35. Max

After checking for a new message from Natalya, I tuck my phone back into my pocket, smiling like a teenage boy with his first crush. Artem catches my eye but thinks better about commenting. It's one of the reasons why he's my driver most of the time. Unlike Sasha, who would be teasing me unmercifully by now, Artem knows when to keep his mouth shut.

Kolanski finally agreed to a meeting after weeks of dodging my requests. The oily fucker made my skin crawl as usual, but he did agree to put the paperwork in place for my casino development, so we can finally break ground next month.

This should be enough to keep my partners happy.

The whole encounter lasted less than twenty minutes, fifteen of which Kolanski spent bitching about how the press needed gagging. I have a feeling he's referring to the article Natalya is writing about him, but since he doesn't know I am aware of her, I said nothing.

By the time I left his office, I was ready for a stiff drink. Once this casino development is well underway, I will look at ways to remove Kolanski from office. I doubt the electorate will be too distraught if the city's mayor is involved in a fatal accident.

I know I won't be.

The only potential side-effect of removing Kolanski is the possibility of someone honest taking his seat. That would potentially cause me difficulties, but it's not an insurmountable problem. I'm sure I can maneuver things so I get the candidate I want in the hot seat.

Anyway, it's not something I need to think about today. I have more important things on my mind, like where to take my malyshka for dinner this evening.

Just as Artem opens the car door, I hear a woman calling to me.

"Maxim! How are you, darling?"

I recognize that voice. Melina? Irina? All I can remember for sure is that she's a model or influencer and she annoyed the crap out of me the two times we saw each other.

I took her out twice and regretted it on both occasions. The woman was vain, self-absorbed, and boring as fuck. From Artem's smirk as she approaches, he remembers her too. Probably because she treated him like the hired help.

"Busy," I say through gritted teeth a second before she smacks her lips on mine.

"What the fuck?"

She jumps back in surprise, not expecting my rejection. Artem is on the verge of laughing, I can tell, but I ignore him.

"Maxim, I haven't heard from you in a while, I thought maybe we could—"

"No."

"No?"

"Irina, I'm busy. Now if you'll excuse me…" She pouts and folds her arms in annoyance. I'm guessing the word ‘no' is not in her vocabulary. Well too fucking bad.

"It's Serena." I'm done with this woman. Nothing I said or did so much as hinted I had any interest in her. Hell, we didn't even fuck! I do recall kissing her but it was like kissing a dead fish and I cut the evening short not long after that.

Refusing to be drawn into any more conversation with the woman, I climb into the SUV. Artem closes the door on Serena's furious face and hops in the driver's seat. He nods in the direction of the cafe across the street.

"Natalya left shortly after Serena approached you," he tells me as the car pulls away from the curb.

"Fuck." God knows what she must be thinking if she saw Serena kiss me. The whole sorry event was entirely one-sided but it probably didn't look that way from a distance.

"Hmm." Artem is a man of few words. A considered hmm from him speaks volumes. It tells me I'm in deep fucking shit, so I pull out my phone, all thoughts of the mayor forgotten, and hit call on Natalya's number.

It rings and rings and eventually goes to voicemail.

So I try again.

And again.

Eventually it goes straight to voicemail without ringing, which tells me she's either switched her phone off or put it into airplane mode.

My fists clench and I grind my teeth in anger. The fact she's jumped to the wrong conclusion without giving me an opportunity to explain infuriates me. But before I can lose my shit, my phone rings.

I grab it, hoping it's Natalya, but of course it isn't.

"What?"

"What's the mayor done this time?" Sasha asks.

"Nothing apart from being an obnoxious prick as per usual."

"Is he still stalling?"

I exhale, willing my shoulders to relax. "No, he's promised to get things sorted so we can break ground next month."

"Then why the grumpy asshole mood? I thought you'd be happy he's finally smoothing things over?" Sasha sounds perplexed. He knows how long we've been waiting for Kolanski to pull his finger out of his ass.

"Nothing, I'm fine."

"Huh. Right. Not the vibe I'm getting, but whatever. Anyway, the reason I'm calling is that Stefan Lublik has reappeared."

It takes a second to connect the name with the warehouse fire. "Where is he? Has he been picked up yet?"

"He visited his favorite whore while drunk, hit her about, and then refused to pay her. She wasn't happy and called one of my guys to mouth off about it. The stupid fuck is currently passed out in a bar near the old munitions factory. A couple of the guys are on their way now to pick him up."

"Good, let me know if he has anything interesting to say. I'll leave it with you for now. I have someone I need to talk to."

"Someone who's pissed you off by any chance? A pretty brunette perhaps?"

"Goodbye, Sasha." I end the call and pull up Natalya's number again. This time I leave a voicemail message and follow it up with an SMS.

She has until this evening to reply or I will hunt her down and make her regret ignoring me. There's no way she can hide from me because she has a tracking app on her phone.

Does that make me a stalker?

Possibly.

Do I care?

Hell no.

The end justifies the means.