by Em Petrova
But that was the least of her worries. The Bratva allowed her enough control to make a no-drug rule, but they frowned upon her kicking out the girls that made them big bucks. Not to mention that her bouncer had been arrested. How long before the Bratva invaded Ruby’s Place and showed her who really held the power? As if she wasn’t totally, painfully aware.
She finished scrubbing one table and moved to the next.
Usually she relished this time of night when she was done serving food and drinks. The place still held the magic of her grandmother, but she only saw that when she could commune with the space in silence.
The walls bore pictures collected over the years. Local scenery and groups of fishermen. Big nets and huge catches of the day spilled out over the deck of some ship. A few of them, she recalled the moments, such as a huge snowstorm that had dropped so many feet on White Fog that she wasn’t allowed outside for days because the snow was up over her head.
One thing interrupted her after-hours solace, and that was the telltale knock of the male visitors. The mafia sent men here to slake their needs, and the girls upstairs accommodated. The fact they believed they must sell their bodies in trade for a new life cut her to the soul. What could she do but try to protect them?
She’d only been protecting the other girls when she threw Jenicka out of the house for doing drugs. She’d seen it early on—one girl got roped into snorting coke or shooting heroin and pretty soon she had a whole house full of pretty, strung-out zombies.
It hurt her to toss girls out, but she couldn’t compromise herself—or her father.
He felt farther from her every day. Seeing him on the screen beaten and battered sliced her like a knife. But after so much time had passed, she started to lock those feelings in a box, one only pried opened when Big Mike or Max reminded her of why she was doing this.
Working off a debt.
The rest of her life was a daily grind. Fatigue, burnout and having little to fill up her soul.
Then Elias walked through the door.
Upon first sight, she felt a pull to the man. It wasn’t only lust or his rugged good looks, either. She’d fought it. And given in. Let herself feel…and hope.
That was the scariest part. In her lifetime, she’d learned that hope was the ugliest four-letter word in the human language. It could—would—be crushed.
Those stolen moments when Elias had pleasured her and given her tender looks had done more to lift her spirits than anything in her life. With him, she felt renewed and able to keep trudging up her arduous, rocky path.
A light tapping noise made her freeze mid-swipe over the table.
She abandoned her task and hurried through the kitchen to let him in.
She didn’t know his name, but he was a truck driver who came into town every three days or so, carrying loads of fish and crab to be sold in other parts of Alaska. Every time he showed up, he requested Polina.
“Come in.”
He tugged at the bill of his broken-in hat. “I was hoping Polina would be available tonight.”
Ruby nodded. “She’s up in her room. You remember the way.”
He slipped a handful of bills to Ruby. She tucked these in her apron and returned to scrubbing tables. She didn’t finish the first one when she heard footsteps on the stairs again.
She glanced up to see the man coming down. “Polina isn’t there.”
Shock hit her. Not there? What did he mean? She rushed past him and took the stairs at a fast pace, reaching the top in seconds. She strode straight to Polina’s room. Some of the other women shared rooms, because they were so filled up, but not Polina.
She didn’t bother to knock and threw it open wide.
Fucking hell, he’s right.
She ran to the top of the stairs and called down to the man, “Next visit’s on the house. Get out.”
Then she scurried to the first bedroom. Down the line on each side of the hallway, she knocked loudly. Girls started to appear, half-asleep and in various states of undress. One had a man in her bed, and she’d twisted the sheet around her body, but her lips were swollen, and she wore a bite mark on her shoulder.
“I need a head count! Start counting off!”
Ruby’s mind whirled as she wondered what could have happened to Polina. No men had come for her today, so she couldn’t have been taken. She might have run off, though. Who could blame her? Living in a room, giving her body or cleaning bathrooms to earn her keep. The dreams she’d arrived in America with were crushed long ago.
The final number reached Ruby’s ears. “One is missing.”
“Who is it?” Anushka asked.
“Polina. Has anyone seen her?”
Several girls shook their heads, and a few answered with no.
“Go back to bed.” She pointed to the girl with the bite on her shoulder. “You—don’t let him hurt you. If he does, you kick him in the balls and throw him out. Understand? You’re strong.”
She nodded, a new gleam in her eye that left Ruby with no question as to how long that man would remain in her bed.
Hurrying downstairs again, Ruby made a quick search of the place. Polina hadn’t made a midnight snack run to the kitchen, and she wasn’t out in the garden either. She wasn’t here.
Heart racing, she snatched her phone from her jeans pocket and dialed the only person she knew could help her—Elias.
He picked up immediately.
“There’s a girl missing,” she announced without preamble.
“We know.”
Her jaw dropped, and she stared blindly in terror at her surroundings. “You know?”
“Yes.”
What had they done? Were they trying to get her father killed? Or her? Anger hit, with the team claiming to help her and also aimed at herself. She never should have gotten involved with them. They were nothing but trouble, and their goal wasn’t her goal.
She found her voice, but it sounded like sandpaper. “You have no idea…what you’ve done.”
Too angry to go on, she hung up on Elias.
