“Carl, sir.”
“Mm. And how do you like working for Mr. Kozlov, Carl?” Nix was taking a stab that the man was employed by Ivan directly and not the building. Or the more likely case, which was that Ivan owned the building altogether.
“I enjoy it very much, sir.”
That was a lie. But Nix didn’t sense anything nefarious underneath it. No twisted plots or conflicting loyalties. Most likely the guy just thought Ivan was a bit of a dick. Or he hated his job in the normal way most people did, without wanting their boss literally dead.
Neither a rat nor a mole. See? Nix was useful as hell. Ivan didn’t even know just how useful Nix could be.
Ivan didn’t know who to trust? Nix could tell him. Being an incubus was about understanding people, after all. Nix didn’t have to read minds to know when someone was lying.
This doorman was in the clear. Although, he couldn’t possibly be working twenty-four hours a day. Nix cocked his head. “How many others share your position?”
“Um. Two, sir.”
“And when do you change shifts?”
“Seven, three, and eleven.”
Nix would have to investigate the other two at a later date, then. He patted Carl’s chest, straightening the man’s lapel while he was at it. “Very good. Call me a car, Carl. I’m headed to the office.”
Nix wasa little surprised to see the same driver as the day before pull up. He would have thought the man was assigned to Ivan alone.
He slid into the back seat anyway, immediately leaning in close to stick his head practically through the partition. “Hey, Oleg darling! Why aren’t you with the big bad boss?”
“Orders. If you need driving, I take call,” Oleg told him, his Russian accent obvious now that he was speaking more than two words at a time.
“Oh my. Ivan designated a driver for little ol’ me?” Nix fluttered his lashes. “He’s a sweetheart, isn’t he?”
Oleg coughed, then cleared his throat, steering the car into the flow of traffic. “As you say.”
Nix grinned, opening his senses and cocking his head to study the driver. “And how long have you been driving for him?”
“Since he was little boy.” Oleg gave a small smile. “Car was not as nice then.”
“And what did you think of the father?”
A sharp tongue of fear licked out from Oleg, as well as the teeniest, tiniest tendril of hate, even as his expression gave nothing away. “He was…firm leader.”
A man who knew how to keep his mouth shut. But Nix wasn’t above a little prodding. “Not very nice to his sons, though, huh?”
There was a long silence before Oleg spoke, his voice flat. “No. Not very nice.”
Nix sat back, satisfied for the moment. Whatever his feelings for the father, there was no treachery in Oleg’s veins. There was even the advantage of the little bit of sympathy he clearly still held for young Ivan.
Nix smiled to himself. That was two people accounted for, at least, among however many. Nix really needed a more efficient method though. He crossed his legs, tapping a finger against hismouth. He needed Ivan to call a meeting, perhaps. To gather a large host of his men all at once.
What Nix needed, really, was for Ivan to use him properly.
Nix’s brain immediately flashed back to the images he’d seen in Ivan’s head before. The naughty, naughty images, all of Nix.
He smirked to himself, rubbing his hands against the soft leather of the town car’s seats. Ohhh yes. What he wouldn’t give for Ivan to use him properly.
Nix blew Oleg a kiss as he hopped out of the car in front of Ivan’s office building. He waved to the security guard as he walked on through. He’d need to investigate the man on the way out, but he didn’t want to give him a chance to warn Ivan of Nix’s arrival and get Nix barred from entry, in case Ivan was still feeling testy.
There was already someone waiting at the elevator, a young man a few inches shorter than Nix, made even more so by his hunched posture. His tawny mop of hair was clearly in need of a cut, and he was fiddling with the strings of the worn hoodie he was wearing, strings that were already frayed, looking like they’d been chewed on more than once.
Nix sidled up next to him. “Going up?”