6. Nikolai

Chapter 6

Nikolai

"You did well, Maddy. Very well."

The voices were barely audible from the hallway, but I recognized Jax's voice, nonetheless. I had just filled up my coffee mug and was ready to get to work on a few projects in my office when I heard something I couldn't place. Stepping closer to Jax's office, I heard him speaking to someone. The replying voice made it clear our new houseguest was the other half of the conversation. What were they discussing?

"I didn't want to do that," she muttered quietly, though it could have been the sound being muted through the door. Interested to know what was going on, I stepped closer, literally pressing my ear to the wooden door.

Before I could pick up any more of their clandestine conversation, the sound of shuffling quickly had my feet moving back toward my office. I closed the door behind me, still curious as to what Maddy was doing in Jax's office so early in the morning. Granted, it wasn't early for me, but it was still early, at only seven in the morning.

As I settled into my desk chair, a knock sounded from the door.

"Come in," I hollered, my voice still husky with sleep.

"Hey." Jax stepped into the room with a folder in hand, shutting the door quietly behind him. "Do you have a second?"

"Sure. What's up?"

"I had a talk with Maddy this morning —" he began, and I took the opportunity he presented.

"This morning? It's barely seven," I said, feigning ignorance.

"Yeah, she woke up from a nightmare around three this morning and came down to the kitchen in search of food. I was up — you know how it is." He laughed, running a hand through his hair. I simply nodded. We all knew what that felt like. Each of us carried our own demons that liked to play games in the night.

"Anyway, she let me talk her through some exercises, and we were able to get through her statement," he continued. My interest piqued, I sat up straight in my chair.

"The whole thing?" I asked with hesitant hope.

"And then some," he said with a smile that rivaled the Cheshire cat. "She was able to tap into her memory much easier. I think she was overwhelmed the other day, but she remembered much more information this time. She even got a bit of a description of the man who fired the gun."

"Seriously? That's amazing! I'll call Quinn and get him down here today. That's a huge win, Jax. Thank you." Pulling my cell from my pocket, I quickly called Quinn, eager to help in some kind of tangible way. Without a word, Jax waved a farewell and made his way out of the room, giving me peace and quiet to discuss matters with Quinn.

Finally… some kind of headway in the case. And the sooner the case was handled, the sooner Maddy would be back to her life and out of mine.

Still, it didn't stop the images from flooding my mind of her body pressed against the wall, of the smell of her perfume as her pulse pounded beneath my lips. I had gone too far.

But I would not be making that mistake again.

A few hours later, I stood in Jax's office, listening to Quinn explain the next steps in Maddy's case.

"Okay, Maddy. I want you to look through these files. This one here is a folder of mug shots from people we've booked in the past, while this second one is a folder of other suspected criminals, taken from security cameras and such. They're all just photos of people. Nothing graphic, I assure you. And with what you've remembered about that night, I'm hoping you'll be able to find the criminal's photo here in there. So, take your time, okay?" Quinn was in his element, more so than I had ever seen him before. Police work suited him.

As Maddy flipped through the book of photos, Quinn pointed towards the door. With a nod, I joined him.

"Do you think there's a good chance whoever did this is actually in those files?" I asked him quietly in the hallway outside Jax's office.

"Yes, but I'm not sure it's going to help, honestly," he replied with a sigh, running a hand through his hair. "The information she provided leads me to believe that the man in question could be Alexei Borovsky." He paused, as if expecting me to recognize the name. I just shrugged and shook my head, letting him continue.

"Alexei Borovsky is the owner and CEO of Borovsky Enterprises. He's one of the richest men in Kansas City. He is also the suspected leader of the Dom Krovi, a criminal organization that has been giving KCPD no end of trouble for the last few years."

I let out a low, incredulous whistle. "Dom Krovi, eh? The House of Blood, in Russian. This sounds like a guy you don't want to get on the wrong side of."

