by Bella Rose
“The darkness is the best place to say ridiculous things,” Sasha agreed.
She wondered what a man like Sasha would consider ridiculous. “Like what?”
“Like I could tell you that when I was a boy, I wanted to be a dog trainer.”
Maria struggled not to laugh. “Is that why you have Nicolai?”
“Maybe.”
“You’re failing as a dog trainer then,” she teased. “Just so you know. He ate the carpet in the dining room today. Then he stole someone’s shoe.”
“Shoes should not be left lying around,” Sasha retorted.
Maria could not stop giggling. “It was still on Ana’s foot.”
“Perhaps I need to spend more time with him.” Sasha combed his fingers through her hair. “He would be less unruly then.”
“Yes,” she agreed sleepily. She thought Sasha needed to spend less time on business and more time on enjoying life in general.
Chapter Nine
Sasha waited for Dimitri to open the passenger door before exiting the SUV. As far as he was concerned, this meeting was idiotic. However, the council had approached him just that morning with a request from Emil Sokolov for a meeting regarding the welfare of his daughter—Maria.
They approached the meeting point in a small park that sat just between their two territories. It was often used as neutral ground. As if there were such a thing. Walking behind Sasha, Dimitri fidgeted.
“What’s your problem?” Sasha murmured in Russian.
Dimitri was busy scanning the bushes, the trees, and even the playground equipment. “This meeting is bullshit. I can feel it. They’re bringing us here to pump us for information.”
“On what?” Sasha could not give credit to Dimitri’s paranoia. “We have no dealings with them beyond promising not to infringe on their territory with our collection business.”
Dimitri couldn’t seem to come up with any other argument. “It’s just bullshit.”
“Well, shut your mouth,” Sasha told him sharply. “You’ll ruin the whole deal with your bad attitude, and I will have gotten married for nothing.”
Sasha plastered a pleasant smile on his face as his father-in-law approached. Emil Sokolov was in his late fifties but had the muscular build of a much younger man. His two sons Viktor and Anton flanked him on both sides. They favored their father with blond hair, blue eyes, and the heavy build of a Russian peasant laborer. Sasha would prefer not to run afoul of them. Killing them would have taken more than a little effort.
“Hello, Sasha,” Emil said in smooth Russian that held almost no trace of an accent. “I very much appreciate your willingness to accept this meeting.”
Sasha got right to the point. “What is it you wish to know about your daughter?”
“Is she happy? Is she healthy?” Emil raised his eyebrows and held out his hands. “She is my daughter. I’ve heard nothing from her in the ten days since I turned her over to your care at the wedding. A father is concerned.”
“Not to mention a brother,” Viktor muttered.
Sasha let that one slide. “Your daughter is healthy and happy. She is at home running her household as befits the daughter and wife of a pakhan.”
“You did not bring her?” Now Emil was frowning. “I thought the council had been most specific.”
“They said nothing about putting my wife at risk. My wife does not leave my estate. She is safest there.” Sasha offered the Sokolovs a polite nod. “If you will excuse us, my associate and I have pressing matters to attend to.”
Anton looked as if he could not hold back any longer. He shot Sasha a twisted expression of distaste. “Matters such as the murder of my cousin Grigori Sokolov?”
“What are you talking about?” Dimitri had assured him that neither he nor Kirill had any knowledge of where Grigori Sokolov was. Now the man was apparently dead?
“His body washed up on the riverbank last night,” Emil explained. “His throat had been slashed, but whoever attempted to dispose of him did not weigh him down properly.”
“I am truly sorry for your loss,” Sasha said stiffly. “But I can tell you with certainty that I had nothing to do with the situation. Perhaps you should check with one of the other families. You know that there are several people who would like to stir up trouble between you and me. This alliance could change the balance of power. Some branches of the Bratva would rather have us at each other’s throats instead.”
“Perhaps,” Emil said slowly. “But I cannot help wondering how and why my cousin died. I suppose I will have to do what I can to piece together the last days of his life. Then I will be able to tell what he was doing that got him killed and who is responsible.”
Sasha bowed his head to the older man. “I wish you luck with your search, and I will pass along your regards to my wife.”
“Of course,” Emil muttered. “Next time I encourage you to bring Maria with you. It will allay our fears that you’ve murdered her and stashed the body somewhere.”
Sasha had to throw out his arm to keep Dimitri from rushing the Sokolovs. Yes, the old man had just insulted Sasha, but it would not help to get angry about it. Sasha shoved Dimitri back toward their vehicle.
Once he was certain his friend was not in danger of slipping the leash on his temper, Sasha turned around. “If I decide to murder your daughter, Emil, I promise that I will leave her body on your front steps. That way I could never be accused of not returning her to her family in the same condition that I received her.”
Now it was Viktor and Anton struggling to get past their father to attack Sasha. He wasn’t worried. The men were young, but he would have welcomed the chance to bash their heads in for insulting his honor. He shot Emil a knowing look before sauntering back to his SUV and getting in.
“Do we really let that slide?” Dimitri growled. “As if that useless woman they foisted upon our organization was worth murdering.”
