by Roxie Rivera
"About your daddy? Not long," Grisha admitted. "I'd always wondered why he sent you here when the rumors started."
"Rumors you started," he interjected.
"Of course," Grisha confirmed with an acid laugh. "Drop the gun that's behind your back. Slowly," he added. "I'd hate to have to kill before I've had my fun."
Nikolai kept his knife hidden behind his back but grasped the pistol from his waistband and tossed it over as he ordered. He decided to keep Grisha talking. "Why did you start those rumors?"
"I saw the way you were coming up behind me." Grista kicked aside the weapon. "You were so hungry to prove yourself. You and that fucking gorilla Ivan. I knew it was only a matter of time before you two replaced me." Grisha's face contorted with anger. "Maksim would have killed anyone else over those rumors but not you. No, he gave you this place."
"And that just pissed you off even more," Nikolai rightly guessed.
"This should have been mine. This whole new world of earning—and what have you done with it? Huh?" Grisha practically spat the word. "You've pulled your men out of dirty money—easy money, big money—for this clean shit. It's a disgrace."
"It's a different world here. Big and flashy gets a man sent to prison."
"What do you care? As many times as you've been behind bars, prison must feel like coming home. Besides, I'm sure you find plenty to keep you busy on the inside. A pretty boy like you probably enjoys all that attention. You've been taking it in the ass since you were…what? Eight?"
Grisha's mocking laugh enraged Nikolai. He refused to be goaded by the crazy bastard and tried to remain calm. Boxed into the room with Santos who remained bound and helpless, Nikolai's options were few. The knife he had hidden behind his back might buy him a precious few seconds—but only a few.
"I can't believe you married that little bitch who tried to kill you," Grisha continued to rant. "I should have known better than to trust that fucking loan shark to contract out that hit."
Loan shark? Afrim Barisha had been the go-between for Grisha and Romero? Now his murder made more sense to Nikolai. That had been the first loose end Grisha had wrapped up when Romero was popped from prison. He'd probably worried that Afrim would finally confess to Besian who would have run to Nikolai with that news.
"What's so special about her, huh?" Grisha tilted his head as if truly perplexed. "Maybe I should have tested her out when I had her in that dog cage. She had perkiest little tits I've ever seen." He started to laugh. "You should have heard the sounds she made when we hit her with that cattle prod. Squealed like a baby pig!"
His description of Vivian's torment sickened Nikolai. When Grisha pushed his finger to his nose and started to make squealing sounds, Nikolai welcomed the advantage. He jerked his hand back and threw the knife right at Grisha. The sharp blade slammed into Grisha's chest and stabbed deep into his target.
Choking with shock, Grisha yanked the blade from his chest. Blood spurted from the wound. Shrieking with fury, he raised his shotgun but Nikolai rushed him before he could fire.
With the shotgun between them, they punched and slapped at each other. This was a fight to the death—and Nikolai had to be the one who walked out alive. For Vivian, he had to win this.
Grisha got the upper hand just long enough to slam the butt of the gun into Nikolai's jaw. The burst of impact rattled his still healing brain. Dazed by the blow, he lost his balance for a few seconds. It was long enough for Grisha to knock him to the ground.
Refusing to go down alone, Nikolai grasped the front of Grisha's shirt and dragged him to the floor. Grisha ended up on top of him and pushed the barrel of the weapon against Nikolai's throat. He seemed intent on strangling him. Nikolai fought back, shoving the gun away from his neck, but Grisha had the better position and forced it back down with his full body weight.
Nikolai gouged at Grisha's eyes, clawing at the soft tissues of his once-friend's face. Grisha screamed as blood trickled down his cheeks but he only pushed harder on the gun. Out of the corner of his eye, Nikolai could see Eric fighting to get loose. He rocked his body weight hard enough to dislocate his ankle in a desperate attempt to free himself.
Doubtful Eric would succeed in getting loose, Nikolai focused all his strength on getting that gun off his throat. His vision began to go spotty as his oxygen-starved lungs began to fail him and his brain shunted oxygen to more important areas of his body.
