Page 3 of The Brutal Arrangement (The Ivanov Syndicate #2)

LUCY

I t only took me a few days to understand why Joann was so upfront about the need to mind my own business. I also learned why that Uber driver wanted to get the hell out of here too, when he dropped me off.

With little snippets of what some of the men said in passing, it was too clear that this was no standard wealthy residence I now lived at to keep clean and tidy.

This was a property owned by a crime family.

The Mafia.

When I realized some really bad players could be in and out of here, I reminded myself that I needed these damn paychecks. The pay rate was too good to give up. Another email from Mom’s facility suggested that she’d do better at another place, one I couldn’t afford yet.

But maybe if I stay here until winter, I can have enough saved up for a down payment?

I bit the inside of my cheek as I dusted in one of the parlors, relying on the autopilot task of cleaning to give me the chance to think, worry, dwell, and brainstorm.

Realizing I was in a dangerous household should’ve sent me into panic mode. Some sixth sense should’ve triggered the instinct of fight or flight, ending with my running out of here.

But I didn’t. I couldn’t because while I caught bits of whispers and conversations that alluded to Mafia matters, I wasn’t in harm’s way.

So long as I did as Joann said—keep my head down and stay out of the way—there was no plausible reason for any crime lord or soldier man to target me .

And that was exactly what I did. It was what I’d planned to do, no matter what.

Clean. Blend into the background. Keep my head down.

And ignore it all. Sticking with that method, this gig was an easy one.

I was grateful for the steady employment and more-than-decent pay.

It wasn’t my business if these brutes came and went through the huge mansion, talking about a “demon” they wanted to take down next.

Or how they had to transport “captives”.

It also wasn’t any of my concern about old vendettas and strategies to remove power.

Ignoring it all was the smartest plan I could adhere to, and it wasn’t a challenge when the house remained mostly empty.

These men never stayed in the kitchen or more communal rooms for long, usually just going to the study to confer with another leader-like guy.

Or they’d take guest rooms. Sometimes, they’d have meetings in private wings that I wasn’t supposed to go into. Joann handled those.

I also stayed away from anything that might have seemed like “evidence”. The one day I dusted in the study and knocked a list of what seemed like house listings off a desk, I panicked that someone would think I was messing with top-secret materials only intended for criminals’ eyes.

Unfortunately, though, that empty-house feeling changed too soon.

Joann approached me as I dusted the pain-in-the-ass molding around a fireplace no one ever used, cringing just enough for me to assume she came bearing bad news.

Please, please don’t tell me I’m fired.

I couldn’t think of a single reason I would’ve been fired, but I was caught up in this feeling of dreading when the other shoe would drop.

It was such a blessing to be working for good pay in a house without bitter, insecure women who’d be catty toward me.

Even though I was cleaning a residence for criminals, this opportunity was a blessing when I had to do all I could to provide for my mother.

“Lucy, a quick word.”

I swallowed, my throat dry with this instant spike of apprehension. Joann was a sweet, older woman who was fine to get along with, but I read the nervousness on her face. “Sure. What’s going on?” I smoothed my hands down over my apron.

“Anton—Mr. Kozlov—is returning to the house soon,” she explained. “Anton and Katerina.”

“Oh.” I blinked, surprised. The house had seemed so uninhabited that it was strange to think of residents being here at all.

Joann had loosely explained that the Kozlovs had many properties and they hopped around from one to another.

The uncle-and-niece pair were almost nomadic like that, and I appreciated the lack of them hovering as I lived and cleaned here.

At the mention of the woman, I thought back to the picture of the brunette. Please don’t be mean or demanding or… I smiled, shoving my worries aside. “Thank you for the heads up.”

“No. Not a heads up,” Joann argued gently with a worried glance in the direction of the front door. “More like a warning.”

Oh, God. Here we go.

“A warning? About what?”

She hesitated, looking so uncomfortable that my what-ifs were going to spiral out of control.