Sasha swung around and stared at Dimitri. “Insult my wife one more time and I will plant my fist so far down your throat that you’ll choke on it.”
“Insult her?” Dimitri twisted his face in scorn. “Why would you care? You never wanted to marry the bitch in the first place.”
Sasha could not stop the rage that reddened his vision. He cocked his fist and planted it right in Dimitri’s face. He punched Dimitri as he spoke each word. “Do. Not. Insult. My. Wife.”
Dimitri groaned and held both hands up to his nose as it poured blood down the front of his shirt. The coppery stench of the sticky stuff filled the vehicle. The sight was satisfying as hell to Sasha. The bastard had been begging for it with all of the nasty things he continually said about Maria. She had been part of the Tarasov organization for ten days. It was time to get over it.
“Drive,” Sasha told Dimitri in a rough voice. “Now. Before I start looking around my men for someone more competent to do so.”
Dimitri turned the key, and the engine roared to life. He drove off, his nose still spilling down his chest. The expression on his face suggested this was not over. At all.
***
Maria sat in the backyard on a tiny bench with a book in her hands. At regular intervals, Nicolai would bring his slobbery, disgusting red ball back and dump it by her side. She would reach out, pluck the nasty thing off the ground, and then throw it as far as she could without ever looking up from her book.
A soft spring breeze blew tendrils of her hair around her face. Her bun had come loose again, but she didn’t particularly care. She was involved in her book mostly because there was nothing else to be involved in. She wondered if her life as a Tarasov would always be this useless. The kitchen staff had come back, and they had struck a sort of truce. Mostly that meant that Maria stayed out of their way and only told Oksana how many people to expect.
It was embarrassing, but since Sasha seemed to prefer the Russian woman’s menus, there was nothing for Maria to do about it. She was languishing. She knew it, but nobody else seemed to care. Finally she threw her book down i
n frustration and glared at the big house. It was a place of secrets. Everyone whispered or spoke in Russian. It was like they were all hiding something from her. She was an outsider.
Except I know what happened to Grigori.
Perhaps it was time to be a true Sokolov and find out what was happening in this place. Sokolovs did not cower. They dug and pried for information no matter what the cost might be. Grigori had died in a room right on the other side of the doorway behind her. If Maria wanted to, she could go to it right now and try to find out why Sasha’s men had murdered her cousin.
She stood up. Nicolai bounded over, and she pushed him away. Kicking the ball away to keep the dog occupied, she headed toward the door. She would just go right in and see what she could find out. It was simple.
Until she tried the door and found it locked. Dammit. Now she needed to figure out a way to get to this point from inside the house. That meant winding her way through the unfamiliar warren of hallways on the first floor. It wasn’t like she had anything else to do. If she were caught, she would just plead ignorance. They all thought she was a stupid child anyway. Perhaps it was time she used that to her advantage.
“What are you doing?”
She whirled around, putting her hand to her chest to still her hammering heart. The sharp words came from one of Sasha’s closest comrades, Kirill. He was staring at her with suspicion. Maria could not imagine what the man was doing out here in the yard. It was almost as if he’d been spying on her. Was she being watched?
Maria cleared her throat. “You scared the daylights out of me! I was just trying to go back inside. Why is this door locked? It seems silly to lock a door leading from the yard to the house when the yard is already fenced off like Fort Knox.”
“What is this Fort Knox?” Kirill asked in his thick Russian accent.
Maria rolled her eyes. “Sheesh! Where have you been? Siberia? Never mind about Fort Knox. Can you please unlock this door and let me in? I need to check on something in the kitchen.”
Kirill gave her a derisive snort. “Go around.”
The asinine man gave her a furtive glance and then pulled out a key. He slipped through the door himself and slammed it in her face. If he was trying to warn her off, he’d only managed to pique her curiosity that much more. What was he hiding and why? She was a Tarasov now, right? The Sokolovs were their allies. It was time to figure out what was really going on.
Maria marched back through the yard and into the house through the French doors on the terrace. She made her way through the parlor, the den, past the dining room and kitchen. Then she turned right in what she judged to be the right spot. She had gone perhaps twenty feet when the hallway came to a T. She could go right or left, but not straight.
Frowning, she walked in a circle and tried to get a feel for her position inside the house. She knew she was in the right spot. There should have been a door right here. Maria stared at the blank wall. She gave it a good glare. This thing was all wrong. There was a whole wing of the house that somehow wasn’t there!
More determined than ever, Maria stalked off down the right-hand hallway. If these Tarasovs thought that they were going to pull one over on Maria Sokolov, they needed to think again. She was going to figure out what all the secrecy was about if it was the last thing she did.
Chapter Ten
Sasha entered the house through the single door tucked into the back corner of the house. For some reason, he felt the urge to hide his presence. There was something strange going on. The idea that he was getting paranoid enough to spy on his own soldiers disturbed him. Eventually most of the old pakhans in the Bratva grew paranoid and unstable. He’d always considered himself above such behavior. Now he realized that leadership of a criminal organization went hand in hand with suspecting everyone of wanting him dead.
