by Rose, Bella
“I’m sorry ma’am, but we have to file paperwork with the IRS when a deposit of more than ten thousand dollars is made.” The teller looked embarrassed.
“Yeah, because it’s so awful when a woman marries a man who cares about her so much that he makes sure she has her own money so that she can remain independent.” Kaylee was only half bluffing here, right? “And then it’s even worse when the woman chooses to use part of that allowance for her mother’s nursing home care.”
The teller looked mortified. “I didn’t realize you’d gotten married. Congratulations. Would you like to change your name on your accounts?”
“I need to go to the social security office first.” Kaylee turned her icy gaze on Pershing. “And you need to butt out of my life.”
Pershing narrowed his eyes to slits. “I’m not leaving you alone until you help me put that scumbag husband of yours behind bars.”
“You keep saying that Ivan is the criminal.” Kaylee accepted the check in an envelope from the teller. “But you’re the one acting like the asshole.”
“Don’t think your little secret isn’t going to come out eventually, Kaylee,” Pershing warned her. “Apparently you’re very much your mother’s child. I wonder how Ivan would feel about that if he knew.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kaylee growled.
“Don’t I?”
Kaylee didn’t wait for another word. She turned on her heel and left the bank. Her heart was pounding. There was no way Pershing could really know what he thought he did. The man was bluffing. He’d just found a soft spot and was trying to work it the best he could.
She had just enough time to get back to work before her lunch was over. The bus stop was just around the corner. It would take her only minutes to get back to Our Lady.
“Can I offer you a ride?”
The voice stopped her cold. Ivan. Kaylee swallowed the lump that had appeared in her throat and realized he was standing beside a sleek black car complete with a driver in a jaunty little hat.
“I was just going to grab a bus back to work,” she explained.
Ivan’s smile was on the brittle side. “Yes. Work. Apparently we need to have a discussion about what and where these jobs occur.”
Ivan had barely finished speaking when Detective Pershing burst out of the bank behind her. Kaylee groaned inwardly. Could things get any more awkward? Pershing was truly trying to draw blood with his insane pursuit of her in the service of his career. Now Ivan was grilling her too. She just needed to get back to work!
“You want to give me a ride?” Kaylee practically ran to the vehicle. “Let’s go.”
“Is that Pershing?”
Kaylee grabbed his arm and tugged him toward the open car door. “Please? Let’s just go!”
Thankfully for Kaylee, Ivan said nothing more. He got into the car, shut the door, and ordered the driver to get moving.
IVAN HAD NOT expected to wake up alone in his bed this morning, but he had. Now he intended to find out what was going on once and for all. He relaxed into the posh leather seats and thought about what he wanted to say.
“Hey!” Kaylee addressed the driver. “I need you to turn up here and go to Our Lady of Peace Nursing Facility. Do you know it?”
“Yes, ma’am.” The driver—a man named Aloysha Ivanovich who was a lot more than just a chauffeur—met Ivan’s gaze in the rearview mirror.
“Will you please take me there?” Kaylee was sounding exasperated. “My lunch is over in ten minutes and I really need to get back.”
“I thought you were a bartender.” Ivan couldn’t help but be suspicious.
“I am.”
“So why are you not going to the bar for work?”
She looked at him as though he were simple minded. “Because that’s my other job. I work at Our Lady Monday through Wednesday. Then I work at the bar.”
“You have two jobs,” Ivan wanted clarification.
“Yes.” She was still looking him as though he were the strangest sight she’d ever seen. “Lots of people have two jobs, Ivan. For a while I had three.”
“I suppose I didn’t realize you did.”
“Because you don’t really know me,” she pointed out. “But I do. And I need to continue working this one, so I’d really appreciate not getting fired.”
“Why?”
“I’m not going to discuss that with you.” Her prim tone grated on his nerves. “I need this job and that’s all I have to tell you.”
“I’m your husband.”
“Do not start that shit with me,” Kaylee snapped. “You won’t like the results.”
Ivan took a mental step back. This was not the type of relationship he wanted with her. That was accurate enough. But he wanted her to want to tell him things. How did one go about making a woman act like that?
She cocked her head to one side. “I would tell you more if you didn’t want to know so much.”
“That makes no sense at all.” Ivan gave a nod to Aloysha and the driver made a left hand turn to head back toward Our Lady.
“Actually it makes a lot of sense. It’s the difference between badgering and demanding, and actually being interested because you care about getting to know someone. You don’t get to know things about my life because you have a right to. I’ll tell you things because you care about me and I want to build a relationship with you. See the difference?”
He shrugged. Logically it made sense. The reality was little more difficult to stomach. He wanted to know what was going on and he wanted to know now.
“Why was Pershing at the bank?” Ivan held up his hands. “I’m not trying to pry. I would just like to get a handle on why this man is harassing my wife.”
“Pershing somehow believes that I have some great information on you that I’m now hiding.” Kaylee chuffed out a breath of air. “And he thinks he’s going to tell immigration that you paid me to marry you.”
Ivan cursed in Russian.
