Page 16

Dmitri

“The shipment is still here.” Kost pauses. “For the moment. If we wait much longer, they’ll have it disappeared.”

“They’ve secured it for themselves?” I tap the end of my pen against the desk.

I’ve been waiting for this call, confirmation that not only is Kozlov behind the delay in my shipment, but that everything is still at the port.

If it’s there, I can get it back and move it in a timely manner. If they’ve had it shipped elsewhere, the entire order will need to be redone.

Which would result in more than a little delay; it would cost me millions of dollars and most likely the buyer would go elsewhere next time.

“I believe they are looking for a buyer; once they’ve gotten that they’ll redirect the shipment,” Kost explains.

A car horn blasts from his end of the call and he shouts something away from the phone.

“Have you been able to find out why they are targeting me? I know they have issues with the Romanovs, but going after my shipments doesn’t hurt them.” I squeeze the pen, wishing I had the bastard’s neck in my fist instead.

“Nothing solid. There’s talk about them wanting to move to the East Coast, but the Romanovs are preventing it. And the fact they put their hands on Roman’s wife keeps the old men here from helping them.”

“They’re lucky they were allowed to leave New York at all.”

“Well, not all of them did,” Kost points out.

“No. Not all of them.” And if anyone touches Amelia, they will face the same fate. “Roman had every right to do what he did.”

“No one debates that. But the Kozlovs still want to expand to New York. If they get the okay to make the move, your shipment might be set free. Not what I would do, but you’re more diplomatic than me.” Another car horn blares. “Let me get inside, it’s getting loud out here.”

“Where are you?” I check my watch; it’s almost ten there.

Kost’s day is just getting started. He’s always been a night owl, and with his career choice the night is his friend.

“Back at my place. Need to get a quick shower and change before I head out.” A door creaks and shuts. “So, what do you want me to do from here? I can get a few guys together and get the container on the next ship out.”

“That easy?”

“Well, for us. There’ll be a few bodies to sort out later.” He laughs. “But that’s not a problem.”

“I don’t want bloodshed. Yet.” Leaning back in my chair, I pinch the bridge of my nose. “What about the men at the port? Bribery?”

“That would work too, but not as much fun.” Another door shuts from his end. “You want me to find out the price?”

I sigh. Enough money exchanges hands just for me to get my shipments through that port, now I’ll probably lose half my profit on this order just to get it out of there.

The Kozlovs will never set up business in this city.

“Get me the number.”

“And other shipments? If the Kozlovs have gotten to the port authorities to get this order delayed, what’s to say they don’t do it again? What if they’re getting a cut of the bribe? Your cost of doing business here will go up. If they really want into New York, this won’t be the last attempt to get you and the Romanovs out of their way.”

“I thought you didn’t like dealing with the business end of this shit?” I question. Kost would sooner put a gun to a man’s head than try to negotiate a deal. While his way has proven to be lucrative for us in the past, it’s not the way I work. Keep things above board as much as possible. At first.

If a body has to drop, it will. I don’t fuck around, and if anyone tries to cross me, they find out quickly how I handle the bullshit.

It’s just not my first move.

“I don’t, but I know how this works.”

“Can you find out how close Yusef Zhukov is to this situation? If they are getting a cut of the bribe, there won’t be one.”

“I could have this handled in one night, you know.”

“Not yet.”

“Right. We’ll try it your way, but you know in the end, my way will get it done.”

I laugh. “I know it will, and then I’ll have to move operations to a new port.”

“You might, yes.”

“Get the information, but I think you’re right. We’ll probably need to go at this your way. Just not yet.”

“Fine. Your way first. Now. Tell me about this wife. You really married the woman?”

“I did.” I drop the pen and run my fingers over the edge of the desk.

Amelia hasn’t left my thoughts for more than a few moments today.

It’s been tempting to have Boris sit inside her building so I could have updates on what she’s up to, but I decided against it. She’d put her claws away last night with my family. Fighting with her every day won’t prove to make a happy marriage, so I decided to give her space.

