Let Me In-Dragan's Tale: The Mikhailov Brothers

by Amanda Hough

  “You okay, Antonina?” a voice said behind me. He rubbed his hand over the small of my back, the heat of his fingers, pulsing through the fabric of my dress. I jumped when Dragan’s arms caged me against the sink from behind. His mouth once again finding my ear. “Or did I scare you little girl?”

  I growled and spun on him in the little space he provided me. “You sneak up on people. And no you don’t scare me! And don’t call me little girl.” I hurled demands at him, pointing my finger into his chest. “You got it?”

  Dragan grabbed the offending digit and brought my hand to his mouth. The anger in my gaze still burned bright. I could feel the heat bleeding into my cheeks. But he didn’t care. My hand was so small in his. So warm. He closed his eyes and kept my hand in his. Just a moment. A few seconds to feel what his lips would feel like on my skin. That was all I needed. I hated that being near him ignited a hum in my body that I’d never felt. It was excitement.

  I looked up into Dragan’s dark eyes. His haunting stillness. Finally, I was able to name the elusive emotion he elicited in me. Longing. For an instant his aversion and distain for me faded and I saw Dragan Mikhailov. I saw his hunger, his loneliness and I had to swallow the need to comfort him. I knew if I did, he would run, or lash out. Just like he always did. My eyes went to his lips and a confession escaped from my mouth in the form of a groan. Why must I always lust after the dangerous ones?

  “Antonina. If things were different right now, you’d fuckin’ be my—”

  “Hey Toni, you want to hang out…” Evie’s question died on her tongue and I watched her ease out of the kitchen. I was sure it was a fascinating scene but one she didn’t want to interrupt.

  I grimaced and pulled my hand away. The moment shattered by reality. Thank God!

  “No, Evie. I can’t stay. I need to get home.” I rushed around the kitchen without purpose.

  “I am sorry guys.” Evie stumbled over her words. “I will go. I’ll go check—”

  “No!” I said more loudly than I intended. “I need to go. I am opening the bar in the morning.”

  Without a word to Dragan, I gave my friend a kiss in passing and left.

  My car started to sputter about six blocks from Sergey and Evie’s house. I had a lot of tricks to keep my car going. One of my favorites was to open the hood, pop the lid off the air filter, lift the little flappy thing in the middle of it, jam a wrench in it to prop the flap open, go back in and start the car. Once it was going again, I’d jump out, pull a wrench, pop the air filter back in and take off. Easy. It was winter in Austin so I was doing this a lot. I tried this and my other tricks about a dozen times before I caved and decided to call Evie. I wasn’t that far and I’d only been gone about 45 minutes. Hopefully the party was still going strong.

  I pulled out my cell and dialed Evie’s phone. I got Sergey.

  “Hey, Toni! What’s up babe?” I liked that he called me that.

  “Hi, Sergey. Sorry to bother ya. Is Evie around?”

  “Nope,” he answered quickly. “Fell asleep on the sofa. Said her belly hurt. Just put her to bed. You need something?”

  Ugh, I hated asking for help. And with Evie sick, I didn’t want him to leave her.

  “Uh, no... No. I’ll call her later.” A tow truck whizzed by me at the side of the road and honked. Yeah, honk! Don’t help, dick!

  Sergey was silent for a moment and sighed. “Toni, what’s up? You okay?”

  Rolling my eyes, I confessed. “My car is dead. I’ve tried all my tricks and nothing is working.”

  There was a smile in his voice. “Now see, was that so hard? Where are you, babe?”

  I told him my location. He ordered me to stay safe and promised he’d see me in a matter of minutes.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  PATSY

  The Dragan

  Five minutes after Sergey told me that Toni was stranded at the side of the road, I was pulling up behind her piece of shit car. Seriously the thing had to be twenty-years old. When Sergey said he was going to get her, I nearly jumped off the sofa. The three of us had just gotten a still crying Brenna to into the car. We all got another look from Boris. I had to admit, I was a little worried about what he might do to rectify the situation for his wife, our sister. Sergey promised him that a heads up would happen with shit came flying. Boris’s plan was to get Brenna out of the country and on vacation ASAP. A good plan. But not one Brenna was likely to agree to.

