Page 49 of Claim Me (Dmitriyev Bratva #2)

The decent man in me continuously reminded myself that she deserved tonight. She’d already honored my request to bow out of any performances in the upcoming thirty days. Given what I knew about her personality, the length of time would be like caging a lion.

Whether or not Douglas Whitman had a business relationship with Popov, the news that he’d been fired would still make the rounds. Another reason to keep a watchful eye on the beautiful yet hardheaded woman.

I closed my eyes, the heavy burden of experiencing a past I’d told myself I’d never revisit creating a dull ache behind my eyes. In discovering Marissa’s talent, I’d opened Pandora’s padlocked box.

Up until last night, I either hadn’t realized or hadn’t accepted that my enjoyment had turned into an obsession. I also hadn’t acknowledged the similarities between Marissa and… Jasmine.

With Marissa’s pointed words from earlier, another round of soul searching left a solid ache in my gut.

And in my heart.

Huffing, I rubbed my jaw. After all these years I’d finally whispered her name in my mind. I’d blocked it out successfully for a very long time.

A series of images wrestled with the anger and grief that I’d long ago abandoned. Why now? Why did I need yet another burden to deal with? Because I cared about Marissa more than I was ready to admit.

“Stop worrying about me.” Jasmine laughed before pressing her lips to mine. When she was chastising me, her Russian accent was unusually heavy. Tonight, her voice was sultry and far too seductive.

“I’m not worried. Just hungry.” I laughed and grabbed her arm, yanking her closer. She was forced to push her hand against my chest. When I fisted her hair, jerking her head so she looked me directly in the eyes, she purred as she did when attempting to get what she wanted.

Which was almost always.

“Later, moy milyy bolvan . I have a concert to perform.” She pushed herself away from me, laughing as she did.

My little blockhead. Her favorite pet name. “Careful, munchkin.”

She blew me a kiss before moving behind closed doors.

The woman was going to be the death of me, but I was happy, more so than I’d been my entire life.

Whistling, I adjusted my jacket and headed for one of three open bars.

A drink before heading to my seat. After being served the tall glass of Macallan and tipping the bartender a fifty, I headed toward the bank of windows overlooking the Great Lakes.

It had been a long time since I’d been to Chicago.

While Jasmine hadn’t wanted me to accompany her, the fact she’d been threatened wasn’t acceptable.

At least we had plans to spend a couple of days acting as tourists. I sipped my drink, enjoying the smooth taste. A few seconds later, I noticed the house lights dimmed along with the small LED indicators located every few feet on the wall switched on and off.

Jasmine was so excited about tonight. She’d been promoted to first chair of the cello section, something she’d worked very hard to achieve. I was proud of her.

Just as I turned, a fluctuation in movement caught my eye. I’d arrived in Chicago with two of my father’s soldiers on his insistence. Our family had also recently experienced active threats from several sources.

My father had many enemies.

“What is it?” I growled under my breath. There was no sense in alarming the other attendees.

“We have an issue.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say that man is stalking one of the performers.”

The deep voice dragged me out of the memory, yet it took me a few seconds to free myself from the labyrinth of pain, this time more suffocating than ever before.

“I definitely think he is. Maybe we should call the police.”

Hearing Alexsey then Mikhail, I laughed half-heartedly and turned around, still shaking my head. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be on a plane headed back to Vegas.”

“And leave before hearing the love of your life perform?” Alexsey asked while making certain he was out of my reach. “Not a chance.”

At this point, having more than one of the family in the same location outside Vegas would not a good idea.

Mikhail narrowed his eyes, his silence and head nod asking if something was wrong.

I shook my head. There was no reason to pick at scabs. The past had little to do with today or the future.

At least that’s what my father had told me after the night that…

Well, fuck. This was the last thing I needed.

“The cousins left on the smaller jet you brought. We’ll leave tomorrow with our guest. If that’s still the current plan.” It was Mikhail’s way of telling me he agreed the only place we could protect her was Vegas.

“It is. She will come with me whether she likes it or not.” Now I regretted agreeing to this.

If I’d followed my instincts before, Jasmine would still be performing in an orchestra somewhere in the world.

Both my father’s words about loving and trusting a woman and those lingering from Marissa were taking a toll.

Mikhail studied my reaction. “But you’ve yet to tell her.”