Not too much.

Boris sits outside her building to be sure there’s no issues. Just because the Kozlovs are keeping their attack on us in Russia doesn’t mean they haven’t deployed anyone to New York to make a personal attack.

“Why would you do that? You’ve gone this far in life with escaping the clutches of marriage, why ruin it now?”

“Maybe when you’re all grown up, you’ll understand.”

He grunts. “I’m thirty-three and I have the world by the balls. I’m as grown up as it gets.”

“Fucking your way through Europe and North America isn’t the legacy you think it is,” I snort.

“Asia, too. I was in Bangkok last month.” I can imagine the arrogant grin playing on his lips with that statement.

“I hope you see a doctor regularly.”

“One of the best.” He laughs. “You like this woman then?”

“She’s—” My sentence gets cut off by the door to my office flying open and banging off the wall.

Amelia charges to my desk.

“Here. She’s here. I’ll have to call you later. Let me know what you find out about the bribe,” I instruct, keeping our conversation in Russian.

“Will do.” He clicks off the call.

“Amelia.” I swivel my seat to face her fully. She’s flushed and her eyes are wide with raw emotion. “What’s wrong?”

“You.” She throws a file folder on my desk. “You ruined him. You ruined everything!”

“Who?” I shove up from my chair and open the file folder, but before I can read what’s inside, she slams her hands over the papers.

“My brother! You ruined him. You took a decent man, a proud man, and turned him into a criminal. And now I could lose the foundation and the center with it!” Panic shakes her voice.

“Amelia, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Slow down, explain what happened.” I move around the desk.

If I can get my hands on her, she’ll relax.

But as soon as I get close enough, she slams her fist into my chest, trying to shove me away.

“Don’t touch me.” Her purse slides down her arm with all her wild movements and gets tangled up around her elbow.

It takes her a few seconds to unwind herself and she throws the bag onto the desk. On top of the papers that might explain what’s gotten her so riled up.

“You’re upset, obviously, but you will not barge in here and start screaming at me like this.” I stand my ground.

I should have known coddling wouldn’t help her.

She needs—no, craves—a strong hand. Whatever’s happened has gotten her all lost in her thoughts. She needs something to help settle her, something that will ground her so she can get them all in order again.

“Screaming?” Her voice dips dangerously low. “I haven’t even started yelling yet, you arrogant, fucking prick.”

Shock flashes in her eyes. She’s surprised herself with her outburst, I think.

“Hmm. All right.” Scooping her off the floor, I carry her, wiggling and fighting me, to the corner of the room. The same corner I placed her in the night I found the frat boy’s hand on her.

“What are you doing?” She spins around the second her feet touch the floor.

“I’m helping you.” Anchoring my hands on her shoulders, I turn her back to the corner.

“This isn’t helping!” She slams her palms into the wall.

Maybe she thinks she can push back at me and get away.

I lean into her, pressing my chest into her back and bringing my mouth to her ear.

“ Moyo dikoye plamya. Trust me here. I’m helping. I could bare your ass and punish you for the way you’ve behaved since you’ve walked in, or you can stand here and calm down so we can talk.” Pressing a soft kiss just below her ear, I feel her heartbeat. It’s racing.

“I don’t want you to punish me.” She rests her forehead against the wall, dropping her hands to her sides. “I’m angry.”

I smile. “Yes, I see that. But why?”

She drags in an unsteady breath. “I think I need another second.”

“All right.” I retreat a step, letting her have some control in this moment as she seems to have lost it on the way into my office.

“No. Don’t go.” She holds her hand out to me.

Linking my fingers with hers, I move back behind her, letting her feel my warmth. And my length.

This woman’s obedience and her willfulness keep my cock hard for her at nearly all times. I’m not going to hide it from her. She needs to know the effect she has on me.

She adjusts her footing, pressing her ass back at me until my cock nestles between her ass cheeks. If she wasn’t wearing those damn slacks, I could feel more of her.

