“My family owns this restaurant.” He looked between the two of us. “What areyoudoing here?”
I looked at my hand, still touching Edgar’s. Gennadiy and I had spent three months in close proximity, but this was the first time he’d ever seen me with a man.Oh God, is he...jealous?!
I jumped up from the table. “Don’t move,” I told Edgar. I put my hands on Gennadiy’s chest and guided him back across the room,which felt like being a mouse pushing a bull. He was looking annoyingly amazing in a midnight-blue shirt, and I could feel his heart pounding under my palms. He kept glancing back at Edgar, a murderous look on his face, and that stoked my own anger. Partly, it was that Gennadiy had no right to be jealous. Partly, it was that there was a weak little part of me, deep down, that was melting at the fact that hewasjealous.I hated myself for that.
I pushed Gennadiy up against the wall, and he scowled down at me. “You’re really on a date with thatzanuda?” he snapped.
“Yes! Gennadiy, what is this? You can’t just?—”
He was turning scarlet. I’d never seen him so angry, not even when I first met him at the casino. “After dinner, what happens? You’re going to go to his place and—” He broke off, panting, too angry to say it.
But I was pissed, too. “Yes!” I hissed. “Yes, I’m on a date with him, yes, I like him, and yes, Gennadiy, if everything goes well, then I might just go to his place, drop to my knees and worship his dick!”
His eyes flared, the gray ice turning so bitterly cold it was frightening. Then he turned and walked away. I stood there panting, my palms still warm from the heat of his chest.Jesus.
I walked back to the table and, before Edgar could speak, I grabbed my glass of Chardonnay and glugged half of it. Then I gave a huge sigh.Better.
“Was that guy...someone from work?” asked Edgar gently.
I nodded, my heart rate still slowing. “In a manner of speaking.”
“Are you okay?” He sounded genuinely concerned. And even a little protective, which was all the sweeter because he was half Gennadiy’s size.
I nodded firmly. “Yes. I’m sorry about that. But don’t worry, it’s all over. I dealt with it. Now...where were we?”
He smiled, and I smiled back. But I felt a flutter of unease in my stomach.
I dealt with it. Right?
19
GENNADIY
I’d only been passingby the restaurant. It’s one of our legitimate businesses and turns a good profit: it’s the secret gambling den upstairs that I was there to visit. But then I’d seen Alison and that...thatpridurok.
I’d never thought about her fucking anyone else. Now I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Her tossing that long, silky hair back over her shoulder and leaning in to take his cock between her lips?—
All the feelings that had been building for months boiled up inside. She was...she was…
She wasmine.
I barged through the double doors into the kitchen. Inside, it was the usual pandemonium. Giancarlo, the chef, was ranting at his underlings, half in Italian and half in English, and eighty percent of it cursing. They were scuttling to wash, chop and broil, wincing every time he bellowed.
Then one of them noticed me. “Chef?” she said quietly, pointing in my direction.
Now it was Giancarlo’s turn to go pale. He waddled over to me, wiping his hands on his apron. “Mr. Aristov! What?—”
“The couple at the table in the corner. The dark-haired woman and the idiot with the blond hair. Where is their food?”
Giancarlo assumed they must be honored guests. “Comingright now,sir!” He waved at the plates. “They both ordered the same thing, the linguine.” It looked and smelled amazing. “On its way!” Giancarlo waved frantically to a waiter, who grabbed both plates.
I put a hand on the waiter’s chest. “Wait.”
I reached into my jacket and took out the little bottle I always carry. I twisted off the cap and dripped exactly three drops onto the plate on the right. Guns and bombs are for amateurs. In Russia, dispatching one’s enemies is an art form.
I gripped the waiter’s chin between finger and thumb. “This one is for the man,” I told him, pointing to the food I’d doctored. “This one.Get this wrong, and you won’t see morning. Do you understand?”
He nodded as best he could, sheet-white with fear. I released him, and he hurried off with the food.
