Mikhail smiled. He liked the man instantly. Thank God. It would have been hard to leave Haley there if he was uncomfortable with her boss.
Terrance turned his attention back to Haley and winked. “When you told me you had a boyfriend, I wasn’t picturing you with someone who filled a room.” He glanced back at Mikhail. “As I’m sure you do, both literally and figuratively.”
Smart man.
“So, you’re keeping a good eye on her? I’m worried.”
“I am. She’s in good hands when she’s with me.”
Terrance easily caught his inference. “And I assure you she’s in good hands here also. This building is secure. A guard is always at the door. We don’t allow anyone inside with a weapon. It’s also a drug and alcohol free zone.
“The people who come here during the day do so to use the computers to search for jobs, the facilities to shower, or the dining room to eat. We have services that help people get back on their feet.”
“Sounds good. And you’re aware of what happened to Haley?”
“Yes.”
Haley rolled her eyes, and Mikhail narrowed his gaze, smiling slowly to let her know he was paying attention to her sass.
Just for that, he turned toward her and gave her a childish set of instructions. “Don’t leave this building. Don’t even go to the front.”
“Yes, sir,” she sassed, stating the two words in a completely different tone than she had an hour ago on her bed with her pussy spread open for his perusal.
Terrance chuckled. “I left a pile of client folders on your desk, Haley. Ease into it today. You don’t have to win a race here. Whatever you get done is fine. The rest will still be here tomorrow.” He rounded back to the front of his desk and resumed his seat before he mumbled, “Though Lord knows I’m sure you’ll try to make up for a month in eight hours.”
The man knew Haley well.
“Thanks.” Haley spun around, grabbing Mikhail by the forearm and leading him a few doors farther down the hall to another office.
When he stepped into her space behind her, he grinned. “So this is where you work. I tried to picture it. I must say, in my mind, it wasn’t nearly this…”
“Messy?” she offered.
“Yep. That’s the word.”
“This is tidy, actually. People must have come in and straightened up in order to take over some of my case files. They would have had to.” She put her hands on her hips and spanned the room with her gaze before blowing out a breath. “It will take me half the day to find everything and remember where I was.”
He set a hand on her shoulder and leaned forward, touching his lips to her ear. “You do that, but keep your fingers off your pussy. Got it?”
She gasped and spun around to make sure no one heard him. “Mikhail,” she hissed.
He smiled, patted her ass, and left the room, tossing his last words over his shoulder. “I’ll be back at five.”
»»•««
“Did you follow her?” Anton asked, pacing his downtown apartment in front of the large picture window that currently afforded him a view of nothing but Chicago smog.
“Of course, sir. It was my job,” Dayton responded. “Both my jobs, actually.” He snorted.
“So she’s at that damn homeless shelter and Mikhail left?”
“Yes.”
“Any chance of snagging her from there?”
“Not a chance in hell. Besides the fact that I’m the current detail on her, there’s a cop positioned at the entrance.”
“Why are the police there?” Anton froze.
“I’m sure they’re here every day. Safety. It’s a shelter.”
He exhaled. “Right. Well, see if there’s an opportunity. Learn her routine. Does she go to lunch? Does she do it alone? Does she take breaks and step outside?” He didn’t give a fuck his voice rose. The clock was ticking. “I want that bitch back in my lab. If you can’t get her during the day, there may be an opportunity after work if she really hits the streets with that reporter.”
“I’m aware of that, sir. And I’m on it.”
“What about Belinda Gallo? Who’s on her?”
“Millings, sir. He’s supposed to be with me, but he followed her instead. She went to work. She’s inside Chicago Multimedia’s building now.”
“Good. Alone?”
“Yes. And I’ve got something else for you. Millings went into Haley’s apartment after she and Mikhail left this morning. The hummus is gone.”
“Perfect. How large of a container was it?”
“Too large for one person to eat alone. Besides, there were several empty containers in the trash. The three of them polished off a random assortment of snacks Saturday night.”