Quinn leaned against the wall, rubbing his eyes wearily. "You can say that again. His corporation has been buying up businesses and properties in the city for a few years now. At this point, he owns ten percent of the industrial sector. The problem is, nobody gets that rich that fast, without some majorly shady business dealings. This guy didn't exist five years ago, as far as we can tell. He just popped up, with a seemingly endless supply of capital, and started gobbling up business. We suspect that he's involved in a number of crimes here in the city. Bodies have been turning up with the letters DK branded on them."

I nodded grimly. "DK. Dom Krovi. But what makes you think that he's connected?"

"Well, because a few of the victims were business owners. And guess who acquired their businesses after they were killed? I'll give you three guesses, but the first two don't count." Quinn replied, smiling mirthlessly.

Suddenly, it made more sense. "So, you think that he's pressuring people into selling their businesses to his corporation, and knocking them off if they refuse to sell?"

Quinn nodded. "Something like that. It was the first thing that tipped us off that he could be connected to the gang. The problem is, this guy is one slippery motherfucker. We haven't been able to definitively pin anything on him. It's all circumstantial, or he's got an alibi, or — and here's where you come in — key witnesses wake up dead before they can testify against him. But mark my words, he's connected to the Dom Krovi. We just can't prove it, yet."

I stayed quiet, letting the man think.

"Niko, I'm telling you, man. I've got a feeling in my bones. Something big is going on, and I can't get a handle on it." Frustration was evident in his voice, and I could commiserate. I knew all too well how it felt to not be able to catch the bad guy.

"I can't pull him in unless we have solid proof. Without absolutely solid evidence, there's no way we'll be able to nail this fucker to the wall. And dammit, I want to get this guy behind bars. He's scum, Niko. I'm sure of it. And if Maddy can positively ID the guy, she suddenly becomes the most valuable piece of evidence we have. That's why we have to keep her safe."

Immediately, thoughts of Javier Martinez rose from the locked box in my mind where I stored the brutal details of the most traumatic moments of my life. The feeling of losing the good fight was one many veterans knew, and not one I wanted to saddle Quinn with.

"How can I help?" I asked, knowing that was all I could do at the moment.

"Niko, this case just got much bigger. If Maddy can testify that Alexei Borovsky is actually behind all this — then we might actually get the chance to take down the entire operation. But there's an issue."

"The same issue that had you asking me for help in the first place?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"One and the same, my brother. I can't trust the station. Something is going on. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something is off. He got off the hook too many times for him not to have a man on the inside. And until I know who the mole is…" he trailed off, not even needing to finish the statement. We both knew the kind of stakes he was up against.

"We've got your back, Quinn. I can promise you that."

"Even if it means keeping her around longer?" He at least had the decency to look regretful. If he only knew how tough a thing it was to have her here. Regardless, we sacrificed for our brothers. That's what it meant to be brothers in arms. United by duty and trauma, instead of blood.

"Don't worry about a thing. We've got your back covered. Anything you need, you just call," I reassured him sincerely.

At that moment, Jax came out of his office and walked over to us. "Maddy thinks she's got an ID."

We followed him back into his office, where Maddy sat, surrounded by folders. She looked up as we entered. "I… I think I found the man I saw… that night." She said somewhat timidly. It was obvious from her demeanor that thinking back on those events was still troubling for her, not that I could blame her.

Quinn came around the table and looked down at the picture that Maddy had set directly in front of her. His eyes widened, and he looked up at me excitedly.

"It's him, Nikolai. Alexei motherfucking Borovsky. Maddy, are you sure this is the man you saw holding the gun?"

Maddy nodded, her brow furrowing. "Yes. I think so. I'm almost certain. Yes, this is the man I saw."

Quinn patted her on the back kindly and started cleaning up the scattered folders. "Thank you so much for your cooperation, Maddy. Your help has been absolutely invaluable." She gave a small smile in return.

A few minutes later, I stood with Quinn by the front door as he prepared to leave.

"Thanks again, Niko. I don't know what I'd do without you guys. Keep that girl safe, do you hear me? She's the number one VIP in this case now. I've got to get back to the station to tell Chief McCarthy the good news. I'll be in touch, okay?"

After a round of goodbyes, Quinn headed back to the station, leaving the five of us alone in the house once more. What I had thought would take only a few short hours had turned into an all-day event, and the sky was already beginning to turn from blue to pink to purple hues as I watched Quinn's car pull down the drive, the gate locking behind them.

