by Rose, Bella
“Uh huh,” Vlad said in disgust. He turned and started walking out of the dining room.
“Take today and go play with your teacher!” Sokolov called after him.
Vlad wondered some days if his life wouldn’t be much more pleasant if his father could somehow drop dead of cholesterol poisoning.
Chapter Nine
Mary couldn’t believe that her first phone call after the police had let her leave the school would be to Vlad, but it was. Fortunately Vlad was listed as Iaonn’s emergency contact after his parents in the school’s main database, because the thief had taken Ioann’s file. It took him less that ten minutes to arrive at her apartment and she was so glad to see him.
“Mary.” He walked right in without waiting for an invitation and wrapped his arms around her. He was muttering something in Russian, and then he finally switched to English. “I’m just so glad that you’re all right.”
“I’m fine,” she assured him. “Just a little shaken up.”
She gazed outside at the unseasonably warm Saturday afternoon. Several of her neighbors were outdoors. Children played on the sidewalks, and she could see someone throwing a Frisbee for their dog in the little corner park. It was so incredibly incongruent with what had happened to her just a few hours before.
“Here.” Vlad firmly shut her front door and then led her to the sofa. “Tell me what happened. I want to know everything.”
She perched on the edge of the cushions, feeling shaky and off balance and hating the sensation of being so out of control. She gave Vlad a sassy grin, needing to make light of the situation. “I don’t know if I should tell you or not. You can’t just rush off and pop someone to make it better you know.”
The skin around his dark eyes was tight with tension. He looked ready to pounce. “If I thought I could make this go away by popping someone, I would.”
That sobered Mary fairly quickly. She laid her hand on his arm. “I’m going to be fine. I’m not some china doll that’s going to crack just because of one little incident.”
“Tell me what this person said?” Vlad relaxed back into the sofa and tugged her into his lap.
Mary’s first instinct was to wave away the offer of comfort. She’d never needed it before. Yet it felt so good to cuddle close to Vlad and let him put his arms around her for comfort. He was warm and solid and she felt so incredibly safe with him, which made no sense since he was probably far more dangerous than her assailant.
“Mary.” There was a warning note in his voice. “Please tell me.”
“It was dark in the classroom. The windows there aren’t exactly great. Sometimes I think they don’t want the students staring outside instead of paying attention. Without the lights on I didn’t get a look at the guy.”
“But you know it was a man?”
“Definitely a man.”
“Did he speak with an accent?”
Mary thought that through. “Maybe a hint of something, but it wasn’t Russian. It just sounded like someone from here with a really pronounced Boston accent.”
“And he referenced your students specifically.”
It suddenly made sense why Vlad was so concerned. “You think Ioann could be in danger. Is that why you’re so concerned about this? Because his file was the only one stolen?”
“Ioann is one thing. Using you to get at him is something else entirely.” Vlad was staring off into space and he didn’t look as if he were thinking about anything pleasant.
“The man said that children with ties to very powerful people have much that he’s interested in. Then he told me not to get between him and what he wants.” Mary shivered. “I just can’t imagine why he’d go after little kids. These are second graders! What can they possibly have that he wants?”
“Leverage,” Vlad murmured. “He’s looking for leverage against their parents.” He touched her face. “Did the police seem really concerned? Like they were going to get right on this? Or did they give you the feeling they had better things to do?”
“Funny you should mention that,” Mary mused. “I had to call Principal Johnston up because there had been a break-in on school property. There are a lot of procedures they have to go through. And he was the one who mentioned that it irritated him that the police obviously weren’t taking me seriously.”
“Is that right,” Vlad murmured.
A strange possibility popped into her mind. “You don’t think the police might be in on it, do you?”
“It’s very possible.” Vlad ran his fingers through her hair. He unfastened the tie holding it up on her head and the long mass tumbled around her shoulders.
“I thought stuff like that only happened in movies.” She rubbed her cheek on his arm.
“No. There’s a very powerful family in Boston called the Orsinis. They run a good portion of the action down in Dorchester. A few cops here in South Boston are on their payroll because they also have some really high ranking law enforcement officials in their pockets.”
“That’s all fine and well, but what would the Orsinis want with Ioann?” Mary wondered.
“Like I said, leverage. Leverage against my family.”
“So what do we do?” she demanded.
Vlad placed an affectionate kiss on her forehead. “We don’t do anything. I’m going to go check around and see if I can find out why the Orsinins would have involved themselves in our business. You are going to stay here and rest.”
“I don’t want to rest,” Mary argued. “I’m perfectly fine. This was my classroom they violated and my students that are being threatened. I want to help.”
“Mary, if anything happens to you because of all of this I will never forgive myself.” Vlad stroked her cheek. “And I will destroy the city to find whoever hurts you.”
“That seems a little extreme considering we sort of just started seeing each other,” she pointed out.
The way he held her made her feel incredibly precious. She’d never experienced anything so profound with another person. “That might be true, but you’re mine. And I take that very seriously.”
***
Vlad stalked through the Orsinis’ Italian restaurant in Dorchester with an obvious chip on his shoulder. When Mary had observed that the restaurant he ran in Southie was pretty much a mafia cliché, she’d had no idea how right she was.
