Force

by Becca Jameson

  “Is his father still in Vegas full-time?”

  “Yep. Grigory’s holding down the fort in dear old Yenin’s absence. Though the man is looking frail.”

  “How so? I’ve only met him a handful of times.”

  Leo glanced around the crowded bar as though making sure no one was listening in. “He’s skinnier than he used to be and seems a little unsteady.”

  “Does Grigory know you’re here?”

  “Nope. And I’m not sure he gives two fucks, but Yenin’s not going to be pleased.”

  “So, you’re going out on the lam with us?” Dmitry chuckled.

  “Seems like a good idea.”

  He sobered. “You sure about this? It’s a risk. If Yenin gets released, he’s liable to send men after us first thing.”

  “I have no doubt.” Leo plastered on a shit-eating grin and rubbed his hands together.

  Dmitry closed his eyes for a brief moment and sighed. Dmitry hadn’t seen Leo for the entire six months he’d been gone. They spoke occasionally on the phone, but there was no way for anyone to risk a trip to come visit him or Mikhail without Grigory or his men possibly following. That seemed highly unlikely at this point. No one was paying attention.

  Dmitry lifted his gaze as two guys walked into the bar and glanced around. Big guys. But also drunk guys. He deemed them harmless, especially when they spotted a pair of women at the bar and headed that way. He turned his gaze back to Leo. “You don’t think anyone’s tailing us, do you?”

  “No. Grigory has about as much interest in you two as he does a pile of cow dung.” Leo grinned.

  “Good.” Dmitry shook his head. “Still not taking any chances, though. I’m sure any number of people could find us in a heartbeat if they wanted.”

  “Yeah. There’s no way to keep yourselves hidden while you fight any local circuit. Two phone calls would easily tell anyone who wanted to know what city you live in. But that doesn’t mean jack by itself. They also have to follow you home.”

  Dmitry nodded. He turned his head to locate Lauren. He found her quickly—the back of her, anyway. She was leaning over a table, wiping it down. Her ass swayed back and forth as she quickly worked, her skirt barely covering her sweet lower cheeks.

  He licked his lips and then turned back around to find Leo’s gaze on the same spot.

  “Get your eyes back in your head, dude. She’s taken.”

  Leo smirked. “I should think so. I’d hate to think you’d gone to all this trouble to protect her for the rest of your life if you don’t find her attractive.”

  Dmitry hissed. “She’s way more than a pretty face. That woman is hell on wheels. I’ll be lucky if I keep up with her for the next sixty years.”

  “That’s right. She gave you the slip the other night to get this job.” He chuckled again. “Love it. How on earth are you planning to keep her in line in the future?”

  “Handcuffs.”

  Leo laughed harder this time. He thought Dmitry was kidding.

  Dmitry was so not joking, but Leo didn’t need to know that. If Dmitry had to cuff her to the bed every night of his life, he would. Whatever it took to keep her safe.

  ∙•∙

  Lauren finally had a spare moment to wander toward Dmitry and Leo. “Hey, Leo. Can I get you anything?” She set a hand on Dmitry’s arm briefly, but then released him. She wanted to give a subtle gesture that she knew she was with him in front of his friend.

  “A soda would be great, Lauren. Thanks. How are you?”

  “Good. I made bail yesterday, so things are looking up.”

  Leo’s smile widened at her joke.

  Dmitry shot her a glare. “Babe…” he warned.

  “Anything new I need to know?” She glanced from one man to the other.

  “Not yet.” Dmitry answered too quickly. She assumed that meant there was plenty of information, but she was on a need-to-know basis, and the two men hadn’t deemed it necessary for her pretty little head to be informed at this time.

  She wasn’t stupid. She could easily judge from the way Dmitry and Leo had been talking so intently there were details passed between them. She just wished Dmitry would start taking her seriously enough to keep her in the loop soon. If not, he would find himself rather lonely. If he thought he could keep her on a leash—literally—he was sadly mistaken. He could either learn to treat her like a grownup or find her gone.

