Page 51 of Until Death or Defeat

“Uh, excuse me? Do you know where the fuck you are?” I ask, raising the club higher. The man turns to face me, and something about him just gives me the chills.

“Oh? You must be Mrs. Sokolov. I didn’t think anyone was here,” he says as he closes the drawer. He has a thick Russian accent that reminds me a lot of Artem’s father.

My eyes narrow and I don’t change the club’s position in my hands. “Who the fuck are you and why are you in my house?”

“Apologies, I work under your husband. He sent me here to retrieve some documents.”

Artem sent some strange fucking man to the house at night when I’m alone? Asshole. “If you have it, you should leave,” I say, still holding my ground.

“I haven’t quite found all the papers yet. Perhaps you’d be kind enough to let me find them all first?”

“I don’t think so, pal. Go back and tell Artem to find them himself later.”

His expression darkens at my words and my pulse quickens. This guy is freaking me out, and I’m here defending myself against a man with a gun on his hip with a goddamn golf club.

“Your husband will be upset that I didn’t complete my mission. You know how he can be, right?” The man tries to chuckle, and hopes I’ll find itamusing enough.

“Tell him I said to suck it up—he’ll understand. Get out, now.”

I see him contemplate pushing me further, but eventually he relents and I follow him out of the musty basement as he walks back toward the front door.

“Sorry for scaring you, I’ll make sure he lets you know beforehand next time,” he says with an unnerving smile as he leaves and I lock the door.

God, I don’t know what it is, but all these bratva men are fucking creepy. Artem is going to get a piece of my mind for putting me in that situation without even warning me.

12

Artem

“She’s blowing my phone up. Do you have yours off or something?” Roman holds his phone up to show me Giselle’s name flashing across his screen.

“Jesus, fucking answer it before we have another incident. I tookmycar today,” Maxim says jokingly, and I shoot him a glare before I reach for my phone from my back pocket.

I click her contact and I swear she answers it before it even rings once.

“Are you out of your mind? You can’t just send random freaks here when there’s a woman home alone in the middle of the night. I’m sure you’re used to doing whatever you please, but at least try to consider that you now have someone sitting here when you’re all gone.”

I squint my eyes as I try to understand what she’s going on about.

“I haven’t sent anyone to the house. Did someone show up?”

“Uh, yeah, one of your creepy Russian henchmen was rummaging around in the house. I thought?—”

“Insidethe house?”

She confirms my question and I swallow hard, feeling my heart rate quicken as I turn to face Roman.

“Did one of you send someone to the house?”

They both shake their heads and look at each other a bit confused.

“Giselle, make sure all of the doors are locked.”

“Yeah,thanks, as if I didn’t check that already once I got him out. I heard the gates open and close, so he definitely left.”

My jaw clenches, and I pull the phone from my ear after I tell her I’ll be there shortly.

“Roman, I have to go. Will you get this handled?”