by Roxie Rivera
Thoughts of his little temptress wife had him half-hard before he stepped into the shower. He took his time lathering up and scrubbing his hair. There was something important he had promised to do last night, but he couldn’t for the life of him remember what it was. It was a favor. A big favor.
Who asked for my help last night?
At a big party like a wedding reception, he had people constantly coming up to him. Faces flooded his mind. Snippets of conversation raced through his head. He had made a lot of promises last night.
Yes, I'll talk to your landlord.
Yes, I'll see what I can do about your daughter's loser boyfriend.
Sure, I'll come take a look at the house you're having trouble selling.
Yes, I'll see if I can get Besian to give your husband a few more weeks to pay back that loan.
Yes, I'll get your wife and mother-in-law safe passage into that prison.
Nikolai yanked his head out of the shower spray. His conversation with Sergei barreled to the front of his mind. Sergei had told him that Bianca and her mother planned to visit Adam Blake, the man who had killed her brother and beaten her during a hate-motivated convenience store robbery, in the prison where he was recuperating after being attacked in the yard.
It was a bad idea. The worst idea, really. Prisons were notoriously dangerous places for a reason. Like any good mob boss, Nikolai owned a number of prison guards. It wasn't that hard or expensive to buy them. Unfortunately, there was always someone willing to pay a higher price for them. To secure safe passage for Bianca and her mother, he would have to shell out huge amounts of cash.
But money wasn't the real issue. The real issue was what Adam Blake would say during his meeting with Bianca and her mother. Adam had to know about his older brother's death. His older brother and two of his skinhead goons had attacked Bianca in her bridal boutique. Needless to say, the trio hadn't survived the night.
Would Adam ask Bianca about the deaths? Would he try to get her to implicate herself or Sergei or Kostya? It was a headache he didn't need right now.
But he had made his promise, and he wouldn’t take it back. Somehow he would get Bianca and her mother into and out of that prison untouched.
Nikolai dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt and his favorite brown leather boots before heading downstairs. He found Vladimir and Galina in the living room. He made sure to apologize for his behavior, but Galina just patted his cheek. The motherly touch set off a pang of longing within him that he had thought long buried. As he left the living room to find Vivian, he glanced back at Galina and Vladimir. He prayed his son would know the love and affection and support that Sergei and Vladimir had known from their family.
When he entered the kitchen, Vivian was finishing up a phone call. From the sound of it, something bad had happened. He poured a glass of orange juice and leaned back against the counter to drink it. She put down her phone, and he asked, "What's wrong?"
"That was Sela Rivera. Hadley is in the hospital."
He swallowed his mouthful of juice and played it cool. Since the meeting with Finn in the barn two weeks earlier, the cartel had been unnervingly quiet. The tension around the city could be felt by every underworld denizen. It had settled in their bones and made their teeth ache.
Had the cartel gone after Hadley to get Finn to agree to do their dirty work? Or was it a message to Hector that Lorenzo could touch any person in Hector's family if he wanted?
Setting aside his glass, he asked, "What happened to her?"
"She had a heart scare last night after her niece's quinceañera. She had to be taken to Memorial Hermann in an ambulance. They're going to do heart surgery on her in the morning."
"That's terrible." Thank God, it wasn't the cartel. "But why is her mother calling you?"
"She wanted to see if I would agree to come in and handle a few of Hadley's classes."
"What did you say?" He held his breath and hoped she had declined.
She shot him a funny look. "I said yes, of course. Hadley is a good friend. She's an amazing artist. She has my paintings hanging in her house and in the arts center. The very least I can do is help her out right now."
"Of course." He didn't want to be a jackass about it so he let it go. He would have to pull Ten aside later and make sure he understood the situation more clearly.
"Galina wanted to visit the zoo. I thought that would be a nice way to spend the afternoon. I called Benny, and she's going to meet us there with Sofia and Dimitri. It will give Vladimir and Dimitri a chance to talk about Lone Star and all that." Vivian picked up his empty glass and put it in the sink. "We can come back to the house to change before we meet everyone at Samovar."
