by Bella Rose
“I don’t care about the police!” Maria argued. “We’ll just tell them the Dinozzos did it. Those fuckers are crazy! The cops can’t arrest my father for trying to rescue me.”
“You are so damn naive,” Sasha muttered. “Don’t you realize that we were all breaking about a hundred laws just by being there? The weapons, the murders of Dimitri and Kirill, any of that seem legal to you?” He muttered something else in Russian. It was not particularly complimentary.
“We didn’t do any of that,” she reminded him.
“But did we call the cops to report it? Hell, whose warehouse did those weapons come out of?” Sasha snapped. “Calm down. I already texted the doctor. He’ll meet us at your father’s house.”
“What?” She was completely shocked. “You called a doctor?”
“I texted him.” Sasha looked at her in the rearview mirror. “Any member of the Bratva knows who to call if we get shot.”
“This happens often?” Her voice was getting a little shrill, and she cleared her throat and made an attempt to calm down. “This sort of thing should not be normal.”
“I notice you’re not concerned about me,” he muttered. “I’m fine, thanks, by the fucking way.”
“Oh!” She felt like an ass. Why did he have to be such a jerk anyway? “I just—you seemed to put Enzo down so easily that I didn’t figure you needed any medical attention. I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to be callous.”
He felt like a complete jackass for snapping at her when she was obviously so worried about her father. The man had lost a lot of blood. What Sasha could see of Emil in the rearview mirror showed that he was waxy and pale. That wasn’t necessarily good. But Dr. Denisovich would be waiting at the Sokolov mansion when they arrived. He could take it from there.
Sasha steered into the driveway and tried not to hit every single bump on the way in. He’d been shot enough times to remember that every movement felt like a hot poker in his skin. When they finally pulled up in front of the house, Sasha laid on the horn until the Sokolov soldiers started pouring from the doorway.
Sasha jumped out of the vehicle and held up his hands. As far as some of these men were concerned, Sasha was the enemy. Fortunately they spotted both Emil and Maria and realized that Sasha wasn’t the problem at the moment.
“Just help your pakhan,” Sasha ordered them. “Dr. Denisovich should be here any minute.”
“He’s already inside,” someone shouted to Sasha.
The men mobilized quickly. Sasha had to give them points for efficiency. Within minutes they had Emil up the steps and into the mansion. It was only when Maria started to disappear inside that Sasha involved himself.
“Hey!” he shouted at her. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“My father is hurt!” She looked dumbfounded. Did she really think he was going to let her just leave his side when he’d just rescued her? But she seemed to have forgotten her kidnapping entirely. “I need to go make sure he’s okay. I’ll come home later.”
“You will come with me. Now.” Sasha did not leave any room for argument.
Even though his ribs were sore as hell, he stomped up the steps of the mansion and snatched up his wife. He flung her over his shoulder and made his way back toward his own car, which was parked on the other side of the circular driveway.
“Stop it!” she protested. “Let me down this minute!”
“No.” He opened the passenger door and practically flung her inside. “Don’t say another word or I’ll get my own set of zip ties.”
He slammed the door on her cry of utter outrage. He didn’t care. The daft woman was going home with him where she belonged. She could check on her father later. Taking a deep breath, he opened the driver’s door and prepared himself for her tirade. But she did not make a sound. Nothing before he sat down. Nothing when he put on his seatbelt. And not a peep when he started the car. The eerie silence was getting to him.
“You can see your father tomorrow. We’ll call to check on him, and I’ll bring you to visit.” He felt like that was a very reasonable offer.
Maria was silent. Sasha pointed the car toward home, leaving the Sokolov grounds behind. He wished she would just yell at him. That would have broken the tension nicely. Plus it would have given him the opportunity to be mad at her, which was much easier than feeling like he’d let her down. Relationships were so fucked up. Sometimes he felt like he was losing his mind.
Maria felt dead inside. Her father was alive—for the moment. She had no idea what his prognosis was. She hadn’t really had a chance to tell him thank you for saving her. He had put himself in the way of a bullet for her! It completely blew her mind to think that he would sacrifice himself like that. It changed everything. Even the strange way in which she had gotten married could now be viewed in a whole new light.
“Would you just say something?” Sasha muttered as he turned the car into the Tarasov driveway.
“What is there to say?” she asked stiffly.
It did not feel like coming home. In truth, it felt as if she had just left home to come to this unfriendly place where everybody hated her. She wanted to go home. She wanted to go back to her father’s house. Nobody wanted her here.
“We forgot about your guns.” The idea stunned her for a moment. A careworn feeling of hope welled up in her heart. Maybe this wasn’t just about money.
Then Sasha snorted in dark amusement. “No, I didn’t. I fully plan to tell Imrich and Johan where they can find their merchandise. The Ukrainians are a bloodthirsty bunch. They will enjoy every second of torturing the Dinozzos for stealing something that belongs to them and nobody else.”
“Oh.” She managed to speak without bursting into tears.