She shoved the phone in her pocket and started to turn. Something struck her cheek—hard. Stunned, she stumbled back. Had she walked into an open cupboard door?
Another blow threw her across the room. Warm, sticky blood trickled from her lip.
Her mind reeled in pain and shock. She had to push her legs under her and push herself up off the floor. Oh God—the Bratva had found out everything and were in her kitchen, weren’t they? Cool tile underneath her palms grounded her. She tipped her head back and peered around.
The man standing in front of her, legs braced wide and a snarl on his lips, was very familiar. Mikhail.
“Big Mike—” she started.
“Shut up!” he commanded in a booming voice. “You lost a woman, and that’s worth more than a beating from the men who own you and your weak father.”
Pain radiated through her cheek and eye as the bruising pooled beneath the skin from Big Mike’s massive dinner-plate sized hand. He wore knuckle rings too, and one had cut her skin on the second blow.
Her insides shrank as she processed what he was saying. “She ran off. We have to go find her.”
He glared at her. “Do you really believe that?”
She nodded.
But did she? Not after what Elias said.
They knew Polina left, and they knew where she was. Had they taken her? Or somehow persuaded her to become another informant?
The special operatives might think they were trying to help her, but the truth was they’d made things so much worse.
“Mikhail. Please stop. I’ll find out where she is. Just…give me time.”
“Do you think your father has time?”
Panic was hard to feel these days. After threatening her with killing her father so many times, her body had stopped feeling it so keenly. But this time she did—right down to her toes.
She shoved to her feet and swayed. Catching hold of the counter, she attempted to steady herself. A trickle
of warmth down her cheek reminded her that his ring had cut her.
With nothing left inside her but her iron will, she met Big Mike’s eyes. “I will get Polina back.”
He stared at her for a moment that was weighted with the promise of violence. “The rest of the girls go as soon as I can arrange it.”
He turned to lumber out of the kitchen. She watched him go, holding her tears at bay. She wasn’t a crier, and over the past year she’d been drowning in this mess, she had almost forgotten how to. But a single tear slipped from the corner of her eye.
She let it slide down her face and drop from her jaw. Then she shut down the waterworks. That was all the pity she’d allow herself because she had too much to do.
First on the list, find Elias and kick his ass. Damn those guys for screwing everything up. He told her to trust him, but how could she? He only saw the situation from his own angle, not hers. His father wasn’t being held prisoner. The women entrusted to her and who she’d vowed to protect didn’t matter as much to him.
She needed to find Polina, as well as worry about when the Russians would sell off the women under her roof. Her face hurt like hell, and the bruising sent throbs of pain to her skull.
If she didn’t take care of herself first, what good would she be to anyone else in her care?
She walked to the cupboard and pulled out a bottle of painkillers. She took two and then moved to the freezer for an ice pack. Last and most important to her self-care, she walked out to the bar and poured herself a drink. In the silence and darkness, she hoped the alcohol burned away some of her fear, because she had a lot to do.
Gasper’s hands shook, and they never shook. He was rock solid every second of his life.
Except this one.
Ruby was in trouble—he knew it from the edge in her voice on the phone. More than anger infused her tone, and he had to reach her—now, before something bad happened.
He scrubbed a hand over his face to gain a grip on himself before making the request to his captain to go to her. What he feared most was Penn telling him no. Gasper didn’t know what would happen then.
Lungs burning, muscles stiff, he stalked over to his captain. “Permission to go to Ruby’s Place, sir.”
Penn eyed him. “Denied.”
“Denied?” His voice came out low and deadly.
Hearing it, his captain squared up with him. “Yes, denied,” he barked.
“Permission to speak freely.”
“Not granted. We need you to take the woman to the safehouse. There isn’t time.”
Penn was a hard man, but he was fair. He had the ability to see a situation from several angles, which was what made him such a good leader. So why was he being such a hard-ass right now? And on this matter?
“Captain, Ruby just called. She’s going to get in trouble for that girl leaving.” When Broshears had cornered Polina and convinced her to come with them and they’d keep her safe, Gasper hadn’t been in on it until it was too late, and the girl left.
He fisted his hands when Penn gave him a long look that told him that his orders would be followed, or Gasper wouldn’t like the consequences.
“Goddammit, Penn! Listen to me!”
An arm banded around his chest and dragged him off a few feet, out of swinging distance. Gasper wasn’t so far gone as to throw a punch at his captain, but it was damn close. Why? He had to reach Ruby, that was why.
“Let me go! Shadow, goddammit! Penn, you know how this feels! You feel the same for Cora!”
His buddy’s grip didn’t ease up as he hauled him several more feet away. “Get hold of yourself, man!”
“He knows what the mafia will do to her if they find out she lost a woman! They’ll kill her father. Kill her!” His rough tone ended on a rasp, and across the room, Penn gave him a long look.
Gasper continued to fight. “Let me go to her! I need to make sure she’s safe. Another man can take the woman to the safehouse. It doesn’t need to be me.” He struggled free of Shadow’s hold and stormed up to his captain.
He gave him a pointed look. “I have to go to her.”