  We’d just sat down to watch the end of the Spurs game when Evie’s phone rang. Sergey didn’t seem the least bit surprised that I offered to retrieve Antonina. Nico just laughed and shook his head.

  I got out of my car and walked to the driver’s side window, gently knocking. Toni’s head was down. Her features tight, stressed out. She turned toward the knock, a big smile on her face. A smile that melted into a scowl when she saw it was me. The smile had made my dick hard. Oddly the frown only made it worse.

  She opened the creaking door and hopped out. “Sergey couldn’t come, eh?”

  I laughed. “I volunteered. Any chance to piss you off is worth the effort.”

  She ignored me and headed to my Audi. “Actually,” she said as I opened the passenger door for her. “Thanks for coming to get me. That was a dick thing to say.”

  I ignored her apology. I could handle a bitchy Antonina. But a nice one could do me in.

  I got in the car and peeled away from the curb. “You got a garage you call?” I asked.

  I could see from my periphery that she was shaking her head. “No, I pay my neighbor to change my oil. I don’t go to garages anymore. It’s always bad news.” She sounded tired.

  “Maybe it’s time for a new car,” I offered.

  “You think?” Exasperated but too tired to fight it, Toni leaned back in the soft leather seat. I heard her sigh in resignation. “So,” she started. “Would you like to know where I live?”

  My hands were tight on the wheel. “I know where you live,” I answered quietly. There was no way I was telling her that I’d followed her home some nights when she worked at the bar late. Or that I’d slept in front of her house a few times after seeing that she was safe. What the fuck was I doing? Alone in a car with this woman. A new brand of torture. Sitting a foot from Antonina Hume and not be able to touch her. I was out of my mind.

  “How do you know where I—”

  “Shh…”

  Toni’s hissed, “Did you just hush me, Mikhailov?”

  I rolled my eyes. Always a damn argument with this woman.

  “Haven’t you heard the phrase silence is golden?” Offering to drive her had been a mistake but after our encounter in the kitchen, I needed a little more time with her. A few minutes in her sun, and then I would avoid her again. Well that, and I liked to piss her off.

  “Have you ever heard the phrase, go fuck yourself?” she asked me with an acerbic tone.

  In spite of myself I laughed.

  “What the hell has gotten into you Mikhailov? This is the first time I have ever heard you laugh. Normally laughter would be a welcome sound but with you, it’s unnerving. Is this some kind of trick? You being nice doesn’t change anything you know. I still don’t trust you. And I still think you are up to no good.”

  I laughed again at her string of confessions, but it was more sinister this time. “I am up to no good, Antonina.”

  As she formulated her retort, we turned right at Fountain Avenue toward her house. When she looked away from me to the windshield, I heard her gasp. Red and blue lights sliced at the darkness. Police, fire and an EMT truck were parked directly in front of the house she shared with her mother.

  “Oh God, my mom!” Her voice came out in a panicked rush. She reached for the door handle but my hand stopped her.

  “Let me stop the car, Toni,” I called out. Straining to hold her in place and shift into a lower gear, I whipped into a gap between two emergency vehicles. Before I could engage the brake, Toni was out of the car and running for the small bungalow that seemed t
o be the center of all the attention.

  Without hesitating, I followed Toni toward the porch and watched as she disappeared through the front door.

  The living room was a hive of activity. Furniture had been pushed against walls, area rugs laid in corners, kicked out of the way.

  “It’s my mother, I live here. What is going on?” I heard her telling the cop when I walked through the door.

  “Ma’am you need to calm down and let the paramedics work on her. Do you have some ID I could see.”

  Toni’s voice went up an octave. “Work on her? ID? What the fuck happened? Why do you need my ID? Let me see your ID!” she yelled.

  “Can you tell me your name, miss?” the officer asked. He was getting irritated.