Closing the door and locking it, I could hear the rest of the house chattering away in the kitchen. Might as well join them.

"You are out of your God-damned mind if you think the Intel i9 is better than the Ryzen 9. You're completely mad, Jax." Maddy was in the middle of what seemed to be a heated debate with Jax, though I didn't miss the way his eyes lit up at the chance to discuss nerdy tech stuff with someone.

"You know about computer stuff, Maddy?" I asked, peeking my head into the main part of the kitchen where Sully was bustling around the stove, apron and oven mitts at the ready, as usual.

"I do, actually," she said with a smirk. "I have my MBA in Marketing."

"Well, marketing and computers are related, but that doesn't mean you know anything about serious computer stuff," Jax said with a slightly pompous chuckle.

"True enough, but it helps when you were a complete nerd in high school."

"I find that very hard to believe," I muttered under my breath. Based on the daggers she threw at me with a look, she'd most definitely heard me.

"Well, I was a total geek in high school, believe me or not. But my senior year, I got lucky."

"A lot of people get lucky their senior year!" Sully called out from the kitchen, prompting a laugh from everyone. Even Maddy chuckled along with us.

"Anyway. I'd helped one of the popular girls with her homework for an entire semester at the end of Junior year, and instead of my normal fees, I told her that my charge this time was that she had to give me a complete makeover. So over the summer, she worked her magic, helping me get a totally new wardrobe, new hair, new makeup; the works. Well, it paid off, because we ended up becoming friends in the process, and voilà! I started my Senior year as one of the popular girls. It didn't stop my love of geeky things, though."

"Gaming, hardware, or hacking?" Jax asked, once again intrigued.

"Hacking, obviously ." That little smirk, along with that glimmer in her eye, was all I needed to see to know she was just as much trouble then as she was now. You could take the geek out of the girl, but apparently, the troublemaker was here to stay.

"Nice!" Jax said, whistling low in genuine respect. That was not an easy feat to manage, but somehow Maddy did.

"What can I say?" She shrugged lightly, sitting down at the table as Sully brought the food he'd been preparing out of the kitchen for everyone. "Once I got to college, the pull of popularity mellowed out a bit, and I switched my major by the end of the first semester, choosing a career in Marketing Technology, because that would kind of grant me the best of both worlds: tech and popularity. I enjoyed having friends. I'd spent much of my early days without any."

I felt a pull to her, a kinship, in that admission. But I kept my mouth shut.

"Well, it's going to be so nice to have a fellow geek around here to talk computer shit with." Jax was positively bouncing in his seat with excitement. "So, let's talk processors. Do you– "

"And that's where I'm gonna cut y'all off," Deacon grumbled. "This conversation's making my head hurt."

"Aw, tough guy can't keep up?" Maddy teased. That smirk fell right off her pretty little face as Deacon leveled her with a look. I knew that look. One did not fuck with that look from Deacon.

As we tucked into yet another delicious dinner courtesy of Sully, Maddy changed the subject.

"So, what about you guys? I know you were all in the military or something, but now you're here in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere. Are you still active duty, or…?" she trailed off, allowing us space to answer.

"We're not active duty anymore, though some of us have been known to still do the occasional mission here or there when called upon," Deacon answered, finally perking up at a topic he actually cared about.

"Like the other one of you guys… Carson, or whatever."

"Carrick. Yeah, kind of like that," Sully answered. "We all met while we were deployed and became close friends. Brothers, really. But we all got out of the service at different times, and for different reasons."

"Once we were all out, we wanted to find a place where we could get some peace and quiet, and find our way back to civilian life," Jax added.

"What does that mean?" she asked, finishing the last bites of food on her plate before leaning back comfortably in her chair to listen.

"Well, we wanted to stay away from the major areas where we'd been stationed, for one thing," I answered her.

"Uh, isn't Fort Leavenworth like just a hop, skip, and a jump away on the Kansas side?" she rolled her eyes with a snort of a laugh. "Didn't think that one through, did ya, boys?"