He wasn't going to die like this. He refused to leave Vivian a widow.
"Hurry!" Eric's desperate plea tore through the grunting and growling sounds coming out of Nikolai and Grisha's mouths.
Hurry? Who the hell is he talking to?
And then, like the goddamned Angel of Death, Romero Valero appeared just over Grisha's shoulder. He raised his arm, bringing that gleaming blade of his machete high in the air before swinging it down toward Grisha's neck.
Nikolai closed his eyes at the last second. Grisha made a stunned noise as the blade thwacked into neck. Hot blood sprayed Nikolai's face. The weight of Grisha's body dropped onto him. Another gush of warm liquid poured over him as the machete finished its chopping motion. A moment later, the body was shifted off him and onto the floor.
Nikolai rolled to his side and pushed onto his knees. He wiped the blood from his face and eyes with the hem of his shirt. On his guard, he stared at Romero who stood over Grisha's quickly exsanguinating body while cleaning his machete blade with a rag he'd produced from a pocket.
"You're welcome," Romero said finally, his raspy voice tinged with amusement. "I bought Vivian a nice a set of crystal but you can consider this my wedding gift to you."
Nikolai didn't find that the even the slightest bit funny. "What are you doing here?"
Romero advanced toward Eric but Nikolai stepped between them. His father-in-law looked rather entertained by the sight of a mob boss protecting a detective. "My daughter needed me. I decided that maybe it was time for me to finally come through for her."
"Where is Vivian?" He didn't even want to think about what she'd promised her father in exchange for his help.
"She's having a nice chat with her suegro."
Shock ripped through him. Suegro? Her father-in-law. "Maksim is here."
"Yep." Romero skirted around him and gestured to the rope knots suspending Eric. Nikolai stepped back just enough to let him cut the detective free. "He and I have a little understanding. You and Vivian get Houston. I get the Russian gun trade in Mexico."
Nikolai narrowed his eyes. "But Lorenzo—"
"Lorenzo got what he wanted. I took care of two problems for him. The Calaveras won't step out of line again and get into anything nasty like running underage girls from third world hellholes, and he doesn't have to worry about having any of his political connections north of the border exposed. In other words, business as usual."
Romero whacked the knotted ropes and Eric fell to the floor so hard Nikolai winced. Nikolai crouched down to help him roll onto his back. "Be still. You're too dizzy to move."
Santos didn't fight him. He groaned and clenched his eyes shut as if in pain. He probably had a headache from hell.
"That was a nice move you made. Getting the Hermanos and Albanians to make peace," he clarified. "Framing those skinheads was a nice touch. God knows they were due for their turn in front of a judge."
For a man who had been on the inside for more than a decade, Romero seemed to have kept all his contacts.
"By the way, I'll let that deal you have between the Irishman and Lorenzo stand but don't try to push into my territory again." He waved the machete side to side. "Business and family—they don't mix."
"That goes both ways." Nikolai helped Santos into a sitting position. "Where are your clothes?"
"I don't know, man. He drugged me. I don’t remember a lot of it."
"The car is out front. You two should hurry. You don't want to be here when I call in my cleaners."
Nikolai glanced around and finally spotted the pile of clothing in the corner. He grabbed the pants and shir
t but left everything else. There wasn't time to get Eric fully dressed.
With Santos decent but wobbling on his feet, Nikolai walked him toward the door. He stooped down to grab his pistol and the bloody knife Grisha had plucked from his chest. As he helped Eric hobble downstairs on his one good leg—the other ankle was terribly swollen and likely broken or dislocated—the detective asked with some disbelief, "Are we really going to let him live?"
Nikolai glanced over his shoulder to find his father-in-law watching them. It wouldn't have been difficult to finish off the older man. He only had that machete to protect him and Nikolai had a fully loaded gun—but something stopped Nikolai. Loyalty? Gratitude? He didn't know what to call it.
