Page 31

“I was me, but the me if I had that confidence.” Now she looks me right in the eye and it takes everything I am not to take her in my arms and kiss her. “To be honest, I don’t get you asking me to stay.”

I laugh. “I saw you in the bar and thought you were the sexiest thing I’d seen that night. You weren’t affected; you weren’t on the prowl or looking for attention. You just were and that’s fucking hot. Then, like a gift, you were in my bathroom naked.”

“And you left.” She bites her lip, cheeks so pretty and pink I want to press my fingers to them to soak in the heat, to guide her close. To taste her lips. And I’m tempted, so fucking tempted. “I’ve often thought of what it would have been like if you stayed or booked under your own name. ”

“The past’s the past,” I say, suddenly getting what that means. “I had a lot to do that day.”

I did, but that wasn’t why I left without getting her details, without leaving mine. “And I guess I was also running from demons.”

“Like what?”

I shrug. “My father hated me and put pressure on me to step up, and nothing I did was good enough. He bullied me, wanted to shape me into him and I… I ran. I had my own business interests on the side and I hated him right back. I thought of taking him down with my own ventures. Becoming a rival was even in the works. And now, here I am, in the family business. Making it my own.”

I hated him.

And I wanted his love.

That was a hollow pipe dream.

“What changed?”

I push a hand through my hair as Sasha goes backward down the toddler slide, squealing and laughing the entire way.

“Shit, Lyubimaya , I had to grow up. Take care of those I loved.” I glance away. “Alina, really. Ilya can look after himself.”

But I wanted a good place for him. He’s family to me, and he’s worth his weight in diamonds.

“I just wanted to prove myself, and after he died, that’s what I’ve been doing.” And though I don’t say it, I’m trying to prove it to myself, too.

We set up the picnic, and I glance at Ilya, who’s on his phone by the SUV. He looks up and shakes his head. He’s put himself on duty since we’re out in the open.

Sasha comes and eats with us, then lies curled in his mother’s arms, his little feet bouncing deliberately off my thigh until he falls asleep .

I share the vodka with her, mixing hers with apple juice since it's what’s in the basket.

And when he wakes and takes off as though demons are after him, I ease her against me, my arm loose around her, hand on her thigh. It takes her a while to relax into me and when she does, it’s worth the world.

Erin turns and rubs her cheek against my chest as we just talk about everything and nothing, and for a while, I let everything else fall away.

When the sun starts to sink, it’s time to end the day and I catch a certain expression on Ilya’s face. Definitely time.

Erin calls Sasha over and he rushes up. I scoop him up without thinking, beyond pleased he lets me and even puts his arm around my neck. “More, Dane! More!”

Fuck, what I’d give for daddy, but I’ll take Dane. I’ll take anything. “So you had fun, huh?”

“More!” My son nods vigorously. “Please, Dane… Mama? Please!”

I laugh and brush a kiss against his temple, Erin’s eyes lighting up, making me feel ten feet tall. “Another time. Maybe you, me, and Mama can make it a thing?”

“Yes!”

Erin smiles. “I’d love that.”

Me too, I think. Me too.

While Erin feeds him a very light supper, then bathes him and does bedtime duty, I have to bow out.

I’ve changed and am now downstairs with Ilya, checking my gun. “The locks are installed for all weapons?”

“It’s no one’s first rodeo, Boss. The kid’s safe. No one here fucks with weapons. And I’ve made doubly sure of that. But yes, locks are in place. ”

“Good.”

I relock the drawer I keep my weapon in. “What did Stefan say?”

“Like I said Niko will be at Ten-Twenty tonight.”

A seedy part of town made popular by the well heeled who think grunge will spice up their lives.

The drinks are expensive, the titty bars upscale, and the gambling dens are highly illegal. There’s also a sex club where he’s at right now, but he’s heading to Ten-Twenty to play some poker.

“What time?”

“The game starts at ten. An ally of Sergio’s is hosting, so the guest list’s pretty legit.” He nods at me as we head out to where our men wait.

“That means he’ll be at Toto’s first. Drinks and girls, right? Cop a feel? Act the big man after some sex play? Sounds like fucking Niko.”

My father would have done business with him. Did. I stopped that long before his brother crossed lines. I have levels of lowlife types I do business with. I don’t like Niko’s level. Too much slime.

It’s easy enough to get someone in the game through Sergio, and Niko leaves the sex club on time and heads to Toto’s.

We arrive.

The beauty is it’s early enough Toto’s won’t be busy. With my men as backup, I grip my gun and look at Ilya.

I mime to him a countdown, and at one, we burst in.

A girl screams and people dive for cover.

There’s a beat, and someone raises a gun as the bartender disappears beneath the bar. I shoot, hitting the fucker with the gun.

It’s not Niko. The asshole falls, dead. No, not Niko, but one of his men, and soon bullets fly as Niko’s men rise and swarm in. Someone, somewhere, tipped the fucker off or he was expecting different trouble.

The gun battle is short and bloody, and when the last men standing on Niko’s payroll put their weapons down, I don’t think. I beat one to a pulp. Then another.

Finally, I pick out the leader; he’s the one dusting off his fucking jacket because the prick hid. I grab him, haul him over a table, sending a remaining bottle smashing to the ground, and throw him against the wall.

The fucker dares to look at me. So I beat the living shit out of him.

For Alina.

For Max.

“Where the fuck is Niko?”

The man spits blood. “Gone. Changed his mind about his plans tonight, fucker.”

I raise a boot and kick him in the head.

“Demyan.”

“What, Ilya?” I answer in Russian.

“Don’t kill him.”

“You have a good reason?”

“Let him take back a message to Niko,” he says.

I switch to English. “My comrade here says to let you live. So, pass this on to Niko. Tell him no matter how long it takes, he’ll pay for Max’s death.”

Then I shoot the fucker in both legs before turning and walking off.