I motion to Mikki to follow me and we both leave the apartment. “What is going through Novikoff’s mind?” Mikki says. “He knows we could crush him and his little gang like a bug. Why is he instigating this?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care. All I do know is that I’ve gotta put my foot on his neck before he gets cockier.”
5
NATALYA
“Ifeel ridiculous,” I say to Ilya as we park the car. I’d spent the day mourning my relationship with chips and booze and reality shows when she came over a few hours ago. After I told her about the total disaster of a dinner between my father and my now ex-boyfriend, she went into best friend mode, taking my chips and bottle of vodka away. “Go take a shower. We’re going out.”
Now I’m sitting here in this very short red dress that Ilya pulled out of my closet with my hair curled and my makeup on and I just caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I look good, but I also feel like I’m in costume. This is just not what I need right now.
“Relax,” says Ilya as she reapplies her lipstick. “It’s just dinner and you have to eat.” She turns and looks me up and down. “Which I have to say, we definitely do.”
Ilya is wearing a borrowed dress of mine. A little black, sleeveless thing that fits her a little loosely around the hips butlooks good on her. She puts her lipstick in her bag and asks, “Ready?”
“Not really.”
“Come on, Nat. Look, your boyfriend just proved himself to be unworthy of your affections by spectacularly failing the one test you ever gave him. Trust me. He wasn’t worth your time.”
“Okay, but this…” I motion to the fancy Italian restaurant across the street with its red carpet and gold doors, valet workers rushing to park cars. “You want me to go out and catch a man twenty-four hours after breaking up with my boyfriend.”
“Of course not,” she said. “I want you to feel good about yourself, and nothing makes a girl feel better than watching men fall over themselves for you. We are going to walk into that restaurant tonight and turn every male head in the room. You need an ego boost, Nat. It’ll be good for you.”
I guess I see her point. I would like to feel something other than sadness for a couple of hours. Maybe being admired by strangers is the way to go.
“Okay,” I say after taking a big breath. “Let’s do this, then.”
We get out and walk across the street to the restaurant. It’s a nice, warm night tonight and just being outside is starting to lift my mood a little.
As soon as we walk through the doors, eyes are on us. The front area in front of the hostess stand has at least two couples and a small party of people waiting for their tables. Everyone looks at us, but all the men’s eyes linger.
It feels a little strange, but I kind of like it. Part of me felt like an old dishrag that was due for the trash after the breakup. It’s a nice reminder that I am a beautiful woman.
Ilya gives the hostess my last name and she nods, grabs menus, and immediately leads us around the barrier to the dining room. That’s a smart move, using my name. My father’s name still carries weight in certain places. I’ll bet she didn’t even make a reservation.
“The waiter will be with you in just a moment,” the hostess says before leaving us alone. I look around us at all the diners in their finest clothes, eating off fine china and linen tablecloths… and the eyes watching us, trying to act like they’re not. A couple of younger men on dates happen to see us. One of them gets noticed by his date and she immediately chastises him for it, causing his face to flush with embarrassment. The other is a little more crafty. His eyes fall on us every time he takes a drink from his glass.
“This is actually kinda fun,” I tell Ilya. “I feel like we’re celebrities.”
“I mean, in a sense, you are. Lots of people know who your dad is.”
That stings a little and my smile falters.
“Oh, shit,” Ilya says. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by that.”
“I know. It’s not your fault.” Ugh. Stupid Andrei and his surveillance. “You know something, Lee? I keep thinking about how Andrei confronted my father. Like, as a retaliation for my dad looking him up.”
“It was a rotten thing for him to do.”
I shrug. “Wouldn’t have been so bad if he had done it because he was worried about me. Wouldn’t have been bad at all if he didn’t decide to try and throw it back in my father’s face.” I thought about that a little longer. “In fact, I think I could have forgiven it all if he’d done it because he was trying to protect me. If he actually stood up to my father and maybe told him off. Put a little fear into him for once.”
Ilya snickers.
“What?”
“Who do you think Andrei is? I mean, wealthy parentage notwithstanding, he’s just a guy.” She lowers her voice and leans in. “He’s not Bratva. If you’ve been looking for somebody to put the fear of God into Vladimir Petrov, you have to know that guy isn’t living in a dorm on a college campus.”
That was valid. I slump a little in my chair. “Not that there couldn’t have been opportunities, either,” I say. “Since I turned eighteen, I’ve caught more than a couple of his associates checking me out.”
