"You should stay here." His voice filters down through my thoughts. "My penthouse is the only safe place for you right now."
I turn my head to look at him. "What?"
"The Kozlovs are looking for you." He props himself up on one elbow to face me. "Your apartment isn't safe. The only place I can guarantee your protection is here where I can watch you myself."
The logical part of my brain knows he's right. If men are after me—and they've already broken into my apartment and hurt Lena to prove they are—then I need to be somewhere they can't reach me. But isn’t staying with him equally as dangerous? I mean, I know who he is now. What if I end up falling for him? I don't like the idea of telling my foolish heart not to fall in love with a man who kills people for a living.
But where else will I go? I'm trapped by the circumstance as much as by his lock and key. "Yeah, okay," I say reluctantly.
"Good." He gets up from the bed, and I try not to stare at his naked body as he walks across the room to his bar cart. He pours vodka into a glass and brings it back to me. "Drink this and get some rest. You look exhausted."
I take the glass and sip it while watching him pull his clothes back on. The casualness of it makes this whole situation feel even more surreal. "Where are you going?"
"I have business to tend to." He tugs on his slacks, buttons his shirt, and doesn't elaborate on what that means. "Lock the door behind me and don't open it for anyone except me or Gleb."
"How long will you be gone?" I pull the sheet up to cover myself, suddenly feeling exposed lying naked in his bed.
"A few hours." He leans down and kisses my forehead in a gesture that's surprisingly tender. "Try to sleep."
Then he's gone and I'm alone in his bedroom with a glass of vodka and the lingering feeling of his hands all over my body.
And I can't help but feel like things just got infinitely worse for me. Not better like he hoped.
15
DIMITRI
When I get to Yuri's house, I walk in without knocking. My brother sits behind his desk with a burning cigar already pinched between his fingers and a bottle of whiskey open beside his elbow. He glances up when I enter and gestures toward the chair across from him.
"You look like shit." He pushes the humidor across the desk toward me. "When's the last time you slept?" Usually, I'm the one asking him that, but lately, I've started to mutate into a younger version of him.
"Don't remember." I take a cigar and clip the end before lighting it with the matches in the box. "Couple days ago, maybe." He snorts out a laugh but doesn't actually find my joke humorous. We have too much at stake to sit around cracking jokes.
"This situation with the witness is consuming you." He leans back in his chair and studies me through the smoke. "You're obsessed with her."
"I'm handling it." I draw on the cigar and let the smoke fill my mouth and rest on my tastebuds before exhaling. "She's staying at the penthouse now where I can keep an eye on her."
"In your home?" Yuri's voice carries a hint of warning. "Do you really think that's smart? You know they'll come looking. And when they figure out who she is to you, it's a target on your back too."
"Then so be it." I tap ash into the tray on his desk. "Someone has to protect her."
"You're being foolish, Dimitri." He has always tried to parent me, even long before our father died. I hate it, but he's the "boss" and if I protest too loudly, it makes waves. I just have to tolerate him. "They're going to come after you."
"Let them try." I take another drag from the cigar. "I've got security locked down tighter than it's ever been."
He takes another drag on his cigar then lets the smoke escape through his nose as he sips his whiskey. We share a moment of silence as he stares at me, probably thinking how stupid I am, but he himself was foolish not all that long ago. Still, I don't need to remind him how he buried his son after marrying the woman to whom he was betrothed only days after the boy died.
"But you didn't come here to be lectured," he says plainly. "So tell me why you're here."
Nothing gives me greater displeasure than to bring up this topic, but it has to be done. We have a major issue in our organization and it must be dealt with.
"We have someone inside…" I sigh and avoid eye contact. "Someone put an intimidating image of the crime scene inTatiana's staff locker to threaten her and scare her off. It means someone has access to our restricted employee areas that have no security cameras, and this all happened after we raised security measures."
My next drag on the cigar pulls out the hints of sweet cherry and tart tobacco. I let it roll across my tongue before blowing it out in a steady stream.
"A mole," Yuri snarls angrily. "You've got someone on the inside working against you?"
"We'vegot someone on the inside," I correct him. "This isn't just my problem anymore. Whoever's doing this has access to our operations and they're using it to help our enemies."