  Toni ignored him and tried again, without success to push her way past his frame. With Toni at roughly 110 pounds, the officer remained stationary.

  I walked behind Antonina and took her arm. My voice low, calm. To her I said, “Antonina, let me help, alright.” I gave her elbow a gentle squeeze and brought her closer to me. Amazingly she didn’t fight it. I directed my question to the officer. “What do we know?”

  The man in uniform eyed me then. Up and down and back again. At six feet, five inches tall, I had a foot on the guy. He was slight and young. I was built to fight. Built to beat down little fucks like this. But, I was turning a new leaf. Leaving my violent past behind me. So, I smiled. “We just need to know if Miss Hume’s mother is alright. Can you give us any details?”

  He continued to stare at me and then said, “Could I see some ID from you, Mister…” He let his voice trail and he continued to look at me with thinly veiled mistrust. I was about to lay a little science when Toni jumped into the conversation.

  “Don’t look at him like that. This is my home. I won’t allow you to stand there and judge my friends.” She took a step forward and I brought her back to my side. I gave her a squeeze and she looked up at me. I winked. The haze that covered her eyes started lifting. It seemed my demeanor soothed her. Somehow, the tempest that was ever present in her gaze melded with my quiet presence, I could feel her anchor to me in the chaos. A tiny spark flowered in my chest. I was in serious fucking trouble.

  She turned back to the cop and started slinging questions again. “Do the EMTs know her history? She has a Foley catheter; they need to be careful with her. I am her guardian. What the hell is happening?” Her voice shook but her purpose was steady.

  “Miss,” the cop started. “There is no need for profanity and please step back.” He started to reach for her shoulder but I was there and guided Toni further from the policeman. He was not going to touch her. Not for any reason.

  The woman started to resist me but stopped, opting to deal with one over-bearing man at a time.

  She squared her shoulders but allowed my hand to remain at her waist.

  “Could you please tell me what is happening then,” she answered through a, not so cleansing breath.

  A smile spread across the officer’s face. The little prick thought he’d won. I knew she wasn’t even on the battlefield yet. “A 911 call was made from this location. It was reported that there was an intruder in the house because a…” He consulted his little notebook for affect. “…Patsy Hume heard glass breaking after she had gone to bed.

  “She was discovered in the bedroom by paramedics, upon which it was revealed that the lamp had been pulled from the nightstand and the victim lay unconscious on the floor.”

  That he said with a snap of this notebook. “That’s all I know right now.”

  Toni started to speak but I beat her to it.

  “And was there a break in, officer?”

  “It would appear not. But I will speak with her if the EMTs are able to revive her.”

  Toni’s body went rigid against me and I pressed it further into my side. It was less for support and more to prevent her from kicking the shit out of the cop. Her anger and frustration was at a breakpoint.

  “You mind tellin’ me who you are now sir?” The policeman directed this question to me.

  I sensed the rage boiling at my side. And reluctantly pulled my wallet from a back pocket. Flipping it open I pulled a card from one of its folds and handed it over to the policeman and waited while the man studied it.

  Toni said nothing as the man paled and returned the card.

  “Officer,” I began. “Will you please check on the EMTs progress for us?

  “Yes, sir,” he said but didn’t move.

  I eyed him and cocked my head to the side. “Now, officer,” I ordered.

  We watched as the young man retreated into the hall. She pivoted to look up at me then. “What was that card?”

  I ignored the question. “I’m sure your mother will be alright, Antonina.” My voice was softer. The tension, that usually peppered my words around the woman, was absent.

  She nodded. “I shouldn’t have left her tonight,” she mumbled looking everywhere but at me. “She didn’t do well with her lunch.”

  He started to speak but she kept going. “She was confused and dizzy in her bath this morning.” She eyed the empty hall and went to the roll top desk in the corner of the living room. Retrieving a well-worn binder and notebook she walked back to my side. “I told her to stay at her table to work on her crafts. I made sure she had everything she needed. She promised she wouldn’t try to walk.”

  I remained quiet and let her say what she needed to. We stood in silence for a moment longer before the policeman returned. His gaze went to me and he began to speak.