“Don’t worry. I made a point of telling him that you were merely giving me an allowance so that I could remain independent and that you had nothing to do with my mother.” Kaylee seemed to stop short right there though it seemed as if she still had things to say.
“Your mother,” Ivan said slowly. “Is your mother at Our Lady?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Ivan decided she didn’t have to talk about it. He could always have his lawyer dig into her background. He’d just drop her off at work and then place the call. If her mother was gravely ill that might explain a lot of things.
“I think there’s something you should know about Pershing,” Kaylee blurted.
“And that would be?”
“He’s up to his eyeballs in the Irish mafia here in Boston.” Kaylee wrinkled her nose as though she smelled something particularly distasteful. “In fact, his mother was a Shaunessy.”
Ivan didn’t respond immediately. He was still trying to process the bomb that Kaylee had just dumped on him. Liam Shaunessy was the top of the food chain when it came to the Irish mob in and around Boston. Like the Russians, the Irish had four or five family groups. But they were all a part of the same organization. The strongest family tended to lead the others and call most of the shots. Ivan had been at the top of the Russian crime ladder for years. Before that the position had belonged to a man named Yakov Rossovich. Liam Shaunessy had been at the top of the Irish food chain for twice the length of Ivan’s career. If Pershing was related to the Shaunessys, there was no telling what his real motives were.
“I think that’s why he wants to get rid of you so badly,” Kaylee speculated. “But I’m not sure if it’s because his grandfather has said he’ll pay him for it, or because he’s a vigilante type who just wants to clean up the city.”
“That is most definitely an interesting piece of information.” Ivan suddenly realized something significant. “What I can’t figure out is how you know this, but my own people haven’t discovered it.”
Aloysha pulled the car up under a vestibule. Kaylee threw the door open and started to step out. Ivan grabbed her arm. She moved to pull away, but he tightened his hold.
“What?” Her tone was disgruntled at best.
“You and I have some talking to do this evening.”
“Fine. I get off work at six. I’ll catch the MBTA to your house in Beacon Hill.”
Ivan shook his head. “No. Aloysha will be here to pick you up at six and bring you home.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. But I’m warning you. I don’t like being bossed around.”
Ivan chuckled. “Duly noted.”
Chapter Eight
Kaylee was almost whistling by the time she got to the business office at Our Lady. Sure, she was nearly five minutes late returning from her lunch break. But she had a check in hand for three months of her mother’s care. That was something to be happy about.
“What’s this?” The director snatched the envelope from Kaylee’s hand before she could hand it over to the business office manager. “And where have you been?”
“I apologize for being late.” Kaylee pasted a smile onto her face, hoping it didn’t look too forced. “I had to stop at the bank and get that taken care of.”
“It’s a check.” Director Peterson’s gaze narrowed suspiciously. “Where did you get this sort of money?”
“I don’t believe that’s actually any of your business,” Kaylee pointed out. “But if you must know, I got married over the weekend.”
The business office manager, a woman named Lyssa, smiled warmly. “Congratulations!”
“Thank you!” Kaylee was surprised to realize that she actually meant that. Not just that she appreciated that someone was happy for her good fortune, but that she was actually happy to be married to Ivan. She really hadn’t expected that.
“So your new husband is helping pay for your mother’s care?” Director Peterson’s eyes glittered and Kaylee recognized the fervor of greed.
Kaylee wondered how this was going to wind up and if she’d have to find new care for her mother. “Actually, he has a house I’m moving into. So now that I don’t have to pay rent, I can keep up with my ma’s account.”
“Oh.” The director actually looked disappointed. “Well I’m sure that’s a big relief.”
“Very.” Kaylee began inching toward the door. “If you’ll excuse me. I have rounds to make.”
“Please make sure you make note of your long lunch,” Director Peterson said with a cool smile.
“Of course.”
Kaylee couldn’t get out of there fast enough. She headed for the staff lounge where the time clock was. Somehow the director’s response to Kaylee paying ahead on her mother’s account had soured the entire experience. Kaylee wished things could be simple.
“There you are,” Nurse Gail said breathlessly. “You’d better come quick. The doctor is looking at your ma. She had a bad fall just after you left for lunch.”
“Why didn’t anyone call me?” Kaylee shoved her card into the clock and waited for the click before she rushed off to follow Nurse Gail.
“We tried to call you.” The nurse was bustling down the ugly salmon colored hallway. “Don’t you ever pay your cell phone bill?
“Oh yeah,” Kaylee groaned. “Damn!” There were so many parts of being poor that sometimes it was difficult to remember them all.
There were several nursing home residents loitering outside her mother’s room. Most were the usual rubberneckers just looking to see what was happening in their world. But her mother’s friend from down the hall was there as well and Zelda looked fairly worried.
Kaylee followed Nurse Gail into her mother’s room. It was packed with a doctor, several nurses, Kaylee, her mother, and her mother’s grumpy roommate. Doctor Jeffries smiled when he saw Kaylee had entered the room.
“There you are, Kaylee.” Jeffries sounded relieved. “She’s had a very nasty fall.”
