Page 9

ARSENI

T he smell of lemon-scented cleaner hits me like a punch to the face when I step through the front door of Nikita’s eight-bedroom monstrosity. I hold the door open for him and breathe through my mouth.

As I follow him into the foyer, my shoes squeak on the freshly mopped floor. Nikita comes to a standstill, and the sound of scrubbing takes the place of my shoes when they silence.

I follow Nikita’s gaze to the frail, old woman on her hands and knees scrubbing a baseboard. The mop bucket with who knows how much cleaner in it sits beside her. The sight makes me think of Cinderella for some reason. If Nikita is the stepmother, he takes things to a new extreme.

“How’s your first day, Estelle?”

The woman looks up from the baseboard. Her leathery face looks worn and tired, but that could be normal for her. I doubt it, though. Nikita is vicious when it comes to his help.

“Fantastic, Mr. Petrov. I’m just finishing up.” She gives a big, decaying-toothed grin that looks so nervous I feel bad for her. She’s gotta be the twentieth maid I’ve seen at his house, which is saying a lot considering I don’t pay close attention to these things.

Nikita walks to a glass side table and leans down to inspect it, his face hovering above the glass. He runs a finger across it then peers down at his fingertip. His eyes close with a sigh.

“That’ll be all, Estelle,” Nikita says as he stands.

She nods and gets to her feet. After dusting herself off, she looks up with that nervous smile still plastered. Her smile makes me frown. “Thank you, sir. I’ll be back bright and early tomorrow.”

I turn my head to Nikita and watch his eyes narrow. “Are you as deaf as you are blind?”

Her face sinks as her mouth opens and closes.

“I said you’re fired . Get the fuck out of my house.”

The mop falls from the bucket and clacks on the floor after the woman bumps into it, her eyes wide with what I’m guessing is confusion. She goes to pick up the mop.

“ Now .”

Startling, she abandons the mop and hurries toward the front door, not daring to meet either of our eyes on the way out.

Nikita shakes his head when the front door shuts and sniffs. “It smells filthy in here.”

“Really?” I lift my chin like I’m trying to smell it, but I’m just being a smart ass. “I think it smells like someone polished my nose with pine sol.”

Nikita glares at me without saying a word. He knows I get his game with the maids. Or the gardeners. Or really every person on his staff who he deems unimportant.

Once upon a time, Nikita was Pakhan—the ‘boss’ of the Bratva—and could take out his frustrations on whomever he wanted.

Now that his nephew kicked him aside, he’s under strict orders not to harm anyone with Russian blood running through their body.

The guy’s pretty fucking murderous, so his sadism has to have some outlet.

As long as it isn’t me, it’s tolerable.

“Don’t you live in a barn?” he asks with zero humor in his tone.

I tip my head. “I mean it’s a trailer, but?—”

“ Exactly .”

The single word is a bite that conveys the message he’s been sending me all day. Shut the fuck up.

I nod and take care not to allow amusement to curve my lips.

He’s overly crabby today. All he’s had me do was drive him to a meeting at some shady bar where he made me wait in the car.

Normally, I go in with him, he introduces me, talks as if I’m of equal stature to him…

He isn’t always a dick, but when he is, he's insufferable.

But not today. Today I’m in an especially good mood.

When last night’s memory plays in my mind, I blink it away before I do something stupid like bulge through my pants. I can’t even imagine how awkward that would be.

The front door opens and slams shut, both our gazes drawing to it. I expect it to be the former maid, but this woman is way too fiery hot to be her. I can tell that before Mila’s pissed off face registers.

“Where the hell were you today?” she asks Nikita as she storms up to us.

“Please, come in.” Nikita spreads his arms in a welcoming gesture. “Make yourself at home.”

“We were expecting you,” she scowls, eyes wide with rage.

Her hands are clenched into fists which are more destructive than you would imagine.

For all my time spent with Luka, I never got to know his sister well, but one thing I know for certain is she can be deadly when she wants to be.

Manipulative. Trained to seduce from a young age.

Being a Pakhan’s wife wasn’t just her desire, it was her destiny. And I don’t mean that as a compliment.

“Was that today?” Nikita mock frowns like he’s puzzled.

“We hold our lieutenant meetings at the same time every week. Do not play stupid.”

“Mila,” Nikita drags out her name. “I would never play stupid with you. You’re too savvy to fool.”