Maybe I should get rid of all her pants and force her into skirts at all times. Then when moments like this happen, I can easily flip the material up out of my way.

“Amelia.” I move the chestnut locks away from her ear. “Tell me what happened. Did someone hurt you?”

Already, I have in mind who I will send to pick up whoever did it. I won’t let them handle it though, that will be my pleasure. I’ll have him dumped into the basement of one of the Romanov warehouses. Then I’ll deal with him.

“No.” She shakes her head.

The movement makes her bump into my chin. After another slow drag of air, she breathes out the answer.

“Lucas was stealing money from the center. And the accountant says I have to report it, otherwise I risk having the foundation and the center shut down for fraud.”

Gently, I pull her arm until she’s facing me again. The redness of her cheeks has dulled to a pink blush, and the tension has eased from her eyes.

“Why would Lucas be stealing money from the foundation or the center?” They’re basically one and the same, but there are two ways to get money if he wanted to embezzle.

Her expression hardens again. “Because of you.”

“Me.” I flatten my hand against my chest.

I’ve been accused of many things, and most of them have held some truth to them, but making someone embezzle from a charitable foundation is not one of them. Or would it ever be.

There are much better ways to make money, and more lucrative too.

“What did I have to do with it?”

She seems to lose some of her steam as her shoulders drop and she lets out another heavy sigh.

“He got the idea from you. Or he got the taste for criminal activity from you. I don’t know how you’re involved; I just know Lucas never would have done it on his own.”

I nudge her chin with my knuckles when she looks away so that she’s focused on me again.

“Amelia, if I wanted to steal money, your foundation would be the last place for something like that.”

“He stole two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. That’s not a small amount.”

I suppress the smile tugging on my lips. It’s easy to forget that while Amelia wasn’t raised without excess around her, she has never seen the amount of wealth that I possess.

“Amelia, I earned that amount before I rolled out of our bed this morning.” I run the back of my hand along her jaw, hoping to ease the tension building again.

She’s angry and confused and hurt and I hate every one of those emotions as they play across her beautiful features.

I want her safe and warm and happy, tucked away where I can protect her from all the harm the world can do to a person. Knowing first-hand the horrible people that run this world, I can’t help but want to hide her away from it.

“You did?” She frowns. “Of course you did.”

She steps back into the corner and pushes her head back until she’s staring at the ceiling. “Why would he do this?”

“Are you sure he did?” I walk back to my desk and pick up the folder she threw down.

“The accountant was certain. Lucas had emailed the bookkeeper with invoices and there are also transactions that he himself entered into the books.” She reaches across my arm and points to the ledger I’m scanning. “See, there’s his sign on credentials. We all have them so the software can track who did what.”

“Does anyone have your password to the software?” I quickly flip through the lists and ledgers in the folder.

The accountant has reason to be concerned, but Lucas wasn’t a man for this sort of thing. He wouldn’t steal from his sister. He wouldn’t have done anything that would put the center in danger of being shut down.

“Me? No.” She pauses, scrunching up her lips. “Well, I mean they don’t have it, but Sarah knows where I keep my passwords. You know, in case something ever happened.”

“Like what?” I question. “What would happen that she would need to use your passwords?”

“I don’t know, like I was away, and I needed her to get into something for me.” She’s pulling answers out of her ass.

“Like the banking software?”

She lifts a shoulder, frustrated. “I don’t know, Dmitri. Maybe?”

“We’ll talk more about your security system later, but the reason I ask, is if you have someone who can get into your passwords, there’s no reason to believe Lucas might not have had the same. Could his assistant have been able to get into his email?”

She thinks for a moment. “Probably, but Richard has been with Lucas forever. I can’t see him doing this either.”

“Well, what about employees? Friends.” One in particular comes to mind. “What about Christian?”

She pulls back, insulted. “No. Absolutely not, he wouldn’t do this.”

“You don’t know that. Maybe he needed the money, or he still does?” Which would explain why he risked his fucking life by suggesting she marry him instead of me.