“Does she need to go to the hospital?” Kaylee’s gut clenched at the thought of how much a hospital stay would cost out of pocket, even with insurance.
“I don’t think she needs a trip to the ER this time,” Jeffries assured Kaylee. “But her mobility is certainly getting much more limited. I think we may have to put her on restriction.”
“She’s already on restriction,” Kaylee protested. If the doctor said she couldn’t get up out of her chair to use the restroom without constant supervision, she would have to be transferred to another long-term care facility. Kaylee sucked in a deep breath. “Surely she was just confused. Right?”
“We’re not sure what happened.” Nurse Gail put her hand on Kaylee’s arm to soothe her. “We’ll keep an eye out and try to see if there’s something she’s tripping on or some other issue we’re not aware of.”
“All right.” Kaylee walked to the bed and picked up her mother’s hand.
Ma didn’t speak much these days. The Parkinson’s made it difficult for her mother to form words. Add in the dementia and most days Kaylee’s mother didn’t know if she was coming or going.
The room gradually emptied of extra people until it was just Kaylee with her mother and her mother’s roommate. Kaylee gently stroked the papery thin skin on her mother’s hands. How much longer would Ma be alive for Kaylee to do this? Everything was changing so quickly.
Gradually Kaylee became aware of someone watching her. The hair on the back of her neck lifted and she turned to see Detective Pershing standing in the doorway of her mother’s room.
“You’re becoming a little like a bad penny,” Kaylee told him angrily. “Why won’t you leave me alone?”
“Lives can be snuffed out in the blink of an eye, can’t they?”
A horrible thought occurred to Kaylee. “What are you saying?”
“Just that bad things can happen to the people we love when we are too stupid to do what we should.” Pershing’s pleasant tone barely managed to cover the vicious undercurrent of his word choice.
“Are you threatening me?” Kaylee demanded. “Because you should know that I don’t back down from much and you’re really pissing me off.”
“You know, an officer of the law can walk into this place at any hour of any day,” Pershing informed her. “You might want to think about that when you’re holed up in your fancy new Beacon Hill house fucking your fancy new husband.”
Tears prickled Kaylee’s eyes. “I’m not giving in to your threats, Pershing. I don’t know if you’re trying to take Ivan down because you’re a Shaunessy, or if you’re that desperate to advance your career as a cop. Either way you’re going to come up short.” Kaylee forced herself to walk out of the room and not look back. She couldn’t let him know he’d gotten to her. “So maybe you’d better think before you come after me and mine.”
“Oh I’ve thought of it all right. And like I said, you might want to keep that in mind.” With those final words of warning, he turned and walked out of the room whistling a cheerful tune that sounded macabre given the situation.
***
Ivan paced back and forth in front of his fireplace. The flickering flames were usually a soothing distraction. Not tonight. Tonight he was eaten up with the irritation of trying to decide what he wanted from his marriage.
His phone clicked, letting him know he had a text. Ivan slipped the phone from his pocket and felt a moment’s relief that Aloysha had Kaylee in the backseat of his car and was bringing her home. This baffling desire to keep her in his sight at all times was more than he’d ever expected from a marriage of convenience. She should have been nothing more than a means to an end. Yet he found himself enjoying her company more than he’d ever anticipated.
The only light on the first floor came from the fire crackling in the grate. Ivan heard Kaylee enter the door. T
here were a few murmured words between her and Aloysha, then the door closed once again. Ivan heard the lock click. His men were under strict orders to keep his house secure and under surveillance at all times. He had no doubt that either the feds or the local cops like Pershing also had eyes on the house at all times. It was a frustrating reality of his life that wasn’t likely to change.
Anything Ivan had intended to say to Kaylee disappeared from his mind the moment he saw her. She looked exhausted. There were deep circles beneath her eyes and her hair was pulled back into a straggly ponytail that hung limply down her back. She tossed her satchel down on the sofa and trudged over to the fireplace. Holding out her hands, she closed her eyes in blissful enjoyment of the heat.
“What happened?” Ivan asked, trying not to seem as if he were making demands.
She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “How long has Pershing been bothering you?”
Ivan shrugged. “I’ve been—how shall I put it—in charge of operations here in the United States for five years. Prior to that I was working my way up through the ranks in St. Petersburg.”
“Pershing hasn’t been assigned to this district for long. I remember him coming onto Boston PD as a detective about that same time. Maybe five years ago or a little less. After that he seemed to really pick up momentum in his career, you know?” She turned back to the fire, looking almost mesmerized by the flames.
“Are you suggesting he’s a dirty cop?” Ivan prodded.
“Oh, I know he is.”
“What is it you think he’s up to?”
She exhaled slowly. “I think he’s actually on his grandfather’s payroll. It’s not unusual for people like you to have cops in their pocket, right?”
“I’m going to choose not to be offended by that,” Ivan told her drily. “But yes, I have several FBI agents that can be persuaded to look the other way when necessary.”
“So if Pershing is working for Shaunessy, then the question is really, what does the Irish mafia stand to gain if the Russians lose you?” She leveled a hard stare in his direction.
