Page 48 of Mistaken
After lying in bed for another two hours, I got up and headed for the gym, pounding into one of the punching bags until my knuckles were bloody. I’m still on the weight machines when Yuri walked in. But he paused in the middle of taping his hands, just staring blankly out the window.
“Brother,” I sighed, “come spot me.” I’m hoping he’s still with it enough to keep me from strangling on my own barbell.
After six repetitions, he speaks up. “Tania left early this morning. She asked me not to call her again.” He shrugs, returning the weight to the stand. “But Stanislav… I must contact his mother.” He drops his head. “I’m the one who arranged to bring him here.”
Sitting next to him, I say, “He wanted to come here. You know this.”
Running his hands down his face, Yuri stares out the window. “It was my responsibility.”
“In the end, it is my responsibility. Stanislav was young, but he’s been Bratva since he was fifteen. He made the choice, even knowing the risks.” I nudged him with my shoulder. “We’ll go see his mother together.” Standing with a groan, I haul him up with me. “But before we leave for St. Petersburg, we have men to bury, funerals to attend.”
“And above all else,” he added, “who would dare attack five crime families at once? You haven’t slept at all, have you?”
“Later,” I shrug.
The bad news kept coming. Toscano succumbed to his injuries after the news that his wife died during the firefight. Did that mean idiot Dante was now head of the family?
I’m still trying to count the number of organizations affected by the attack. The Yakuza was there at the party, I knew they’d lost people. The Murphys controlled the Irish crime holdings in New York City. Their chief, Kevin, had a daughter who was fighting for her life in the ICU at the Lower Manhattan Hospital. I called Thomas.
“How are you and Lauren?”
“We’re fine.” Iheard her voice and his soft answer before he shut the door. “I lost another man to his injuries last night.” His fury bled through his composed tone.
“Please tell your wife I am indebted to her for her help in saving Ivan’s life. She was very calm under such pressure.”
I heard the faintest shade of amusement in his tone. “It was not her first gun battle,” Thomas said. “I can agree to a meeting to discuss your financial proposal, but I think you’ll agree that discovering who was responsible for last night should be a priority. That level of disrespect cannot be tolerated.”
A strange way to develop a business relationship with The Corporation, but I’ll take what I can get,I think, before agreeing with him. “We’re not the only ones from last night bent on vengeance,” I add. “We might find allies in the search.”
Ella…
For the first time, I wake up not teetering right on the edge of the bed, just about to fall off. I was smack dab center and not only was this thing the size of a cruise liner, it was unfathomably comfortable. The pillows were fluffier. The bedspread was thick and velvety and luxurious. I could have petted it like a kitten. I’ve missed out, sleeping on the edge.
The pillow next to me had a Maksim-shaped indent, so he did sleep next to me.
Sitting up, I rubbed my face. How did I feel about that, my gangster spouse, right next to me? Washing the blood off of me in the shower?
Of course,my snarky inner voice adds,the man’s had plenty of experience doingthat. But still, there was kindness there. He almost looked like he’d been waiting for me to lose it. Is there some sort of order on how you process being in the middle of a shoot-out at your New Year’s Eve party? But then the vision of poor Ivan’s spurting leg came back in technicolor and I have to run for the bathroom.
Of course, Maksim had to walk into the bathroom while I’m vigorously brushing my teeth.
“Are you all right?” He frowned, not even slowing down on shedding his clothes, which he had no problem doing in front of me at any time.
I put my thumb up, hoping he’d leave me alone, but he lingered, wearing shorts from working out and nothing else. God, that chest… sculpted pectorals and just exactly the perfect amount of dark chest hair. He handed me a towel.
“Um, thank you.” Wiping my face, I looked at him in the mirror. “How’s Ivan?”
“He’s conscious and swearing his lifelong loyalty to you.” Maksim was smiling as he said this, so I assumed that doesn’t break any Bratva laws.
“I’m glad.” I was. Ivan wears a perpetually dour expression, but he always waited for me to walk on my own without trying to hustle me along like I was a wayward toddler. “I’m going to go check on Tania.”
He looked over his shoulder as he pulls off his shorts. “She’s already gone.”
“What? Was she okay?” Oh, damn it now Maksim has turned around and I’m trying to keep my eyes above his waist and it’s really difficult because his dick is already half-hard. Does he just walk around perpetually tumescent?
“She told Yuri she didn’t want to see him anymore and left early.” He still wore that smug little grin, where one corner of his mouth curls up and his entire being is radiating with a self-satisfied knowledge that he is aware every woman wants him, and I’m sure he thinks I’m one of them, but he can-
“Wait. Tania left and she blew off Yuri?” This is bad on two fronts. Tania couldn’t get out of bed before ten, even if you set her mattress on fire. And she was crazy about Yuri… at least his dick, which was all she’d been talking about.