There was a roll of soft laughter that echoed around the room from each of us, our eyes meeting for a moment.

"What? What am I missing?" she all but pouted.

Sully cleared his voice loudly, deciding to answer for all of us. "Well, that's an army base. And none of us here are in the army. It's just… different."

"How is it different?"

"It just is," every one of us answered in unison.

"We don't have anything against the Army. It's just a different branch than the rest of us, and Leavenworth doesn't have the same feel as some of the places we were stationed. So it doesn't bother us," I added, finishing my own food and relaxing at the table as well.

"Okay, so if you all weren't in the Army, what part of the military were you in?" Maddy asked with genuine curiosity. It made me smile to see her so invested in our lives after having known us for only a few short days.

"Niko, Deacon & I were all in the Marines, while Jax was in the Air Force, in intelligence," Sully answered her, standing to collect everyone's dishes, shooting a look at anyone who dared try to get up and help. He got weird about his meals sometimes, the big teddy bear.

Maddy nodded understanding, although I wasn't sure how much of that actually made sense to her. "But what do you do now, though? Or is this it? Just lounging about doing nothing?" She smirked at me, and that bratty energy was hard to ignore. It seemed to come so naturally to her.

"We started our own car business, Reaper's Repair and Restoration," Deacon answered.

"So, you're just a bunch of mechanics now? Seems like a big demotion, if you ask me." There was no judgment in her tone, but I could tell the guys definitely felt judged.

"Mechanic doesn't quite hit the nail on the head, darlin'," Deacon drawled, his back straightening a bit in affronted annoyance. His voice took on a more lecturing tone. "We restore vintage cars and customize newer ones. We do custom paint jobs, tricking out rides, and more. It's quite intricate stuff if I'm bein' honest."

"So, more like that old TV show Pimp My Ride. You know, the one from back in the day?" Maddy's voice was completely sincere, but I didn't miss the slight twitch of her lips as she restrained a smile. She was fucking with Deacon and pulling it off beautifully. I smiled, letting her carry on her little game.

"Ouch!" Deacon exclaimed, clutching his chest as though he'd been wounded.

Haven't we all, brother? Haven't we all?

"Maddy…" Sully pouted, a look of true hurt on the big lug's face. "You wound me. I thought we were friends."

"Okay, alright. I'm sorry," she apologized—sort of—throwing Sully a wink and a smile.

"If you want, I could show you around the garage tomorrow," Sully asked, the look of pure hope on his face enough to make anyone agree. Not Maddy, though.

Her face contorted into a look of distaste. "No offense to any of you, but if I wanted to hang out in a stinky garage, I would have become a mechanic. Not my jam. But thanks, big guy."

Her eyes softened as she saw Sully's face crumple into a pitiful look of despair. Reaching over the table, she took his hand in hers, drawing his attention.

"But how about we bake something together soon?"

His eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. Smacking his hand across his thigh, he all but squealed, "You bet your sweet ass we will!"

With that, the tone of the night shifted, each of us feeling the stress of the last few days dissipate, at least a little.

In no time at all, dinner was cleaned up, and Maddy had retreated to her room, claiming to be exhausted from the day's events. Not that any of us could blame her.

I, for one, was beyond grateful for the small blessing of her absence. It gave me a much-needed moment of peace to do what I really wanted to do.

I let the steaming water soak into my bones as I relaxed against the side of the hot tub. This, this right here, was exactly what I needed. The last few days had been nothing but stress mounting on stress. And it wasn't like I could partake in my usual form of stress relief. Something told me that Maddy finding that room in the basement would bring me nothing but trouble. More trouble than it was worth.

So the hot tub would have to do, at least until this case was handled, or a new safe house had been vetted.

"Imagine meeting you here," a decidedly feminine voice called from the direction of the house.

Maddy . Perfect. Just. Fucking. Perfect.

"Maddy, go back inside the house," I commanded as kindly as I could manage. I wasn't thrilled about her interrupting my peace and quiet.

"Yeah, not gonna happen, buddy," she chuckled, stepping up into the tub carefully. But not before slipping off the towel that covered her bikini-clad body. The little red number she had on was doing a hell of a job. On me, at least.

