Page 95 of Bratva's Mercy
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SERGEI
“Holy shit. What happened here?”
I stood in the center of my bedroom and turned slowly to take in the mess I’d made searching for an SD card that was so small it could be hiding anywhere. Well, there weren’t exactly many places to hide given the scarce furniture in the room. Still, it had to be around somewhere, although I was sure I’d placed it in the duffel along with the money I was supposed to be dropping off from the club.
“Redecorating?” I suggested drily.
There was no way I was going to admit to Nik that I’d lost the SD card containing sensitive information. My one consolation was that the card was so tightly encrypted it would probably take army intelligence to pry its secrets out.
“You really ought to do something about this mess.” He carefully stepped over a pillow on the floor. I didn’t even know why I bothered shaking it out. It wasn’t as if the SDcard could have walked out of the bag and crawled inside the pillowcase.
“I’ll clean it up after.”
I walked over to the table and picked up my cell phone. The device had vibrated fifteen minutes ago, but I’d ignored it in my hunt for the lost data. I had a message from Leo. Leo, who was the only one who’d been inside my house, which meant he’d taken the memory card.
Unless I’d been distracted, fucked up, and dropped it somewhere, which was highly unlikely, but I’d rather believe that than Leo two-timing me and proving Maxim right. He’d forgiven me so quickly after being upset that I’d killed Arkady’s son. At the time, I’d taken it as him finally acknowledging that fighting against his feelings for me was futile. That, as much as he pushed me away, berated me, and fought me at every turn, he was as addicted to me as I was to him.
But all that might have been wishful thinking on my part.
“I gotta say, Sergei, you’ve got a decent house here, but you ought to do something with it. Why don’t you take a day off stalking your man and get the place properly furnished?”
“Leo’s helping me to pick out furniture this weekend,” I answered absentmindedly as I unlocked my phone and tapped his message open.
That’s right. If he truly had the SD card, he wouldn’t still hang around me. He has to be innocent. I want him to be innocent.
LEO:
Thanks for dinner.
I stared at the three words, feeling dismayed. I should be content that he’d texted me at least, but his message was so direct and dry. There was no affection in it at all. It was so…Leo. But I wanted more. I wanted him to show that he cared about me.
Fuck, this one-sided love was hard.
“How’s this thing going between you two anyway?”
“Nik, I have a question, but you have to promise not to laugh.”
“Alright then, we’re just going to ignore my question and ask one of your own. It’s all good. I promise not to laugh. Now shoot.”
I was already having second thoughts by the time Nik finished, but I pushed on nonetheless because I didn’t know what the fuck to do. Nik had bagged himself both Darius and Jess, so he had to at least have a better grasp on relationships than I did.
“How do you woo someone?”
“Woo someone?” Nik choked out.
“Yeah, you know. Date them. Get them to develop feelings for you and shit.”
“No, I know what it means.” He rubbed his forehead, looking dangerously close to laughing, but to give him credit, he was at least trying to hold it in. “I just haven’t heard the term in such a—well, ever. So you want to woo your doctor?”
Scowling, I shoved my phone into my pocket and stalked past him to the exit. “Forget it. I knew you were going to laugh.”
“I’m not.” Nik ran after me as I marched down the stairs. “I think it’s actually sweet that you want to er—court your doctor.”
“Leo. His name is Leo.”
“Yes, Leo, of course. What have you done so far? Have you taken him out?”
