Page 46 of Claim Me (Dmitriyev Bratva #2)

M arissa

The music came easily, my fingers flying across the keys. As soon as I finished the last notes, a single tear slipped onto the keys. Just like before. The grief was still strangling me.

With voices just outside the hotel door, I curled my fingers, happy I’d been able to relieve some stress. When he walked in, his eyes lit up. He’d left me with guards at the door, doing a safety sweep that had lasted for an hour.

In the time he’d been gone, I’d felt terribly lonely, the music paling as company. How strange.

“Did I interrupt?” he asked.

“No.” He studied me as I rose from the stool, returning to the chair where I’d been curled up before. “Are there any boogeymen out there?”

He chuckled. “Thankfully, no.”

Boogeymen. Hell, there were real monsters hiding in the shadows. In my fitful sleep, I’d gone from being in the throes of passion to waking up in a cold sweat, terrified I’d been kidnapped. It was no way to live.

As I’d heard so many times before. Seeing was truly believing.

First had been seeing the two Russians using their acting skills, dancing around the ring of power.

I’d half expected they’d be pounding their fists against their chests and making gorilla noises.

The air in the restaurant had been electric for all the wrong reasons.

I’d wondered if any of the employees had realized how close they’d come to witnessing a massacre.

Maybe I was wrong. Maybe all the posturing was typical behavior, yet I’d felt the anger reaching the boiling point.

At least Kazimir had remained calm and collected while I’d come close to flying across the table.

I didn’t need to understand the Russian language to know whatever he’d spouted off to Popov and his son had been a threat.

Let alone what he and his brother had told them while ending the discussion.

In truth, I’d relished the moment, barely resisting pumping my fist in appreciation.

Even the magical elevator ride had only masked his anger, but his roughness and domination had highlighted his frustration with the situation.

I’d also seen the company’s financials. That had brought so many unwanted emotions that even as I sat in the living room of the beautiful suite, I had tears in my eyes that wouldn’t stop no matter how many times I rubbed my eyes or told myself everything would be okay.

I no longer was certain that was the case.

I lived in the shadow of my family and their deaths and nothing would change that.

Not time.

Not a bloody war.

And certainly not traditional business negotiations. I’d learned enough to realize that didn’t work well within the merciless worlds of crime syndicates.

“Are you okay?” Kazimir asked as he removed his jacket and loosened his tie. When he rolled up his sleeves, I couldn’t help but watch him. Just the simple act seemed so masculine.

“Fine. Perfect. Just very… angry.” My hiss held a bitter tone like every word whispered from my lips. Kazimir had tried to sign, which I appreciated, but I’d tuned him out.

Navigating the murky waters of grief was unforgiving, catching you in moments of panic-driven mania then tossing you into a wave of sadness so intense you couldn’t stop crying.

My mind had tried to shove aside the reality I was in and I knew why. I’d lived with my parents less than a year before. Their deaths had been so sudden. They’d been healthy and happy, my dad enjoying semi-retirement even while keeping my brother on his toes.

They’d been planning a trip to Italy, a location my mother had talked about since I could remember. They’d been a week away from leaving. I could still remember the excitement in my mom’s voice when she confided in me over the phone how many new outfits she’d purchased.

Something she’d rarely done in her life.

We’d been strapped as a family, every penny going to the mortgage on the hotel or the renovation efforts. While Daddy had tried to keep the financial problems from both Charlie and me, I’d sensed long before they’d been in a tough place.

Maybe I should have thought more of the fact they could suddenly afford to go on a trip of a lifetime, making purchases that they would never have considered before. I’d simply believed Marengo was finally doing well enough to allow them to enjoy life for a change.

What a fool I’d been, lost in my own dream while pretending everything was just fine.

Everyone had shielded me. Why? Because they hadn’t thought I could handle the truth?

I was partially deaf, not sick. Not dying.

Another wave of sadness tore through me much like the lust had the night before.

Seeing the financials provided by the corporation’s accountant had provided so many reminders, dreams my parents had formed and lost.

The bottom red line wasn’t the worst of everything. Seeing the huge sum of money dropped into the corporation’s bank account less than two weeks before they’d died was the killing blow for the day.

And it was early.

“It’s not as desperate as it looks,” Kazimir said from across the room. “I’m going to write Vladimir a check and be done with him. He can like it or not, but the business will be concluded.”

The attorney was expected at any moment and I wasn’t certain at this point what there was left to say or deal with.

I had a trust fund, not large by any means, but enough that I could pay off some debt and return to the orchestra. Then what would happen to Marengo? The subject hadn’t been discussed. There were too many balls in the air.

“Men like Vladimir Popov don’t take no for an answer.

Do they?” When he didn’t answer right away, I shook my head.

“You don’t need to tell me.” Another wave of electric sensations pulsed through me as he walked closer, bending down in front of me.

When he took my hand, I almost pulled it away, but as always, his hold was too firm.

He took a few seconds to rub his thumb against my palm.

The move was calming. When he brought my fingers to his lips, a moan escaped.

“No, he won’t, Marissa, but they certainly won’t be allowed to take what they want. You’ll need to trust me on that.”

“Are you going to be with me every night and every day?”

My question left him pained. “You’ll have constant security.”

“Such a fabulous way to live the rest of my life,” I tossed out. I pulled my hand free. “Then why bother paying him? Why lose the money?”

