The light from the flames is making her skin glow and I’ve already decided how this night is going to end; by laying her out in front of the fireplace and making my hummingbird come until she’s boneless and delirious with pleasure. I don’t want to talkabout blood and death, or that the Wozniak Mafia is targeting us.
“Tell me about what Christmas was like for you as a child.”
She brightens. “Well, the only time my mother allowed us in the kitchen was during the holidays, and we’d make tea cakes and smother them in powdered sugar, and those cute little mushroom-shaped cookies….”
I rub my wife’s feet and listen to her happy voice, baking in the heat of the fire.
And I am at peace.
Chapter Twenty
In which these two could really work on their communication skills.
Lucya…
It’s not until the next morning when Alexi is off doing mysterious duties asVorfor the Turgenev Bratva that I remember the phone Vadik had slipped me at the tree lot.
Pulling it out of my coat pocket, I chew my lip. It’s a burner phone, no surprise. I still don’t understand why he would give it to me. It’s one hell of a coincidence that I would be there yesterday and he’d have a phone for me.
Is someone watching me from my family, even now?
There’s only one number stored in it, and I press the call button, already feeling like this is a bad idea. But what if it’s my mother?
It rings twice.
“My dear niece! At last, you call your Pakhan. I have been deeply concerned for you.” Uncle Rurik’s oily voice makes my heart sink.
“Hello, Uncle. I hope you are well,” I say woodenly.
“How can I be well?” he snaps, “Our Bratva is in danger because of the treachery of those Turgenev bastards! Alliances brokenwith other families, my nieces, who I love as daughters about to be married off to those scum…”
I let him rage on until he slows down. “Are my mother and Inessa all right?”
“They’re fine,” he says shortly. “Here’s what I need you to do. You’re staying with that Turgenev fuck, yes? I want you to go into his computer files, find-”
Nausea is surging up my throat and I force myself to breathe slowly until it passes. “I can’t help you, Uncle. I have no access to any sensitive information. Alexi doesn’t keep anything on-site.” He probably does, he doesn’t even lock his office door, but I’m not telling this repellant bastard that.
“Then find a way!” he snaps, “Use your charm. Offer your body. But get me access to his files.”
Gripping the phone hard enough to turn my knuckles white, I struggle against years of trying to please people, years of bowing to my Pakhan’s authority. Uncle Rurik will never know this, but he gave me the greatest gift of my life. Because of his treachery, I’m going to marry the man I’ve loved forever.
“There’s nothing I can do for you. Goodbye.” His roar of fury rattles my eardrum as I disconnect and I hold the phone away from me like it’s a rattlesnake. I should smash it into pieces. Flush it down the toilet. Instead, I put it in the drawer of my bedside table.
I’ll tell Alexi about it when he comes home.
When my husband-to-be arrives that night, his eyes are as hard as diamond chips and his jaw is tight, like he’s been clenching his teeth for the last twelve hours.
My heart sinks. Decorating his kingdom of darkness kept me busy for a while, but even Martha Stewart couldn’t find another square inch of space to decorate. The lights brightened the apartment and cheered me up, but Pytor refused to let me go anywhere, not even to the rooftop to visit the greenhouse.
“The Boss told me to keep you here,” he repeated until I got the message and left him alone. I’m bored. I’m used to working, being around people, sharing jokes with the other servers and complaining about our worst customers.
So, it’s possible that I might have jumped on Alexi the minute he got off the elevator instead of gauging his mood.
“I’m so glad you’re back! I was thinking that maybe after dinner and you relax a bit, we could go skating down at the Seaport ice rink? I madeokroshkasoup andpirozhkis.”I lean in close, hoping he’ll kiss me and then I feel the polar chill coming off him in waves.
Shit.
Is it the fireplace? I know I made poor Pytor go down and get me more firewood three times today, but…