  Dmitry lifted his gaze and focused on something behind her. “Excuse me.” He nodded at both Leo and Lauren and then worked his way through the crowd.

  Lauren turned around to find two men in a heated argument on the other side of the bar. Dmitry would handle it. “Let’s get you a drink.” She nodded toward the bar, and Leo followed her.

  As soon as she had him seated in a corner, she grabbed a cola and handed it to him. “How long will you be in town?” She glanced at Dmitry on the other side of the bar. Two men were in each other’s faces, yelling. Dmitry had one hand on each man’s shoulder and was holding the two of them apart. He was formidable. It was shocking that anyone would continue to fuck around once he reached their sides. They had to be drunk.

  She returned her gaze to Leo.

  He smiled. “I’m moving here, actually. How long will you be in town?”

  She giggled. “Until Dmitry pisses me off and drives me away, I guess.”

  Leo chuckled but then sobered. “He cares about you, you know.”

  “I know.”

  “He’s only trying to keep you alive.”

  “I know that too.” She glanced down at the floor and then back at him. “He’s in more danger than I am.”

  Leo blew out a breath. “That’s not true.”

  “Semantics. You know it is. If Anton gets out, he’ll send his men to look for Dmitry and Mikhail. No one’s looking for me.”

  “You don’t know that. And that’s beside the point. Even if no one is looking for you, they will go fucking ballistic if they see you.”

  “They’ll go ape-shit crazy if they find out Dmitry’s been harboring me—or worse—that he’s the one who rescued me.”

  Leo narrowed his gaze. “I know where you’re going with this, Lauren, and you need to stop thinking that way.”

  She plowed forward anyway. “If Anton figures out Dmitry kidnapped me right out from under his nose and left town to hide with me for six months, he will line up his men and shoot Dmitry between the eyes. And then me.”

  Leo didn’t move. How could he? There was nothing to contest.

  “I need to disappear. If I were out of the picture, both of us would be safer. Anton wouldn’t even know I was alive, and Dmitry would simply be brought back into the fold like a long lost sheep.”

  “Except Dmitry would never allow you to do that, and he would pull his hair out worrying about you every single day of his life.”

  “At least he’d be alive.”

  “How about you relax, stop thinking so hard, and let us figure this out. There’s a better solution that doesn’t involve you two separating or anyone getting killed.”

  “Great. What is it?” She cocked her hip, waiting for him to respond. “What? You don’t know?” Her voice rose. “You have nothing. None of you have a plan. Dmitry can’t skip town and run away because he would never be able to show his face in any fighting ring in this country without being found out. You know that. He knows it. And I know it.”

  Leo pursed his lips and then cleared his throat. “There are other jobs on this planet. He’s getting old, anyway.”

  “Uh huh. If there are other jobs he could be doing that paid as well as fighting, he’d be doing them now. He wouldn’t have spent the last six months putting his face out there for anyone to see in one of the largest cities in the country. He fights because he loves it. He fights because it pays better money than anything else.”

  “You don’t have to tell me. I’m in the same boat. If I could get out from under Yenin and make the same money I do working for him, I’d do it in a heartbeat. In fact, tha
t’s my aim here.”

  “What?”

  “I’m going to fight for Abram Gromov, same as Dmitry and Mikhail. They get more-frequent, better gigs than I ever do in Vegas without Yenin around. They make more money.”

  She hesitated. “You’ll be a target just like them if Anton catches you seemingly in cahoots.”

  “I’m aware of the stakes.”

  “Well, as things stand, we’re back where we started. I need to disappear. It’s the only way.”

  Leo stood. He handed his empty soda glass to her. “Don’t do anything drastic. Give us a few days to figure something out. Okay?”

  She nodded, not feeling convinced.

  He hesitated and then spoke again. “Please. What’s a few days? I won’t tell Dmitry we had this chat. You give me a chance to come up with another plan.”

  “Okay.”

  He met her gaze. “Be careful, Lauren. This is not a game.”

