Page 41 of Pistols and Plush Toys

If we go out, you and me. The words kept ringing in Elliot’s ears as he sat in the back of the car with Meredith as Alex drove them to the mall.

There was a certain amount of simplicity to the proposed plan, Elliot could see that. Mattia had always been possessive of him. And if the way he’d acted when he’d finally gotten Elliot back was anything to go by…

He had no doubts that it would work. Gerard and Meredith thought it would work.

It made Elliot nervous to think of being out and about, but…

Mattia had been able to get to him while Elliot had been supposedly safe in Nikolai’s house.

Nikolai had increased security significantly of course, but it had still happened.

And Elliot didn’t want anyone else to get hurt. If this was the quickest way to get Mattia back, to end this–

It was hard to think about that. But Elliot no longer had the choice to be na?ve or look away. He’d dated Mattia. He’d been in rooms with other men who had probably killed people. Now that the scales had fallen from his eyes, he had to make a choice.

Did he agree to the plan and help stop Mattia?

Permanently.

His gaze drifted to the other occupant in the back seat with him.

Meredith had greeted him when he’d first gotten in the car, and then apologized to Elliot and said that she’d need a few minutes on her phone to finish a work email. Elliot was more than okay with that. Meeting Meredith officially for the first time had his nerves rattling.

The last five minutes of silence had helped. The car moved smoothly onto the highway and Elliot took the opportunity to look Meredith over.

She was, somehow, even more competent looking than the image he’d put together in his mind’s eye.

Today she was wearing a sleek and well-fit outfit of pale blue slacks with a crisp white silk-looking blouse.

Her hair was cut above her shoulders in an exacting hairstyle that had been bleached in icy cool blond tones.

She wore several silver earrings in each ear, one of which had a pale blue gemstone that matched the blue gems on one of her rings.

Everything about her was well-manicured and intentional. Even if he hadn’t heard so much about her already, he would have known she was someone notable at a glance.

“Okay, sorry about that,” Meredith said as she set her phone down in her lap. “Everything’s been kind of crazy recently.”

“Sorry,” Elliot said, because he felt like he’d contributed to that a lot.

“No, please, it’s not your fault,” Meredith said, waving a hand.

“The situation with Mattia Vitale was always going to be a problem, even if you hadn’t been involved.

We would’ve had to handle this at some point in some way.

Nikolai has a strict code, and he doesn’t want certain things going on in this city.

As much as we like to avoid violence, sometimes you do have to get your hands dirty for the greater good. ”

Elliot was certainly coming around to the position. He didn’t want anyone to get hurt, but turning a blind eye, doing nothing, wasn’t going to stop Mattia.

That was clear.

“Still, I’m sorry for my… part in it,” Elliot said. He went to bite his lip and then remembered he wasn’t supposed to. Instead he folded his hands tightly together.

Meredith turned to look at him more directly.

Her gaze was shrewd, assessing. “Honestly, your part in it has been the only bright side. I mean, I should be thanking you for the decrease in Nikolai’s late night fast food orders.

I was sure that after he fired the last chef he was going to go off the deep end, especially with all this stress. ”

“Oh, um,” Heat came to his cheeks. “I mean, Nikolai mentioned you were concerned about his diet, and I can cook, so um, it just made sense? I-I wanted to be helpful.”

Meredith tipped her head in acknowledgment.

“You’ve been very helpful, don’t worry about that.

And congratulations on the new position by the way.

I think it’s a great idea to have you hired officially.

The standard salary starts at eighty, with vacation time and benefits included of course.

I’ll send all the documentation over to you later to sign, but as far as today, I’ll put the purchases on my card, and when we get your direct deposit all set up, I can just deduct that. Does that sound fair?”

Elliot’s thoughts ground to a halt. Eighty? As in eighty thousand dollars ?

There were plenty of people in the culinary world that made salaries around there or higher, but he’d never even made close to that having just finished school and–and he’d still been learning, making his way up the ladder.

“O-oh,” He said, overwhelmed. “That’s… a lot of money.”

Meredith shrugged, “For a live-in I’m technically underpaying you. Plus, at this point, I’m desperate to get someone Nikolai actually likes, so I can stop having to interview chefs.” She smiled at him. “You’re actually doing me a huge favor.”