Being a Saturday afternoon and well before the dinner hour, the place was nearly deserted. In fact there weren’t any actual customers. The only patrons hanging about were Orsinis, both made men and the lower level lackeys that could be found a dime a dozen all over the city.
“Well, well, well,” a familiar voice drawled. “If it isn’t Vladimir Sokolov. And he’s alone too. How arrogant.”
“Giovanni,” Vlad said with a nod. “I can’t imagine why I would need to bring anyone with me given that I am just here to talk.”
“Talk?” Giovanni Orsini raised both bushy black eyebrows. “When has Vlad ever been one to talk first?”
“Since now.”
“Do tell.” Giovanni waved to a chair opposite his at a table near the bar.
Vlad took the seat, making certain to turn his back to a group of Orsini men. It was both a gesture of his lack of bad intentions, and to show he had no fear of them.
Giovanni laughed. “You always were a bold bastard with brass balls to match.”
Vlad grunted. There really wasn’t any point in commenting on that compliment. “I’ve come to ask if you or your men had anything to do with a break-in at an elementary school in South Boston.”
“An elementary school?” Giovanni gestured for one of his bartenders to pour Vlad a drink. “I cannot imagine why we would be interested in anything at a school.”
“My younger brother is a student there,” Vlad explained. “The break-in occurred in his classroom and his school file was the only thing taken.”
“Then I would assume that whoever perpetuated the break-in has a bone to pick with your father,” Giovanni commented in his typically lazy
tone of voice.
Many people took Giovanni Orsini to be a foolish or stupid man because he spoke slowly and often seemed to not be paying close attention. Over the last several years Vlad had gained a healthy respect for the man’s razor-sharp mind. Giovanni might want people to think he was slow or unconcerned, but in reality he was anything but.
“The cops showed a decided lack of interest in the case,” Vlad stated calmly.
Giovanni nodded, his expression serious. “So naturally you came to speak with me because all negative things done by the cops in the city are done by my order.”
“You might understand why this is where I chose to begin my investigation, but I’m not accusing you of anything.” Vlad kept his tone bored. “That would be pointless since I hardly have any evidence against you or your organization.”
This little speech earned Vlad a nod of appreciation from Giovanni. He seemed to take a moment or two longer to process what he’d heard. In the meantime Vlad threw back his shot of vodka and nodded his thanks to the bartender.
“As it happens,” Giovanni began slowly. “I did know about this incident, but only because one of the investigating officers is the husband of my bartender’s cousin.”
Vlad acknowledged the source with a nod.
“He mentioned that they—the officers mind you—had a belief that once the Sokolovs were notified of this breach, that they would be handling it themselves.”
“Ah,” Vlad murmured. “So the disinterest on their part was intended to be for my benefit instead of meant as a slight.”
“Exactly.”
Vlad didn’t believe that for one second, but he was willing to let it slide for the moment. “You have children, Giovanni. Have you had anyone break into your child’s school to steal their records?”
“My children attend Catholic school, but no.” Giovanni’s face slid from its usual expression of disinterest to something resembling worry. “It is trouble though, to think that someone might be willing to use children as collateral for something.”
“Yes, it is,” Vlad agreed. It was more than troubling. It was downright scary.
The front door of the restaurant burst open. Vlad leaped to his feet. So did Giovanni and almost every other person sitting in the dining room. A man stumbled inside the restaurant. One side of his face was swollen, and his lips were a bloody ruin. His hands were bleeding as though he had repeatedly fallen on his way there.
“Giovanni!” the man cried out. He collapsed at the Orsini man’s feet, sobbing as though he had completely lost his mind.
Vlad couldn’t tell what Giovanni was thinking. The man had completely closed his face. His jaw was iron and his lips were thinned into a tight line. Finally he leaned down to touch the broken man on the shoulder. “Petruchio, what happened?”
“I took the children for a walk in the park this morning,” the man wheezed. “I wanted them to be out of doors on a beautiful day like this.”
“Yes?” Giovanni prodded.
“Then he came.”
Giovanni fisted his hands at his sides. “Who came?”
“The Man in Black. That is all I saw.” Petruchio was sobbing as though his entire world had come to an end. “I tried, Giovanni. I tried!”
“Tell me what happened.” Giovanni’s tone was hard as stone and colder than ice.
“He took your Jonathan.” Petruchio lifted his battered face and Vlad could see tears streaming down his cheeks. “He took your son.”
Giovanni’s olive complexion went white. He turned to Vlad. “If you have any ideas, any about this man. I want to know. I will not rest until I have my son back. Even if I have to tear this city to the ground.”
Chapter Ten
It was nearly midnight when Vlad knocked on Mary’s door. She knew it was him because she had seen him approach through the bay window. Most of her day had been spent sitting in the padded window seat. For some reason she felt better wrapped in a warm blanket in a place where she could see the danger coming.
“What are you doing here?” Mary asked softly, ushering him inside and closing the door behind him. “It’s so late! Even mafia bodyguards need their beauty rest.”