“You’re too fucking close to this, Jack.”
He shook his head. “This isn’t a matter of close. It’s protecting our informant. We can guard the perimeter of the building, but that doesn’t mean we can see what’s happening inside. That bouncer’s still in there with her. Men are coming and going all night long. Who’s to say one isn’t the Bratva coming with an order to take her out?”
He didn’t want to even think the damn words, but they were out now, and truth rang in the air.
Penn scrubbed a hand over his head and down his face as if something he’d said finally hit home. Maybe when he brought up Cora. “Fine. Go. Keep me informed.”
“Thank you, sir. I’m sorry, sir.”
He ran the entire distance to Ruby’s Place, breath puffing and his head whirling with the possible ramifications for his actions. Had he fought so hard because of a gut instinct or did he really just need to see with his own eyes that the woman he cared about was safe?
Gasper didn’t often have to use his skill of lock-picking, but it was like riding a bike. The minute he flicked upward on the inner workings, it clicked open. He pocketed the metal tool and entered Ruby’s Place through the kitchen.
A light had been left on over the sink, but shadows swallowed every corner. On edge, he searched the rooms off the kitchen too. At Ruby’s room, he paused. Walking in on a woman as tough as Ruby when she was asleep could spell disaster for him. He wouldn’t put it past her to sleep with a weapon beneath her pillow.
The fact she had to ward off thugs like those bouncers burned through him, leaving his hands shaking with fury.
He clasped Ruby’s bedroom door handle and gently pushed it inward. Luckily, it didn’t creak, but that didn’t matter in the end because she wasn’t in there.
Where was she?
Since the bathroom stood open and showed him she wasn’t there either, he continued toward the restaurant and bar.
The dark space drew him in. He felt her presence like a wild animal can sense water.
He could creep as silently as a predator, yet he wanted to make her aware he’d come.
She looked up at the sound of his boots on the floor. When she turned her head, he saw she held something against her cheek.
He lunged forward. “Christ, are you hurt?” He reached her in a few long strides and dropped to his knees. Lifting his hand toward her cheek, he searched her face.
Ice—she was holding ice to her face.
White rage shot through his system as he tenderly guided her hand and the ice pack away from her cheek. The delicate curve was swollen, and a bruise darkened beneath her pale skin, apparent even in the darkness of the room.
She was cut too.
“Who did this to you?” His fury was barely banked in his tone.
Her stormy eyes lit on his. “You’re shaking.”
Not aware until this moment that he was letting his emotions get the better of him, he slammed them into a vault and locked it. He couldn’t be weak—Ruby needed him. His team relied on him.
“You can’t let them get to you too, Elias,” she whispered.
So he was right about his earlier thought that she was looking out for him. Throwing up a shield between him and those bouncers in order to keep them from trying to rip his head off… At the same time she had to keep peace with the assholes, didn’t she? How much longer did her father have? Days? Hours? He might already be dead.
He glided to his feet and drew her up with him. Though his instinct was to pick her up and keep on walking, he simply took her hand and led her to her bedroom.
She came with him, her fingers chilled in his grasp and infuriating him even more. He hadn’t protected her. He was going to kill whoever hurt her.
In her room, he lit the lamp on the bedside table and made her sit on the mattress. Once again, he knelt before her to examine her face. “Who did this to you?”
“You know I’ll find out.”
“It’s just a bruise.”
Looking at her, he didn’t buy that bullshit for a minute. Pain and fear swirled in the depths of her eyes. A noise erupted from him, rough and grating, and he swooped to his feet, sat on the bed and pulled her into his lap.
She didn’t fight him and curled against his chest. He dragged in a deep breath of her scent. He was falling in love with her. All signs pointed to the fact he wouldn’t be able to walk away from her ever again.
“Let me get you out of here,” he pleaded quietly.
“No. Just hold me tonight, Elias.” She tipped her face up, and he lost himself in a whirlwind of feelings that tightened his chest and set him free all at the same time.
Tenderly, he guided a lock of red hair off her cheek to look closely at the injury. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here to protect you.”
She lay her palm over his heart. “I know you’re doing what you feel is right. I can’t argue with that since I do the same thing with my business. Besides…you’re here now.”
In a smooth maneuver, he lay her on the bed and stretched out beside her. His body reacted to her curves, cock already growing hard, but he didn’t come here for sex.
She had other ideas, though. She leaned in and kissed him. The soft brush of her mouth drove him crazy, but he held completely still while she explored his lips and touched her tongue to his.
A growl rumbled in his chest. As passion took hold of them both, she threw herself atop him, and he grabbed her ass. She rocked into his erection, silently begging with her mouth in harsh sweeping kisses.
She needed comfort, and he had everything to give.
They stripped each other. She latched on to his neck and then drew a path of kisses down to his chest. Each warm flick of her tongue across his skin ignited something far deeper than lust.
Threading his fingers into her hair, he watched her move down his body and envelop his cock in her sweet mouth. Need roared in his ears. His balls tightened to his body and precum leaked from the tip of his cock to wet her tongue.