Chapter 22

“I needto get out of these boots!” Marlena calls out after she dumps her keys on the end table and hurries to her bedroom when we get inside her apartment.

I bring the bag of burgers and fries to the kitchen table after I’ve locked the door.

There’s a thud in her room.

“I’m fine! Just bumped the dresser,” she calls before I go to see what’s happening in there.

By the time she comes back out, I have the burgers laid out on plates with the fries dumped into a big bowl in the middle of the table.

She’s changed out of the black slacks and blouse and into a pair of fluffy pajama pants and a dark green V-neck t-shirt that gives more than a hint of the gentle swell of her breasts.

If she thinks wearing what she calls a frumpy outfit will make me want her less, she hasn’t been paying attention.

“This looks so good. I’m starved.” She grabs the ketchup from the fridge and sinks into a chair at the table, pulling a plate toward her.

“You didn’t eat at work?” I drape my leather coat over the back of my chair before sitting next to her.

“Didn’t have time,” she says as she pushes a bunch of ketchup-soaked fries into her mouth. I watch as she devours her meal. Not a bite is left by the time she’s finished.

“Maybe I should have Mrs. Ivankova pack food for you. Something you can eat between clients.”

She shakes her head. “No, don’t do that. I can bring my own food.” She points at the fries left on my plate. “You gonna eat those?”

I push it to her with a grin. “No, you have them.”

I grab our empty plates and bring them to the sink.

“The dishwasher’s not working right. Just leave these in the sink and I’ll wash them in the morning.” She brings the empty bowl to the sink and puts the ketchup away. “I think I ate too much.” She rubs her stomach over her t-shirt.

I chuckle.

“I think you ate too fast, too. Go. Find a movie for us in the living room and I’ll get you a glass of water.”

“What sort of movies do you like? Action stuff, murder mystery, historical fiction, romantic comedy?” She’s teasing me. It’s sweet, this look on her.

“Whatever you want is fine with me.” I turn her around by her shoulders and smack her ass. “Go relax, I’ll be right there.”

She shoots me a fake glare over her shoulder before shuffling into the living room.

Sergei texts me about meeting up at Kraze tonight, but I shoot down the idea. He can go on the prowl all by himself. He doesn’t need me to join his hunt.

Besides, I have all the prey I want in the next room.

It’s ten o’clock and I’d rather be on the couch with Marlena than in any club anywhere else in the world.

Maybe this is what domestic life is. Sergei gets on Andrei about being so domesticated now that he’s married, but I understand the appeal. There’s nothing I want outside of this apartment.

The only thing that would make this better is if she were wearing my ring and my son was growing in her belly.

She’s already under a blanket on the couch when I bring the glass of water to the table beside her. I take off my boots and put them on the mat by the front door before joining her.

When she moves over to lie on my chest, I stop her.

“Not yet, you lie there and give me your feet.” I lean on the other side of the couch and pick up her feet, putting them in my lap.

She eyes me cautiously while readjusting her position and bringing the blanket back over her legs.

As soon as my hands touch the arch of her foot, she throws her head back and moans.

“That feels so good.” She wiggles her toes beneath the fuzzy socks she’s put on to keep her feet warm.

“You shouldn’t be wearing those boots to work,” I say as I continue massaging the knots out of the heel of her foot.

“I know, but they looked perfect with those pants.” She rolls her head forward and grins at me. “I mean, they did, right?”

“You always look perfect, moy sladkiy voin. I’ve never met anyone with style like yours.” Her unique way of taking things others have tossed aside and making them completely new is only one of the things I admire about her.

“Are you trying to butter me up for something?” she asks with one eyebrow arched. I think she’s trying to mimic me, but all it does is make me chuckle.

“No. Your feet are practically throbbing in my hand. And I do like your style.”

“They why’d you have that personal shopper bring all those clothes to your apartment for me?” She wiggles a finger at me.

“Because you also like silk pajamas. And this Friday night we have a party to go to, and you needed something more formal to wear for that.” I put down one foot and pick up the other.

“A party?” She sits up. “I can’t.”

“Why?”

“I’ll think of something,” she promises.

I shake my head. “No, Marlena. You’ll go with me, and you’ll spend the whole weekend with me. No arguments.” I press harder into her heel and she’s moaning with pleasure again.

“Fine. I can do the party since I’m sure Izzy will be there too, and I haven’t seen her enough since she moved in with Andrei and got married. But Saturday I’m working at a wedding.”

“Fine, we’ll work around all that.”

She closes her eyes and takes a long breath.

“Did something happen at work today?” I question.

She’s tense all over, not just in her feet. When she met me at her station in the salon, she couldn’t get out of the building fast enough. It was almost as though she were being chased out.

She opens her eyes slightly. “Work? No.”

I let her have another moment.

“I got some information on Jimmy today.” I break the silence stretching out between us. My news has her eyelids flying open.

“Yeah?”

“Michael doesn’t know about the blackmail, at least not now. He has no idea about the photo Jimmy has. And Michael didn’t sanction whatever job he’s getting ready to pull. I have a feeling Jimmy’s working for someone else on this job.” I put her foot in my lap and adjust my erection.