“Excellent.”
“Millings kept an eye on Belinda’s apartment yesterday too. And guess who visited her?”
“Who?”
“Nikolav Andropov. Arrived super early and nearly ran inside. Stayed all day and all night. Took her to work this morning.”
Fucking perfect. Anton connected the dots and decided it was reasonable to assume Ms. Gallo had gotten sick. It was just like Nikolav or any of the guys to race to her rescue.
Anton returned his attention to Millings. “Okay, keep me updated about this afternoon.” Anton dropped the phone on the couch and stared out the window again. Damn smog. Damn escaped bitch.
He tried to look on the bright side. At least it would seem Haley or Mikhail had eaten the tainted hummus. And as a bonus, they’d even had another woman over to share the bounty. An unplanned test subject who’d proved invaluable.
Phase two, test one, a total success.
His phone rang again, jarring him out of his reverie.
As he bent to retrieve it, he saw the caller ID. “Viktor.”
“Anton. How are things in Chicago?”
“Progressing steadily. We’re close.”
“Probably not close enough, I’m afraid. Your father isn’t doing well. I don’t think he has much more time. He’s not likely to see the final results of your efforts.”
Anton sighed. He hated to hear that. More than twenty years of hard work and Grigory was now too sick to see it through to completion. “How long?”
“Hard to say. Weeks? Months? Not more than that for sure.”
Anton shook his head. Dammit.
»»•««
Mikhail shut his locker and plopped down on the bench that ran the length of the long row of lockers. He reached for his boots to put them on.
Leo was already dressed and straddling the bench next to him. “So you’re going to let Haley wander around in the streets tonight handing out sandwiches?”
Mikhail scowled. “Let is an interesting word choice. Do you let Katie do whatever she wants when she plows past you as if she outweighed you and could take you on?”
Leo’s shoulders slumped. “I see your point.”
“Look. We’ve done what we could. I’ve spoken to Taylor, and you’ve spoken to whoever the hell it is you’re connected with. I’m actually more worried about how little the FBI is concerned with this plan.”
“I hear you. Do you think they’re using us?”
“The thought has crossed my mind. I had expected Taylor to tell me ‘fuck no,’ and then I intended to let her convince Haley so I wouldn’t have to be the bad guy. Instead she agrees and sets up extra detail to trail us around. So, yeah. I’m nervous. I get the feeling the FBI would love for Yenin’s men to step out of the shadows and attempt something. It’s like we volunteered to be a target.”
Leo nodded. “I agree. It’s too convenient.”
“What’s too convenient?”
Mikhail lifted his head to find Abram wandering down the row of lockers. He lowered himself onto the bench across from Leo and Mikhail.
Mikhail snapped his fingers and reached into the back pocket of his jeans to pull out the check he’d been carrying around for Abram for a few days. He handed it to him. “Sorry I’m late. I’ve been busy the last few day
s. Didn’t have a chance to hunt you down.”
Abram took the folded check and put it in his wallet without looking at it. “No worries. Leo told me a bit about your latest exploits.” He grinned. “You fighters manage to get yourselves into more trouble than anyone I know. You’re like magnets for damsels in distress that bring you a heap of problems.”
Mikhail laughed. “I said the same thing to Leo the other day.”
“Can’t any of you pick a nice sweet girl who hasn’t had a brush with the Russian Mafia? I hope Nikolav and Sergei can keep themselves out of trouble now that they’re in town. I don’t think I can keep up with the drama.”
“Yeah, don’t bet on it.” Mikhail rolled his eyes. “I inadvertently introduced Nikolav to Haley’s girlfriend, Belinda, and it turns out she’s a journalist who’s nosing around in Yenin’s affairs too.”
“What?” Abram glanced at Leo and then Mikhail. “How the hell did this happen?”
Mikhail shrugged. “Like you said, we must be magnets for damsels in distress.”