The red fabric clung to her like a second skin, leaving little to the imagination, yet covering everything it needed to. Held together by tiny ties, I wasn't entirely sure how women walked or moved, let alone swam, in little bits such as that.

She settled in, and I made up my mind to pay her no attention. I was out here to relax, and I was not about to let her ruin that for me. Instead, I focused on the jets pounding away at my lower back, though I doubted water could beat those knots into submission.

Do not go down that road, Niko , I silently scolded myself. Putting the words beat and knots and submission to the image of her barely clothed body was not helping anything.

"Tough day?" she asked, breaking the silence with that feisty little attitude of hers.

"Can a man not get ten minutes of peace around here?" I groaned, rubbing my eyes.

"Aw, poor buddy. You must have had a tough day, huh?" The utter audacity of the tiny little twit had my palms aching to slap her pert little ass into the submission she so desperately needed.

"Apparently not, since you came to stay," I grumbled, more to myself than to her. I did not want to engage with her. Not now.

"How do you think I feel, Nikolai? Stuck here with four strange men I hadn't met until a few days ago, cooped up like some caged animal. It's enough to drive a woman insane."

" You're the one who's being driven insane? Ha! You don't know the meaning of the word," I seethed. She was getting under my skin, picking and pulling at the parts of me I kept fastidiously hidden from normal society. It took strength and composure. And that composure was at its breaking point.

"Yes, I am the one who's going crazy staying here with you all! I need something to do . Something to occupy my time!" she shouted right back, sitting up straight. The water lapping at her breasts drew my attention down, much to my chagrin.

But I was not about to back down from a challenge.

And what a delicious challenge she was.

"If you are having trouble occupying your time, then why don't I give you something to keep you busy?" I pushed right back. That delicious flame flickered between us, the heat hanging so thick in the air that it was nearly visible, melding and mixing along with the steam that surrounded us. It kept my mind focused on only one thing: her.

"Oh really? You think you can find something to occupy my time… buddy? " The way that last word, that fucking little name she called me, tore at my dominance like a wild bear attacking — there was only one thing I could do.

My hand slid under the veil of her hair, right at the nape of her neck, faster than she could even realize. My fingers thread through her damp, silken hair, fisting the tendrils in my grasp as I tugged her head back with force.

The gasp that fell from her lips was music to my ears.

"You're dangerous, princess."

"Too much for you to handle, buddy?"

"Call me buddy one more time. I dare you." Our lips were only millimeters apart as our panting breaths mingled.

This was the moment. The moment I turned around, releasing her from my grasp. The moment I walked away, with my integrity and control still firmly within my grasp.

"What are you going to do, buddy? Kiss me?" Her challenge was an invitation, and the last straw.

That moment came. And then it went.

Tugging her closer with a jerk of my hair-filled fist, my lips crashed into hers.

She met me with wild abandon, like thunder meeting lightning. Our lips opened, my tongue seeking hers, hers fighting with mine. It was a battle of wills, of lips and tongue.

Her skin felt slippery and silken beneath my fingers as my hand found purchase on the small of her back beneath the water's lapping surface. Fingertips trailed up my sides, tickling at my skin before her nails dug into my flesh, scratching down my ribcage hard enough it was sure to leave marks. Marks I wanted. Marks I needed.

I wanted her covered in my marks — and to be covered in hers in return.

Her fingers moved up and over my chest to grip my shoulders. Christ, I could lose myself in her touch, her taste.

Instead, I got a face full of water as she dunked me.

Slipping into the water, I flailed, gasping for air and sputtering up droplets that had gone where they didn't belong. I had barely enough time to brush the dripping hair out of my eyes when I caught sight of her. Hands on her hips, she stared down at me with more fire and confidence than any Domme I had ever met — and I'd met a few. She was a vision.

" That is for being a dick earlier." With that, she carefully exited the hot tub, wrapping her delicious little body in a towel and sashaying her way back to the house. But of course, things were never that simple with Maddy, as I was quickly learning.

Just before she was out of earshot, she hollered back to me.

"And don't you forget it!"

Fucking hell.