“Michael will see that as a betrayal.” She pauses a beat. “We could use that against him, right? Let him know I know about it?”

“No. You’re not getting in the middle of Jimmy and the Agosti family.” She may have had to deal with them on her own before me, but I’m here now. She’s not going to put herself in danger like that ever again.

“But I can use this to get out of the blackmail,” she protests.

“You said yourself, Jimmy knows you’re with me, my family now. If you get in the middle, it drags the Petrov family in the middle with you.”

This woman is going to give me gray hairs years before my time.

“No. You’re not going to Michael, or to Jimmy, or anyone else. Until we know for sure who Jimmy is working with, no one says anything to Michael Agosti.” I point a firm finger at her. “Do you understand me?”

“Yeah. I understand you.” She waits a beat. “I actually agree with you.”

“Oh, that’s a first,” I grin.

She presses her lips together and leans back again, her eyes looking heavy with worry again.

“He was at the salon tonight,” she says softly, meeting my eyes. “Jimmy.”

I clench my jaw. If he so much as pushed a hair out of place on her beautiful head, I’m going to rip his heart out of his fucking chest before the sun comes up tomorrow.

“When?” I force my tone to stay flat. She’s offering the information to me. I didn’t have to rip it from her. That means something.

“At the end. Just before you got there.” She pulls her feet from my lap and folds them beneath her as she tells me everything that happened.

“He didn’t touch you?” I ask when she’s finished.

“No. Other than blowing smoke in my face, but I think he was just trying to act tougher than he is. He had three other guys with him, though. I didn’t recognize any of them.”

“You think he’s got a new crew outside of Michael’s control?” If Jimmy blames his uncle for the way he was treated in prison, why wouldn’t he switch loyalties?

Jimmy’s never been much of a threat on his own. He’s more of a useful idiot than any sort of powerhouse for the Agosti family.

If Michael’s older sister and her husband hadn’t died in that car crash when Jimmy was younger, I don’t think Michael would have found any use for him at all. But unlike Jimmy, Michael still has a strong family loyalty.

“He could. Jimmy’s really pissed at Michael.” She scrunches her lips to the side. “And me.”

“Why you?”

“I was late meeting him the day he got caught. He says if I’d been on time, we would have been gone before we’d been found out.” She yawns. “I honestly don’t know if that’s true or not.”

“He’s a coward. He can’t go after his uncle for revenge, so he picks on you.” Having my hands around his throat would be a good way to handle this, but unless Michael sanctions it, taking out one of his family members would be responded to with more violence. I won’t risk Marlena.

“There’s more,” she says, looking up at me through lowered eyelashes. Her cheeks bloom softly. “You were right.”

“I usually am, but about what specifically?”

“I offered him the cash. Your cash. The full twenty thousand. He’s gonna take it, but he wants five thousand every two weeks until he says otherwise in order to keep the photo from making its way to the Donato family.”

That fucking prick. More than likely, he’s trying to get her back into the game. When she can’t come up with the money, he’ll try to force her on his crew.

Being right isn’t always a relief.

I pull her into my lap, bringing the blanket with her and wrapping her up in my arms as I kick up my feet on the coffee table. Once she’s cocooned on my lap, I kiss her temple.

“Thank you.”

She turns with a questioning look. “For what? Bringing even more drama home?”

“For telling me about what happened. It saves us time when you’re up front about these things, though I will admit, I don’t mind my way of getting information out of you.”

“You mean with that wicked belt?” She wiggles her ass, pushing the buckle of my belt into my stomach.

“Yes, and soon I’ll show you how much you love my belt. But for now, let’s watch a movie. What did you pick?” I look over at the screen where her choice is pulled up. “Fast amp; Furious?”

She laughs. “I thought it was appropriate.”

“I cannot picture you stealing a car.” I get the remote and back out of the program to the menu.

“Jimmy taught me everything I know.” She looks at the screen. “How about that, I hear it’s really good.” She points at what has to be a romantic comedy. I frown, only because she can’t see me, and put the movie on. If this will help her relax, I’ll watch it.

“Do you think he has other photos of your time with him? Other than that one job?” If he has others, it won’t matter if we get that photo from him.

“He hasn’t said. That one was tied to the Donato family; I think that’s why he took it. The others were just random luxury cars as far as I know.”

“If he knew to take the photo, he had a feeling he’d need it at some point.”

“He’s an asshole, Viktor; it’s not surprising he’d want to hold something over me, or anyone for that matter.”

“Or he wanted to use it to hold over Michael.”

“Michael didn’t hide the fact he was behind it, why would there be a reason to hold it over him? Donato already knew.”

“Maybe there’s something else here besides wanting to squeeze you for money.” I press the play button on the remote.

She wiggles in my lap, turning to face me. She takes the remote from me and turns the television off.

“I don’t want to talk about him anymore.”

I nod. “I don’t either. I thought you’d like to watch a movie.”

She scrunches up her nose.

“No?” I laugh. “Then what do you want to do?”

“I just want to go to bed, Viktor.” She climbs off my lap, dropping the blanket to the floor and grabs the hem of her shirt.

It falls onto the pile with the blanket.

“Bed?”

“Bed.” She nods and walks toward her bedroom.

I have her up in my arms before she gets to the kitchen.