“Tell me more about your house,” she said to Nikolai. “I know about the ridiculous gates, but I’m assuming you’ve got a state-of-the-art security system, too.”
“Da, I do. And you don’t,” he reminded her.
She just nodded with approval, refusing to let him bait her into another argument.
“And would you be willing to invest in a security guard, just until we can get the people who hurt Pavel’s father behind bars?”
He crooked his head and eyed her like he was trying to decide if she was being over protective or naïve.
But in the end he said, “Of course, I will hire security guard to keep him safe when I cannot.”
“Sounds good to me,” she said, flashing him a bright and happy smile.
He did not smile back. In fact, there was a whole lot of suspicion in his eyes when he said, “So you agree? Pavel will come home with me now.”
“Alright, alright” she said, raising her hands in a gesture of surrender, like she’d finally decided to give in. “You’ve made a strong case here today. We’ll all move in with you tonight, okay?” She rushed on before he could protest. “But before I start packing I need to know, do you have stuff like dog food and a water bowl at your place, or should I just bring what I have?”
11
The woman in the emerald dress, the one whose name turned out to be Sam, was completely infuriating. Not only had she somehow brainwashed his nephew into calling her mama, she’d also invited herself along with her useless dog to move in with him—right before she insisted on calling the police to file an official report.
And by the police, she’d meant her boyfriend. The cop who’d wanted her to get rid of Pavel in the first place.
He’d come running to the scene after the rest of the black and whites arrived, grabbing Sam and gathering her up in his arms. Lovers reunited, Nikolai thought with a dark sneer as he watched them, now standing on her front porch. Her with her hands on his chest, him with his forehead resting against hers as he said something Nikolai couldn’t hear.
They were a well-matched couple. Him just a few inches taller and attractive in the same way as she. Like the proverbial Latino boy and black girl next door had decided to start going together. He even had a matching set of dimples.
Nikolai wanted to rip the guy away from her, shove him to the ground, and warn him off going anywhere near her ever again.
She’s mine. The two words popped unbidden into his head, startling and untrue.
Startling because he’d never felt possessive of a woman—especially one he hadn’t slept with—before. And untrue, because obviously she was with the cop.
No wonder she hadn’t taken him up on his balcony invitation. No wonder she’d run away, despite the passionate kiss they’d shared.
“You should go.”
Nikolai looked down. Pavel was staring straight ahead at the woman he called ‘mama’ and her cop boyfriend, but he was talking to Nikolai.
“The detectives asked us all of their questions,” said the little boy who looked almost exactly like Fedya had at that age, despite his kinky hair and much darker skin. “Let Mama take me to your house. Then you can deal with the bad guy.”
Nikolai nodded in solemn agreement with the little boy. He might look like Fedya, but Pavel had already proven himself to be way more sensible than his addict brother, from the moment Nikolai had pulled up behind Ruth’s House and seen the child running across the lawn like a bat out of hell.
Contrary to what the social worker seemed to believe, the boy was no delicate flower. After filling him in quickly on what was happening after a brief moment of recognition, Pavel had observed silently while Nikolai dragged a stout Russian in a leather bomber jacket out of the cottage. And the boy hadn’t so much as flinched as he watched Nikolai chokehold the man into unconsciousness before dumping the Russian into the back of his Escalade.
And now he was calmly giving him advice about dealing with “the bad guy” before he woke up, which made Nikolai wonder how much of the hysterical little boy act had been for Sam and how much of it was true. At that moment, Pavel reminded Nikolai less of Fedya, who’d always been the clingy sort and quick to tears, and more of himself as a young boy, watching Sergei do his dirty work with dead eyes.
“You should go,” the boy said again, as he watched the cop talk to Sam, a disapproving frown on his face. “Before the bad guy wakes up. Before the cop starts asking more questions.”
“ARE YOU SURE about staying with Mount Nik, Sammy?” Marco asked her. All the other police officers had left by then after a set of detectives took their statements, but Marco had stayed behind to talk with Sam in an unofficial capacity—and because he was none too happy about her decision to move in with his favorite hockey player.
He rubbed her arms and bent his forehead to touch hers. “I’m glad you finally came to your senses about sending Pavel on with his uncle, but I don’t understand why you have to go with them,” he said.
How shocking, Sam thought. Marco was once again failing to understand how committed she was to Pavel getting the care and counseling he needed in the aftermath of not one, but two terrible events.
She brought her hands up to his chest to push him away, and reiterate how potentially traumatizing these last few days could be for Pavel if she didn’t intervene. But then she decided to cut him some slack. If Marco hadn’t sent Nikolai to her door, she might be dead now.
“I’ll be fine,” she said to Marco, resting her hands on his chest as she resisted the urge to put space between them. “And it’s just for a little while, until we get whoever came after us behind bars.”
A skeptical look came over Marco’s face and to Sam’s relief, he drew back from her. “I’ll bring you down to the station tomorrow to look at some pictures, but I don’t know how far that’s going to get us with both the kid and Rustanov saying they didn’t see the guy’s face clearly.”
Sam glanced at uncle and nephew, both standing a few feet away with their arms crossed in front of them. Pavel looked like a miniature version of his uncle, even though he was light brown and wearing a neon green anorak, while Nikolai was white and wearing a pea coat.
Nikolai met her glance with a hard stare, as if waiting for her to finish her conversation with Marco was the most annoying thing that had happened to him all day. Even more annoying than having to chase away some criminal who was trying to hurt her and his nephew.