"For today," Nikolai said finally. He didn't doubt that someday soon he would regret letting Romero live, but right now, he was more worried about getting Santos medical attention and finding Vivian. They'd been given a second chance—and he was taking it in both hands and never letting go.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Later that evening, under the cover of darkness, Nikolai and I parked one the SUVs from his fleet high atop a parking garage his organization owned. Using binoculars, we watched the Houston police department and the Feds raid an old factory the skinheads and Grisha had been using to hold all those women they'd trafficked.
After dropping Eric on a street corner and calling 9-1-1 to report a drugged, lost man, we'd waited nearby until EMS and the police had arrived to help him. I sensed he was still furious about my father walking away alive but he didn't seem to want to hurt Nikolai.
The truth wasn't much different than the story Eric had offered to tell. He'd left out only the details concerning Nikolai. As far as the police were concerned, Grisha and my father had been working together all along to stir up a turf war in the city.
With Eric safe, we'd returned to the house. I'd followed Nikolai upstairs to help him shower because I didn't believe he wasn't hurt. There had been so much blood. I didn't think we'd ever get it out of his hair. I hadn't wanted to hear the gruesome details of Grisha's end, but I'd been able to piece together what had happened once my father entered that house with his machete.
Entertaining Maksim had been a strange experience. The older man was kind toward me but rather aloof and cold. Nikolai had been furious that Maksim had blackmailed me into making that decision to save his life but it was done. There was no going back.
As quickly and unexpectedly as Maksim had come into our lives that morning, he'd exited that afternoon. Before he'd left, he'd handed me a simple envelope containing all the evidence the police needed to track down and free these women. Though I still had an entire room filled with gifts to open, I had no doubt that envelope would be the one I cherished most.
I had walked the information into the police department myself and given it to Katrina, that detective friend of Eric's who worked vice and had been tirelessly looking for these poor girls. She'd been understandably wary but she'd thanked me for my help and promised to do everything possible to save them.
And now here we were.
"It's a beautiful thing," Nikolai murmured as dozens of young women were led out of the building and into waiting ambulances. Those disgusting men who had been trafficking them were lined up and cuffed outside the building. I doubted they would get all the men responsible or find all the women who needed help—but it was a start.
"Yes, it is."
Nikolai handed me the binoculars for another look. As I continued to watch the raid, he grasped my hand between both of his and interlaced our fingers. "I wish I could promise you these will be the last girls who ever get held in cages and sold like livestock but I can't."
I lowered the binoculars and studied his handsome face in the low moonlight streaming through the windshield. "I'm not naïve enough to think it stops here—but at least we managed to help these ones."
"It feels nice to finally do something good."
After all the horror we'd seen and survived in the last month, I shared his sentiment. "There's always tomorrow, Kolya. We can't let the good end here."
His lips twitched with the hint of a smile. "Is that your way of telling me there has to be balance?"
"Maybe."
Nikolai's expression grew taut. He gripped my hand even tighter. "I'm sorry that we can't get out, Vee."
"Out? Of the life?" I shook my head. "It doesn't matter. We're together. You're alive. I'm alive. That's what's important."
"Maksim made it clear today when we spoke privately that he'll let me run my crew and Houston as I see fit—but he'll still expect me to do certain things for the family."
"I'm not going to sit here and tell you I'm not disappointed." If I wanted him to be truthful with me, I had to be truthful with him. "You probably going to think I'm silly and childish but I've always sort of dreamed that I'd be the one to get you out. How messed up is it that I'm the one that forced you in even deeper?"
"It's not silly or childish to want the best for someone you love. You saved my life today." He swallowed hard. "If it was only about loving you, Vee, I'd be out in a heartbeat."
"I know."
"Please don't ever doubt how much I love you."
"I don't. Never." I rubbed my thumb over the star tattooed on the back of his hand. "That doesn't mean I'm ever going to stop trying to save you."
"I can't be saved, Vee. I am what I am."