  “Her leg appears to be broken. They are trying to stabilize it now. I put my hand up and shook my head. “Tell her,” I said, pointing to Toni.

  “Right, apologies ma’am. She appeared confused at first but she is lucid now and asking for her daughter, Toni.”

  Antonina was down the hall before the final words were out of his mouth.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CABS

  Toni

  I held my mother’s hand as the emergency vehicle weaved its way through traffic. Mom faded in and out of consciousness. My fingers traced the narrow blue veins across Mom’s hand. My focus turned to her fingernails. I needed to give her another manicure. She was long overdue.

  The last time I’d tried the tremors in Mom’s body were so severe I ended up spilling the polish and upsetting her.

  The doctors’ had told us months ago that the symptoms were worsening. And though she’d get an occasional reprieve, my mother’s condition was getting more difficult to handle on my own.

  My eyes went to Mom’s face. She had always been such a beautiful lady. Petite and fair. She reminded me of Cinderella when I was little. When she was ten-years old I’d convinced Evelyn that my mother was a princess.

  I grinned at the memory.

  “What’s so funny,” Mom croaked. Her voice was hoarse and thin.

  I grinned and kissed Mom’s hand. “Just remembering a trick I played on Evelyn when we were kids,” I answered with a smile.

  Mom’s head rolled side to side as we hit a bump. Her body looked boneless and insignificant on the stretcher. Her skin, thin and gray. She was starting to change in a way that scared me. I was losing her and I knew. We weren’t coming back from this. I closed my eyes in an attempt to supplant the image of Mom’s current status with a happier memory. Remember her beautiful and laughing. Playing games with me, Davy and Evie.

  “Toni, sweetie. I am so sorry. I thought I could make it to the bedroom. I wrecked the living room.”

  I shook my head. “Never apologize to me, Momma. I just hate that you fell and I wasn’t there.”

  Patsy Hume groaned. “You can’t be with me every minute. You need your life. Honey…” She paused and tried to turn her hand to squeeze my fingers but the muscles in her wrist wouldn’t cooperate. Sensing what she was trying to do I folded her hand into mine.

  Mom smiled.” I’m so tired,” she started. You can’t live like this Antonina.

  “I’m living t
he way I want to live. And I do have a life. A pretty decent one in fact.”

  “And what about him,” she asked.

  “Who?” I asked, eyeing the paramedic seated across from me.

  “The man waiting with you when they wheeled me out of the bedroom.”

  “No one,” I dismissed the question. He was nothing to me.

  Patsy Hume smiled and closed her eyes. “He didn’t look like no one. He stayed right by your side, the whole time.”

  My eyes left her hand and I gave her a look. “He was no one, Momma. You won’t see him again.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  ALWAYS FINE

  The Dragan

  When the ambulance rolled under the canopied entrance at Austin General Hospital, I was already there. Parked and awaiting the ambulance carrying Antonina and her mother’s arrival.

  I’d called Sergey and let him know what was going on. Apparently Evelyn was sick. And he had his hands full with her. I told him I would take care of Antonina and report back in the morning.

  Toni had dismissed me at her house but I had ignored it. What kind of jackass would leave a woman to handle a situation like this alone? And, I grinned to myself. I knew, in my short acquaintance with Toni, my presence would irritate her. And that, in turn would humor me. In fact I found pissing her off down right entertaining. Besides, if Evelyn was incapacitated, I considered it my duty to be of service to her friend. That’s why I wanted to stay with Toni. It was for Evelyn. At least that is what I told myself.

  As the paramedics wheeled Toni’s mother past me, I didn’t speak and she didn’t acknowledge me. Though I did catch a smile from her mother which I returned. I fell in line behind the precession and walked through the hissing electronic doors and into the hospital.

  I’d always hated hospitals. For all the reasons others did. The artificial brightness, the scent of disinfectant. But it was the sounds I hated most. Whirring machines, beeping equipment, the coded calls from the public announcement speakers, the fucking moans. Why can’t people suffer pain in silence?