"That's fine."
"Good." She gave him a hug and kissed him quickly. "Do you want to eat something now or grab a bite at the zoo?"
His stomach soured at the thought of eating anything right now. "I'll wait."
He followed her out of the kitchen, waited while she collected Vladimir and Galina, and trailed the small group out to the backyard. They piled into an SUV and made the quick trip downtown. Vivian and Galina twittered away the entire time. He began to suspect that Galina considered Vivian family in the same way Vivian considered Sergei an older brother.
They had just entered the zoo when his cell phone started to ring. Kostya's number flashed on the screen so he stepped away to answer it. "Yes?"
"Where are you?"
"The zoo. Why?"
"I'll meet you there in half an hour."
Before Nikolai could ask why Kostya was joining them, the line went dead. He pocketed his phone and slid his arm around Vivian's waist. They slowly made their way to the bird exhibit and followed the trail toward the antelopes and zebras. They spent some time watching the giraffes before stopping at the small outdoor café. Vivian raced into the restroom while he stood in line for water.
"I figured I would find you near one of the bathrooms." Kostya addressed him in Russian.
Nikolai glanced to the left to find his right-hand man standing there. He smiled and shrugged. "The things they don't tell you when you get your wife pregnant, huh?"
Laughing, Kostya shadowed him as the line moved forward. It occurred to Nikolai that his cleaner didn't want to be seen if it could be helped. It was the same reason he was speaking Russian. The fewer people who might understand them, the better. "I'll keep that in mind."
"What's so important that you had to see me on a Sunday? At the zoo?"
"It's happening." Kostya's voice was low and quiet. "Tonight."
It?
The hit.
Nikolai nearly bolted from the line. He needed to find Vivian. He needed to stow her somewhere safe.
"Easy," Kostya urged. "It's not your wife."
His gut lurched. "The little girl?"
He shook his head. "It was someone else entirely."
The line moved forward, and Nikolai stepped up to buy the water. Bottles in hand, he stepped around the side of the café with Kostya. "Who?"
Kostya glanced left and right. "Holly Phillips."
Nikolai couldn't have been more shocked to hear that name. "Holly? Your neighbor? Vivian's stylist? What does have—?"
And then it hit him.
"Phillips." He said slowly. "Filipova." He closed his eyes and tried to remember what he had read in the dossier. "Tatiana's father had a sister. She died when they were teenagers."
"I don't think so," Kostya countered. "I think she was taken in for training."
"Training? As what?"
Kostya leveled a look that said everything.
"No." Nikolai shook his head. "That's impossible. You think Tatiana's aunt became KGB?"
"I've been digging into Holly's past."
Nikolai didn't have to ask why. Kostya might be able to hide his feelings from everyone else, but Nikolai was the world's champion when it came to pining after an unattainable woman. He could see it in Kostya's face anytime Holly's name was mentioned. "What did you find?"
"Her mother has an interesting history. Her story reminds me of my parents. I think she was an agent sent here deep under cover. I think she tried to go home during perestroika, but she realized she had been gone too long. It was never going to work."
"And then?"
"And then she came back to Houston and realized she was pregnant." Kostya stepped closer and lowered his voice to a hiss. "By Maksim."
The two bottles of water Nikolai held in his right hand slipped free and banged on the sidewalk. Holly Phillips was Maksim's daughter? Was that possible? Someone in the cartel clearly believed she was the daughter of someone important.
Nikolai crouched down and picked up the bottles. He stood up and stared at Kostya. "If what you say is true, Holly is—"
"In extreme danger," Kostya interrupted.
"Yes," Nikolai agreed, "but I was going to say that she's my sister."
"Half," Kostya corrected.
"Half. Full. It doesn't matter to me. She's my blood." He moved closer and dropped his voice. "No one touches my family."
Kostya's taut expression relaxed. "What are my orders?"
Nikolai embraced the brutal, violent bastard buried within him. It was high-fucking-time he remembered how he had earned his position as the biggest, strongest, most vicious boss in the city. "Give Hector and Romero the green light. I want it done. All of it. Tonight."