I shifted in my seat and pushed onto my knees. Leaning forward, I cupped his face and peered down into his haunted eyes. "And I love you. All of you. Just as you are."
"Even if this is our life?"
"We get to choose how we live. If Maksim says you can run Houston the way you see fit, run it your way."
"I've been pulling us out of risky business. I've been growing our legitimate interests. We actually earn more through legal means than we do on the wrong side of the law. Between Samovar, the storage centers, real estate, construction, the car washes, these parking garages—we're doing extremely well. I think most of us are actually relieved to be working in gray areas instead of fully in the black."
I couldn't believe he was telling me all about his organization's income streams. "You've been building those legitimate interests for a long time."
He nodded and glanced toward the windshield. "That night I nearly killed you, I decided that I had to change. That we had to change. Our business couldn't be built on death and violence. It had to be smart."
Nikolai turned his attention back to me. He reached out and caressed my face. "Then you came into my life again. You burst into Samovar like a beam of sunshine and I knew I had to try to get out. I didn't think it would be as easy as it was for Ivan." His lips settled into a grim line. "Not that it was easy for him. He fought like hell to get out alive."
Fear stabbed my gut. "Nikolai, please don't try anything risky. Maksim might be your father but he's not the type of man to let you just walk away from him."
"After today, I'm fully aware of how far he's willing to go to keep me in line." Nikolai's thumb swiped my lower lip. "I dreamed that someday, maybe, if I was very lucky, you might become mine. I kept that hope alive by making plans to get out and by moving my crew farther and farther from the darkest line."
He sifted his fingers through my hair and brushed our mouths together. Guilt radiated from him in powerful waves. "I wanted to be able to offer you so much more than this life. I wanted to give you something better than this."
"Nikolai…"
He claimed me with a tender kiss, pushing all the love he felt for me into the mating of our mouths. Peering intently into my eyes, he whispered with such anguish, "There's no fairytale ending for us, Vee."
"Kolya." I clasped his face and nuzzled our noses together. "I don't need a fairytale. I only need you."
"And what if one day you wake up and I'm no longer enough?"
"Do you plan to stop loving me?"
"Never," he vowed stridently.
Smiling, I tapped his mouth, "Then you'll always
be enough."
Nikolai caressed my back. "Let's go home. I think we could both use a good night's sleep."
Feeling playful, I asked, "Just sleep?"
He laughed and gave my backside a swat. "With you in my bed? Never."
Giggling, I kissed him one last time and slipped back into my seat. As we made the long, circling drive down through the many levels of the parking garage, I held tightly to Nikolai's hand and thought about our future.
Maksim might have outmaneuvered me today but I was still learning. Someday, his power would wane and then? Well—then we'd make our move.
Until that day, we'd do things our way. We'd done something very good today—and that was a start.
Epilogue
Four Months Later
"Vee?" Nikolai came downstairs still adjusting his tie. He glanced at his watch and frowned. That impromptu lovemaking session in the shower had put them behind schedule. Refusing to be late for her graduation, he called out for her again. "Vee?"
"I'm in the library."
He followed the sound of her sweet voice and found her wrapping the last of the baby gifts for Dimitri and Benny. "What are you doing?"
"I got nervous while I was waiting for you so I thought I'd finish wrapping these things for the shower tomorrow." She waved the card she'd chosen. "Sign this?"
He nodded and took the bright pink card from her. It had a nice message written inside. He scrawled his signature in the spot she'd indicated before handing it back to her. Counting the big boxes stacked on the desk, he asked, "Do you think you got them enough gifts?"
She rolled her eyes. "This baby shower is a big deal. Besides, it's the first baby in our group."
Nikolai's heart threatened to burst with love as he touched her belly. "But not the last."
Smiling up at him, she covered his hand. "We promised not to say anything yet."
He kissed her tenderly. "My lips are sealed."
They'd only discovered their happy news a few days earlier. Vee had been sure that her exhaustion and nausea were due to finishing up her finals and preparing her first international show at one of the galleries Niels owned in London, but he'd suspected it was something much different.