Abram frowned. “I realize you six didn’t ask for the trouble following you around. And I obviously knew all this before I agreed to be your manager, but I hope none of you end up getting yourselves dead. Dmitry came close. I don’t want to see that happen to any of you.”
“We’re doing our best,” Leo added. “You know as well as any of us Yenin is a relentless bastard who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.”
Abram ran a hand over his head. “I’m clear on that. Spoke to the asshole myself after Dmitry left the country. He wasn’t happy about losing the two of you to my court. And I’m sure he’s seething now that Nikolav and Sergei have also switched to my ring.”
“Yeah, there’s a lot more to it.” Mikhail glanced at Leo. How much should they share with Abram? The man had literally saved their lives on several occasions. He’d gotten Alena into the country for an insurmountable sum Mikhail didn’t even have the guts to inquire about. He’d also gotten Dmitry out of the country.
He was Russian. He had ties. He knew things. He wasn’t as seedy or underhanded as Yenin, but he had connections that sometimes proved useful.
Didn’t they owe it to him to be more forthcoming with information and let him know about the FBI investigation and the weird blood samples?
“Like what?” Abram asked.
Luckily Leo spoke up, which kept Mikhail from having to make decisions on what to tell Abram. After all, Leo was the one who was an informant for the FBI. Obviously he couldn’t tell Abram that, but maybe he could share some details that would keep their manager in the loop.
How much should they say, though? Information had a tendency to go both ways. Just as Abram often knew things about Yenin’s whereabouts and his men, Abram could also leak information to someone.
Mikhail trusted Abram. Hell, they all trusted him. He’d proven valuable to them dozens of times. Surely he wouldn’t go to so much trouble and expense to help Dmitry and Alena out if he also intended to stab them in the back and hand them over to the Mafia.
But then again, why did Yenin go to so much trouble and expense to bring the six fighters into the US and train them to fight, investing a dozen years in their well-being, if he meant them harm? He hadn’t ordered any of them killed, nor had he attempted to abduct any of the six of them since they’d moved to Chicago. But that didn’t mean he was on the up and up. He had clearly used them for some sort of drug experimentation.
“It would seem Yenin’s involved in far more sinister activities than running an underground fighting operation and cooking crystal meth,” Leo began.
“Like what?” Abram lifted an eyebrow.
Leo glanced at Mikhail and then continued. “He might have gotten the six of us into the country with a far more devious, long-term plan. All of us have strange blood anomalies that make no sense. We think he’s creating a drug that has something to do with that.
“And it would seem he’s been testing us for years. And now he’s abducting homeless people off the street and using them for his experiments. When they die, he dumps the bodies.”
Abram’s eyes bugged out. “The missing people they’ve been finding in that dump site were taken by Yenin? How do you know all of this?”
“The woman Mikhail’s been staying with, Haley, was also kidnapped by Yenin’s men. Mistaken for homeless. Lived.”
Mikhail still couldn’t breathe properly when he considered what could have happened to Haley if he and Ivan and Leo hadn’t found her that day three weeks ago.
“Fuck.” Abram lowered his head toward the floor. “That’s insane,” he told the tile.
“Tell me about it,” Mikhail added.
Abram lifted his gaze again. “And the FBI is involved?”
“Yeah,” Leo said.
“Hopefully they can nail the bastard to the wall and put an end to his harassment. That would ease all of your minds.”
“That’s what we’re hoping,” Mikhail agreed.
»»•««
Haley was buried in work when a shadow loomed in the doorway.
She lifted her gaze to find Belinda standing there. “Girl, do you ever stop working?”
“No. Not usually. What time is it?”
“Five.”
“Wow. Lost track of time. Is Mikhail here? He was supposed to get here by now.”
“I didn’t see him.”
Haley leaned back and stretched her neck. “How are you feeling after the food poisoning?”
“Fine. Stomach was a little queasy this morning, but I’ll live. I still cannot believe you sent that behemoth hunk of man to my apartment to hold my hair back while I vomited unthinkable amounts of bile into my toilet.”