The narrow hallway was painted an off-white, and he had made an effort to decorate the place. Art, wall sconces, and even soft overhead lighting were all part of his attempt to make the office suite of the Tarasov branch of the Bratva appear well organized and almost…civil.
Sasha paused beside a closed door on his left. Interrogation rooms were a necessary evil of organized crime, but it had always seemed odd to have such a space ensconced in his home. If his men had been acting without authorization, might they have used the room? Even as a secret meeting place?
He inserted a key and opened the door. He reached out and flipped the light on with his right hand. The sharp glare of the LED lights overhead illuminated the room where so many confessions and secrets had been extracted.
Sniffing, he walked a few steps further into the room. It appeared clean. He walked a slow circuit of the space. A chair stood in the middle of the room. It shouldn’t have been there.
Squatting down, Sasha peered at the floor beneath the plain black metal chair. When he oversaw any interrogations—and by his edict, he was in charge of them all—he had the lower ranking soldiers clean this room afterward as if it were being prepared for surgery.
Sasha reached out and poked at a speck of color on the grout between the white tiles. Blood. That meant someone had been interrogating prisoners without his knowledge, consent, or authorization.
“Damn you, Dimitri,” Sasha muttered. “You’re going to get us all killed.”
***
Just because she was the tenacious sort, Maria tried the outside door just one more time. She nearly snatched her hand back in shock when the damn knob turned. One quick twist and she was inside. Her heart was racing, and she felt as if every instinct was on high alert. If she was discovered, playing stupid probably wasn’t going to cut it, she realized.
I need to know what happened to Grigori.
The door opened into a little foyer area, just like she remembered from her last impromptu visit. Male voices echoed down the right-hand branch of the long hallway. Maria tried to tell herself that was a good thing, because the room where she had seen Grigori was down the left side. That was where she needed to go for answers. Right?
Scrunching herself down, she slunk along the wall and tried not to breathe. She had never realized how loud breathing was! Each time she inhaled, it sounded like the roar of an engine! Every step was agony. Her palms began to sweat, and she was certain that she was about to be caught. They would throw her in the interrogation room and tie her to a chair until she screamed and begged for them to end it.
I’m being stupid.
She would just repeat that a million times until her brain decided to calm down. There was Sokolov business going on down here. She’d tried and tried to be a Tarasov, but they didn’t seem to want her. So it was time to find out what was really going on with this “alliance.”
The shuffle of boots coming her way froze her solid. They were coming. That man Dimitri or Kirill would find her, and that would be it.
So move!
Her body seemed to unlock, and she reached for the very next door on her right. To her unending relief, it wasn’t locked. Slipping inside, she ducked down and left it cracked. She had to know who was coming. For some reason she could not name, it was the most important thing in her mind at the moment.
Through the tiny crack she spotted a pair of very familiar scuffed boots. Her gaze moved up, over the black cargo pants, and finally Sasha’s heavily muscled torso. Maria turned way from the door and pressed her back to the wall. She put her hands over her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut. What would he do if he knew she was here? Would he be the one to put her in the interrogation chair and beat the answers from her broken body?
The idea brought tears to her eyes. He had been so gentle with her. She did not want to believe him capable of turning on her like a rabid animal. It was too awful to comprehend. Taking a deep breath, she vowed not to worry about it now. Information first. Confrontation later.
Then she opened her eyes and realized that she was in an office and there were files strung all across the top of the desk just waiting for her to take a peek.
***
Sasha softened his steps, creeping closer to the conference room and hating the suspicions growing in his mind that made it necessary. He had never before doubted Dimitri or Kirill. They had been his most trusted avoritets for years. Now, though, he sensed something roiling beneath the surface—a poison that would destroy his organization from within.
A hard scrape indicated a chair had been pulled out from the conference table. “That Sokolov bitch was poking her nose around earlier.” He recognized Kirill’s voice.
Dimitri replied with his low hard laugh. “That one is too much of a pain in the ass. She’s curious, and that’s bad.”
“Plus she’s got Sasha’s dick wrapped around her little finger!” Kirill added.
Sasha forced his temper into a little ball of angry sparks. It would do him no good to explode right now. So he stood in the dimly lit hallway and waited for his trusted men to incriminate themselves a little more.
“You have to remember that the Sokolov trash was her cousin,” Dimitri pointed out. Sasha heard one of them walk around the table, probably heading for the sideboard where they kept the vodka.
“She’s supposed to be a Tarasov now,” Kirill snapped. “As if that would ever make a Sokolov more tolerable.”
“You want one? I think Sasha has blown us off.” It must have been Dimitri pouring himself a drink.
“I think he’s somewhere getting blown.” Kirill laughed at his own joke. “The guy could have any piece of ass he wants, and he prefers some little girl with no tits and no ass. It’s pathetic.”
“Yeah. As these Americans say—it’s time to turn in his man card,” Dimitri agreed.
Sasha’s patience was running thin, and yet he had learned nothing beyond the fact that his men only respected him to his face. Perhaps he needed to shake things up a bit.
Stomping his feet to make a bit of noise, Sasha swung into the conference room with a dark expression on his face. “I don’t know what you fuckers have been up to lately, but everything has gone to shit.”
