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Plus, it helps that they’re signing most of their conversation, so I get some of it, mostly about a book they’re buddy reading, which I picked up myself so I could find out what she’s into. It’s hard to do that when they’re on her Kindle but when she leaves the paperbacks all over the house, I get to catch it and read along with her. The pink neon from the sign above the bar that says “Welcome to Eden” glints off her golden hair, casting what looks like a halo on her head, and when she tips her head back to laugh, my heart pings in my chest.
Maksim may not see the value in Raven, but I do. Especially when Ray makes my girl genuinely laugh out loud like that. Sabrina, tipping back her drink, turns to ask the bartender for another, and I watch as she visibly tenses when a man stands behind her, not close, but close enough to have me leave my post.
I watch as she turns slowly, her eyes wide with fear. Her lips part, then curl up in a snarl. Something out of the corner of my eye causes me to look up, and I see a freshly changed Maksim leering downfrom the door of what I’m guessing is his office. He’s quick to go down the stairs, and when I look back, Raven is standing, and she’s throwing a drink in this man’s face. He takes a step forward, but Jonas is faster, yanking her behind him, and closing in on this guy.
I catch the tail end of “Mafia scum,” the guy seethes in an English accent. I twirl him to face me, and although he’s grown into himself, packed on about twenty pounds of mass, I recognize him as the guy that dropped off Sabrina that day - Christian or King Something.He’s important in the Syndicate’s Bones Chapter.
What the fuck is he doing here?
Two other guys show up to I guess back him up as I approach.
“Wanna say that again to my face?” Maksim growls from behind me.
Christian/King laughs maniacally, like it’s the most hilarious thing he’s ever heard. “Yeah, I said she could’ve had the best, been treated like a fucking queen, but she chose to integrate herself with fucking lowlifes. Mafia…scum,” he says slowly, lips rolling together on the ‘M.’
His eyes are a little wild, and he’s obviously drank one too many, but the more he looks at Maksim, I can see the pure hatred in his eyes,feel itfrom where I’m standing. “I saw the way you kissed her. You’re a fucking animal. No respect for her. Putting on a show like she’s a fucking whore. I mean, I guess she is, if she spreads her legs for you now. You’re no fucking king. No devil. Just the dirty fucking Gutter Rat of New York City.”
I swing, clipping him on the chin, and the other guys start attacking, trying to help their friend. He’s giving back just as good, catching me on the jaw, and I can feel someone trying to grab me, but I got the fucker in a chokehold. Jonas and Maksim fend off the other two. “You messed with the wrong fucking woman.”
The kid laughs something between a gurgle and a rasp, “Of course she got her little bodyguard, her husband can’t fucking do it.”
“Wrong,” Maksim growls and I watch as his fist flies straight into Kane Whatever’s nose. Blood spurts out and down his nose, onto the sleeve of my suit, but he’s knocked out. When I look up, big, burly Russian men have the other two toads by the shoulders. I drop Kane and the next big guy grabs him, cupping his arms under his, and drags him away.
Maksim stands to his full height, fixing his suit jacket. There’s a bit of bruising on his eyebrow, but I don’t know if it’s from his fight or this one. Dark eyes clash with mine, and suddenly, he gives me one singular nod, grabbing Sabrina and tucking her under his arm possessively.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
She nods, pink in the face, and a few tear streaks down her cheeks.
“Let’s go home.”
The crowd parts for us like the red sea. I can feel Jonas and Raven behind me as we take the elevator in complete silence to the casino floor.
My knuckles hurt, but our girl is safe. She’s good.
Raven and Jonas take an Uber back to Brooklyn Heights, and I drive us home.
“Who was that fucking guy, Sabrina?” I hear Maksim ask in a low voice.
“Nobody important,” she replies looking out the window.
“Bugiarda,” he says roughly and unfortunately I have no idea what it means. “I saw the way your eyes opened wide; you were scared.”
Okay he caught that, too. I'm gonna have to start asking Tildy some questions.
“Just someone I used to know, okay? Like I said, he's not important. Let it go.”
I drop them off at the front door of the building, then drive down to the parking garage. When I take the back elevator up to the penthouse, I walk in… to the sounds of glorious, loud hate-fucking.
Chapter Nineteen
Sabrina.
One Week Prior
It's a Monday evening after the charity when Savage and I get home from the office, after a very long, very petty divorce proceeding. My poor client not only had his wife followed by a PI and found out she was having an affair, but it was with my client's barely legal teenage sister.
I haven't had any sugar since that bite of cookie Maksim fed me at the charity. When I come home -er, to Maksim's penthouse – to find that not only is my room padlocked, butallof my belongings are gone.