“I had to see you.”
He took her in his arms and held her so close and so tightly that Mary instantly knew something else had happened. She wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned into the contact. She didn’t know what she could offer, but if comfort was what he sought then she would do her best to provide it.
“Tell me,” she whispered.
“One of the other families lost a son today.” Vlad swept her into his arms without another word and began the walk back to her bedroom.
The bottom dropped out of Mary’s stomach. “Lost?”
“He was stolen,” Vlad corrected. “From a park. He had a guard with him. The man was beaten very badly.”
“Oh my God.” Mary put her hands over her mouth. “That’s horrible!”
“There were other kids there, though.” Vlad seemed to be reasoning this through. She imagined that he’d been trying to find a pattern or a solution all day long. “Giovanni’s other children weren’t touched. Just the eldest.”
“But Ioann is the youngest.”
Vlad glanced down right before he set her on her bed. His face was a mask of uncertainty. “I know.”
Vlad began stripping out of his clothing. The bedside lamp was on. Tonight she was completely sober and in control of her mental faculties. That meant she was getting a delightful view of his beautiful body.
Since the moment she had first seen him, she had been fascinated by his tattoos. Now she was getting a full look at them in the light as he unashamedly got naked in front of her.
“Vlad?”
He seemed distracted, which was understandable. Yet she needed him to focus away from the horror and relax. So Mary reached out and brushed her fingertips over the crow tattooed across the right side of his ribs.
“What do all of these mean?” Mary asked.
He seemed surprised. “I must confess that many of them don’t mean anything at all. Most of the time I forget I even have them.”
“What do the words say?” She pointed to the phrase in Cyrillic that peeked out of the collar of his shirt.
“It says faithless,” he explained. “It is to remind me that most people are.”
“That’s not encouraging.” She felt almost disturbed by his jaded outlook. “What about the crow?”
“I like crows.” He shrugged. “I believe they’re couriers of the dead. They carry the souls of the living to the land of the dead.”
Mary stared at the unseeing eyes of the black bird. “I’ve always heard they’re tricksters who lead unsuspecting people astray.”
“That too.” He looked pointedly down at her. “You’re wearing far too much clothing.”
She glanced down at her clothes. “I have on a bathrobe and pajamas. How is that too much to go to bed?”
“You should be naked.”
“I never sleep naked.”
“You will.”
He playfully grabbed the belt of her robe and tugged it loose. The garment fell open and she let it slide right off. Vlad tossed it aside and reached for her pants. Hooking his fingers in the waistband of the loose pajamas, he began dragging them down her legs.
Mary giggled and rolled, trying to keep hold of them. In the end though, she really didn’t put forth much effort. Vlad easily removed her pants leaving her in her panties and an old T-shirt.
“I told you that I’m not a very sexy woman,” Mary reminded him.
The way he was looking at her though, it made her melt on the inside. Vlad put both palms on the insides of her bare thighs and gazed up at her with so much desire in his eyes that Mary began to tremble.
“Do you say this nonsense because you don’t have the voluptuous figure of a fertility goddess?” he asked.
“I suppose.” She shrugged, uncomfortable with this topic even though she’d been the one to bring it
up. “I know my breasts are small and I don’t have much in the way of curves. That’s all.”
“That doesn’t mean that a man wouldn’t find you attractive.”
She thought of some of her near encounters in the past. “That’s not how a lot of guys see it.”
“Then a lot of guys are stupid,” Vlad announced.
“No argument here.”
He growled and climbed onto her bed. He rolled to his side, taking her with him. When he had settled on his back he helped her to sit astride his body. The position was unfamiliar, but not uncomfortable. She wiggled a little. He groaned. That was when Mary realized that she could feel the hard ridge of his cock right against the crotch of her panties.
“Does this feel good to you?” she asked, staring down at his handsome face and trying to gauge what he might be thinking.
“Yes.” He put his hands on her hips. “Although not as good as it would feel if you were naked.”
She got up on her knees and squirmed to get her underwear off. It was awkward, but she finally managed to scoot it down her legs and get rid of it. The action was very likely not at all sexy, but somehow she felt like it didn’t matter right now.
When Mary returned to her position astride his body, she felt the shaft of his cock nestle between the fleshy nether lips of her sex. The sensation was exquisite. Everything tingled and she felt a rush of creamy fluid soak Vlad’s cock.
“Is that okay?” she asked, truly curious.
SHE WANTED TO know if that was okay? Vlad struggled not to lose control then and there. Her core was hot and wet against him and he couldn’t help but arch his hips to grind himself against her pussy.
“That feels so good,” she murmured.
Her eyes slid closed and she put her hands on his chest. Vlad grabbed the hem of her T-shirt and began inching it north to get rid of it. With her T-shirt off he got a wonderful view of her breasts bouncing slowly with every motion of her body. She was right. They weren’t huge. They were perfect. Vlad cupped them in his hands and gently caressed her nipples with his thumbs. The tiny buds grew hard and pebbled into points. When he rolled them between his thumbs and index fingers, Mary started to gasp and moan.