“You just don’t like him.” She sinks into a chair.

“I don’t. The only reason he’s still walking around with all his fingers and toes is because of you.” I drop the papers onto the desk and lean back against it.

“Christian wouldn’t do something like this. He’s never even hinted at having money issues. If he had, Lucas would have given him money. There wouldn’t be any reason to steal it.” She leans back, resting her head on the back of the chair.

It’s difficult to share her faith in this man. Lucas kept him at arm’s length when it came to business matters. And other matters.

“The center is safe.” I fold my arms over my chest. “You’ll need to trust me, though.”

She looks up at me with her hazel eyes full of apprehension.

“You’re not going to threaten the accountant, are you?”

“No.”

“Because you can’t do that, Dmitri. You can’t just go around threatening to rip off people’s fingers because they don’t do what you want.”

“Actually, Amelia, I can. It works well.” I let a little smile slip through.

She’s sweet like this, thinking she can dictate how I get things done. It’s cute.

“I don’t want you to do anything to him. It’s not his fault and he’s just doing the job we pay him to do.”

“Exactly, you pay him. You tell him what to do and what not to do.” I push off the desk. “I will get to the bottom of this. All you have to do is focus on the center.”

“I can’t.” She shakes her head as she gets to her feet. “I can’t do that.”

“Why not?” I step in front of her when she turns toward the door. I could demand it, threaten to strip her bare and punish her if she gets in my way.

But this is different than her usual defiance. Something runs beneath it, not simply a stubborn nature.

“Because it’s my problem. Not yours.” Her shoulders drop again, but not because she’s softening to me. No, it’s the weight she’s put on herself that keeps her down.

Golden ticket.

Isn’t that what her father called her? She was her mother’s golden ticket.

And she is still trying to outrun his criticism.

“Amelia, in our marriage everything is ours. There is no yours and mine, it’s all ours.”

“Oh? So you’ll let me in on the problem you’re having in Russia? You’ll tell me what your brother and you were just talking about when I walked in?” She cocks her head to the side, like she’s just caught me in something.

“One of my shipments is being held up at a port there. Someone’s interfering in my business. Kost is working on the problem for me.”

She blinks. I’ve surprised her. Good.

“Shipment of what?” She thrusts out her chin, thinking she’s got me now.

“Weapons.” I arch a brow.

“Oh.” She’s not sure what to do with that information.

I haven’t told her anything that might put her in danger, but enough to show her we are in this life together. “You’re an arms dealer.”

“Among other things. Yes.”

She nods. Complete acceptance. Beautiful.

“Fine. But still, I’m going to handle this.” She reaches around me, picking up her purse from where she dropped it. “I have to get back.”

“You can dig into paperwork and computers and ledgers, but you’re not to go questioning anyone. Do you understand? I won’t allow you to put yourself in danger.”

“Allow?” She laughs. “Dmitri, I agreed to this marriage to keep the center open. I even said those stupid words during the ceremony to keep us from standing there all day. But don’t for a second believe you allow anything.”

Ah, there’s the hellcat that barged into my office a short time ago. The fire burns brightly in her eyes now.

“Alright.” I nod slowly. “We’ll talk more about it tonight.”

Her phone vibrates in her purse.

“Tonight?” She stares at me while digging it out.

“Yes. Tonight.” Folding my arms over my chest, I smile. “We can discuss the rules tonight. You seem to have forgotten who makes them and who follows them.”

Tucking her purse under her arm, she taps out quick messages on her phone.

“I haven’t forgotten anything, Dmitri. I have to go.”

I walk ahead of her to the door, opening it for her.

“Tonight.” I grin.

“Whatever.” She rolls her pretty eyes at me as she passes.

An act that would usually annoy me, but with her in this moment it only fuels my desire for her.

She can play act that she doesn’t crave my authority, my dominance, but I see through her. When I tried to be soft, she rejected me. It was only when my dominance came through that she softened.

She’ll learn.