"Yes, soon," I tell her. "I'll make this up to you."
"I know you will."
I back away, watching her smile as I head toward my car. I hate leaving her here, but I don't have time to take her with me. My gut says her brothers are probably stalking around nearby anyway, waiting to make sure I don't hurt her. It's what I would do if I had a younger sister out dating criminals like myself.
Seven years ago, I'd have ditched Roman’s orders a little longer to make sure I got what I wanted. But he stuck his neck out for me and helped me get on the straight and oh, so narrow. I owe him, and I have to pay my dues now.
But soon, Zora… Very soon, you'll be mine.
4
ZORA
I'm on my second drink and watching the dance floor move when Alisa finds me. She slides onto the stool to my left and reaches past me to flag the bartender. Her blonde hair swings across her shoulders as she leans over the bar to order, and I sip my third drink and wait for her. I sent her a text to join me after Kazimir ditched me because I didn't want to waste a perfectly good night by staying home alone.
"You look flushed," she says, settling onto the stool and crossing one leg over the other. She props her chin on her hand and looks me over as she turns to face me fully. "Tell me why you look flushed."
"I had a date tonight," I tell her, and I take a sip of my drink and watch her reaction over the rim of my glass.
She sits up straight and grabs my arm with both hands. "Here? Tonight? With who?" She twists on the stool and scans the room behind us like she's going to pick him out of the crowd through sheer willpower. "Is he still here? Which one is he?"
"He had to leave," I tell her as I set my glass down. "Work thing. He got a call and had to go."
"Oh, that's dumb. He stood you up?" When the bartender slides her drink in front of her, she turns to pick it up then takes a long slurp as I answer.
"No, not at all. It really was a work thing… But I'm okay with it. I almost went home with him." I feel my cheeks burning as I say that because I really would’ve gone home with him. Kazimir is so fucking hot. Besides, I have a job to do. My plan is to not let my emotions get carried away but to enjoy every second of this. And if amazing sex is part of that plan, then so be it.
"Okay, describe him to me. I want the full picture." Alisa is grinning, sipping her drink quickly while she locks eyes with me, demanding answers. We're best friends—we have been for ten years now—and I tell her everything, including this. Of course, she won't know that Kazimir is a target, and eventually, I'll have to tell her we broke up or something, but for now I get to pretend I'm dating an amazing man and hear my best friend gush.
"He's tall," I say, and I turn on my stool to face her. "Dark hair, gray eyes… Tattoos and oh, my God, can he kiss." The heat pulsing through my body rises a few notches as I start thinking about how hard he was as I was grinding on him. I'm not the sort of girl who goes that fast on a real date, but I know the job. If he's the sort of man who lets a woman move fast with him, I have to go as fast as possible.
"I'm already interested," Alisa says, taking a long sip through her straw. "Keep going."
"He runs a gym, so I figure he's probably ripped under all that clothing I'd love to have ripped off him tonight." I pick my glassback up and roll the base of it against the bar. "And he is actually sort of sweet. He acted like he cared about my life, not just my body, which made me care about his body." I swoon, and she snickers when I press my hand to my forehead and then fan myself.
"Does he have a brother?" She keeps laughing, and I join her, though I know that's the last thing she wants. Kazimir is a criminal, just like my brothers who quickly became members of Alisa's "list". She won’t date anyone in my sphere of influence. I'm surprised she still wants to be my friend after learning what my family does for a living, but she has never shied away from me.
"A cousin, I think," I tell her, but I choke on the drink I'm sipping and start coughing.
"Close enough. I'll take him." She grins and stirs her drink with the straw. "What's his name?"
"Kazimir," I tell her.
She sighs dreamily as the music shifts to a new song and the lights go down to utter darkness. The room is full of all sorts of noises, chatter and movement, and then the next song starts pulsing, lights flashing, and we're thrust back into deafening volumes.
"You seem happy… It feels like you're serious about this guy. You've known him a while?" Her body starts moving, swaying to the music as she sits there, but she won't interrupt this to ask me to dance yet.
"I like him," I say, because there's no point lying to Alisa about this. "But we'll see if it works out. Who knows?" I instantly feel a little guilty for lying to her. As charming and wonderfulas I honestly think Kazimir is, I know it can't work out. I'm on a mission to take him down, and my brothers won't settle for anything less. Besides, he's a rival and we'd end up at odds eventually, anyway.
She reaches across the space between our stools and smacks my shoulder playfully. "You deserve this," she says with a grin. "You deserve a man who pays attention to you and makes you feel like you matter outside of your family's bullshit."
My chest gets tight when she says that because she means every single word and she has absolutely no idea what's actually happening. More than anything else, I want to be independent and capable, but I do want a partner one day who can keep up with me and respect my desire to make something of myself. Kazimir may very well be that sort of man, but the timing and the situation are all wrong.
I'm about to answer her when I catch movement over her shoulder and my stomach drops. Yefim is cutting through the crowd moving toward us. I knew they wouldn't leave me alone for a second after I told them I had a date with Kazimir tonight. Bogdan probably sent him to follow me, though I'm under no illusion that it was for my safety. They're interested in taking our enemies down, not protecting me.
Alisa reads the change in my face before she turns around. She follows my eyes over her shoulder and the second she sees Yefim, her face screws up into a scowl. Her eyes return to my face with a cold stare and she picks up her drink.
"I'll be out dancing," she grumbles as she slides off the stool and walks away. Alisa's never had patience for my brothers and she's never in her life pretended otherwise. We were only fifteen when she learned my family runs a fight ring and that Yefimand Makar run it with Bogdan's help. Her parents made her stop coming over, though they let me visit her at their house as a compromise.