Haley cringed. “Yeah, about that. I didn’t exactly make that happen. Mikhail did it. He even teased that you said you wanted to meet his friends.” She giggled.
Belinda plopped onto a chair across from Haley, fanning herself with one hand and pretending to swoon by leaning to the side of the chair and sticking a leg out. “Nikolav Andropov. Even his name makes my panties wet. He was sexier than the Russian you’re shacking up with. Too bad I’ll never see him again. He’s probably never seen anyone in such a state of disaster. My apartment smelled like puke, and I looked like death.”
Haley grinned. “He’s hot, but not hotter than Mikhail,” she teased.
“Oh God, yes. All that dark hair and brooding eyes and white skin. He looked like a vampire. I would have let him suck me dry if he’d asked.”
“Let who suck you dry?” Mikhail asked from the doorway.
Belinda turned ten shades of red.
Haley laughed. “Belinda was smitten by Nikolav.”
“Was she now?” Mikhail smirked as he sauntered farther into the room and rounded the desk. He leaned over, wrapped his possessive fingers around Haley’s neck, and kissed her on the lips when she tipped her head back.
“Too bad I was deadly sick and exhibited my worst possible side.”
“Ah, I don’t think Nik cares about that sort of thing,” Mikhail said, his hand still gripping the back of Haley’s neck.
It was nearly the only thing she was aware of. That and the way he stroked her skin with his pinky.
“You don’t think he cares about vomit sticking in a woman’s hair when he meets her? If his standards are that low, maybe I should steer clear.”
“Well, I’m afraid that’s not possible.”
“Why?” Haley asked, glancing back at him.
“Because he’s coming with us. He’s in the waiting room out front now.”
“Coming with us where?” Belinda’s eyes widened, and she sat up straight, reaching up to pat her hair.
Haley laughed. “Thought you didn’t care?”
“Never said I didn’t care. I just said he surely wouldn’t want to see me ever again.”
“Especially to suck you dry,” Mikhail deadpanned.
“Oh God… Could you please forget you heard that?”
“Not a c
hance in hell.”
Haley twisted around to look at him more fully. “You’re going to let us go out on the streets?” She was shocked. Every spare moment of the day she had worried about this moment when he would come in and they would probably have a confrontation that would warrant a call to the police. And now he was all on board?
“I know how important this is to you. I thought a lot about it. I spoke to Leo. He spoke to his contact. I also spoke to Taylor. I know you don’t want me to interfere with your mission. The FBI knows what we’re going to do. As long as we let them know our itinerary and stick to it, we’re good to go. So I figured we could compromise.”
She parted her lips but decided to let him continue. His idea of a compromise scared her.
“You can do your thing as long as you have two of us with you at all times and you don’t stay out past eight and you leave without argument immediately if I think there’s a threat.”
She could live with that. Was there a price? She narrowed her gaze.
He chuckled. “That’s it. Take it or leave it.”
“Take it,” Belinda chimed in. She stood and grabbed her satchel from the floor as if Mikhail might change his mind if they didn’t act fast.
»»•««
“Dayton, where are you?” Anton asked without pleasantries.
“Under the L along Lake Street. They’re moving from corner to corner.”
“Good. I have men in the area.”
“Yeah, you do realize you need a better plan. It’s my job to keep your guys from attacking my detail. That would currently be Haley and Belinda. If I let your men get through, I lose my job.”
“I realize that. I intend to create a distraction. Is anyone with you?”
“Millings is meeting me here.”
“No other agents in the area?”
“Probably a dozen. I’m surprised someone agreed to let these four get so exposed. I don’t like it. I smell a rat.”
“You think it’s a setup to flush me out?” Anton fumed.
“Could be.”
Anton scrunched up his face. “Is there anything you aren’t telling me?”
“Of course not. Why would I give a fuck? My orders are to follow these four people. That’s all I know. I’m not privy to anything else. If the FBI has men stationed all around me, I wouldn’t know.”
Guard (The Underground Book 3) Page 23