“Is Anton…”

“He can be strange,” Joann rushed to explain, blurting it out. “He can be a really odd man.”

I winced. “Pervy?”

She shook her head. “Rude. Gruff. Impatient. He’s particular.

” Likely noticing how I tried to mask my panic, she set her hand on my shoulder.

“But he’s also very much a loner. He does not like to be bothered or questioned.

So, just carry on like you have been. Don’t make eye contact.

Don’t speak to him unless he addresses you, which he probably won’t at all. ”

“So, I should steer clear.”

“Yes.” She nodded. “Like I said on your first day. Keep your head down and mind your own business.” Something almost like a proud smile crossed over her face. “And you’ve done that splendidly so far.”

Thanks. I think.

“Katerina is a fine young lady, though,” she remarked, lightening up with almost a laugh. “She’ll be shocked to see you . I swear you two could be doppelg?ngers. Same baby blues.” Her smile lifted, convincing me that she was fond of this Katerina. “Same chestnut waves.” She gestured at my hair.

“Oh.” I put my hand to my ponytail. “I dyed it.”

She shrugged. “Still, just wait ’til you see.”

While she didn’t advise me to steer clear of Katerina, after Joann left to welcome the uncle and niece home, I planned to tuck back into the shadows as much as possible, regardless.

Keep your head down. Mind your own business. Just remember you’re here to work and make as much as you can for Mom.

In the distance, I heard Joann and Malcolm, the butler, speaking with the newcomers to the mansion.

I made no move to assist them and did as Joann instructed—staying busy and out of the way.

Idleness didn’t suit me anyway, so I gave up on the dusting and planned to be industrious in another part of the house.

In the kitchen, I set out to deep clean, since that was scheduled for this week, and I counted on being left alone.

“What the fuck is this?”

I leaned up from scrubbing a baseboard as a man grumbled.

“Oh, I’m sorry, sir,” I said as I spotted the source of his annoyance. Because no one ever came this far back into the kitchen, near the back, I assumed it was all right to leave my bucket and extra rags out on the floor, within my reach.

“Get this shit out of my way.” While it wasn’t that big of a mess, he acted like he was put out and inconvenienced to step around the short stack of rags I had folded there.

“I come home and can’t even get through the fucking kitchen…

” Without waiting for me to move the supplies, he kicked the bucket and splashed some over as he passed.

Yeah, so… you called it, Joann. I tidied up the mess and scooted closer to the wall as Anton Kozlov strode through and exited out the back.

Rude. Gruff. Impatient.

I nodded to myself as I resumed working, never needing that interaction as an example of why I should avoid this house’s owner.

So, again. Head down. Mind your own. Be as small and invisible as possible. Got it.

For the rest of the day, I managed to avoid sighting Anton, but I heard him arguing with men from various rooms in the mansion. They seemed to be heated phone calls, though, since there wasn’t a huge increase of men with Anton’s return.

The two bodyguard-like men who had arrived in Anton’s wake were noticeable. Tall, brooding, and lethal-like, the new guards were creepy monsters I didn’t care to have nearby. What was most obvious about these new guys was that they couldn’t stop staring at me.

Perhaps it was nothing more than the fact that they’d never seen me here before—new blood.

Or maybe they were primitive barbarians who’d always view the hired help as prey they could help themselves to.

All I knew was that no matter where I worked in the big house, they had an unerringly accurate ability to find me. It sure seemed that Anton gave them loose rein in the house because they were never hovering over the boss, but I wished that they’d have something to do other than stalk me.

How am I going to manage this?

That night, I lay in my bed in the maid’s quarters and prayed that the lock would hold.

That they wouldn’t sneak in here and bother me in the middle of the night.

I wasn’t so full of myself that I’d assume they’d have to desire me.

Men only looked at women the way they did when they wanted to take advantage of them.

Growing up with strangers complimenting me for being a natural beauty wasn’t something in my favor now.