  She nodded, biting her lower lip. Every day it was clearer to her that her life was at stake as well as Dmitry’s. They needed to come up with a better solution. And fast.

  »»•««

  “What did Franco say?” Erik asked as he polished off his second beer and lifted the bottle toward the bartender in supplication.

  Jim’s Place, the quietest tiny bar Boris had ever been to. It was perfect for the two of them. They had spent countless nights lately sitting in that bar drinking away their boredom.

  Boris took a long sip of his own drink and then stared at the bottle, picking on the label. He’d just hung up the phone with Franco. “He’s at that bar, Inked, again. He followed Dmitry there with the same woman. Seems Dmitry’s working there as a bouncer. Leo came in too, judging from the description the little weasel gave me. He spoke with Dmitry for a while and then left.”

  “Ah, so Leo’s in town. That can’t be a coincidence. You think we should head over to the bar and get things rolling?” Erik asked.

  “Nope. I think we need to wait for instructions from Grigory. If we fuck up, he’s liable to have us both shot before dawn. We can’t take a chance Dmitry might see us.” Boris shuddered.

  “True. What else did Franco say?” Erik asked. He grabbed his next beer as the bartender slid it in front of him.

  “Said he would track Dmitry again tomorrow. He hasn’t spotted Mikhail yet.”

  “It would be nice if we could report back to Grigory that we have an address for both men.”

  “Don’t you suspect they’re living together?”

  “I do, but we need proof. Hell, we don’t even know if the apartment Franco saw Dmitry come out of was his or his girlfriend’s.”

  “And now we have to add Leo to the mix.”

  “Looks like it. I bet Grigory has no idea Leo’s in town.”

  “I’m not taking that bet. I’m sure he would have called us with a heads up if he knew.”

  Boris nodded. “I hate this assignment.”

  “You and me both.”

  “It’s like we’re chasing our tails around all day long for no good reason. Yenin wants his precious fighters rounded up, but he doesn’t want us to approach them yet or make contact in any way. It’s getting old.” Very old.

  “I’m sure it will come to an abrupt halt the second he’s released.”

  “In the meantime, I feel like we’re being tested for our abilities and loyalty.” Boris gripped his bottle tighter, wishing he could pick it up and fling it across the room without causing eyebrows to raise. But this was a public place. Probably not the best plan.

  “I have no doubt that’s exactly what’s happening.” Erik tossed his beer back and downed the entire contents. No doubt he was as frustrated as Boris.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Dmitry ducked out of Leo’s range and bounced on both feet, taking a few steps back in the ring. He was exhausted. It didn’t matter that he slept late. He wasn’t used to working the kind of hours required as a bouncer. It was going to take several days to shift his internal clock from working early mornings to working late nights.

  Leo jumped forward, swinging again. This time he managed to snick the corner of Dmitry’s jaw.

  Dmitry shook it off and spun around to end with a leg kick to Leo’s upper arm. “Who taught you to fight?” he teased. It had been half a year since the two of them had the opportunity to spar with each other.

  “Really?” Leo smirked, lifting one eyebrow. “You want to play it that way?” He ducked his head and slammed his entire body into Dmitry’s, backing him into the fence and nearly knocking the air out of his lungs.

  Perhaps Dmitry shouldn’t have been so cocky. After all, Leo hadn’t worked at a bar on his feet until nearly three in the morning.

  Leo jumped back into position, hands in front of his face, feet spread apart. He bounced back and forth, waiting for Dmitry to pull his shit back together.

  Dmitry pushed off the fence and circled back to the center of the ring.

  “You’re not going to be able to keep Lauren in town much longer.”

  Dmitry lowered his arms a few inches. “What do you mean?”

  “She’s anxious. And she believes she’s endangering your life. Which she is,” Leo pointed out. He took the opportunity to swing his fist, catching Dmitry’s jaw with a right hook.

  Dmitry reached up to tap his cheek with his glove. “Dude, why’d you do that? We’re talking.”

  Leo shrugged. “You’ve got to be able to fight and talk at the same time. What if your opponent says he slept with your momma or something? You going to be a sissy about it or swing back with your fist?”