Whatever moment of possibility fell flat as she realized that Sasha hadn’t really lost anything in this mess. He had weeded out two traitors from his organization. In fact, he could use them as an example of what happened when people tried to go behind his back. Sasha was still boss. He was still alpha. His fighting prowess was assured. He had his merchandise. He’d apparently always had the money for the shipment, because the Ukrainians had paid in advance. He had risked nothing and yet gained even more power and notoriety.
The car stopped, and Maria could not wait to get out. She didn’t wait for Sasha. She walked with wooden strides up the front steps and into the house. Nobody greeted her. The big caveman standing guard ignored her completely before running down to meet Sasha and get the news of what had happened. There was traffic and activity in the house, but it was all directed elsewhere. The Tarasovs had made their opinion completely clear. Maria was nothing more than what a temporary annoyance.
Fine. She would do without them too.
Sasha’s men swarmed him the moment he stepped into the house. There were more than a few concerned inquiries about Kirill and Dimitri’s sudden disappearance. That had to be dealt with. And everyone wanted to know about the Italians.
“I want you all to gather around!” Sasha called out. “I know that not everyone is here, but this is important.”
The men muttered amongst themselves, and he saw Oksana and Ana hovering in the background waiting to get the latest gossip. Sasha sighed. This was what it meant to lead. And it was probably why his father had been such an ass. It was easier to lead men when you didn’t care what they thought of you. Unfortunately, Sasha wanted their respect. He wanted them to follow him as pakhan because they thought him to be a good leader, not just because he’d inherited the position.
“Kirill and Dimitri were traitors to our organization!” Sasha called out in a voice that carried to every corner of the room. “They did not care about the rest of us. They made a deal with the Italians and purposefully left us all to look like idiots. Their actions would have made enemies of the Ukrainians.” There was a roll of angry voices at this announcement. Nobody wanted to be on the bad side of Imrich and Johan. “They intended to leave us to our fate, take the money, and run.”
Sasha had to wait for the
angry mutterings to calm down. He thought of his wife, and he thought of her father.
“The Sokolovs were valuable allies in getting rid of this threat,” Sasha admitted. “I did not expect anything to come of this alliance, but it’s a good thing. We need to remember that! The Sokolovs are not our enemies. Their pakhan took a bullet for one of us.”
“Who?” The shout came over the din of conversations.
Sasha turned to the speaker. “My wife. Maria.”
“She’s not one of us! She’s one of them!”
“It saved my life as well!” Sasha argued. He hadn’t realized the extent of his soldiers’ animosity toward Maria. Or perhaps he had, but he hadn’t seen how damaging it could really be. “The Sokolovs are on our side. They helped us to find the traitors in our midst. And Kirill and Dimitri’s actions resulted in their being killed by the Italians. It all ended exactly as it should have. Traitors must be rooted out! We should all gain from Tarasov business interests! We should all have respect and power according to our place in the organization!” Sasha thought of one final thing. “I am your pakhan, but without you, I have nothing!”
The roar of his men was satisfying, but Sasha could not help feeling as though something was missing. He wanted his wife at his side. Maria should have been there to enjoy the success and the excitement. Perhaps he would find her and share the experience in another, more satisfying way.
Chapter Twenty
Maria sat in her chair before the fire in her room. She wondered if she would still be building a fire every single night even when summer finally came to stay. The big house was just so drafty! Or, if she was being honest, the fire made her feel just a little more cozy and cheerful. It softened the cold feeling she got from being in a house where everybody hated her.
She held a book in her lap, but she wasn’t reading. She had tried to read. But she had been rereading the same sentence over and over again for longer than she cared to admit. Her brain could not seem to focus. So she stared vacantly at the fire as it licked and crackled its way through the logs in the grate.
She hated this feeling of complete uselessness. Nobody wanted her help. Nobody needed it. Her opinion meant nothing in her own home, and even Sasha had more important concerns than her.
Maria shifted in her seat and pulled her shawl closer around her shoulders. Tears stung her eyes. It had been a bitch of a day, no matter how she looked at it. In fact, it was a little astonishing to sit here before a fire when, only hours before, she had been taken hostage.
The door opened. She did not have to look up to know Sasha had come into her room. She could hear his footsteps, and his scent drifted toward her. Sandalwood. Funny but she had never identified it in such concrete terms before. It had always seemed as if Sasha Tarasov defied such labels. Not anymore. He was just a man like any other. Her hopes for her marriage had died a quick death in the last twenty-four hours. What else was there?
“Have you heard anything about my father?” she asked. It was really the only thing that mattered.
“I’m sure he’s fine.” Sasha sounded so dismissive, so callous. It hurt to realize that he didn’t really care about her or her family. “If he had taken a turn for the worse, I’m sure we would have heard.”
Maria made a face. Sasha was standing at an angle. If she was lucky, he couldn’t see her expression anyway. “So no news is good news.”
“Of course.”
Sasha was walking as though he were sore. He had taken quite a few hits from her uncle’s big fists. Even though Enzo hadn’t turned out to be much of a fighter, he was still a large man.
“Did you need something?” This seemed like a better approach than what do you want, but the sentiment was the same.
“I wanted to see you.”
“Why?” She finally turned to look at him. What could he want with her? Surely he’d been pretty clear about her importance, and as far as she was concerned, sex was off the table for now.