Each time they dragged their sleazy stares over me, I felt grimy and dirty.

Every time they brushed past me too close and rubbed their dicks at my hip, I wanted to shudder in revulsion.

The next morning, they were still here. Even worse, they upped their efforts to intimidate me, cornering me in a hallway as I carried laundry.

“Come here, bitch,” one said with a gesture for me to carry the linens toward a room upstairs. “You can change my bed after I fuck you on it.”

I dipped my head lower yet, determined to act like I hadn’t even heard him. This was far from the first time a man had propositioned me or tried to order me in a house like this, but unlike all the other instances, I knew I wouldn’t be able to outrun these two.

“Then mine,” his partner taunted, grabbing my arm so quickly and roughly that I nearly dropped the clean linens.

“No thank you, sir,” I replied, trying to sound stern yet polite. No one wanted a sassy maid who talked back, but I just couldn’t obey them. I couldn’t bear the thought of being raped when I had gotten my hopes up that this job would be a blessing in disguise.

“She looks like her,” the first man said, “but she sure doesn’t sound like her.”

The other one laughed, not letting me go yet as he marched me closer toward the bedroom. “No. Katerina would never sound sweet like that.”

“You’re damned right, I wouldn’t,” a woman snapped from further down the hall.

I turned my head to see the brunette whose picture Joann had shown me on my first day. She wasn’t kidding. This elegant woman had to be Katerina, and she really did bear similarities to me.

Except right now, I was sure my face was etched with alarm and fear while hers was tight with annoyance and anger.

She wore jeans and a blouse, not a maid’s uniform.

And she was confident to stride up to these men and glower at them while I remained stiff and still, unsure how to extricate myself from this situation.

“Get lost,” one guard retorted.

“No. Let her be.” She glanced at me and didn’t lower her wrath for the men.

“You don’t tell us what to do, Katerina,” the second man taunted.

“Your uncle is the boss,” the first said.

“Not your daddy. Not anymore,” the second added, laughing cruelly.

“No shit.” She stepped closer, shoving at the guard who had taken hold of my arm. “That doesn’t change the fact that you should leave this woman alone.” With a quick side step, she bodily blocked the men from reaching for me again.

“We can touch whoever the fuck we want here,” the taller guard taunted, getting in her face.

If I weren’t so stuck in panic at this incident weighing against me and threatening my employment, I was sure I would’ve gaped in awe at the backbone this woman had. Standing behind her and holding these linens, I breathed as steadily as I could and wished I could blend into the wallpaper.

“Except you,” the other man drawled, dragging his pervy gaze up and down Katerina. “You’re lucky you’re promised to marry someone else, bitch. Because you’d never survive a night with us.”

Katerina huffed, as if she wasn’t bothered by the crude remarks. Or the threat that she was betrothed. I couldn’t help but peek at her hands on her hips, seeing no rings marking her as engaged.

“Go away,” she said. The heat was still in her words, but she issued them indifferently, almost as if she figured they wouldn’t listen to her but she had to have the last word.

Cursing between themselves, they shook their heads and retreated, going into their rooms. Once the hallway was clear of them, I exhaled a longer breath of relief as Katerina faced me fully.

“Thanks.”

She nodded once, studying me. “You’re welcome.” Backpedaling away from me, as if that confrontation didn’t bother her much, she furrowed her brow. “Try to avoid this wing when they’re here.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“ Ma’am ?” Rolling her eyes, she looked like that much more of a badass. Cool. Confident. Knowing her place and worth.

“Just call me Katerina.”

“I’m Lucy,” I replied, then wondered if a curtsy would be a mistake or a good move.

She lifted her hand in a wave as she left me there, walking away as suddenly as she’d come.

It wasn’t much of a conversation, but it gave me the impression that unlike her uncle, she was nice.

I could use someone nice in my life. Because just seeing her so boldly come to my defense like that, I was reminded of how I’d never have a place or worth somewhere like here.