  “If some asshole hopes to appeal to my heart strings through talk about my unknown mother who abandoned me as a toddler, joke’s on him.” Dmitry finished his speech with a series of quick jabs to Leo’s face and chest.

  “Good one,” Leo muttered as he stepped out of range. “I deserved that.”

  “When is Abram going to get you on the schedule?”

  “In a few weeks.”

  “Where are you staying?”

  “Around.”

  Dmitry chuckled. That was so like Leo to keep the details to himself. And probably for the best under the circumstances. “You sure about this? You’re really putting your own life on the line being seen with me.”

  “Are you kidding? We’re like brothers. Anything I can do to help. I was sick and tired of the Vegas scene. Looking forward to a good fight.” He grinned. “Bring it on.”

  Dmitry swung around again and jabbed Leo in the side of his chest, listening to the air rush out of his lungs. When he jumped back, Leo surprised him with a quick recovery, striking the side of his head with his glove and knocking him to his knees.

  Leo was on him in an instant, flattening him to his back and pinning him to the ground with a leg across his chest. “Somebody needs to get to the gym more often.” Leo smiled again and then jumped back to his feet.

  As Dmitry pulled himself to standing, he caught Abram out of the corner of his eye wandering his way over. Abram didn’t usually hunt him down at the gym. It wasn’t his style. The man was busy. Quick texts were usually his method of communication.

  Dmitry stepped to the edge of the ring with Leo at his side. He tugged off his right glove and grabbed his towel to wipe off his brow before he met Abram’s gaze.

  Abram crossed his arms over his thick chest and widened his stance. He nodded at Leo to acknowledge him. The man was a solid block of stone, even though he no longer fought and hadn’t for years. He was close to fifty, but he worked out every day and kept up his body. The only signs of age were his wrinkled skin from too much time spent in the sun in his youth and his receding hairline. “I have a big fight lined up for you. It’ll set you up for a long time.”

  Dmitry shrugged out of his other glove, reached for a bottle of water, and twisted off the top while he thought about what Abram was saying. “How much?”

  “Enough.”

  Dmitry nodded. “And if I lose?”

  “You won’t.�
��

  He closed his eyes and took a long drink. “When is this fight supposed to take place?” Was it possible the winnings could be enough to get him and Lauren out of town—for good?

  “Friday night.”

  “Do you know the venue yet?”

  “No.” Abram shook his head. “Too soon.”

  “You betting for me or against me?”

  A smile spread across Abram’s face, and then he laughed. He didn’t answer the question. “I’d like to see you and your lady get out of this shithole.”

  “You calling Chicago a shithole?” Dmitry smiled.

  “Nope. I call anyplace you’re living a shithole as long as you’re hiding. You won’t be able to breathe until your life is your own.” With that, Abram turned and walked away.

  Leo leaned over to grab his own water bottle. “Not sure I’ll ever fully understand that guy.”

  “He’s unusual. That’s a fact.”

  »»•««

  Dmitry stepped into the apartment to find Mikhail leaning against the counter, glaring at the entrance to the hallway. Alena was on the couch, her feet tucked under her slim body. There was a tension in the air he could cut with a knife.

  “What happened?”

  Mikhail glanced at Dmitry and then nodded at the pile of grocery bags sitting against the wall. “Lauren thinks she’s leaving.”

  “What?” Dmitry set his gym bag on the floor and took long strides to get across the room just as Lauren popped back into the main area. “What’s going on?”

  “I’m leaving.” She wouldn’t meet his gaze.

  “So I hear.” He grabbed her shoulders and forced her to face him. “Going where exactly? We don’t have to be at work for another few hours.”

  She shook her head. “Nope. I mean leaving town. For good.”

  He increased his grip. “Lauren, look at me.” He paused, waiting for her to meet his gaze. “You’re not going anywhere. What’s this about?”

  “You’re sacrificing too much for me. I need to get away. I can take care of myself. I’m a danger to you and Mikhail and Alena—and hell, now Leo.”