Sasha suddenly got the feeling that there was something very, very wrong between him and Maria. He simply could not say what the problem might be. Hadn’t he turned the entire world upside down today searching for her?
“You said you were going to the mall.” The words sort of slipped out. The fact that she’d lied pissed him off. “Why would you say that? That lie made it very difficult for us to find you.”
“If I had wanted you to find me, I would have told you very explicitly that I was going to that warehouse by the harbor where you keep your illegal shipments. Then I was going to watch two of your men get murdered, and then I was going to get kidnapped by my own uncle.” Her tone was completely dull. There was no emotion or affect in her voice. It was almost eerie.
She wouldn’t look at him. She just kept staring at that damn fire. “Come to bed. You can sleep in my room tonight.”
“Gee, thanks. But I think I’ll just stay here in my own space. It’s more comfortable. You know, this is Sokolov territory over here. Tarasovs aren’t really supposed to come in here. Ask anyone.”
This jab made no sense. Was she still whining about the maids not cleaning her room? It seemed petty. “Olga is gone. You fired her. Can’t you just let it go?”
He knew right away that it was the wrong thing to say. Her head came up and her eyes flashed fire. She stood up and pointed right at him as though to condemn him.
“You,” she began in a low, angry voice. “Have no fucking clue what I’m even talking about. You don’t listen! It isn’t about the cleaning. Really? You think I’m just sitting here bitching because there’s some dust on my dresser? I mean, why not? That’s so like me, right?” She put her finger to her chin in a mocking gesture. “Oh wait! Except how would you even know a damned thing about me? You just make assumptions!”
Sasha was floored by this behavior. He would not have even dreamed that his sweet little wife was capable of this kind of tirade. He scrambled for a response. “You’re being unreasonable, Maria. Just calm down and try to explain what’s really bothering you.”
He would never forget that look she leveled at him. It was as though she held the power to freeze him solid with one gaze. Then she pointed at the door. “Get. Out. Now.”
“You cannot throw me out of your bedroom.” He’d been so sure he could just seduce her out of this mood. Apparently he was dead wrong. “I’m your husband.”
“Yeah?” She curled her lip in open disdain. “I guess we’ll see how long that lasts. I’m sure you’ll get bored soon enough and want a divorce.”
She grabbed his arm and pushed at him, moving him toward the doorway. His first instinct was to argue or flat out refuse. Yet he knew when something was pointless. He needed to regroup. He needed to figure out what had her so upset. Then he would be back.
Maria could not believe that the man she’d thought so much of was such a blithering idiot! Did he really think this whole thing was about being pissed off that nobody cleaned her room? Did he not get what that really meant?
She was a stranger in what should have been her home!
She had been taken hostage and held by someone who wanted to use her as leverage against a husband who did not even love her. He had no regard for her, and it made her ill to think of everything she had done to try to make him feel otherwise.
Sinking to her knees in front of the fire, she felt her throat constrict as she fought the need to sob. Crying would not help. She needed action. This house had become as much of a prison as her uncle’s bar. Perhaps it was time to take matters into her own hands and make a few choices for herself.
Maria stood up and swiped her arm across her eyes. No tears. Action. She needed a way out of this room that did not involve dealing with caveman and his cronies. Okay, fine. She had a window, right? How hard could it be to just slip outside and disappear?
Her clothes were entirely inappropriate for this adventure. She quickly changed from loungewear to jeans and a sweater. She put her jacket on top, since it was still chilly outside. Then she put on her fa
vorite pair of sneakers and hoped for the best. That lasted until she flung open the curtains and looked outside.
“Second-story nightmare,” Maria whispered.
No. It was all right. She could do this. She popped the clasp on the window and pushed it open. A cool breeze lifted a few loose tendrils of hair around her face. Taking a deep breath, she stared at the drop from her bedroom window. It wasn’t actually impossible. There was a small ledge right outside that she could easily reach. From there, she could shimmy down a sturdy looking trellis. It formed a ladder all the way to the ground.
Maria snatched up a pair of leather gloves. There were bound to be thorns on her makeshift ladder. Once she felt secure in her attire, she was ready to get started. The biggest hurdle was just putting one leg out on that ledge. If she could just get that far, she could go all the way.
She put her butt on the window ledge and scooted as far forward as she could. The breeze picked up. She caught the scent of smoke from the fire in her room mingled with the sharp night scents of fresh earth and green, growing grass and trees. That was the smell of freedom.
One tiny push off the sill, and she was standing totally on the ledge with her hand resting against the window frame. Her heart was pounding, but she had never felt so alive before in her life! It was exhilarating! She closed her eyes briefly and breathed deep. This was right. Everything was going to turn out fine. She knew it.
Sasha paced in his suite. He kept making long circuits of the room that seemed to do nothing for his peace of mind. It all came back to what was fair. He should have been in his wife’s bed enjoying the solace of her body. He had thought she was gone! She’d lied about what she was doing. She had put herself in grave danger, and they’d still managed to come out on top! They should have been celebrating in bed. He should have been between her legs with no other thought than what it was going to take to make her come.
