19. Ivan

19

IVAN

V eronica chose a room and I followed her into it. The fact that she didn’t want to have a scene with a window where people could watch wasn’t the norm. She really did want privacy with me, and I worried that this seclusion with me—that she’d never sought before because she liked to put on a show—meant that she wanted me exclusively.

I wasn’t available.

I really wasn’t. My body craved Becca’s. My dick wanted to sink into her pussy. And it was that sweet young woman’s voice I wanted to hear moaning my name.

No one else, especially not Veronica.

“You’re not…” The older woman turned to me after I closed the door. “Lock it.”

I arched my brow, reaching back to flip the lever for the lock. Our clubs didn’t allow total lock-downs for the safety of the clients. Staff could override the locks anyone on the inside implemented, but she wanted that extra precaution.

Just what the hell do you want here?

“You’re not wired or anything, are you?”

I crossed my arms. I was intrigued and slightly annoyed, but now, I was curious and bordering on full-out concern. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

She licked her lips. Her pale face was pink in here, lit with the glow of only a red lamp in the corner. I walked over toward the wall and turned on the bigger light near the softer cushioned area designed for aftercare. Now, I saw her fully, and the fear and worry on her face were unmistakable.

“You’re not wired, right? Listening devices and such?”

I shook my head. “No. I’m not.”

“Because I don’t want it coming back to me that I told anyone about this.”

“Told anyone what?” I was on edge, alert and impatient.

“I was drugged.”

I narrowed my eyes, waiting for more.

“Not here.” She licked her lips again and stepped closer while lowering her voice. “Not at your family’s clubs. But at another place.”

I shrugged. “And?” That was the nature of what happened when someone played in places like this with the people who liked to come here.

“It was either at the place uptown with the triple code check to enter or that newer little club closer to the river.”

I knew which ones she meant. That triple-check place was something we’d recently sold to another company, no longer wanting the high costs of running a club in that area. We’d never made enough profit to keep it going there. The small and new place by the river had only been open for a few months. It paid for me to keep abreast of the competition out there, and it had been my suggestion to Alek to sell that club uptown.

“Okay…”

“And it was bad, Ivan. Bad.” She gripped her fingers together and wrung them. For the first time in the years that she’d been a regular in these kinky crowds, she looked her age. Feeble, scared, and weak. Most of all, worried.

“What about it?”

She shook her head. “I’ve been roofied before. I’ve asked to be drugged up. All kinds of things. You know. You know how I like to push the limits and be extreme.”

I nodded.

“And I’ve done a lot of stupid shit in my life. Back when I was younger, younger than you are now, I did it all. Crack, LSD, hell, everything on the market, Ivan. I’ve lived a wild life.”

“Then what’s wrong now?” Why the hell are you telling me about it?

She swallowed. “It was bad. I’m telling you. I’ve never taken anything that messed me up like that. I was life-flighted. I died three times on the way there.”

“Fuck.”

“Whatever they gave me was not some simple recreational pill, all right? It’s some bad shit.”

“But you didn’t get it here?”

She shook her head. “No. But something is going on, Ivan. I’m ninety percent certain it was something I was given at that place uptown. That you used to run.”

I narrowed my eyes, wondering if this was something I needed to worry about.

“It was bad , Ivan. And I just thought you might know something about what’s going around and all. Because that shit can kill.”

Thinking back to the concern about the pair of young women who were intoxicated at LeVant’s, I considered the possibility of this being a pattern. If these stronger, different drugs had been used at LeVant’s, then that wasn’t good for us. We didn’t want bad product there. And we didn’t want anyone thinking that the Bratva-operated sex clubs were places to avoid.

You’re older, though. Veronica wasn’t a youthful woman like the two Kenneth had seen at LeVant’s. Then again, Veronica was nimble and fit, disguising her age with a toned body.

“I hate that you had to deal with this,” I said sincerely, “but that place is under new management. New owners. If they’re pushing shady shit, that’s not associated with me, with the Valkov name.”

She shrugged, shaking her head as she looked away, clearly uncomfortable. “Technically, yeah. It isn’t one of your clubs anymore, but what if that crap was going around when it was?”

I wouldn’t have any way of knowing. Clients stayed loyal to clubs. Even though the Bratva no longer operated it, some people might not realize it yet. We checked everyone who came inside the doors. Security was tight, but things slipped through. It happened.

