward and punched Ten's arm. "I'm the one doing all the work. You should be congratulating me."
"Congratulations, Mrs. Boss."
She rolled her eyes. "You've been talking to Sergei again. Now you're even using his nicknames."
Ten laughed and put the SUV in reverse. "It's a good one." When he was out of the parking spot, he asked, "Where to now?"
"Lunch," Vivian said, rubbing her stomach. "I'm starving."
Nikolai decided not to remind her about the snack of almonds and dried apricots she had devoured in the waiting room. He had never seen one tiny woman eat so much food. He would have expected her to gain more weight than she had, but he suspected her mornings runs, though shorter and only three times a week, and the baby yoga she had started doing every afternoon helped her burn most of those extra calories.
Not that he minded a little extra weight on her. The soft, lush curves of her body drove him fucking crazy. Even now, he couldn’t stop thinking about dragging her into his office at Samovar, lifting her onto his desk and sinking down to his knees to feast between her thighs. Then, maybe, he would tug her over to the chair he kept in front of his desk. The one that didn't have any arms on it. It was the perfect height for her to ride him. Her fuller, heavier breasts would be easy to enjoy that way. She loved having them—