"I'll make sure it's quick. Clean," he added.
Thinking of Hadley Rivera and the heart surgery she faced in the morning, he said, "Take care of Finn when it's done. Make sure he's protected. Tell him that I hope his girl's surgery goes well."
"It's done."
"Make sure our boys know that they need to be seen tonight. All night," he added. "Ten needs to be at Samovar. Boychenko, too. Solid alibis for all of them." He held Kostya's gaze. "Be careful."
"Don't worry about me, boss." Kostya disappeared into the crowd like a practiced spy.
Nikolai's mind reeled as he returned to the shaded table where Vivian, Galina and Vladimir waited. A sister! I have a sister!
Why hadn't Maksim told him? Why hadn't Maksim asked him to keep an eye on her? Was Holly's mother the woman who had given the dossier to Eric Santos? Why? What did she expect to gain from that?
"Hey!" Vivian rubbed his arm as he sat down next to her. "Where did you go? One second I saw you in line and the next you had disappeared."
"I dropped a bottle and had to chase it down." He waved one of the dirty bottles to prove his tale. Later, he would tell her everything. Right now, he had to be careful.
"Oh. Here." She plucked some napkins from the dispenser on the table and wiped down the two bottles. He handed the two bottles he hadn't dropped to Galina and Vladimir. When finished wiping the plastic down, she titled her head to study him. "You sure you're okay?"
"It's the heat."
She smiled. "It's the vodka baking out of your pores."
"Funny." He kissed the top of her head. Relief surged through him. She and the baby were going to be safe. Hector and Romero would stage their coup. Lorenzo Guzman would fall. Kostya would keep Holly Phillips—my sister!—safe. Vivian and the baby would no longer have to look over their shoulders every time they went out in public.
Nikolai twisted the cap off his water and took a long, cold drink. Deep down inside, he doubted any of it would be that simple. Deep down inside, he had a sinking feeling his whole life was about to be upended.
*
Nikolai was keeping something from me. I focused on my conversation with Galina, but I sneaked little glances at my husband. Outwardly, he looked calm and relaxed, but I knew him too well to fall for that one. The slight tension around his mouth, and the drawn lines at the corners of his eyes told me everything I needed to know. He was keeping a big secret, probably something dangerous and terrible.
I trusted that he would spill it as soon as we were alone. I didn't think interrogating him in the Houston Zoo was the best way to get my answers anyway. Whatever it was that had him wound up so taut wasn't something I wanted to hear right now. It would ruin our afternoon and things were going so well.
"There's Benny, Dimitri and Sofia." Nikolai raised a hand and waved. "Dima!"
Our friends descended on the table with a stroller and piles of baby gear. Soon, we were walking through the zoo again. I found myself sandwiched between Galina and Benny. The conversation naturally turned to children. I glanced back at the men and smiled at the sight of Nikolai holding Sofia while Dimitri and Vladimir talked business. He cradled her against his chest, one hand gently cupping the back of her head, and whispered to her as he showed her the chimpanzees.
My heart swelled, and I looked away before he caught me staring. Benny must have seen me watching him because she bumped my hip and winked. "He's a natural."
Catching a glimpse of Nikolai in a fatherly role filled me with the strongest sense of hope for our future and for our son. We had to break the cycle. We couldn't allow our son to succumb to the same life that had taken both of his grandfathers and his father. We had to raise him to understand that the underworld wasn't good enough for him. He could do better. He would do better.
The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent in the company of friends. We left the zoo before five and were walking into Samovar just before eight. Nikolai left my side to do his usual tour of the restaurant. He stopped to talk to a loud table where a number of his men sat. Ten, Boychenko, Ilya, Artyom, Danny and a handful of men I recognized nodded as he addressed them. They were noticeably quieter when he left.
While Galina and Vladimir headed for the rear of the restaurant where our large party was seated, I broke away and made the rounds of the Sunday crowd. These were the regulars that kept the business thriving. They were the same faces I had served that very first Sunday I had worked at the restaurant.