Her face reddens while he gestures to the mop bucket and goes on. “Honestly, things have been so busy here, I forgot what day it was. I’ve been scrubbing the floors since sunrise.”

“You’ve never cleaned a floor in your life,” she snaps with her lip curled. She only means it as an insult. No one here believes he’d ever use chores as an excuse.

“That’s because I always had you , my love.” A savage smile pulls one side of Nikita’s lips. “I have to tell you, Mila, now that I’m just a bachelor on my own, I see all the little things you did for me. I wish?—”

She cuts him off with a diamond-clad hand across his cheek, the smack echoing in the vast foyer.

When she bows up to him—her neck craned to look up—her eyes are crazed with so much hatred, I wonder how Nikita doesn’t flinch.

He looks bored staring into her eyes, but I imagine that’s so she can’t see the vengeful thoughts swirling.

He would slit her throat and fuck the gap if he could.

Remember when I said Mila was destined to be a Pakhan’s wife? Guess whose dick she was on before Vitaly took over? The woman would blow the president if she felt he could give her more power than her husband.

“Don’t you ever bring up the past again.” Her voice holds so much anger, it quakes.

Nikita leans closer to her until she must feel his whisper on her nose. “ Yes, Mrs. Petrov. ”

With that, she steps back, her arms wrapping across her chest like she’s suddenly uncomfortable. She turns to me with a glare and looks me up and down. Her cherry lip curled, she shakes her head. “I’m so glad my brother isn’t friends with you anymore.”

I rear my head back, but Mila turns and marches out before I can respond. When the sound of the slamming door dissipates, I turn to Nikita. “What the fuck did I do?”

Nikita shakes his head in disgust and starts to lead me toward his office, his limp less pronounced. I wonder if he’s walking painfully on purpose just to avoid feeling weak.

“They don’t appreciate us.” He sighs. “To them, you’re nothing but Luka’s charity case. They aren’t capable of seeing your worth beyond that. Try not to read into what they say.”

I follow Nikita into his office and sit down in one of the plush, purple chairs. I’m always in a hurry to sit when I’m around him, mindful of his prideful tendencies, so I’m surprised when he continues to stand.

“I want to apologize for earlier.” He leans against his desk and taps the cane on the floor. “I should’ve told you what we were doing today, but I have this…” He twirls a hand. “ Fear , I suppose. I don’t want our business with the Armenians to get back to Vitaly. They have history.”

Armenians?

My mind jumps over it. I don’t really give a shit what he was doing.

“You’re afraid I would rat you out?”

Nikita tips his head back and forth.

“Mr. Petrov, I?—”

“I don’t like the bond you have with Luka,” he says, his voice chilled.

I half expect his breath to fog. “The whole family is a snake pit… I’m not saying you would ever intentionally do something, but I’m concerned that he’s capable of manipulating you.

Despite what the new leadership might think, our work is very important for the Bratva.

I can’t have anything compromising our efforts. ”

I shake my head. “I have nothing to do with Luka. Trust me, I hate them as much as you do.”

“So you haven’t spoken to him recently?” Nikita asks with his head tilted. Despite his naive tone, I can see the test in his eyes. He knows. I don’t know how he knows, but he knows.

“He came to my house yesterday because he suspected I intimidated that engineer. The guy filed a restraining order against Vitaly… I meant to tell you sooner.”

“Which part?” Nikita’s tapping cane finally pauses. He scoots to sit on the desk and places the cane in his lap.

“The job I did with the engineer. Obviously, I messed up, and?—”

“I could not possibly care less about that. I know you do good work. Whatever happened is on Vitaly’s tame reputation, not on you.”

My eyebrows slowly pinch with confusion.

Nikita squeezes the bridge of his nose like I’m just not getting something.

“I don’t want to control you, son. In the past, I’ve made mistakes, and it’s cost me the betrayal of more than one of my closest allies.

I want you to understand that you’re not just a valued soldier.

You’re a valued friend. But if we’re going to continue working together, I need to know you aren’t communicating with my rivals. ”

I shift in the seat, taking a pause before answering.

“I won’t speak to Luka anymore.”

Nikita smiles, finally satisfied. “ Thank you . Now, tell me about what happened with the engineer. Could he have IDed you? I’m not upset, but I’d like to make sure there’s reasonable doubt that you were the one who attacked him. There’s no sense in denying what the snakes can prove.”