Is someone setting up the Bratva to take this hit? Planting drugs on our turf and making us look bad?

We had too many enemies to single anyone out. And it was a fine-lined dilemma. We pushed drugs. We sold all kinds of product, but nothing out of the norm, nothing that couldn’t already be obtained elsewhere. Peddling crap that killed wouldn’t help us at all, and I tried to consider what we’d be facing if someone were coming after the Bratva like that.

“Thanks for telling me,” I said, reaching out to set my hand on her shoulder.

“Yeah. Sure.”

Damn, she was really off-kilter about this. All that seductive and sultry attitude out on the floor was just a ploy to convince me into this room alone.

“Just, you know. Don’t tell anyone I told you about this. All right? With my age, I don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea. That I’m too old to handle this kind of life. Like I’m not cut out for a good time anymore.”

I huffed and rolled my eyes. “Veronica, you’ll be fucking someone all the way to the grave.”

She smiled and lifted her brows slightly. It was the first slip of humor since she’d spoken in here.

“I won’t rat you out. I appreciate your telling me.”

We exited, and I didn’t waste another minute to leave. On the drive back to Becca out of the city, I called Alek and brought him up to speed.

“You think it's lousy timing?” he asked once I’d told him everything.

“Maybe. If this was happening when we still owned that club, then it’d be a bigger issue.”

He cleared his throat. “True, but you said something happened at LeVant’s. No, Maxim told me.”

“Those women seemed fine.”

“It might not be a bad idea to put more security at the clubs. Screen the guests more.”

I frowned as I drove. “Only if it doesn’t scare off the clientele.” The last thing we needed was for everyone to think something was wrong and that we were being suspicious at a location where security and confidentiality were expected.

“Yeah.” He sighed. “I know what you mean. And I know you’re out a lot, busy with Becca.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Not with her.”

“Well, you’re busy with trying to take Murphy out.”

Except, he was right. I was busy with Becca. She was on my mind constantly. “Are you giving me shit for personally watching over her at that vacation villa?”

“Maybe I am. You don’t have to be out there.”

I bit my lip, opting for silence.

“But I respect that maybe you want to be.”

“It’s not like that.”

“What is it like, then?”

I opened and closed my mouth.

“You moved Margie out there to help Becca with her kid.”

“Because she was sick and needed a break and—” I cut myself off, hearing how defensive I was.

He chuckled. “It’s fine, man. It’s fine. Happens to all of us.”

“Nothing’s happening to me.”

“Sure. Look, I’m not going to get into your business. All I need to know is that you can still handle what I’ve asked of you. If you start to have feelings for Becca, will you be able to kill her father?”

I nodded even though he couldn’t see it. “Yes. Absolutely.”

“Even if it might hurt her.”

I snorted. “I’m starting to think that Becca and Emily are at more risk of being hurt the longer he lives.”

We disconnected the call, and I tried to resist the anxious feeling that came with making that comment. Murphy was a risk to Emily. He’d set her up to be taken. And he had always been a danger to Becca, never caring for her and asking her to do favors when she was just an ignorant innocent.

Murphy was still trying to use her. He wanted to know where she was to track me, for starters. But what else that man wanted with her, I didn’t know. And it bothered me to no end that I couldn’t stop this thought that I was missing something.

When I arrived at the villa, checking on Emily, then Becca, as was my habit, I felt calmer.

I wouldn’t let anyone get to them. Being here felt right, and I knew that Alek was correct in some of his guesses.

My feelings about this na?ve young woman weren’t the same as they were when I took her from her old life. I cared. I worried. And I was starting to get obsessed with their being in my life.

Which was why I had no scruples about ensuring I would be one step ahead of Murphy if he tried to separate Becca from me, if he tried to distance us so she would no longer be a lure for him to reveal himself.

The house was guarded. The men here wouldn’t fail me.

But those reassurances weren’t enough. They didn’t stop me from reaching for that necklace she always wore. Careful not to wake her, I pressed a tiny tab to the top line of the pendant. Having my fingers so close to her flesh was torture. I wanted to reach out and feel her warmth again.

Instead, I let the pendant rest on her flesh again, delicately so as not to wake her.

Then I stepped back, gazing at her and marveling that our paths had ever crossed.

And how intertwined they’d become.

Most of all, how I intended to keep her safe and with me for as long as possible.