And all of them wanted to get up and hug me and kiss my cheeks and rub my belly. I wasn’t thrilled by all of the tummy rubbing, but I had learned to deal with it. No one meant any harm by it. They were all just so excited for us.
Unable to help myself, I pitched in when I noticed that Lidia and Jessica were getting slammed. As I picked up a tray of appetizers, I did a quick headcount of the staff and realized they were two waitresses short for the night. With our huge party in the back, they were going to be rushing and frazzled by the night's end.
"What do you think you're doing?" Nikolai swept in with a click of his teeth and took the tray. "You're pregnant. You can't carry this."
"It's some caviar, blinis, roasted potatoes and olivje. It's not like I was carrying a cinderblock."
"You aren't supposed to carry anything but that baby." He kissed me right there in front of everyone. A chorus of chuckles rose from the tables closest to us. "Go. Sit down."
I rolled my eyes and deliberately took the longest route back to our table. I made sure to stop and chat with as many guests as possible. Eventually Nikolai joined me on my meandering route. By the time we reached our party, they were already enjoying their appetizers and knocking back their drinks.
Sergei and Bianca looked adorable together, their brand new wedding bands so bright and shiny. Vladimir and Galina sat on either side of the happily married couple and created a perfect picture of the modern family.
Ivan had his brawny arm slung across the back of Erin's chair. He grazed his fingertips up and down her neck. She stole the caviar from his plate and earned a little pinch that made her yelp.
Dimitri and Benny relaxed and enjoyed the conversation while Yuri and Lena played with Sofia. I noticed the gentle yearning in Yuri's reflection as he amused Sofia with a noisy toy. Lena watched her billionaire boyfriend with a curious stare. She leaned her head against his shoulder and tickled Sofia's tummy. Yuri pressed his lips to the top of Lena's head, and I began to wonder how long it would be before Yuri finally asked her to marry him.
Surrounded by our large makeshift family, I had never been happier. That contented happiness followed us home. Galina and Vladi
mir left the restaurant with Sergei and Bianca so we had the house to ourselves. After the way Nikolai had ravished me last night, I had a feeling I was really going to be in for it tonight. My stomach did a wild, excited flip at that prospect.
Upstairs in our bedroom, I switched on the nightly news and started to undress. Naked except for a silk dressing robe, I went through my nightly routine. I had just finished brushing, flossing and rinsing when I poked my head out of the bathroom to see what the forecast looked like for my morning jog.
But the weatherman wasn't standing in his usual spot. The television showed chaotic scenes of flashing police lights and yellow crime scene tape. I spotted Eric in the background of one shot. He had a grim look on his face.
I crossed the bedroom, grabbed the remote from the dresser and dropped down onto the upholstered bench at the foot of our bed. I pressed the volume button until I could hear every word that was being said.
"…sources within the department are calling this a massacre unlike any seen in Houston history," the anchorwoman said. "There are unconfirmed reports of similar gangland-style hits taking place all over portions of Mexico controlled by the Guzman cartel. Reports indicate that this man—Lorenzo Guzman—once the richest and most powerful drug lord in Mexico, has disappeared. It appears that factions within the cartel have staged a bloody coup."
"To recap," the anchorman seated to her left interjected, "seventeen confirmed homicides have taken place in Houston tonight. All victims were tied directly to the cartel that controls the drug trade in and around the city."
Movement in the doorway of our bedroom drew my attention. Nikolai leaned against the frame and watched me. With the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows and the buttons undone almost to his navel, all those tattoos he had earned over the years were plainly visible. They were the marks Maksim, his own father, had ordered to be put onto his skin so that everyone would know what he had done for the family.
My gaze drifted back to the television screen where so much mayhem and carnage flashed before me. I was horrified that all of this had been happening while we were laughing and eating with our friends. Nikolai hadn't pulled the trigger. He hadn't used his own two hands to do this, but he had given permission to the men who had compiled this list of hits.