“She’s not stupid. We fired the attorney handling Marengo’s affairs.

My guess is she’s already figured out we need time to determine how to handle the resort away from the people Charlie used.

” I still had no true objective or feeling one way or the other.

While I wouldn’t rule out a sale of the property if that’s what Marissa wanted, I also refused to destroy the legacy three people had lost their lives protecting.

However, even though I owned the majority of stock, the decision belonged to the stunning blonde with luminous eyes.

“You two were busy. You’re fearful the attorney is also in bed with Popov,” Mikhail suggested.

“I can’t rule it out. And I have a bad feeling there’s someone on the inside feeding Popov information. We need to return to Las Vegas. I’m sure she’ll agree.”

“Nope. He hasn’t told her. She’ll be pissed even if she agrees later,” Alexsey suggested.

I noticed the house lights dimming and another moment of feeling completely suffocated forced me to rub my face.

Mikhail inched closer. “What else is wrong?”

“I don’t like this.” I continuously scanned the crowd.

“We’ve searched everything. I coerced the building’s security to pull up cameras from the last twenty-four hours. There’s no sign of anyone coming and going in the building who shouldn’t be here.”

Exhaling, I turned around the face the main part of the corridor. Three of our men were waiting only yards away. A bodyguard for each. At least I sensed my Pakhan was taking the level of danger seriously. “It’s not like Popov to roll over like some dog.”

“My professional guess is that he’s waiting to perform some disservice after we’ve returned to Las Vegas. At least there will be better protection for Marissa while we determine the best course of action.”

At this point, all I could do was nod although I wouldn’t relax through her entire performance.

“Come. Let’s get our seats. You did purchase roses. Right?” Mikhail asked, obviously trying to brighten the mood.

Huffing, I threw my head back.

“You didn’t?” Alexsey threw in. The man was suddenly in my face.

“Let me get this straight. You had dozens of roses sent to her over the last few months, plus you purchase enough priceless jewelry for her she doesn’t need the proceeds from the sale of the resort, yet you forgot tonight of all nights? ”

“Don’t fucking rub it in. I’ll make it up to her.” Flowers wouldn’t cut it this time. She wanted the truth about my past.

“Oh, no,” Mikhail said as he waved his hand. “She will never forgive you. That’s not how to get into the meat of a relationship.”

“Ha. And we’re not in a relationship.” My insistence had both men rolling their eyes. “It’s not good for either one of us.”

“I’m getting a drink while you convince our brother he’s an idiot.” Alexsey kept his arrogant look while strolling away.

“I resent that,” I called after him, to which he threw his hand over his shoulder.

Mikhail took a deep breath. “Another memory?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. You’ve been thinking about Jasmine.”

“I told you never to mention her name.”

“I wouldn’t if you’d kept your promise to forget about her.”

“How the fuck can I forget when…” I couldn’t finish the sentence.

Mikhail lifted his eyebrows. “When she’s part of the reason for your obsessive attraction to Marissa?”

Fuck. Now I was sweating. “It’s not obsessive.”

“Are you sure about that? You stalked her. You sent her gifts.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“You didn’t see it.”

“Not at first. I can’t allow the past to repeat itself.” The tether keeping me connected to Marissa was threatening to become a noose. Goddamn, I craved the woman.

He groaned. “Your belief in karma and reincarnation is the reason you don’t sleep well at night. This isn’t the same situation by a long shot.”

“I hope not. Enough. Let’s go in. I refuse to disappoint her.” I lagged behind him, waiting as he headed to the bar to grab himself a drink. For about a dozen reasons I wasn’t interested in having a drink. Yes, this was still a celebration, yet I’d never felt less like celebrating in my life.

The police had yet to release Charlie’s body for any funeral arrangements.

That also kept the grief just below the surface.

With the detective still on the case, and I’d checked, my guess was he’d find a way to continue torturing her.

Perhaps I should deal with him the way I’d wanted to do in the first place.

While lingering anger wouldn’t help the situation, I couldn’t erase or ignore the similarities with what had occurred in my past. I was bad karma for the lovely lady.

As we headed toward the sets of open doors, I hung back just long enough to do another sweep of the lobby, including glancing at the balcony surrounding a portion, the atrium style beautiful yet treacherous to navigate if necessary.