“Uh…” I take hold of the arm rests, lightly gliding my thumbs over the smooth edges. “No, he couldn’t ID me.”

Nikita just stares at me a moment like he knows there’s more I’m not saying. “You’re positive?”

I nod. “He was preoccupied with a coworker when I found him, but I ran into one of his colleagues. I was obviously very wrong in my assessment, but I thought threatening her to convince the engineer would be just as successful. Plus, I thought it’d be harder to connect us to him.”

“ Her ?” His eyes roam me like he can see my motive written in my posture. “His colleague was a woman?”

I open my mouth then settle on a nod.

It was worth it. After last night, I couldn’t question if it was worth it. But it’s coming back to bite me in the ass.

“Could she ID you?”

I don’t respond right away, instead rolling my tongue across my teeth and dropping my eyes to the golden serpent making up his cane handle.

Nikita rubs his temples with his eyes closed like he has a headache. His groan tells me my non-answer is enough.

He drops his hand. “Kill her.”

I don’t know why. I really don’t know why. But my heart jumps at the command. I uncurl my hands when I notice how tightly I’m clutching the chair and rest my palms on my lap.

“She won’t be a problem, sir. I wouldn’t have left her alive otherwise.”

“Are you … arguing with me?” He pins me with a stare so intense, I get a taste of what it was like to be one of his soldiers before he had his power removed. For a split second, before I remember we’re partners, I feel glad for the restrictions placed on him. He couldn’t kill me if he wanted to.

But he doesn’t want to. Like I said, we’re partners. At the very least, I’m important to him.

I open and close my mouth before lifting a palm and finally getting something out. “I don’t mean to, sir. It’s just that she’s someone from my past, so I know her well enough to say she isn’t going to talk.”

“Who is she?”

Again, I hesitate but no longer from uncertainty. Now, I’m just embarrassed.

“My old foster mother.”

He doesn’t make any kind of expression, instead choosing to study me like one would a fine painting.

“I see…” He nods, then looks up at the ceiling like he’s contemplating something. “Kill her.”

Kill her .

The image of Margot’s corpse flashes in my mind, and for some reason, I cringe. I’ve killed so many people, it’s difficult to count, but still, I feel hesitant.

“Is that a problem?” Nikita asks.

Is it?

I think of her with the gun, so ready to fire until she saw my face.

After a breath, I shake my head. “Of course not, sir. I’m sorry. I’ve just been having a bit of fun with her, if I’m honest.”

“ Fun ?” He raises a brow.

Fun. Therapy. What’s the difference? Either way, I’m lighter.

I planned to walk away and leave her in my past after last night, but the idea of the door to her closing forever… I don’t like it. At all.

Is there another way?

I feel my eyes widen at an idea that strikes like lightning shooting through my body. If Nikita sees the lightbulb above my head, he doesn’t say, just waits patiently.

“Very.” I dip my chin. “I realize I said she was my foster mother, but she’s actually not that much older. And quite beautiful. She’d make an excellent addition to your parties.”

Nikita’s eyes start to narrow. “You want to bring her here ?”

I splay a hand and peer away like I’m debating it, but inside, I’m buzzing with excitement.

Why the fuck did I not think of this before?

“You aren’t allowed to have the Bratva’s whores here, right?” I pause only a moment before continuing. “Is there a rule saying you can’t take one of your own?”

He puffs with a laugh. “I don’t have that kind of patience.”

“Right, but I do… I could train her for you. I’m here all the time as it is. We could keep her in the basement until she’s ready.”

He blinks at me.

“I mean, think about it, how many maids do you go through per week? That has to be grueling. Even if you just used her to clean , she’d come in handy.”

“She’d also be kidnapped, and I don’t keep any guards here. What happens when she simply runs away?”

“Well, she’ll be trained before she’s left alone upstairs. But if she still runs away, we’ll kill her. She has no living relatives, and if things have stayed the same all these years, she’s a hermit. No one will come for her.”

Nikita’s fingers drum on his cane while he studies me. Eventually, he gives me a tight-lipped smile. “Okay, Arseni. If you want to keep a pet here for a bit, I’ll allow it.”

I release a full breath for the first time in minutes and lean back in the chair, my muscles suddenly relaxed.

“Just don’t get attached,” he says before starting on another topic.

I let him trail off, nodding and throwing a reply out when necessary. But I’m hardly paying attention. My mind is on her and all the fun we’re about to have.