Which means he wants to make sure I’m not around for a couple hours.
“Prosti,Pakhan. I’ll get it done. Is there anything else you need?”
There better not be. If I want to be on time to meet with Dmitri, I need to get out of here and get my shit together. He shakes his head, and I take great effort to seem relaxed as I rise from my seat and head toward the door.
I’ve just stepped into the hall when he calls out, “Make sure you do your damn job, Andrei.”
I always do, but for once, the job he’s laid out for me isn’t my priority. By the time I pull away from his front gate, I have some semblance of a plan. I check the rearview mirror to make sure there’s no one following and pull out my phone.
“Yeah?” Alexei’s distracted voice answers.
“Are you working tonight?”
“No. I’m spending time with my sister.” He pauses for a moment while I nod to myself. “And if you make me cancel on her, she’ll kill us both.”
Doubtful. Alexei’s older sister, Nadya, is a firecracker with a protective streak a mile wide. Wherever he is, she isn’t far behind. But that could work in my favor. If there’s anyone I know that can keep Blair from blowing up before the night’s through, it’s her.
“I need to bring someone to your place tonight, and if anything happens to them, you won’t have to worry about your sister.”
“And why’s that?”
“Because I’ll killyou myself.”
***
“Would youpleaseput down my son?” Blair yells as she hurries after me, her face flushed with anger as I press the call button to Alexei’s condo.
“If I did, you’d grab him, steal my car, and run.” She’s stubborn, and stealing her kid was the only thing I knew that would get her to follow me.
For once, she doesn’t argue. “Well, could you at least stop holding him like a football?” I step onto the elevator, shaking my head. Niko giggles as he looks around from where he’s tucked under my arm.
Could I carry him differently? Sure. Is this the one way that’s least likely to make Blair kick me in a bid to get me to let go? Yep.
The doors slide shut, and she glares at me in the reflection.
“You know, if you told mewhyyou were dragging us half-way across the city, maybe I’d have been more agreeable.”
“You wouldn’t have been. You argue with everything I say.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Thank you for proving my point.”
Niko twists to get a better look when the doors open, and I adjust my grip before I step off. “Now, are you coming, or do I have to carry you, too?” For a moment she looks like she’s planning on putting up a fight, but she crosses her arms and follows after me.
She still looks tired, but there’s more life to her now than there was this afternoon.
If kidnapping her son is all it takes to give her back some sort of spark, then Nikolai and I are about to become best friends.
During the trek down the hall, she’s quiet. By the time I knock on the door, she’s lost the fight with herself. Pulling self-consciously on her sweater, her silence is deafening.
“Andrei,” Alexei drawls as he opens the door, his voice a controlled monotone while his eyes blaze with poorly concealed anger. He looks between Blair and me, jaw tight. Still, he looks more relaxed than he usually is when I see him. His dark blond hair looks like he’s been pulling at it, and he’s wearingjeanswith his button-down shirt.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him in jeans before.
He’s an inch or two shorter than me, and not quite as broad. Then again, he doesn’t have to be when he spends most of his time tucked away in an office at his clubs. Though the way Blair moves a half step behind me makes me think his piss poor attitude more than makes up for it.
“I see you’ve brought guests with you. How wonderful.” His face doesn’t budge an inch, his glare boring a hole into Blair’s skull. I roll my eyes as I put Niko down. He skitters behind me, suddenly shy as he clings to Blair’s leggings.