“Because Marengo is a business and a loan was provided. As with any contract, the terms must be met. However, extortion is something else.”

“I don’t need to fully understand the difference in traditional business activities and the unscrupulous ones involving the mafia. I read. I watch television.”

He was smirking. I was beginning to wonder if the man ever relaxed. He’d donned another suit early that morning. I was beginning to think he was a vampire. He rarely slept and I’d caught him in a chair that he’d turned around to face the door watching it in the dark with the lights off.

At least he’d removed his tie and had rolled up his sleeves, but he was pacing the floor, just as angry as he’d been the evening before.

“Things have changed.” He was laughing as if this was so easy for him to deal with. Meanwhile, I was sweating, my pulse continued to skyrocket and I was nauseated just thinking about the possibilities.

“I was thinking. With what you told me, why not have Popov arrested instead?” Maybe it was a crazy idea, but starting a war wasn’t good for anyone.

As soon as I asked the question, he frowned, but his eyebrows were raised as he studied me. As if he hadn’t thought of the notion before. Maybe I could play this dangerous game. “Not a bad idea. Risky, but there would be an interesting twist in the scenario.”

An interesting twist? He was taking this lightly. “But he’d retaliate. Right?”

“Likely but we can handle whatever form of revenge he would decide to toss out.”

Sighing, I tossed the papers on the table. Yes, I needed to understand what I’d been given, but it was all too overwhelming. “You’re still worried about me.”

“Of course I am.” When he turned his head, I gripped his jaw for a change, forcing him to look me in the eyes.

“I’m not a child and not nearly as vulnerable as you think I am. Don’t keep me in the dark about anything.”

“Fair enough and I’m not trying to. You deserve to hear the truth.

My concern is that I allowed Popov and his son to see how much I care about you.

That will make me seem weak. It will give Popov not only a reason to believe he can get what he wants with ease, but also a way of using you against me and my family.

Mikhail made it perfectly clear we are a force to be reckoned with. ”

“And he’ll do everything in his power to try and take down the great Dmitriyev Empire.”

His eyes twinkled. “You have been reading and learning. Maybe too much. Billions of dollars are at stake.”

“Then take him down where it hurts. His product.”

He brushed his knuckle across my cheek and through the wetness from my tears. “You’ll make a formidable business partner.”

“Is that what you want? No, is that what you’ll allow? For us to become business partners?”

“We already are, Marissa. But your brother wouldn’t want you abandoning a career you worked so hard to achieve.”

“Mmmm… True. Does that mean you won’t fight me on tonight? You will allow me to play for the benefit. Right? This is something I feel I need to do. There will be plenty of people surrounding me. There’s no way anything could happen.”

He groaned and closed his eyes. When he was frustrated or worried and his jaw clenched, he was perhaps the most handsome man on Earth. Maybe I was a little biased. How had I gone from hating him to craving him? Grief. That was the only logical answer.

“I understand just how important your music is to you, but you go there for the solo and leave right after. With me. That’s the only way I’ll agree to this.”

“Agreed,” I told him. I’d already had three calls that morning.

I’d finally talked with Teresa. It felt as if months had gone by since I’d been allowed my normal life, not a few days.

“I honestly don’t know how you can live this way.

Always on edge. Always carrying a weapon or ten.

Always keeping men trained as soldiers at least in close proximity. Do you have guards at your house?”

He finally grinned while scratching his four-day beard, which I was beginning to really like. I scratched it for him and his eyes sparked just as they had the night before. The little experience in the lobby had kept me mortified with heat flashes while laughing my ass off for a full hour.

I’d felt like some kid who’d snuck out to meet her boyfriend in a public location.

Something I’d never done.

But it had been sexy and exciting, except for seeing the look on the man’s face. Or maybe that’s why I’d laughed so hard. I wasn’t certain.

“God, no. I need my privacy,” he admitted.

“But you have several on speed dial. Right?”

“As I told you before, Popov and his clan live in the past, their world filled with brutality. That’s not my world or that of my family. We’re just like any other group of siblings. We bicker. We hate each other. We work together. We laugh. We cry. We celebrate.”

“But you just happen to be deadly individuals.”

Every time he grinned, he lit up the entire room.

“When you put it that way…” He stood, pulling me up with him.

“Something else I don’t understand. You’re willing to drag yourself and your family into that world because of me.”

“That’s what we do for each other.”

“They think I’m special to you.”

Kazimir shrugged as if it was no big deal, but I knew otherwise. It floored me. It excited me. The idea was everything a girl dreamt of, even though the reality was terrifying. “You are special to me, Marissa, and my family knows that.”

“Because they thought you’d never feel that way again. Right?”

Now his expression was pinched. “The past is the past and needs to stay there.”

I could tell he wasn’t going to budge.

“You are so hardheaded. You want me to trust you, yet I only know but so much about you. Are you certain you really want to expose your life to the old ways?”

“Are you suggesting you’re not worth it?”

I gave him a look. “Evidently I’m worth about ten million dollars so…”

He growled. “Don’t go down that road or I might need to turn you over my knee.”

“Oh, no, you don’t.” I backed away even as he tried to grab me. As horrible and gut-wrenching as everything was, the fact he could make me feel so alive was something I’d never forget.

Long after he was gone.

And I knew in my heart that’s where this was headed.

What I’d learned about his world in three short days was that there were no happily-ever-afters. As the brooding Russian with the killer smile had told me more than once.

I was nothing but a weakness.