Mick wanted to downplay it as another performance from the queen of drama queens, but he couldn’t. He could feel her anguish. “You’re always in danger.”
Bella grabbed him by his coat lapel. Her big eyes were wild. “It’s the truth, Mick. They will kill me. They aren’t playing this time. They will kill me!”
Although Mick was frowned, he was getting concerned. He knew when Bella was bullshitting him, and he knew when she wasn’t. They’d been in each other’s lives just that long.“Who is it this time?” he asked her cynically. The who would determine, for him, the level of her danger.
“It’s this guy I met. Datvey. Datvey Gagarin.”
“Don’t just give me a name. Tell me who is he.”
When Bella hesitated, Mick knew it was bad. And his patience was thin. “I don’t have time for this, Bella. Now who is he?”
“He’s just some rich idiot who always have to have a gorgeous black girl on his arm.”
“Is he connected?”
She didn’t respond.
“Is he connected, Bella?”
“Yes!” she cried out as tears appeared in her eyes.
Mick’s heart dropped. “How could you get involved with that shit again?!”
“They’ll kill me, Mick. You’ve got to help me. You’ve got to. You don’t have any choice.”
Mick looked at her with anger in his eyes. “Like hell I don’t!”
But then he exhaled with thatwill I ever be able to shake your asslook on his face. And then he grabbed her by the arm, looked up and down the corridor after her: only his security team who still gave her free access were standing in the halls. Then he pulled her into the penthouse. He slammed the door behind them. “Which mob?” he asked her.
Bella frowned. “How would I know that? I didn’t think he was mob. I just thought he was one of those rich Oligarchs who just so happen to be close to Putin. I didn’t think he would be in the Russian mob.”
“What do you think those rich Oligarchs are, Bella? Choirboys?” Then he exhaled and looked at her. He couldn’t just see her anguish, he could see her fear. “You came here from Rome?”
“I just got back and came straight here. That’s where me and Datvey met: In Rome. But I know it’s just a matter of time, Mick. That’s why I came straight to you. You’re all I have.”
As if he needed anything else on his overfilled plate. He looked at Bella with disgust in his eyes. “How could you get involved with those Russian motherfuckers again, Bella? How could you be that idiotic?”
“I needed help, but you wouldn’t even take my calls. Roz made you cut me off.”
Mick’s jaw tightened. “Roz doesn’tmakeme do anything. Just tell me what didyoudo? Not what somebody else did. What did your ass do?”
“I needed a loan. You knew Paris Fashion Week was coming up when you cut me off. How was I--”
“Just tell me what you did!”
“I asked Datvey for a loan, okay? Just to get me through fashion week.”
“Why didn’t you go to Gloria?”
“I did. But she didn’t have what I needed. I said Oz Drakos has all that money and you mean to tell me you don’t have any? She said she didn’t want his money. You know how stubborn our daughter is. I even asked her to borrow it from Alex Drakos, or even Kari. But she wouldn’t do it. She said that you take care of me and she’s not getting involved in that. That’s how everybody sees it. They think they’ll be treading on your territory if they tried to help me.”
Mick didn’t have time for this bullshit. It was always some soap opera with Bella. “How much?” he asked her.
Another hesitation.“A couple million.”
“A couplemillion?” Mick couldn’t believe it. “You’ve got to be the only woman on this planet that can run through two million dollars in a week.”
“I have a fashion house to run! You know how expensive that can be.”