That—Elliot didn’t know what to do with that. “I hope I can keep making him things he likes,” he stammered.

But now that Elliot thought about it, hadn’t every other chef been fired?

Meredith hummed, as if she could read his mind.

“I know you’ve heard about his difficulty keeping chefs, but no matter how the job works out, I want you to know that Nikolai is not going to kick you out, okay?

You have all of our support through this mess.

Nikolai takes care of his people, I promise you. ”

Nikolai had said as much, but it was nice to hear it from Meredith too.

“Nikolai is stubborn, but he has a good heart,” Meredith continued.

“I think part of why he doesn’t want a chef is because he has trouble giving up control of what he eats.

But from how it sounds, it makes him happy to have you cook for him.

And he’s enjoying what you make. It only makes sense to put you in charge of the kitchen and pay you for your time. ”

Elliot felt himself flush further. Nikolai talked to Meredith about his cooking?

“It’s nice,” he managed. “Getting to cook again.”

“I’m glad,” Meredith replied easily. “Between you and me, I think he’s been purposefully obstinate about the chefs. More than a few would’ve been serviceable if he’d given them the chance.” She blew out an annoyed breath.

“He doesn’t really seem… picky,” Elliot said. He thought back, but couldn’t recall a single time Nikolai had turned his nose up at anything Elliot had made.

Meredith’s mouth quirked. “Not with you.”

Elliot wasn’t… sure what that meant.

“But I’m glad we have you for now,” Meredith continued. “I saw in your background check that you graduated the Culinary Institute in Bakersfield, and from your employment history you’re very qualified for this position. So I’m happy to give it to you.”

“Background check?” Elliot asked, taken aback.

Meredith, for the first time, looked wrong-footed. “We had an extensive background check done on you, once you, ah, came to be living with Nikolai for a more extended stay. I’m sorry, I know a lot more about you than you know about me, which might be uncomfortable.”

“No I-I understand.” Elliot hadn’t thought about the research that had gone into him, but it made sense. Why should Meredith or Nikolai trust a random stranger to live in Nikolai’s house with him?

Especially once he was no longer under lock and key.

“I appreciate your understanding. We do try to make sure that there are no unfortunate surprises with people around us.” Then Meredith sighed. “In regards to the mess with Horatio—I wanted to apologize properly for that.”

“What?” Elliot furrowed his brow. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“It was.” Meredith said gently. “I have to take responsibility. I helped hire him, and I missed something somewhere. And I’m really, truly sorry you suffered the consequences.”

Elliot shifted in his seat, uncomfortable. He hadn’t expected that from her. “That’s–it’s–” he almost said fine , but kept the word in. “You can’t control everything.”

“I know,” Meredith said. “But you were hurt, and that matters. So I’m sorry.”

Elliot was hard-pressed to think of a single time Mattia had ever said sorry to him, but Nikolai had, and now Meredith had too, even though he blamed neither of them for what had happened.

He swallowed hard around a knot of emotion. “I’m–I’m glad to not be there anymore,” he confessed.

“From what Nikolai tells me, you were put in the middle of something you never should have been,” Meredith said, keeping her voice soft.

“I-I didn’t know what Mattia did for work. I–I should have, but I–” The tightness in his throat increased, cutting him off.

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” Meredith said.

“Sometimes our paths change quickly, or get away from us. We end up doing things we didn’t know we were capable of.

One day you’re a project manager at a healthcare software startup, hating your life choices, and the next your best friend from college is calling you up and asking you if you want a job managing a startup jewelry business with a famous Russian mob boss’s son. ”

Elliot stared at her, wide-eyed. “Is that–is that how you met?”

“That’s how I met Nikolai,” Meredith said, humming. “Gerard and I were friends in college. We met when he stabbed a guy for me.”

Elliot didn’t think it was possible, but his eyes got rounder.

Meredith laughed. “It was technically self-defense, but I’d say it built a lasting bond between me and Gerard.”

Elliot didn’t even know what to say to that. “Wow.”

Meredith smiled. She had a really nice smile, warm and friendly.

“And now it’s twenty years later and I don’t know where I’d be without them.

Certainly it’s not a career trajectory I’d recommend to everyone, but even on hard days I’d rather be here than drudging through corporate America.

Nikolai and Gerard are the two best things that ever happened to me, and sometimes you have no idea how your life is going to go. ”